My suggestion may be a bit unorthodox and timely. But what if you threw in a 3rd card and dual-booted? One OS for Voodoo 3, the other OS for Voodoo 2 and 3rd card?

No, I'm afraid dual-boot is out of the question... This is an old Pentium 3, 500MHz with only 10GB of disk space 🤣. I wanted that authentic retro thing, but thank you for the idea, nevertheless. Besides, I already have 3 cards inside this system, I'd rather not go for 4th one... 1x Voodoo3 2000 (AGP) and 2x Diamond Monster 3D II 8mb, paired up in SLI.

Which reminds me, I forgot to mention this earlier - I'm running Win98 SE.

I've done this before by installing Voodoo2 then Voodoo3 drivers, in that order, so V3's glide and ICD stuff overwrites the system - from there on you can slip V2-specific Glide DLLs into your games' folders from the V2 driver set to use the Voodoo2 instead.

Cool, I'll give it a try. Thanks bunches!

have you tried hardware profiles?

sepultribe wrote:

have you tried hardware profiles?

Not sure I understood your question, but the problem has been solved, yeah. In the end, I've worked out the problem with Glide Switcher, so now I have a fully working combination of Voodoo3/Voodoo2 cards 😀

did u look inside the pdf in the link I posted? anyways it doesn't matter since you found a fix, cheers

sepultribe wrote:

did u look inside the pdf in the link I posted? anyways it doesn't matter since you found a fix, cheers

Oh, wow! I feel so stupid now, I totally missed your link... But yeah, I've worked it out without too much hassle. Besides, I'm not sure if this kind of setup could apply on Voodoo2 cards, since they're not really video cards, just video graphic accelerators (no 2D support) Thanks anyway though, I appreciate the help 😀

so if using them together, can you use Voodoo3 for the 2D instead of a separate 2D card that Voodoo2 needs?

would i need to passthrough from Voodoo2 to V3? or it will be handled by V3 as default?

Voodoo 2 don't need "2D" card at all for 3D rendering.

svfn wrote:

so if using them together, can you use Voodoo3 for the 2D instead of a separate 2D card that Voodoo2 needs?

would i need to passthrough from Voodoo2 to V3? or it will be handled by V3 as default?

You DO realize that you just bumped 4yr old conversation, do you?

As for your question, yes - you could theoretically use Voodoo3 for 2D. In fact, you have to do it since Voodoo2 doesn't do "2D environment". But IMHO, it would be a waste of resources because Voodoo3 is as capable (if not even better) than Voodoo2, in SLI. But yes, theoretically it is possible, as Voodoo2 doesn't care for other card, as long it provides 2D graphics. And yes, you DO need passthrough for this kind of layout, just like you would need passthrough cable for any other card. Unless you want to use Voodoo3 as your Glide/D3D video hardware, in which case you don't really need Voodoo2 to begin with. So there, hope it makes some sense 😀

@The_Serpent_Rider
True - but Windows does require "2D" video adapter to work. In fact, you can't boot up your system without 2D card, so therefore Voodoo2 will require additional 2D card, in order to work. But once you switch into 3D accelerated mode (as they used to call it, back in a day), Voodoo2 takes over leaving 2D card idle in the background.

yea i know it's an old thread but i don't want to create a new topic when it can be discussed here with relevance and for future reference.

thanks Trekkie4, yess that makes sense 😀 i guess it depends on whether my build has an AGP slot for the V3.

you DO need passthrough

You don't need it at all, back then it was just convenient.

but Windows does require "2D"

Windows - yes. Old arcade boards with 3dfx - not exactly. Also Linux in theory.

svfn wrote:

yea i know it's an old thread but i don't want to create a new topic when it can be discussed here with relevance and for future reference.

thanks Trekkie4, yess that makes sense 😀 i guess it depends on whether my build has an AGP slot for the V3.

You can always use the PCI card for 2D adapter, it doesn't matter if you don't have AGP card (or slot). Back when I 1st started with retro hardware, I was using low-end AGP & PCI video cards for 2D & Voodoo2 for 3D environment. Models like ATI Rage IIc for example, Matrox Mystique, SIS 6326, S3 Trio 3D/2X & similar. But then, at some point I realized that some games work better in OpenGL and/or Direct3D, so I swapped them out for better models, cards like Rage 128, Vanta/M64 & GeForce2 MX. And it works perfectly, Voodoo2 handles Glide-powered games, where the AGP card takes over all other titles that are having problems with Glide, or not compatible with 3dfx at all.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

You don't need it at all, back then it was just convenient. […]
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you DO need passthrough

You don't need it at all, back then it was just convenient.

but Windows does require "2D"

Windows - yes. Old arcade boards with 3dfx - not exactly. Also Linux in theory.

Technically no, you don't need pass-through cable for Voodoo2 card to work. But if you don't use one, you need to manually unplug t he monitor from the primary video source (2D card) & plug it into Voodoo2 each time you're using it. Otherwise you can't "see" the output of Voodoo2, since the video signal can't be internally bridged to primary 2D card. But with that being said, Voodoo1 & Voodoo2 were sold with passthrough cable included with the card, so I would say that it was a necessary requirement. Or at least highly recommended 😉

And yes, I was referring to Windows - Windows 98 in particular as all my retro machines, all 30-something of them are running Windows in various shapes & forms.

I never installed voodoo 2 drivers in win98se. I just installed voodoo 3 drivers for win98se and left voodoo2 for dos glide games.

But if you don't use one, you need to manually unplug t he monitor from the primary video source

That's not a problem with multiple inputs.