Agent of the BSoD wrote on 2020-12-01, 03:30:

How does one use renutil? I can't find any documentation on it and simply running it changes nothing. It looks like you can pass […]
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How does one use renutil? I can't find any documentation on it and simply running it changes nothing. It looks like you can pass through some input but I can't tell what I should be doing, and there seems to be no built in help. If anything, I've had it drop performance of applications by half or more instead of speeding them up. I am using a V1000.

All it outputs is:

Function Passed
Current Monitor setting = 0
Function Passed
Current VGA type setting = 1

I used trial and error to figure it out. It expects two parameters: Monitor and VGA setting, example: "renutil 0 1". I don't know what the monitor setting does, I left it at "0". The VGA setting can be set to 0, 1 or 2. "1" is the default mode, "0" is slower than default, and "2" means VGA 320x200 will be remapped to the fast VESA mode, this is what you want.

Comparison between modes:

0:
chris's 3d benchmark: 9.6 fps
pc player: 8.0

1:
chris's 3d benchmark: 26.5 fps
pc player: 14.6
quake: 13.7

2:
chris's 3d benchmark: 56 fps
pc player: 19 fps
quake: 16.7 fps

The mode 2 results are probably CPU limited since I'm on a Pentium 66. On a fast system the difference could be even bigger.

Doom was interesting, it runs at 11 FPS in mode 1, and in mode 2 it becomes fast (36 fps), but the screen will be split into many small "screens"of Doom. And when you quit the game, the DOS prompt becomes messed up, with a dark brown font that is almost unreadable. You have to reboot or start another graphics application to return to normal.

I then tried some Doom source ports for DOS:

FastDoom: Runs at a quite playable 16 fps in mode 1, mode 2 is also glitched
FastDoom 13h: 34 fps in mode 1, 54 fps in mode 2
FastDoom VBR: 54 fps, runs in mode 2 by default so renutil is not needed
DosDoom: Interesting, this one works with mode 2. I cannot benchmark it because the timedemo always freezes, but I'd say it's around 15 fps in mode 1 and 25 fps in mode 2.
Boom: This is a strange one - the timedemo yields 23 fps in mode 1 and 33 fps in mode 2, but this has to be an error. From what one can see on screen, it runs just as bad as vanilla doom, probably 10 fps. Also the colors are off, it's way too bright.

For FastDoom you want to avoid mode Y executable (fdoom.exe). Try modes 13h or any of the VESA modes (mode VBR or mode VBD). Those are much faster compared to the original Mode Y:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6unNuPympE4

EDIT: with FastDoom is better not use renutil, it's basically not required

Interesting, I had only tried it with the main executable (fdoom.exe) and had no idea what the others do. I will definitely try that. Edit: Wow, the 13h and VBR versions indeed run a lot better, thank you for the tip. This is by far the best way to play Doom on this card!

Is Rebel Moon supposed to work on a generic Verite V1000 card? When I start the game, it prints out some initialization messages, but then proceeds to a black screen, tried both DOS and Windows 95. The last message it shows is something about "QueryScreen" before it goes black.

Edit: It was a problem with DMA not working properly. There is a bug on my system where DMA on the Verite is always disabled on first boot, only after a reboot it starts working. Use the Rendition diagnostics tool to make sure that DMA is enabled, if it isn't, Rebel Moon will apparently not run.

I actually did figure out how to run that executable in the time between that post and now. I found an informative article on Google Groups. Apparently there was a text file along with it but somehow it got lost to time. Luckily for us, someone copied it here.
Rendition RENUTIL - What do the numbers mean??

I do use "renutil 0 2" when I run it as I found that to work optimally, as you already discovered. The monitor value really doesn't change much as far as I could tell. It does do something different at the higher values (like the first half of the values do one thing and the other, bigger half, do something else) but that's it, unless I'm really not seeing something. My OSSC doesn't notice the difference except at that halfway point.

I'll also post the contents here for posterity.

