Can't get OpenGL to work with Matrox G400 under Win95 \ VOGONS

Can't get OpenGL to work with Matrox G400 under Win95

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First post, by revolstar

Posted on 2026-09-29, 19:57

revolstar Offline

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So I've almost finished my Dream 97-98 (-actually-more-like-99) Build.

The specs: Pentium II 400Mhz, Aopen 440BX chipset mobo, 64 MB of RAM, Voodoo2 12 MB, Matrox G400 16 MB AGP, Windows 95D.

There's still one problem though. I can't get OpenGL, specifically Quake 2, to work with the G400. The 3dfx OpenGL mode runs fine. Direct3D games work fine.

I've disabled bus mastering.

I've tried all the driver versions from Phil's website https://www.philscomputerlab.com/drivers-for-matrox.html

I've tried swapping the ICD dll file in the Windows\System folder with the latest one I could find in the VOGONS driver library. The game either crashes or reverts to the software renderer.

I've tried to manually swap the default OpenGL renderer dll file for the TurboGL dll file. I get a black screen with the game running in the background.

I'm out of ideas at this point. I mean, I know I can run OpenGL games with the Voodoo2, but the inability to run them with the G400 triggers my OCD 😜

Last edited by revolstar on 2026-09-30, 07:26. Edited 1 time in total.

Win95 rig: Pentium II 400/64MB RAM/Matrox G400 16MB/Voodoo2 12MB/SB Live! + SB 128
Win98 rig: Athlon XP 2500+/512MB RAM/SB Audigy/GF FX5700
WinXP rig: HP RP5800 - Pentium G850/2GB RAM/GF GT530 1GB
Amiga: A600/2MB RAM
PS2, Ps3, Dreamcast

Reply 1 of 4, by swaaye

Posted on 2026-09-29, 21:53

swaaye Offline

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If AGP is not working properly, G400's OpenGL will probably malfunction.

You should be running Win98SE. It supports 440BX much better than 95 can. 95 just barely supports USB and it needs some updates for AGP and sometimes misbehaves with CPUs > 300 MHz. 98SE also has built-in drivers for 440BX whereas 95 would need chipset drivers installed. 98 also supports SSE if you were to ever run a P3.

Just install plain old Win98SE and DirectX 7.0a. You don't need any homebrew update packs.

Reply 2 of 4, by Putas

Posted on 2026-09-30, 06:10

Putas Offline

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To be fair, installing chipset drivers and graphics drivers should be enough to get it working in Windows 95. But always check what AGP configuration it ended up with. Maybe there is some mix-up with other drivers; try putting the ICD library as opengl32.dll right into the Quake 2 directory first.

Reply 3 of 4, by revolstar

Posted on 2026-09-30, 12:50

revolstar Offline

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A small update: I've also tried the old Matrox d3d wrapper, no go.
Surprisingly, the SciTech GLDirect 2.0.1 got Quake 2 running in OpenGL. Still, I'd like to know how and why this is happening? 😜

Reply 4 of 4, by revolstar

Posted on 2026-10-01, 07:26

revolstar Offline

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OK, for the record: re-enabling bus mastering solved the problem, OpenGL works fine now. Case closed.

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