Thanks for testing it out. Disappointing news but somewhat expected I guess.

Just tested it myself. Could not get it running. After some digging on the internet it seems it is due to the alpha patch not flushing textures from video memory and that the error can also occur on Voodoo 1 cards. I've updated the chart in the main post.

vetz wrote:

robertmo wrote:

I am sure it was working (on PIII450) as i was trying to figure out reason for blinking text. (too fast cpu btw).

Got Dreams to Reality working as well on my 440BX system. Really strange that it crashes on all my Socket 7 systems, but works on this system.

I guess it can be updated as running, but with a comment that it is very picky about the system.

I got Dreams to Reality working on my 440BX system with a Voodoo 3 card. Found out an interesting thing. The game will crash on start if I have EMM386 loaded in config.sys, but without it works fine apart from the above-mentioned blinking text and too fast inventory animation. Mo'Slo helped with this speed problem ( I have a P3 500E CPU ). Not 100% perfect, but it is now playable for me 😀

I have created a basic boot menu in config.sys/autoexec.bat, so I can quickly choose to boot with or without EMM386. This also got rid of some rare, random crashes in other DOS Glide games.

Some information concerning D2_3DFX: http://www.koolbear.com/Descent/community/d2_ … /d2_3dfx_m1.htm

My final piece of news is that, at least until some new information comes along, I cannot support D2_3DFX any longer. I don't have a compatible system, nor do I have access to a compatible system that would provide me with any information I don't know already know. I've decided after literally more than a year of fielding your questions about running D2_3DFX on the Voodoo3 and anything more recent that I'm going to declare that D2_3DFX is fundamentally incompatible with anything more recent than the Voodoo2 chipset. You may be able to get this program to run on the V3, V4 or V5, but I'm going to have to say that you all are on your own in this realm.

(10/17/99) I have gotten an absolutely HUGE flood of e-mails recently from Voodoo3 owners complaining that they are unable to get D2_3DFX to run at all, or if they do, it doesn't run properly. Unfortunately, most of the problems being reported don't seem to respond well to the solutions I've suggested, so I'm now asking for your help, folks. If you own a Voodoo3 and know the solutions to any of these problems, PLEASE let me know!

Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run with my Voodoo3 in a DOS Box while running Windows? Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run at all with my […]
Show full quote

Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run with my Voodoo3 in a DOS Box while running Windows?
Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run at all with my Voodoo3?
Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run at all with my two Voodoo2's in SLI?
Why do the textures get all messed up after using the Automap, while using my Voodoo3?

So, going by all of that I can't really see why you put this as working on the Voodoo3...

I had no problem getting it to run on my Voodoo3.

It may have problems with some versions of glide2x.dll or maybe it wasn't fully supported in older versions of D2_3DFX.

No, the newest version is 1.06b from 03/05/98, while those statements are newer. However, I also found this:

These are the most commonly-asked questions I've gotten in relation to D2_3DFX on newer computers. It seems that most, if not all, of the issues for V1 and V2 owners were resolved with v1.06b, but it left some problems for owners of more recent video cards.

In general, if you're having trouble getting D2_3DFX to run, the first thing you should do is to make sure you have the latest drivers installed and that you have no duplicate drivers sitting around. (Having more than one copy of GLIDE2X.OVL on your system can cause problems, I've discovered.)

Also, this here may be vital for playing the game correctly:

Why can't I move my ship with my mouse? Why does my ship bob up and down so much more than it used to? Why is it so hard to dodg […]
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Why can't I move my ship with my mouse?
Why does my ship bob up and down so much more than it used to?
Why is it so hard to dodge homing weapons?

These things are due to a bug in the actual Descent2 engine which causes erratic behavior at high framerates. The current problems appear to be that your ship will "bob" up and down a lot more than normal, and homing/guided/mega/shaker missiles are generally much more difficult to dodge than under "normal" conditions. Also, if you prefer to play with the mouse, you'll notice that it's almost completely unresponsive when your framerate gets to be above about 40 FPS, despite your best efforts to maximize its sensitivity. This is again due to a bug in the original D2 engine - it shows up more in D2_3DFX because of the program's speed.

A workaround to this problem is to force your 3D card to limit its framerate to 30 FPS. This is done by adding or changing the following environment variable to your AUTOEXEC.BAT or D2_3DFX.BAT file:

SET FX_GLIDE_SWAPINTERVAL=2

Might want to save the whole FAQ and bundle it with the patch in case it gets deleted from the net. 😀

I'm not having much luck with Screamer 2.

GOG.com released the game and it's the complete Installation CD with installer and Audio CD tracks. Plays great.

