I'm actually using a Geforce 2 MX on my Windows 98 machine and it works. The thing is, it's not the most comfortable solution as for many games you will need to adjust the acceleration slider in the control panel. But when it works, it works well.

Have you tried swapping that FX5200 for another card that you have available to see if it works? It might be faulty hardware if the system crashes completely.

I'm not sure if this will help you but I've noticed Lucas Arts games and their setups have problems with certain drivers.

I would try dropping back to the newest detonator drivers if you are running anything newer, it doesn't hurt to grab a few versions and swap them out to try them all.

If I'm misunderstanding the problem I'm sorry.

Did you try using the Voodoo2 instead? IME 3dfx has good compatibility with D3D 5 games.

Later nvidia drivers for Win9x simply suck. You'll have to try different sets to find out which one works the best for you. In theory your card should run this game with no problems. You'll just have to find out the right driver.

filipetolhuizen wrote:

Later nvidia drivers for Win9x simply suck. You'll have to try different sets to find out which one works the best for you. In theory your card should run this game with no problems. You'll just have to find out the right driver.

I'll try 4x.xx ones but as far as I know there is no FX5 support anything lower than 4x.xx.

It will not be quick process either. Add/Remove Programs refuses to uninstall Nvidi drivers... 😢

So until now, TIE Fighter and X-Wing games behave very similarly. If I choose "primary display" (which happens to be my FX5200) and enable hardware 3D during the game, as soon as I go to flight, displays turns into first complete black, than complete white and after that moment, only a hard reset unlocks the machine.

When I choose 3Dfx, instead of white screen, I get a black rectangle on top of my windows 98 desktop (left top corner, covering 3/4 of the screen) and again, hard reset is required.

Both these games works in software mode though, and plays smoothly. I really wonder will there be any obvious gain in a PIII system with hardare 3D.

I also tried X-Wing Alliance. Although its own "analyze your system" applet (dxdiag?) check the 3D capability (both with software and hardware) and says the system passes (well, I also can see the 3D cube on screen), the game still refuses to start. But a CTRL+ALT+DEL is enough to top the "not responding" XWA executable, not a hard reset is required this time..

So far, the most important games I wanted to play has problems. I will try some other options still, but I already ordered my GeForce 2MX and 4MX cards.

Sounds like the problem is DirectX. Which version do you have installed?

8.1 I believe.

Try reinstalling DirectX or updating it to 9.0b (9.0c might slow things down due to lack of 2D acceleration).

I must admit, I'm shocked to find out that Tie Fighter supported hardware 3D. I had the original, and collectors CD version, and it was software rendering only for me. Maybe it hated my Riva128 (first 3D card I ever bought)?

Only the windows version (the one that used XvT engine and no MIDI music) supported hardware 3D. DOS Tie Fighter Collectors CD (the one that added SVGA 640x400 compared to floppy version) only supported software rendering.

Well, I have Win9x Tie Fighter version as the part of X-Wing: Collector's Series. This is the first time I hear about dedicated Tie Fighter '95 release...
Hmm... The launcher wants to install DX 5.2 and not starts the game. Can be fixed with the CorrectFilePaths ACT fix.
The game itself starts in WinXpSp3 if you apply the "MapMemoryB000" ACT fix.
But the game still crashes even in software modes (except 320x200).
P.S. Have found .sdb for this game in the Internet. Now the hardware 3d mode is ok. Unfortunatedly my Radeon HD2600 Pro have critical bug in 16-bit DX modes (part of the screen is filled with black squares). I want to massacre all Catalyst programmers...

Yes, it's the one part of X-Wing: Collector's Series. BTW, the game works great for me in Win7 x64 3D Accelerated. There's an ACT fix that needs to be installed and I even found a patch that fixes clearing framebuffer. The installed dir I have is probably more than 10 years old, so I haven't tried installing it from scratch...