So a bit of a correction for my above post. I took the time to measure every combination of values for renutil (96 benchmarks) to see what differences there are. This was done on my V1000 (Canopus Total3D, VBIOS 1.02.74). The PC is a Pentium MMX 233 MHz, FIC PA-2013, 64 MB SDRAM, running under pure DOS from Win95B. Benchmark was done with 3DBench2, and refresh rates were measured with the screen on the OSSC.

The results are pretty underwhelming. Every monitor value with 0 for the VGA mode results in 31.57 kHz horizontal, 70.33 Hz vertical, and 16.3 - 16.4 fps. These refresh rates are repeated with VGA mode at 1, but at 30.2 - 30.3 fps. VGA mode 2 with monitor values from 0 to 3 results in 31.46 kHz horizontal, 59.94 Hz vertical, and 149.6 fps. Monitor values from 4 to 31 get the same fps, but the refreshes change to 43.20 - 43.26 kHz horizontal and 84.87 - 85.00 Hz vertical.

So really, the only important values for speeding up mode 13h is "renutil 0 2" or "renutil 4 2". The latter may be desirable to reduce flicker on a CRT due to the higher vertical refresh. Anything beyond that does nothing.

Hello , anyone with Rendition Verite v1000 can help on testing this app Re: RReady (Rendition Verite wrapper) Test Build (Alpha 1)
this is from rendition verite wrapper developer for adding dos games support. all windows games already supported.

NostalgicAslinger wrote on 2023-04-12, 14:33:

Has anyone tested if the Rebel Moon V1000 version works on a V2100/2200?

Does this utility helps? https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 0&menustate=1,0

I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKgkqOhvWYY

Min 33:06: Rebel Moon on a Rendition V2x00, and yes, the solution is this utility:
http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=160&menustate=0

Looks much nicer than the newer Rebel Moon Rising, which only starts with MMX CPUs and only supports Software Rendering.

I tried V2DOSFIX.EXE with Verite 1000 patch for retail version Tomb Raider 1 game and it works on my QDI Legend Rendition Verite 2200 (BIOS version 1.04.144) videocard, but with some texture glitches. I think this Rendirion version looks superior compared to Vodoo 1 version, but there are some problems with V2200 card. The game runs only at 640 x 480 resolution and when I enter the video "detail settings" menu there's no option for other resolutions. Also this menu seems somehow broken with only selectable "High", "Medium" and "Low" options, but when I choose any of these the game just freezes (after restart of the system all runs fine, but video "detail settings" menu is still broken). I don't know if there is something like Speedy3d DOS API support for Verite 2x00 cards, but I think the texture glitches in the game are due to some incompatibility with SPD3D.UC (some Speedy3d API) file.

Is there any kind of solution for the texture glitches with V2200 card in the original DOS TR1 game?

Also in my V1000 patched for V2x00 version the F2 key doesn't show/hide framerate counter but reduces size of the viewport "window" (F3 increases it just like in software render only version). Is there any way to turn on the framerate counter?

Is there any other shortcuts for turning on/off mipmap, antialiasing etc.?

P.S. I have no Verite 1000 card to test the original TR1 V1000 patch unfixed for V2x00.

When you say texture glitches, do you mean the pink lines in the border or some textures like the water surface ? There's a video showing it in the 2nd demo with the waterfall, but if I remember well I think I had more pink lines than in the video with my Diamond V2100. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTmClXwJ4TI

In the first Rendition patch for Tomb Raider (beta1), the patch note says mipmap is off by default and you have to run vtomb mipmap to enable it. I guess in later versions mipmap is on by default. F2 and F3 to resize the screen are enabled in another patch, beta4. The spd3d.uc file is the same in all Tomb Raider patches but there's a zip file with a collection of all known spd3d.uc files if you want to test. http://www.mediafire.com/file/01ciw6qaq393w8z … ion-uc.zip/file

Tomb Raider patches for different cards have different features. 3dfx has antialiasing, Powervr can move the game camera further or closer, Ati Rage runs in Windows. You can't have features from other patches into the Rendition one. Also the dll files are embedded inside the Tomb Raider executable so you can't just replace dlls to fix issues.

