VOGONS


First post, by FeedingDragon

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Just got my Voodoo 1 PCI card in and want to test it out. Installed Blood and the 3DFX patch. Only whenever I try to run it I get "Unable to load DLL". I was under the impression that it was hard coded for the Voodoo 1 card (and didn't need the OVL file.) But, I went and started trying to get the Voodoo 1 drivers anyways. Every last one I could find had the GLIDE2X.OVL file - clearly marked in the TXT file as the "Voodoo 2 DOS file" (I'm not going to ask what the V2 file was even doing in the V1 drivers package.) But I put that in the directory anyways. Same issue. I next just dumped everything from the V1 driver archive into the directory (even the Win98 stuff.) Same thing.

Next did a search, and found that in Windows 98 (could not find a single page with DOS instructions,) it said to limit the protected mode RAM to 65535K (some said 65536.) I'm already limiting my RAM to 65536K, but I decided to start reducing it anyways. When I get it down to 9784K it no longer says "unable to load DLL" but instead says "Error (67) src\qheap.cpp". It continues to give me that error until it switches to "not enough memory".

I also tried slowing my system down as low as 90Mhz, without any change. My final attempt was to replace the DOS4GW.EXE with DOS32A.EXE. This produced a page of register data after the exact same errors (except that the "unable to load DLL" doesn't go away until "not enough memory" appears.)

Again, everything I can find details instructions for getting it to load in Windows, or on a later Voodoo card (2+.) The only DOS drivers I can find are for the Voodoo 2 card. The closest I came was reference to a glide.ovl file for the dgVoodoo emulator. But couldn't actually find the file, only a reference stating that glide.ovl could only be used when statically linked (embedded in the EXE file.)

I was able to confirm that the Voodoo 1 card works with Tomb Raider, so I'm fairly sure it isn't the card itself. Any ideas, suggestions, or the actual fix itself?

System:

  • GA-6BXC r1.9
    PIII - 800Mhz (100Mhz FSB)
    384M RAM (PC100)
    TNT2/M64 32M AGP 2x
    Voodoo 1 4M PCI
    MPU-401AT w/SCC-55 DB
    Creative Labs AWE32

Feeding Dragon

Reply 1 of 18, by filipetolhuizen

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Maybe you could try a different driver version and even if you get the game running it will crash after a few minutes. This patch is an Alpha and is highly unstable. Also running in a pure DOS boot is strongly recommended.
In these pages there are different Voodoo 1 drivers (you won't need to install them, just copy Glide2x.ovl inside each).
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=11
http://www.falconfly.de/voodoo1.htm

Reply 2 of 18, by FeedingDragon

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filipetolhuizen wrote:
Maybe you could try a different driver version and even if you get the game running it will crash after a few minutes. This patc […]
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Maybe you could try a different driver version and even if you get the game running it will crash after a few minutes. This patch is an Alpha and is highly unstable. Also running in a pure DOS boot is strongly recommended.
In these pages there are different Voodoo 1 drivers (you won't need to install them, just copy Glide2x.ovl inside each).
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=11
http://www.falconfly.de/voodoo1.htm

Um, that's where I got the drivers I tried. Also, I'm already in a pure DOS boot. I'm fairly sure it has to do with the system itself and not the drivers. The Blood 3DFX is supposed to be statically linked to the glide drivers. Which means the drivers are embedded in the EXE file itself.

Feeding Dragon

Reply 3 of 18, by Dominus

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Have you tried removing your V2 for testing?
Maybe Blood gets confused...

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Reply 4 of 18, by vetz

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FeedingDragon wrote:

I was under the impression that it was hard coded for the Voodoo 1 card (and didn't need the OVL file.) But, I went and started trying to get the Voodoo 1 drivers anyways. Every last one I could find had the GLIDE2X.OVL file

Blood is not statically linked. You need a correct .ovl file installed.

As filipetolhuizen said, the 3DFX patch for Blood is alpha and unstable. Also it looks like crap compared to software.

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
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Reply 5 of 18, by Gamecollector

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IIRC you must have glide2x.ovl in any %path% directory. "Search in current directory" is the Win9x/NT behavior... So if you copy glide2x.ovl file to Blood directory - it will do nothing.

Asus P4P800 SE/Pentium4 3.2E/2 Gb DDR400B,
Radeon HD3850 Agp (Sapphire), Catalyst 14.4 (XpProSp3).
Voodoo2 12 MB SLI, Win2k drivers 1.02.00 (XpProSp3).

Reply 6 of 18, by FeedingDragon

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Dominus wrote:

Have you tried removing your V2 for testing?
Maybe Blood gets confused...

