This looks like a bug in some SVGA bank switching code.

If you try changing your Windows resolution to a different one, do the number of the bands and their thickness change?

If you set the 640x480 16 colors, or 800x600 16 colors, do the bands go away altogether?

If so, then this would definitely be a bank switching problem. Although, it is hard to say if the problem is with the SVGA adapter's Windows drivers, or if there is something that the Origin FX could be faulted with.

clb wrote on 2024-02-19, 21:20:

This looks like a bug in some SVGA bank switching code. […]
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This looks like a bug in some SVGA bank switching code.

If you try changing your Windows resolution to a different one, do the number of the bands and their thickness change?

If you set the 640x480 16 colors, or 800x600 16 colors, do the bands go away altogether?

If so, then this would definitely be a bank switching problem. Although, it is hard to say if the problem is with the SVGA adapter's Windows drivers, or if there is something that the Origin FX could be faulted with.

I'll try that and report back. In the meantime, to add, whenever I attempt to run Magic Spheres, I have to reboot Windows in order to use InControl Tools as otherwise I get an error:

Diamond InControl Fatal Error: Cannot load SPIN.VBX. You must re-install your Diamond Products(s) to correct this error.

Rebooting allows me to use InControl Tools without re-installing the drivers, and it will work until I again use Magic Spheres, get the weird glitch, and then try to use InControl Tools again.

Okay so using the Diamond driver and upping the colors to 65k, the glitch still occurs but is worse with lines of corruption occuring. I then switched to the Windows 3.x VGA driver (16 colors) and the glitch is gone, but of course looks like garbage due to the 16 colors...

Since this glitch occurs on real hardware AND under 86box with the same hardware and drivers selected, I do not know whether or not it is a Diamond bios/driver issue or Origin FX. However, I use the same archive of Origin FX whenever I put it on a real or virtual machine and this is the first time since 1993 that this glitch has occurred with any card. It wasn't happening when using the 8mb Mach64/Rage II card. I am thinking that it is a Diamond bios/driver issue. I have a couple more drivers to try, but so far nothing is fixing this bug. Ugh...

I have no idea if there is anything to be done. In the read me, it is mentioned that some apps (mostly edutainment apps) can have glitchy and corrupted bitmaps when animations are on screen and to add some line to system.ini. However, when I did this, I got an error when attempting to load Windows.

I made a mistake: my bios is 2.02. I have a 2.09 chip I could try to swap out...

Okay so using the driver at this link from Vogons Drivers: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=264&menustate=0 allows me to select 640x480x256 from the Windows Setup and pointing to the driver folder, and it allows the Origin FX screensaver to work as intended. However, I then no longer have any apps for configuring the card/desktop/resolution/refresh rates. So, the issue seems to be the Diamond version of the driver.

UPDATE:

I downloaded the v1.42B22 driver+Galileo utility (for switching resolutions, color depth, and refresh rate) from https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/Manufacturer … oads.php#Trio32. I now have a working driver and utility for this Diamond card and it is working with the Origin FX screensaver by displaying properly. It could be because I am feeling a tad annoyed and am hating on Diamond at the moment (their drivers are clearly shot for Windows 3.x since alternative drivers for the SAME card are working perfectly) but the colors and graphics with this S3 (reference?) driver look crisper, cleaner, and more colorful. I don't know if I am am getting GDI acceleration with this driver and I'm not sure if there is a way to test that, but for now, I have the card working.

I am still interested in any information that anyone might have concerning the Diamond Windows 3.x issue with this card, especially if there are any ways to hack/patch this driver so that it works properly. I do widh that I could use Diamond's own drivers and utilities with this card, or else I could have grabbed any brand's Trio64 card. I don't know if there are any differences such as features I may be otherwise missing by using this S3 "reference" driver.

Well, using the 486 with the S3 "reference" drivers instead of the Diamond craptastic drivers has been working out rather well. I have been installing things like Voyetra Multimedia apps, Netscape Communicator and surfing the Information Super-Highway via The Protoweb, running a couple of different versions of the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, etc. And, of course, all Origin FX screensaver modules are working perfectly (and with my MT-32 for music/sound effects - which I didn't have back in the day, just my OPTi based sound card which I have a version of in this machine) Everything has been running as fast and smooth as it ever did when using my 8mb ATI card, and that is good enough for me. There are only a couple of issues so far; there are hangs when exiting Windows if I install WinG, and hwinfo pukes if I try to have it give me info about the video card.

I haven't tested any games yet. However, I rarely used Windows 3.x for any gaming, back in the day. I remember getting King's Quest VI with my Reveal Multimedia Upgrade Kit with my 1st PC and it could be played under Windows 3.x or MS-DOS with the former offering hi-res portrait graphics and Windows-style hi-res cursors, but I remember hating that and always playing it under MS-DOS so that I could have the pixelated portraits and the pixelated and colorful cursors. I have always preferred pixel art and started my self-taught pixel art journey in the mid 2000's as a result. I will have to look into some Windows-only games from back in the day and test them out.

I still have that 2mb Diamond Vision864 card on the way, so I will back-up my Windows install and re-install it and try the Diamond drivers for that card and see if it fixes the OFX issues.

Internet searching has failed to find any information about alternative/hacked Diamond drivers or whatever may be causing the issue I was experiencing with the official drivers. Apparently, NO ONE back in the day used Origin FX screensaver with these cards. The only patches for OFX are for sound cards and a cutscene module for Strike Commander (I wonder if hex editing could add more cutscene modules from other Origin games?)

UPDATE: I received a working Diamond vision864-based Stealth 64 card. I found and installed the last official drivers for the card (bios 1.xx and had 864 in the file name - driver version 1.35.) I reinstalled WfW 3.11 and installed the driver and then ran Origin FX screensaver and guess what? The same issue as the Trio64 is happening.

Verdict: Diamond screwed up with their drivers but it probably went unnoticed as it seems to affect only certain uncommonly used apps. I haven't tried S3 drivers with the vision864 card, but I assume that they would fix the issue just as they did with the Trio64 card. So, basically, I can use these cards in my 486, but I lose any apps or unique features Diamond may have put into their driver package. I am considering some hex editing and comparing the Diamond and S3 drivers to see if I can find any similarities with slight differences and see if this problem can be patched. I don't really know what I am doing, though I have done a little bit of hex editing in the past (hacked a Motorola Razr back in the day because Verizon was pure evil and wouldn't let you put custom ringtones on your phone- you had to buy them from Verizon. Yeah, I don't think so.)

EDIT: Both cards have the ram sockets populated for 2mb each