uh-huh.... prove it!

If I'm not mistaken, only the GeForce3 chipsets include (partial) support for the Glide API.

hmmm....
WOuld be nice...
Voodoo 2 SLI is nice too!

Originally posted by Unregistered All nvidia cards made since they bought 3dfx have native dos GLIDE support in them! (well at least all I've tried) Assuming you can get a true dos shell, you souhdl be able to run TOmb raider 3DFX version natively!

*gah!*

This again...
showthread.php?s=&postid=206#post206

The general conclusion is that Smokey was very wrong on this claim.

Today I was compiling a collection of old glidos versions and I noticed a strange paragraph in documentation files of Glidos 1.05 to 1.07; it reads as follows:

"If you have a recent Voodoo card or a Geforce III, then try going into the Glidos folder and renaming Glide2x.dll to something else (e.g., Glide2xZZ.dll) This may allow you to drive your card more directly. If that doesn't work and Glidos reports "Cannot find Glide2x.dll" then try downloading one of the versions of Glide2x.dll from Dracman's site. Don't confuse Glide2x.dll with Glide2x.ovl. Don't bother to try this on other video cards."

Then I remembered having read something similar a long time ago, at Smokey's homepage (well, he's the same person as Dracman, isn't he?), and tried to find those Glide2x.dll versions that Paul mentions in the old doc files. Luckily they are still available for download, and this is what Smokey states in his website:

3DFX {voodoo1 api} is contained in the GF3 NVIDIA graphics chipset !!

Tomb Raider 1 {Blue and Gold 1 CD's} or the Tomb Raider 1 {Gold Cd 2} Unfinished Business/Shadow of the Cat (UB levels) {free for the download} work fine with the Hercules 3D Prophet III geforce 3 {Guillemot} and have a graphics quality almost comparing to Tomb Raider II !

particulars on getting the GF3 to run 3dfx games: NOT using GLIDOS with this GF3/3dfx setup

use: 3dfx tomb.exe and 3dfx tombub.exe
do not use the " RUSH " Tomb.exe"

3dfx tomb.exe {1.08 meg}
3dfx tombub.exe {847 k}

-OS: Windows 98 sr2 4.10.2222A
-Herc: driver version: 3D Prophet III 4-20-2001 Nvidia Corporation 4.13.01.1241

you can download and try this Glide version with your GF3 Nvidia: http://www.smokeypoint.com/gf3glide2x.zip

I've put together a Tomb Raider 1 package including the GeForce3 batch files listed above - and the Glide from my c:\windows\system folder these are THE files I use with GLIDOS: http://www.smokeypoint.com/tombraider1/windowsGF3GLIDOS.zip

Conclusions based on the text in bold:

1) Glide API is supposed to be contained in NV20 chipset,
2) You don't need Glidos if you want to run 3dfx tomb.exe and tombub.exe under a Geforce 3, and
3) You just need the Nvidia Detonator 12.41 reference drivers to get Glide support with GF3 cards

Needless to say, I looked into Detonator 12.41 package and there's no trace of any Glide2x.dll in it. Several years ago, Creative released a driver for their TNT/TNT2 based cards with a Glide wrapper called Unified, but it wasn't a very briliant piece of software and I believe 3dfx even sued Creative for patent infringement. No other Nvidia driver has ever included 3dfx or Glide support, neither before Nvidia's acquisition of 3dfx, nor after that infamous date (and this is a fact that we, former customers of 3dfx, are very aware of, and very grateful to Nvidia) [/sarcasm]

So now we just have the two archives that Smokey is still hosting on his site: gf3glide2x.zip and windowsGF3GLIDOS.zip; both contain some version of Glide2x.ovl and Glide2x.dll, and the latter also contains a bunch of BAT files with DOS/Glide environment variables for performance optimization in 3dfx-tomb and other games. The digital signature of those Glide2x.dll files reads "Copyright (c) 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. 1999/2000", and the version number, graphics subsystem and product name information demonstrate that both files are Glide 2.61 drivers for Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3 or Voodoo4/5 graphics cards. That is, native 3dfx drivers for 3dfx cards, which would never run with any other non-3dfx hardware (not even with 3dfx hardware older than Voodoo Banshee).

Remember the "3DFX {voodoo1 api} is contained in the GF3 NVIDIA graphics chipset" tag? Well, actually Voodoo1 (AKA Voodoo graphics) only supports glide2x versions up to 2.4x, Voodoo2 up to 2.5x, but this amazing driver can emulate nothing less than Glide 2.6x over a hardware that was never intended to be compatible with that API!!! Whoaaa!!! Fabio, Paul, Dege, Zeckensack et al., this emulator is kicking your asses and it's dated 5 years ago!!! [/sarcasm]

Yes, although Dracman's a good bloke, I think some of those packages may be snake oil.

I think the origin of the Voodoo API in nVidia chip thing came from when they were first looking into Pixel shader type technology. Someone must have pointed out that Pixel shaders would give a real efficient way to write a Glide wrapper. That's my guess.