A V3 3K should have more than enough texture memory to run this game. The minimum requirement is 2 megs with 8 megs recommended. Everything else looks to be well above the recommended minimums. Have you tried reinstalling the Voodoo drivers, doing a clean sweep of any old drivers before you reinstall? Sometimes old versions of drivers hang around and cause problems. http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/3dfx/voodoo3/index.php has some fan made drivers and tweaking utilities that might help.

Hello, I first tried with a clean install of windows and the last official non-beta (1.07). Also tried the amigamerlin 2.9 drivers after cleaning the driver with driver cleaner 2.7. Both had stutter.

I did find this info at http://jfeelder.home.xs4all.nl/voodoousers/troublegames.html
it says to try older drivers, so far I tried 1.03 and it is slightly better but not smooth quite yet.

Will look at that link tonight, thanks!

I used to run nsf4 with a voodoo 2 and performance was great (@ 800x800)

you could try the NFSHS Fast Graphics Patch
http://www.nfscars.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8413

ps: limit your memory to less than 128mb (msconfig)

Yup it's strange that you're having problems with NFS4 on a Voodoo3. It should run it well. It could be the mods from NFS5 that you're using. Try playing the game with just the stock game files.

Though if you have a Voodoo5 then I don't know why you're bothering with the Voodoo3. 😉 NFS4 + FSAA is very nice. I tend to set it up with 4X FSAA at 640x480 120Hz on my CRT.

swaaye wrote:

Yup it's strange that you're having problems with NFS4 on a Voodoo3. It should run it well. It could be the mods from NFS5 that you're using. Try playing the game with just the stock game files.

Though if you have a Voodoo5 then I don't know why you're bothering with the Voodoo3. 😉 NFS4 + FSAA is very nice. I tend to set it up with 4X FSAA at 640x480 120Hz on my CRT.

That may be it. There are mods to raise the resolution of the textures and the polygon count of the cars and to add more cars to the game than was originally intended. Boosting the graphical requirements of the game may necessitate the use of a more powerful graphics card. It makes sense. That may be why a V5 works fine and a V3 stutters. Lowering the graphical requirements would probably get the framerates back up otherwise the only other choice is to put a more powerful graphics card in. I don't know how determined the original poster is to continue playing this game with a Voodoo card, but V4's and V5's aren't exactly going to be cheap upgrades from a V3. A GeForce or Radeon would be more economical.

He said in his post that he tried a Voodoo5 so he already has one. I am wondering why he's bothering with a Voodoo3 at all. 😉

Thanks all for your replies.

As for the game. It is the just the basic "full" install. The unofficial Stock Pack patch out there that helps XP compatibility and glide wrapper but you can unselect that stuff and just install the 3ddata update from it. There are no downloaded cars, no holy-poly fix installed.

Now I mostly have it playable with just little choppiness on some tracks still at 1024x768@16. Its been a bit of work to get there though. It will be rather smooth if I play the game from the front bumper camera view but I like the heli-cam view so it must just not be enough grunt from the card.

Reinstalled the game
installed NFS Best gfx (includes updated voodoo2z.dll and glide3x.dll)
installed 1.06.00 driver (don't think it matters since there is now a glide3x.dll in game folder)
Graphic settings (widescreen...no chrome.....full view distance....triple buffering.....track only fog.....no lense flare)
3Dfx Tool Setting:
* 3D Filter Quality - High
* Alpha-Blending - Sharper
* Triple Buffering - Enable
* V-Sync - Enable
3Dfx Overclock 190MHz (using a factory 3000 AGP card now, not the compaq)

VCache settings in system.ini
Max 128mb
Min 64mb
Chunksize 2048
DirectoryCache 96
NameCache 4096

@ Davros - I had that fast graphics patch but meant for d3d, not glide which defeats the purpose of having a voodoo card 😉

About the Voodoo 5. I already have a system built with a P3 1.4-s and a Voodoo 5 and its great. I just re-configured my 2nd system with a P3 1GHz, Voodoo 3 as I have taken a liking to the V3 and trying to see what it's potential can be. Back in the day I only owned a V1, voodoo banshee then voodoo 2 8mb which really limited game performance, so now that I have more voodoo cards I'm just toying around and see what they can do since I own alot of voodoo's now!

Lets see:
3x Voodoo 1 4mb
5x Voodoo 2 12mb
1x Voodoo 3 1000 AGP
1x Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
4x Voodoo 3 3000 AGP (3x Compaq 183mhz which one is dead with 3 beeps, then a reqular 3000 AGP 166MHz)
1x Voodoo 5 5500 PCI
2x Voodoo 5 5500 AGP

Still on the lookout for a Voodoo 4 though 😀

swaaye wrote:

He said in his post that he tried a Voodoo5 so he already has one. I am wondering why he's bothering with a Voodoo3 at all. 😉

The V5 may have been temporarily borrowed from another machine so if that card is going to be returning to it's home, then an upgrade to the V3 would be needed for the machine that the game is intended to be run on.