Actually, when the card came in I removed the V2. Which is why I didn't list it in the system specs. I say "it", really it's "them", have 2 V2's in SLI. While trying to get it to work, I also removed the NIC card as well. All that's in the system are the cards needed to run the game (MPU-401 for MIDI, AWE32 Audio, Voodoo & Video.) I've put the V2's back in now (and the NIC,) and am having trouble with that, but that's a different topic.

vetz wrote:

Blood is not statically linked. You need a correct .ovl file installed.

As filipetolhuizen said, the 3DFX patch for Blood is alpha and unstable. Also it looks like crap compared to software.

Gamecollector wrote:

IIRC you must have glide2x.ovl in any %path% directory. "Search in current directory" is the Win9x/NT behavior... So if you copy glide2x.ovl file to Blood directory - it will do nothing.

According to everything I've been able to find, all DOS games designed for the Voodoo 1 (and not the Voodoo 2 or later,) have to be statically linked to the GLIDE.OVL file. The SDK information I've found has all been very clear on this, GLIDE.OVL can only be statically linked (which is why dgVoodoo doesn't include it.) This is probably why I haven't been able to find it. This is also why you need to use the Voodoo Rush version of Tomb Raider 3DFX with a Voodoo2 (or a bunch of Voodoo environment variables that put the Voodoo 2 in compatibility mode.) GLIDE2X.OVL is only for the Voodoo 2+ or Voodoo Rush card, and doesn't work with the Voodoo 1 from what I've found. It doesn't work for Blood either - I tried it anyways (in both the path and in current directory.)

Downloaded the DAUM build of DOSBox and tried it there. Removed the glide2x.ovl file (for testing purposes.) Used the long list of SET commands included in the batch file (all BUILD_??? variables - for the build engine, not Voodoo variables.) Worked just fine without access to any OVL files. Tried the SET commands on my physical system. Didn't help.

In DOSBox it looks fairly decent IMHO. Not as good as newer 3D games (of course,) but I think it looks better than software mode.

Feeding Dragon

Reply 7 of 18, by filipetolhuizen

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Each card has its own Glide2x.ovl. Back when I had a Voodoo 1 graphics it had this file. Some games will have it statically linked, but only versions for the Voodoo Graphics (which will also work on Voodoo 2 with minor tweaks).

Reply 8 of 18, by Gamecollector

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Well, I have the WinXp/WinME dualboot PC with Voodoo2.
After I have installed WinME DOS mode patch - I have created the config.sys menu. Windows ME and MS-DOS 8.0. Glide2x.ovl is from the last Voodoo2 reference drivers (3.02.02) and is located in c:\windows. %Patch% includes c:\windows.
I have tested a Voodoo2 with Glide SDK and with Blood itself (the game plays w/o cd), works perfectly (well, Blood needs set build_gamma=1).
After I moved glide2x.dll from %path% - Voodoo2 not works (can't locate .dll).
After I moved glide2x.ovl to the Blood directory - the game works.
So - I was wrong, DOS searches glide2x.ovl in the current directory.

Asus P4P800 SE/Pentium4 3.2E/2 Gb DDR400B,
Radeon HD3850 Agp (Sapphire), Catalyst 14.4 (XpProSp3).
Voodoo2 12 MB SLI, Win2k drivers 1.02.00 (XpProSp3).

Reply 9 of 18, by FeedingDragon

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I actually put glide2x.ovl in the C:\DOS directory (so I wouldn't have to constantly be putting into game directories.) But even copying it to the Blood directory has no effect. However, I have to correct one thing, it turns out that even removing all the glide2x.ovl files from my DOSBox drives, it still places one in the path. Remove it from the path (changing the path settings works,) and Blood suddenly stopped working again. So it seems it does need the glide2x.ovl file. So I was mistaken there. I still find it strange that the glide2x.ovl file (even in the Voodoo 1 driver set,) is listed as a "Voodoo 2" DOS driver, when Blood is listed as not working with Voodoo 2 (will start & play with correct variables set, but crashes on second map.)

*edit*
Just confirmed that Tomb Raider (the 3DFX patch not the Voodoo Rush patch,) does not need the glide2x.ovl file. renamed or deleted every glide2x.ovl file on my entire system and it still loads up and plays just fine (on the Voodoo 1 card.) Also, re-downloaded all the Voodoo 1 driver files, and the earliest drivers didn't include the glide2x.ovl file. They didn't have any glide files at all, just the DD3D files.