I think V2dosfix only disables the version check in your card so that games can run but everything is the same.

Thank you for all the info, chuky!

chuky wrote on 2023-12-15, 16:46:

When you say texture glitches, do you mean the pink lines in the border or some textures like the water surface ? There's a video showing it in the 2nd demo with the waterfall, but if I remember well I think I had more pink lines than in the video with my Diamond V2100. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTmClXwJ4TI

Yep, there are these magenta/pink color glitches on some transparent parts of the textures (I think it's alpha blending related problem) and also sometimes the nearest to the camera textures "disappear" as it's in software version renderer.

chuky wrote on 2023-12-15, 16:46:

In the first Rendition patch for Tomb Raider (beta1), the patch note says mipmap is off by default and you have to run vtomb mipmap to enable it. I guess in later versions mipmap is on by default. F2 and F3 to resize the screen are enabled in another patch, beta4. The spd3d.uc file is the same in all Tomb Raider patches but there's a zip file with a collection of all known spd3d.uc files if you want to test. http://www.mediafire.com/file/01ciw6qaq393w8z … ion-uc.zip/file

I found out that F4 turns on/off mipmap. I didn't knew that there were different versions of this patch and I don't know which version of V1000 patch I have (probably beta4 or later). My TR1 SPD3D.UC file is 65.7 kB in size. Thank you for the link, I'll try them all. Is there some site where I can find all the versions for TR1 Verite 1000 patches?

chuky wrote on 2023-12-15, 16:46:

Tomb Raider patches for different cards have different features. 3dfx has antialiasing, Powervr can move the game camera further or closer, Ati Rage runs in Windows. You can't have features from other patches into the Rendition one. Also the dll files are embedded inside the Tomb Raider executable so you can't just replace dlls to fix issues.

Ok, I see. Also I've tried TR1 patches for S3 Virge and 3dfx Voodoo1 (beta and later patch) and yes, they have different options in videos settings, but they work as expected (V1000 patched for V2x00 don't). I have patches for PowerVR PCX1 and PCX2 and two versions for Matrox Mystique videocards but I don't have any of these cards. As far as I know ATI version is Win 9x only and uses ATI's proprietary API (which I can't find to download) instead of DirectX or OpenGL and I have Rage Pro Turbo as integrated video on one Pentium II mobo, so I'm not gonna try this.

chuky wrote on 2023-12-15, 16:46:

I think V2dosfix only disables the version check in your card so that games can run but everything is the same.

Yep, and this is enough to start the V1000 version TR1 game on V2x00 card.

Here's all the Verité patches for Tomb Raider if you want to try. They have patch notes except for the final version. I have collected many TR1 patch versions for other graphics cards as well. When I have time I'll make a post with all of them.
beta1, beta2, beta3 are on this cd in /utils/patche/RENBETA1.ZIP /utils/patche/RENBETA2.ZIP /utils/patche/RENBETA3.ZIP https://archive.org/details/score38cd
beta4 is there https://archive.org/download/Joystick_Magazin … %2FRENBETA4.ZIP
final version, that's the usual one you can find https://archive.org/download/RENDFINA/RENDFINA.ZIP

chuky wrote on 2023-12-16, 17:49:

Here's all the Verité patches for Tomb Raider if you want to try. They have patch notes except for the final version. I have col […]
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Here's all the Verité patches for Tomb Raider if you want to try. They have patch notes except for the final version. I have collected many TR1 patch versions for other graphics cards as well. When I have time I'll make a post with all of them.
beta1, beta2, beta3 are on this cd in /utils/patche/RENBETA1.ZIP /utils/patche/RENBETA2.ZIP /utils/patche/RENBETA3.ZIP https://archive.org/details/score38cd
beta4 is there https://archive.org/download/Joystick_Magazin … %2FRENBETA4.ZIP
final version, that's the usual one you can find https://archive.org/download/RENDFINA/RENDFINA.ZIP