How about disabling V-Sync and trying higher refresh rates? This caused a lot of choppiness when I had a Voodoo 1 and the Voodoo 2s (still have them in my PowerMac).

He also enabled triple buffering, so V-Sync should not be causing the choppiness.

About the texture memory available, he's using 6 Mb of VRAM for three frame buffers + z-buffer, so there are 10 Mb left for textures. That should be more than enough, if a Voodoo2 with 8 Mb of texture memory is able to run the game smoothly.

About that glide3x.dll file in the game folder, I didn't understand how it arrived there. Was it installed by the game setup, or by a patch? Unless it is a specially optimized version of glide3x.dll for Voodoo3, I would delete that file and use the default one that comes with the driver.

@ filipetolhuizen

I've tried V-sync on and off and performance was the same. I use the "optimal" refresh setting which I think is 75 or 85. It definitely is not 60Hz though as my screen size jumps out of aspect when I try it. ~EDIT~ it looks like optimal = 75Hz. Trying 85Hz jumps to different color calibration on the monitor. Anyways I tried 60Hz yesterday and no change in game.

@ batracio -

The glide3x.dll is put there by me. In the link I posted above it shows it is recommended to put glide2x and glide 3x in the games main folder. I had tried many in the directory seeing if one would work better than another.

So far I had tried to used glide2x/glide3x from drivers 1.03.....1.04......1.06......1.07.....AmigaMerlin2.9.......lastly Koolsmokey modified (Glide3x V2610, Glide2x V2604 or last versions). None of those seem to help matters.

As in my last posting I stated about a Best NFS which contains a voodoo2z.dll (renamed t voodoo2a.dll for NFS3/4) and glide3x.dll which someone recommends replacing for all NFS3/4/5 with these for better graphics and performance. Using these do seem to help a bit. It also had a reg file I installed as well but don't know what it particularly does.

The best nfs patch voodoo2z.dll is even newer than the file in NFS5.
voodoo2z.dll version 2000.10.23.1736 (NFS5 is 2000.02.23.1707)
glide3x.dll version 3.10.00.0518 (dunno what version it is from)

Also for the heck of it I tossed NFS5 dx7z.dll in NFS4 as d3da.dll, performance as slightly improved again (or atleast in class B races like Celtic where polys are low). This could just be a placebo effect as I dunno why this should be working when using thrash driver "voodoo2". Would d3da.dll help with Sound or usb controller (DXsound EAX/DXinput)??

hey batracio, how do you know the vram usage? Is that estimated? I haven't dropped back to 800x600 or lower to see if it would help....but higher the resolution (such as 1024x768) usually means more vram usage doesn't?

I seen a post but haven't tried it yet that states turning off "special effects" had made smoother gameplay for 1 person. Will be trying that soon.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

The glide3x.dll is put there by me. In the link I posted above it shows it is recommended to put glide2x and glide 3x in the games main folder. I had tried many in the directory seeing if one would work better than another.

So far I had tried to used glide2x/glide3x from drivers 1.03.....1.04......1.06......1.07.....AmigaMerlin2.9.......lastly Koolsmokey modified (Glide3x V2610, Glide2x V2604 or last versions). None of those seem to help matters.

I think you are trying too many things without actually knowing what each one does. For example, the link you posted above recommends to put glide files in the game folder, but it specifically mentions glide 2x/3x libraries from V3 install CD, not any version you can find out there. If you really want to follow this advice, don't use any files from 1.03-1.07 reference drivers or third-party drivers. Grab them from V3 install CD, or, if you don't have it, from 1.00.00 reference driver.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

installed NFS Best gfx (includes updated voodoo2z.dll and glide3x.dll)
installed 1.06.00 driver (don't think it matters since there is now a glide3x.dll in game folder)

As in my last posting I stated about a Best NFS which contains a voodoo2z.dll (renamed t voodoo2a.dll for NFS3/4) and glide3x.dll which someone recommends replacing for all NFS3/4/5 with these for better graphics and performance. Using these do seem to help a bit. It also had a reg file I installed as well but don't know what it particularly does.

Still I don't understand what "NFS Best gfx" or "Best NFS" means. Is it a special game release? Is it an unofficial patch? Apparently it comes with its own glide3x.dll, but you don't know what driver version it is from? And then you install a different driver version in the system folder? Looks like a bit of a mess to me. And, by the way, you should never install a reg file if you don't know exactly what it does. It may render your system unbootable.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

hey batracio, how do you know the vram usage? Is that estimated? I haven't dropped back to 800x600 or lower to see if it would help....but higher the resolution (such as 1024x768) usually means more vram usage doesn't?