Feeding Dragon

Reply 10 of 18, by filipetolhuizen

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Can you play Blood 3dfx all through and past the 2nd level? I never got past it no matter what 3dfx card I had or wrapper I used.

Reply 11 of 18, by FeedingDragon

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filipetolhuizen wrote:

Can you play Blood 3dfx all through and past the 2nd level? I never got past it no matter what 3dfx card I had or wrapper I used.

I can't play Blood 3DFX at all on my DOS 6.22 system. I've loaded it and played the first level, and half the second in DOSBox. I'd prefer to play it on my DOS 6.22 machine though 🙁 Considering my problems with V2 + V1 in a single machine, I'm on the verge of saying to heck with it, and just playing it in DOSBox. Maybe I can play the other games that won't work on a V2 in DOSBox as well. I read a post saying it was easy to have V1 and V2 in the same machine (and even a V3 as well.) Took them at their word, only to later discover, that it's only easy in Windows 9x+. I'm setting this system up specifically for playing DOS games in DOS 6.22, Windows 3.1 games in Windows 3.1, Windows 9x games in Windows 98, Windows XP+ games in Windows 7. Ok, that last is on my much more modern machine, but still.

As for what I've read, on the V2 Blood 3DFX will not get past the 2nd level. On the V3, it will (but I'm not sure how that works exactly.) According to that thread, it only works fully with a V1 card. Even then, it never got past alpha stage, so it's buggy.

Feeding Dragon

Reply 12 of 18, by Gamecollector

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Have tested - Blood 3dfx crashes with the "Out of texmemory" error even with MSDOS 8.0 + Voodoo2. So - the trouble is the 3dfx patch itself.

Asus P4P800 SE/Pentium4 3.2E/2 Gb DDR400B,
Radeon HD3850 Agp (Sapphire), Catalyst 14.4 (XpProSp3).
Voodoo2 12 MB SLI, Win2k drivers 1.02.00 (XpProSp3).

Reply 13 of 18, by FeedingDragon

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Gamecollector wrote:

Have tested - Blood 3dfx crashes with the "Out of texmemory" error even with MSDOS 8.0 + Voodoo2. So - the trouble is the 3dfx patch itself.

Yes, it crashes with Out of Texmemory with Voodoo 2's. That's why I bought a Voodoo 1 in the first place. At a rough guess, the V1 flushed the texture memory differently than the V2 does. The 3DFX patch took advantage of the way the V1 does it. So, when a V2 doesn't flush the memory like Blood 3DFX expects, it ends up generating the error. That's just a guess, haven't looked at the source or anything. The same thread that I read about that problem on, also listed Blood 3DFX as working with a Voodoo 3, though I haven't looked at the details with that yet. I wanted to get a V1 because it would nicely solve my problem. Which, if I can get Blood 3DFX running, it technically will. Though it has presented another problem (another thread,) that is starting to make me reconsider the entire procedure.

Feeding Dragon

Reply 14 of 18, by konc

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Pretty old thread, but the issue is spot-on: can someone share the glide2x.ovl that succeeds running Blood v1.0 with the 3dfx patch?
I've tried having in path and in game's folder every version of the file I have (and 2 different cards). Although everything, everything else runs OK, Blood doesn't even start with a "Unable to load DLL" message. Software mode is OK.

Reply 16 of 18, by Gamecollector

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"Unable to load DLL" isn't glide2x.ovl related.
The 3dfx patch needs 53 MB of RAM. The trouble is - it always uses EMS if the EMS RAM is present. And EMM386 can create up to 32 MB EMS only. Plus EMM386 NOEMS still create small amount of EMS. So if you load EMM386 - there is no RAM for the patch.
Run the game with the XMS-only config.

Asus P4P800 SE/Pentium4 3.2E/2 Gb DDR400B,
Radeon HD3850 Agp (Sapphire), Catalyst 14.4 (XpProSp3).
Voodoo2 12 MB SLI, Win2k drivers 1.02.00 (XpProSp3).

Reply 17 of 18, by konc

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Thank you so much, your information is gold. I never thought that the 3dfx patch would require more memory than the 32MB software mode works with (yes, I had 32MB, until now I believed it's enough for everything under pure DOS...) Not loading at all EMM386 did the trick, this %$#@ finally starts! Thanks again 😉

Reply 18 of 18, by FaSMaN

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I never got Blood working on my V1 back in the day, as the 3DFX patch only works on Version 1.0 of blood and every version Ive owned was higher than that, have you checked your version numbers, maybe your experiencing a similar problem.

Edit: NV see you got it sorted 😀 maybe Ill try a different memory manager aswell, maybe that will fix it thanks 😀