Thank you for the links. It will be nice if you collect and share the rest of patches for TR1. I'm trying all the videocards with proprietary APIs that I have in pure DOS with TR1 game as it seems to support most of them through these patch executables. For convenience I removed the CD-check routines in them. Until now I've patched sound setup executable, original software renderer only tomb.exe, Voodoo1 (beta and later exe), Voodoo Rush/2+, S3 ViRGE, Rendition Verite, Matrox Mystique (two versions), PowerVR PCX1 and PCX2 executables (the last three I can not test by myself as I don't own these cards). If someone is interested, I can upload these patched no-CD executables at some file-sharing platform. I just like bare metal, not emulation in "emulation" 😀

P.S. I compared the Rendition Verite 1000 patch executable that I'm using and its binary identical to one from the "RENDFINA.ZIP" archive.

chuky wrote on 2023-12-15, 16:46:

The spd3d.uc file is the same in all Tomb Raider patches but there's a zip file with a collection of all known spd3d.uc files if you want to test. http://www.mediafire.com/file/01ciw6qaq393w8z … ion-uc.zip/file

So, I just tested all the six available SPD3D.UC versions in this archive with patched for Rendition Verite 2x00 TR1 patch for Verite 1000 and it turned out that only the identical to distributed with V1000 patch UC-file works with my Rendition Verite 2200 card. All the other versions of UC-file caused black/red/color-mosaic SOD. For now there's no way to get rid of magenta/pink and other texture glitches in TR1 with V2x00 card.

I found out what causes the game to behave buggy in the settings menu. It's the DOS-native expanded memory manager EMM386. When EMM386 is not in use, everything's fine with TR1 Verite 2x00 patched executable. Also TR1 patched for Voodoo3 (Voodo Rush patch) runs with no freeze on pressing Esc-key when EMM386 isn't loaded. I've to try JEMMEX or something similar.

cheese007 wrote on 2023-04-30, 21:09:

Hey all I'm having trouble updating the BIOS for my Diamond Stealth II. Followed the instructions in the Vogons driver archive a […]
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Hey all I'm having trouble updating the BIOS for my Diamond Stealth II. Followed the instructions in the Vogons driver archive and copied the bios update .exe to the floppy and, depending on which bios, recieved these two errors:

1. System disk not found

2. Remove disks or other media and press enter (no media is attached to the PC)

What am I doing wrong here? Feels like this should be straightforward

If you are referring to the Diamond Stealth II collection (http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=321&menustate=0) then you'll want to do the following:
1. What you end up downloading is kinda a nested set of compressed archives. Expand the first set of archives from the downloaded file. This will end up being a combination of driver archives and BIOS archives along with .txt files for each.
2. All these archives you just retrieved are auto-expanding (hence them being .exe files). For the BIOS update archives, they are expecting to be directed to expend to a bootable floppy disk. If you read the included .txt files, it'll explain how you can format a floppy disk as a bootable disk via command prompt.
3. Once you've formatted your floppy disk properly, running one of the BIOS archive .exe files will give you a prompt asking where to extract the actual BIOS update to. It should have the expand path pre-populated with your floppy drive letter. Set the path appropriately and follow the prompt.
4. Once you've expanded the BIOS update to the floppy disk, leave the disk in and reboot your computer and boot from the floppy.
5. You should see the MS-DOS OS written to your floppy booting and the flashing process begin automatically. During the flashing process your screen will blank out. Don't interrupt this process. If you need some peace-of-mind, monitor your floppy drive's activity light to verify the flashing process is still operating. The DOS prompt will be visible on your screen again once the flashing completes. It will print a message indicating the BIOS programming had succeeded.
6. Remove the bootable floppy and reboot your computer. When your machine first starts you should see the video card display its BIOS version. This can verify it all worked.

Chadti99 wrote on 2021-08-11, 23:41:

Any know why Descent 2 has this purple hue going on? Everything else I’m playing looks fine.

Yah, I'm seeing that too, at least when running through Windows. I browsed this thread hoping to find some explanation for it...but no luck yet.

Hi all Rendition fans,

I have some interest about Rendition vérité because I had one in my first machine (to replace an ati Rage II onboard of my 2-3000$ IBM S64 Aptiva P166... beautiful but shi**y).