It is calculated: Horizontal resolution * Vertical resolution * (bit depth / 8) * (# of frame buffers + 1) / (1024 * 1024) = Mb of VRAM used. 1024 * 768 * (16 / 8) * (3 + 1) / (1024 * 1024) = 6 Mb.

batracio wrote:

I think you are trying too many things without actually knowing what each one does. For example, the link you posted above recommends to put glide files in the game folder, but it specifically mentions glide 2x/3x libraries from V3 install CD, not any version you can find out there. If you really want to follow this advice, don't use any files from 1.03-1.07 reference drivers or third-party drivers. Grab them from V3 install CD, or, if you don't have it, from 1.00.00 reference driver.

Ok, At that time i would use drive cleaner 2.7, fully remove all drivers, then install that driver fully and copy its glide2x/3x over to the game folder and try a few races. I did not try the cd as I don't have one, I can try 1.00 from falconfly.de though.

Still I don't understand what "NFS Best gfx" or "Best NFS" means. Is it a special game release? Is it an unofficial patch? Apparently it comes with its own glide3x.dll, but you don't know what driver version it is from? And then you install a different driver version in the system folder? Looks like a bit of a mess to me. And, by the way, you should never install a reg file if you don't know exactly what it does. It may render your system unbootable.

These are 2 unofficial game patches.
One is Fast gfx patch which basically lets you swap out NFS5 dx7z.dll to NFS4 as D3Da.dll.
Second is the best nfs which is the glide3x.dll/reg file/voodoo2z.dll. I had over checked the reg file for malicious info but all pertained to video settings it seemed. I can code it here if you'd like (if this forum supports [ code ] ).
The best nfs I think helped the most thus far.

It is calculated: Horizontal resolution * Vertical resolution * (bit depth / 😎 * (# of frame buffers + 1) / (1024 * 1024) = Mb of VRAM used. 1024 * 768 * (16 / 😎 * (3 + 1) / (1024 * 1024) = 6 Mb.

Yeah, not the knowledgeable in this area. You mean MB as well I assume. Thanks for your help again!

Ok, now I'm starting to understand what's going on. Just a guess, are you sure that NFS is running in Glide with your Voodoo3? And yes, I meant MB, my bad.

batracio wrote:

Ok, now I'm starting to understand what's going on. Just a guess, are you sure that NFS is running in Glide with your Voodoo3? And yes, I meant MB, my bad.

The "Thrash driver" in windows registry dictates what api to use.

I currently choose "voodoo2" which is glide. When I use "d3d" it looks good...but not as good as voodoo2 because in tree's look worse as well at the road looks worse as well, I didn't look for more graphic issues while using d3d though. Im not sure but atleast NFS3 also had a "voodoo" thrash driver for the Voodoo1 accelerator.

I still haven't had a chance to get back in the game to try the other settings yet.

No reason why a USB to Playstation 2 controller could be causing this? Maybe a polling issue or driver? I now have tried two different adapters with different drivers with about the same results. When I use my Xbox360 wired controller on my P3-S 1.4 and Voodoo5 I would get jerky play but assume it was the drivers. Have not tried the 360 controller on this voodoo 3 built PC though.

From my recent experience forcing NFS3 & NFS4 to run in stereoscopic 3D mode, I would say that registry keys just allow the game engine to detect some 3D chipsets and configure settings accordingly. But if those registry keys don't perfectly match the entries in configuration file, game engine ignores them and runs in D3D mode. That's why I posted these instructions:

Re: 3dfx STB Voodoo3 2000 AGP video card, basic info

Check that your registry keys for V3 match the ones in 3ddata.dat (remember the case sensitivity), and set D3D=0 if not already set. You don't have to follow the other instructions, as they are intended to run the game in Glide 2.x instead of Glide 3.x. However, that could be an interesting try, as Glide 2.x may perform better than Glide 3.x (just another guess from me).

Pretty much any time I have run High Stakes on any grafx card with 16mb or less video ram on anything higher then 800x600 maxed out, the games framerate chokes. I really just wonder if its a video ram issue. 32 meg on up cards never gave me any problems at 1024x768.

ProfessorProfessorson wrote:

Pretty much any time I have run High Stakes on any grafx card with 16mb or less video ram on anything higher then 800x600 maxed out, the games framerate chokes. I really just wonder if its a video ram issue. 32 meg on up cards never gave me any problems at 1024x768.

I doubt it. I've run HS on a V2 SLI and V3 setup at 1024x768 just fine.

By chance do you know what was the average fps you got? All I would get would be in the 28-45 fps range depending on the card as far as lower meg cards were concerned, which was pretty cruddy. Knocking the res down to 800x600 always fixed the issue for me. Ive only bothered to run the game on a Geforce 3, Geforce 256, TNT 2, Rage 128 Pro OEM, and Banshee. The Geforce cards ran the game fine no matter what setting.