jonesmacarrones wrote on 2023-03-20, 12:36:

Hello everyone. […]
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Hello everyone.

I am getting static instead of video trying to play GTA in 3DFX mode in a Voodoo 5500.
I am sure I played with a Monster 4MB back in the day and maybe a Voodoo 3 3000, but that one I am not 100% sure.

Does anyone tried this game with this graphics card and was able to play it?

If I run it in software mode the game works normally.

https://youtu.be/V1YrcHD0THs video of the issue happening.

Specs:
Athlon 1.3Ghz
256MB DDR
Windows 98 SE with SP3 installed
Voodoo 5 5500 (working perfectly in other games)
SB Live! 0100

Let me know if I left anything out.

If this was a Voodoo3 then I would say you would just need to set the environment variables to allow DOS games to use the Voodoo3 card but the Voodoo5 is a different beast and itll depend on the game, if the game tries to program the Voodoo card directly then it wont work at all with the V5, heck it likely wont even work with the V3 or V2 but will require an original Voodoo1.

But you can look up the Environment variables you need to set to get DOS support working, you will also need to disable one of the VSA-100 GPUs by adding the following command
SET SSTH3_SLI_AA_CONFIGURATION=0
this command turns off one VSA-100 GPU and disables the AA features neither of which work well under DOS.

You may need to hunt down the glide2x.ovl file and put it in the game directory.

I still cant confirm this will work but there are plenty of people who report it as working, again compatibility is really on the game being used, not sure if GTA tries to use the card directly or runs via the API.

Im sure there are others here who can help clarify DOS Glide for you, but a bit of googling might help here too.

Thanks for the reply TrashPanda, I will try some of this and reply back later.

I have a P166 MMX that would be more suitable to run this game, but I don't have a Voodoo 1, and nowadays they are very expensive 🙁

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-03-20, 13:20:

If this was a Voodoo3 then I would say you would just need to set the environment variables to allow DOS games to use the Voodoo […]
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If this was a Voodoo3 then I would say you would just need to set the environment variables to allow DOS games to use the Voodoo3 card but the Voodoo5 is a different beast and itll depend on the game, if the game tries to program the Voodoo card directly then it wont work at all with the V5, heck it likely wont even work with the V3 or V2 but will require an original Voodoo1.

But you can look up the Environment variables you need to set to get DOS support working, you will also need to disable one of the VSA-100 GPUs by adding the following command
SET SSTH3_SLI_AA_CONFIGURATION=0
this command turns off one VSA-100 GPU and disables the AA features neither of which work well under DOS.

You may need to hunt down the glide2x.ovl file and put it in the game directory.

I still cant confirm this will work but there are plenty of people who report it as working, again compatibility is really on the game being used, not sure if GTA tries to use the card directly or runs via the API.

Im sure there are others here who can help clarify DOS Glide for you, but a bit of googling might help here too.

While looking for the commands to get it working on DOS I found this ancient post about Voodoo 5 5500 under dos, seems promising!

https://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3687

If this works it will help with other games I want to run over dos too, it will take some time for me to test, but I will post my findings here once I get to it.

Thanks again

Found the issue.

I learned that DOS games, if they are compatible with your 3DFX card, will run fine under Windows 98, so that was not the problem. (I thought that no DOS game would be able to use the Voodoo card properly from W98, don't ask me why I thought that).

Then I was able to run Tomb Raider and NSFIISE with the Voodoo 5 5500 with no problem, so I started doing more research, it happens that GTA FX starts with a res that does not work with my card for some reason (512x384), I am sure I played UT99 back in the day using this res with my Voodoo 3, but anyway....

Pressing F11 when in game, then down arrow and enter changes the resolution, that solved my problem, found this post here with the same issue:

GTA 3DFX mode on Voodoo 3 2000 not working

I thank anyone who spent any amount of time thinking about this problem or replying to the post. 😀