I gift my machine to a friend that part it and put ''somewhere'' in his old parts storage... lost but he not garbage it sure, just need time to find it...

It was a Diamond multimedia S220 4mb... 50$ big deal!! 😉 bios updated and full overclock to the max (with heat sink/fan) I think I got a nice 10 fps more in most games, so from 20-25 fps, 30-35 it's very nice

BUT, I would like to discuss about some idea for it

When I did search for the ''best'' rendition V2X00 board I seen some board that came up. you think it's the Gpu or the memory that limit the overclock? (memory is twice the speed of the GPU...)

Maybe I would get a new board better (V2200 and 8mb)

(I did read fast all the thread ) I think I should ask for Rendition Pro's 😉

1. For exemple, the S220 have so much different memory brand and speed -7 -8ns samsung, nec, eliteMT... what is best memory?
Does the memory limit the overclock?

2. I seen a rumor that some premium board manufacturer have better bining of the Gpu (truth or not? ) maybe it's the memory that limit the overclock? (thet just have better memory chip?)

3 .I seen at a lot of place that the rendition specification could support 16 mb memory?
here: https://dmarton.tripod.com/Rv2000.html

4. The SGRAM chip, it's possible to swap for better module? (my matrox G400 have exact same samsung memory type and pinout, just 4x the capacty per chip? mine have 6 ns and I seen some 5 ns board).
What happen if you put bigger capacity chip?

5. Do you know more about the Anthony Zxclxiv Dormouse rendition board found on vgamuseum?
(it look like the ultimate cute Rendition board with 5ns memory! wow ;o )
I would really like a board like this with holes for attach fan/heatsink...
But really this board is PERFECT! simple, it have less useless components and connectors, a beauty!
(I would pay good for a board like this... but RED!!! 😉 )
here: https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item … on-verite-v2200

6. I would like to do a very ''out of spec'' overclock (peletier, watercooled) to see how a monster Rendition vérité would perform...
Maybe push it to 80-90mhz GPU (I dream of put a nice 100.000MHz)
Indeed it would require 5ns memory, matrox have... a donor but it's 8mb per chip... what bad could happen? 😉
(I want to collect some information to prepare myself)

I still think Rendition vérité was underestimated,
what it would be another revision, bugless, better drivers, higher frequency (simply a more fine lithography step of the V2X00)...

I have a modified 16mb Verite v2200 card, that a user of this forum modified for me, we used a faster sgram chips but it didn't help the overclock nor the performance, I remember I posted some information about it some years ago but then I kept it in a electrostatic envelope, it's not easy to find V2200 nor easy, I remember I bought a faster version of an ati card with sgram but I would need another card and the availability of the user to make the modification once again.
Performance wise there was no difference between 8 and 16 mb, while there are for sure from 4 to 8 (I remember I had a 4mb Qdi card with Rendition v2x00).

LeCarl wrote on 2024-02-08, 04:11:

When I did search for the ''best'' rendition V2X00 board I seen some board that came up. you think it's the Gpu or the memory that limit the overclock? (memory is twice the speed of the GPU...)

The core:memory ratio can be switched to 2:3, so you can find the limits for your card on your own.

LeCarl wrote on 2024-02-08, 04:11:

5. Do you know more about the Anthony Zxclxiv Dormouse rendition board found on vgamuseum? (it look like the ultimate cute Rend […]
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5. Do you know more about the Anthony Zxclxiv Dormouse rendition board found on vgamuseum?
(it look like the ultimate cute Rendition board with 5ns memory! wow ;o )
I would really like a board like this with holes for attach fan/heatsink...
But really this board is PERFECT! simple, it have less useless components and connectors, a beauty!
(I would pay good for a board like this... but RED!!! 😉 )
here: https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item … on-verite-v2200

ok, i may consider red pcbs batch in the future. of you may try to find proto v2200 boards, one of these was red as i remember.

btw now my card look little different : https://www.zxc64.com/video_cards/0_62922_ren … ck_v2200_based/