Yes, although I haven't experienced myself, I heard about some early GLide games that just don't work with Voodoo2 SLI. The thread mentions about EF2000 and Mechwarrior 2: 3dfx Edition as examples of such games.
My questions are:
(1) Is there any list of GLide games that don't work with Voodoo2 SLI? And how about the workaround?
(2) Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impresison is that the workaround is basically about disabling SLI and leaving a single Voodoo2 card active. Am I correct?
(3) How about Voodoo5? Has anyone tried early GLide games with Voodoo5? And does the same problem exist? (e.g: games don't run with Voodoo2 SLI don't run with Voodoo5 either) And how about the solution? I bet it should be basically the same (disabling SLI and running on a single chip), am I correct?
(4) If the list is found, could we stickify this thread for reference?
set SST_GRXCLK=50: I guess this parameter is to set the Voodoo2 clockspeed, while in this case, the speed is 50MHz, am I correct?
set SST_FT_CLK_DEL=0x4: the speed of frame buffer access, although I don't understand why the value is 0x4.
set SST_TF0_CLK_DEL=0x6: texture chip 0 memory access in delayed clocks.
set SST_TF1_CLK_DEL=0x6: texture chip 1 memory access in delayed clocks.
set SST_VIN_CLKDEL=0x1: single Voodoo system video in clock delay.
set SST_VOUT_CLKDEL=0x0: single Voodoo system video out clock delay.
set SST_TMUMEM_SIZE=2: amount of RAM (overrides GLide autodetect).
So if I'm not mistaken, the set of parameters above emulate Voodoo1 by:
(1) declaring the usage of single Voodoo card through the parameters SST_VIN_CLKDEL and SST_VOUT_CLKDEL.
(2) using only two texture chips instead of three (by including SST_TF0_CLK_DEL and SST_TF1_CLK_DEL parameters, but not including SST_TF2_CLK_DEL). Voodoo2 has three texture chips while Voodoo1 only has two, am I correct?
(3) ommiting the parameter SST_SLIDETECT to avoid detection of SLI.
i dont think you wil ever get a v5 to work with the early dos games that controlled the card directly like ef2000 its just too different from a voodoo1
i dont think you wil ever get a v5 to work with the early dos games that controlled the card directly like ef2000 its just too different from a voodoo1
"controlling the card directly"? You mean --unlike 3dfx DOS games like Tomb Raider or Carmageddon, the game does not use DOS GLide? (I mean, DOS GLide should be okay with Voodoo 5, right?)
It depends on the game. If the game has glide statically linked, then it will only work with Voodoo1 (because this was usually some old glide version). If it uses glide2x.ovl, then it might be possible to make it work by changing the glide2x.ovl to one that supports v5...
It depends on the game. If the game has glide statically linked, then it will only work with Voodoo1 (because this was usually some old glide version). If it uses glide2x.ovl, then it might be possible to make it work by changing the glide2x.ovl to one that supports v5...
How about environment variable settings? Is it possible to "mask" a Voodoo5 to make it looks like Voodoo1?
Not a chance, V5 is radically different from the previous generations...it's probably not even possible to make those games work with V2, and that one is very close to V1.
Not a chance, V5 is radically different from the previous generations...it's probably not even possible to make those games work with V2, and that one is very close to V1.
I guess we should wait for ratfink, though. If he's successful in making his Voodoo2 resembles Voodoo1 (the GLide environment variable in the .BAT file), then there could be hope.
I do remember reading somewhere about tinkering with Voodoo environment variables... couldn't exactly remember, though 🙁
The environment variable is to specify the number of graphic processors involved, so yes, if you want to disable SLI (single-chip mode), I guess this variable is the right one.
@ratfink: could you try this one and tell us the result? I already have Voodoo5 5500 PCI, but I haven't finished building my legacy system yet.
And:
1 Limit Texture Memory to 2M (Glide\FX_GLIDE_TMU_MEMSIZE)
I guess that one is also related to Voodoo1 compatibility. See, the Voodoo1 only has 2 Megabytes of Texture Memory, doesn't it? Voodoo2 and up, OTOH, has bigger TMU size, so I guess this could be useful to make your Voodoo2/3/5 to resemble Voodoo1.
It is something similar to another problem that happened when u would run a voodoo1 dos game on a voodoo2.(Tomb Raider 1 , Pandemonium 1).The solution was to find a patch for that game.I found the patch for Tomb Raider but not for the Pandemonium so i openned the notepad and edited the patch(it was a *.bat file) to suit the needs of pandemonium.So what u should do is to try to find a patch for the game...or make your own batch file using the Glide manual from 3DFX.
The patch is a batch file! Furthermore, it was said that you can make your own .BAT file using the GLide manual. I suppose the "patch" is nothing more than a set of DOS GLide environment variables, right?
Oh, and here's where you can find 3dfx Glide Reference Manual (Rel. 017) .
By the way, if you need my .TXT files (3dfx environment variables), just mail me at kreshna_iceheart at yahoo dot com.
I just had a look on my Voodoo 5 machine, which uses Amigamerlin drivers in Windows 2000.
There are anti-aliasing seetings under OpenGL and DirectX, which allow a choice between 2x, 4x, disabled, fastest performance etc., and also have an option for single processor [no AA]. So at least in Windows you can disable one processor - the help screen says the card will run using just one VSA-100.
That means the V5 will run as though it's a V4. Don't know what the environment variable is, but there are various relevant looking entries in the registry.
I just had a look on my Voodoo 5 machine, which uses Amigamerlin drivers in Windows 2000.
There are anti-aliasing seetings under OpenGL and DirectX, which allow a choice between 2x, 4x, disabled, fastest performance etc., and also have an option for single processor [no AA]. So at least in Windows you can disable one processor - the help screen says the card will run using just one VSA-100.
That means the V5 will run as though it's a V4. Don't know what the environment variable is, but there are various relevant looking entries in the registry.
Have you tried this environment variable to disable one processor?