But I can't get Voodoo going. I tried with a Voodoo and Voodoo 2. With the official Voodoo patch and with the one postet here (which comes with a BAT file). The one posted here, the game starts, but the image comes through the normal screen and not the Voodoo.

With the official patch and a Voodoo I get an error about a missing DLL. When I copy that .OVL file into the folder it throws an error.

I even installed the Voodoo on a W98 machine to get all the files. Copied all the .DLLs into the Game folder and also no luck 🙁

The cards work because Tomb Raider 3DFX demo works without any dramas.

A whole evening gone because of this 😒

Man I can't believe it.

Seriously who wrote that batch file in the Screamer 2 patch > Double barrel shotgun in your mouth > Pull trigger!

It calls S2.BAT which then calls the standard VGA executable 😵

Attached the fixed patch!

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Man I can't believe it. […]
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Man I can't believe it.

Seriously who wrote that batch file in the Screamer 2 patch > Double barrel shotgun in your mouth > Pull trigger!

It calls S2.BAT which then calls the standard VGA executable 😵

Attached the fixed patch!

Glad you noticed this. I found the error due to having both the 3DFX patches for Screamer 2 in my game folder.

I'll fix the download in the first post.

I'm having issues with the Descent 2 patch.

Well, the graphics work. And WOW, they are so smooth. This is on a Voodoo with the official patch.

BUT the mouse stops working. The unofficial patch works fine though 😀

So smooth that game 😀

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I'm having issues with the Descent 2 patch.

Well, the graphics work. And WOW, they are so smooth. This is on a Voodoo with the official patch.

BUT the mouse stops working. Tried various mouse drivers but no luck 😢

If you Google around this is a known bug. I believe the unofficial patch solves this better.
There might be some workarounds, but I can't remember on the top of my head what they were.

EDIT:

Found it:

Why can't I move my ship with my mouse? Why does my ship bob up and down so much more than it used to? Why is it so hard to dodg […]
Show full quote

Why can't I move my ship with my mouse?
Why does my ship bob up and down so much more than it used to?
Why is it so hard to dodge homing weapons?

These things are due to a bug in the actual Descent2 engine which causes erratic behavior at high framerates. The current problems appear to be that your ship will "bob" up and down a lot more than normal, and homing/guided/mega/shaker missiles are generally much more difficult to dodge than under "normal" conditions. Also, if you prefer to play with the mouse, you'll notice that it's almost completely unresponsive when your framerate gets to be above about 40 FPS, despite your best efforts to maximize its sensitivity. This is again due to a bug in the original D2 engine - it shows up more in D2_3DFX because of the program's speed.

A workaround to this problem is to force your 3D card to limit its framerate to 30 FPS. This is done by adding or changing the following environment variable to your AUTOEXEC.BAT or D2_3DFX.BAT file:

SET FX_GLIDE_SWAPINTERVAL=2

Source: http://www.koolbear.com/Descent/community/d2_ … faq.htm#voodoo1

I use a joystick + keyboard in Descent 1 and 2 to avoid the mouse problems in the 3DFX versions (both in D1 and D2). The Rendition version does not have this problem though AFAIK 😀

Wow you posted quickly. I tried out the unofficial patch right after and it works quite well 😀

Recorded some footage and the video is currently rendering. Feels like a constant 60fps to be honest. Not bad on a standard Voodoo...

It's the system in my video build log if you are interested. Quite pleased with it so far!

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Wow you posted quickly. I tried out the unofficial patch right after and it works quite well 😀

Recorded some footage and the video is currently rendering. Feels like a constant 60fps to be honest. Not bad on a standard Voodoo...

It's the system in my video build log if you are interested. Quite pleased with it so far!

Good you figured it out.

Descent is one of the games that can be run on a 486 with Voodoo. It is very quick 😀

I saw your video, but I can't check it out here at work hehe

You might know this one.

Is there a way to disable bilinear filtering? Maybe through a environmental variable? I would like to see the difference 😀

No. There are 2 environment variables - SSTV2_FORCE_BILINEAR and SSTV2_FORCE_TRILINEAR. But there is no SSTV2_FORCE_NEAREST...

Cool, thanks 😀

And how do you play in higher resolutions? Is this a matter of the game needing to support it? And the hardware of course.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Cool, thanks 😀

And how do you play in higher resolutions? Is this a matter of the game needing to support it? And the hardware of course.

Correct

Cool, good to know 😀

Thanks for all the help so far, but I have more questions 😀

I'm playing around with Unreal Gold and the timedemo.

On a Monster II I can see there is a "Disable V-sync" option. Is there something similar for the first Voodoo?

Also the performance difference from Voodoo to Voodoo 2 in this benchmark seems a bit suspicious...

FX_GLIDE_SWAPINTERVAL = 0 and SST_VSYNC = 0?