VOGONS


First post, by oh2ftu

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Hi there.
I have this Voodoo Dragon, that seems to work fine in both Quake and Quake2.
However, especially in the console, there are vertical shifts/line occurring, kind of like a flimmer.
Not really noticeable in gameplay, but sure is in the console. Quite hard to take a picture of this - I don't have any capture hardware
I've yet to check for any loose pins, but where might this come from? The other voodoo does not have these symptoms - although the board revision differs a tiny bit.
I don't have a passthrough cable (yet) which might have something to do with this.
My guess would be something with the FBI and/or ramdac/switch?

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Reply 1 of 3, by Imperious

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I guess You mean Flicker or flashing?

You don't need any special pass through cable, You can use a VGA cable as long as one end is male and the other female.
Seems a bit odd if only in the console. Maybe try some other games, especially ones that use glide. Quake and Quake 2 use opengl, or minigl in the case of the voodoo card.
Also You could try Tomb raider 3dfx version in dos.

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Reply 2 of 3, by wiibur

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From what I understand, the output on some voodoo 1 and 2s can be pretty noisy. I've seen reports of vertical lines, horizontal lines, and have experienced scrolling lines at a 45 degree angle on one of my voodoo 2 cards. These are usually like "shadow lines" or bands of alternating opacity.

Are you on an analog or digital monitor? Try a CRT if you are using an LCD. Or try adjusting the vertical and horizontal clock signal on the digital monitor (try auto-adjust first). Other users have used a low pass filter to resolve their issues. I've also seen someone report that a VGA splitter/signal booster box resolved their issue.

Post a capture or video from your phone if possible. Maybe these examples can help you describe what's happening.

Example of horizontal noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk0eCpgo6_c
Example of vertical banding: download/file.php?id=45224&mode=view
Example of diagonal banding: download/file.php?id=129066&mode=view
Example of snow/glitches (voodoo 3 issue): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVBMC8194ps

Reply 3 of 3, by analog_programmer

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I do not know what you mean with "flimmer", but now I have Voodoo 1 Maxi Gamer 3D card with same PCB design and as of yours card and it's noisy in pass-through (2D) mode. I compare it to my other V1 Monster 3D card. With or without pass-through cable the 3D mode for Maxi Gamer 3D card is OK, but when paired with 2D only card the analog signal noise ("shadowing") is too much compared to Monster 3D card.

I think this problem is due to some PCB design flaw. Also switching between pass-through (2D) mode and 3D mode in Maxi Gamer 3D is somehow slower compared to Monster 3D. Another weakness that I think is also related to PCB design is that Maxi Gamer 3D seriously overheats its FBI and TMU chips when running at standard 50Mhz (this is no problem with 45MHz and at least Maxi Gamer 3D at 45MHz is on par of slightly beats Monster 3D at 50MHz in 3DMark99), while Monster 3D runs fine at 50Mhz.

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