Agent of the BSoD wrote:

Oh, and something I didn't mention. I know that Tomb Raider has a 3DFX logo appear right before the menu, but for some reason it doesn't appear when I'm using the real thing. Is this the work of emulators and there shouldn't be any splash logo?

Nope, it's dependent on your driver pack. You need 3dfxSpl*.dll as part of your Voodoo drivers.

3DfxSpl.dll is a splash plugin for glide.dll.
3DfxSpl2.dll is a splash plugin for glide2x.dll.
3DfxSpl3.dll is a splash plugin for glide3x.dll.

F2bnp wrote:

Speaking of 22bit, does anybody have a comparison between 16bit and 22bit on the Voodoo 3?

I plan on looking into this but haven't found a good game to use. Many games there are moving things right away or the vision moves around a bit.

I also still don't fully understand it. Like how does the 22 bit work when you select a game in 16 bit colour mode.

You have to set the 3D Filter Quality to High and Alpha Blending to Sharper in the Direct3D and OpenGL Options on the 3Dfx Tools utility. This activates a post filter that results in the so called "22-bit rendering".

A good game to try this out would be Quake 3 I think, I just haven't really found the time to do it just yet.

Voodoo 3 and this 22-bit mode is somewhat noticeable in Xwing-Alliance on the planet backdrops.
I remember a magazine actually using it for comparison against the RIVA TNT.... I think it was Maximum PC, or PC Gamer.
Which isn't fair since its a 16-bit color modegame. They were hyping the V3. Gonna see if I can find the issue I still have most of my 98-99-00 ones for Max PC.

Pretty sure its in PC gamer as I scanned through my Maximum PC mags 98-99 ones and found some good articles for the V3 and a high hope article for the media GX APU that Cyrix was gonna produce with the integrated Voodoo2 level performance believe it or not.

I am missing alot of my PC gamer ones. Prob don't have it still 😒 Maybe I'll find it like I did that Defender of the empire floppy box.

RetroMags to the rescue!

Should be around February to May 1999, so I will start looking at these as well!

Ok, now I feel dumb. They haven't uploaded these yet... 😒

Also possible it was in PC Action, an offshoot mag PC Gamer produced too, or Computer Gaming World.
I didn't subscribe to those but I bought them occasionally 🤣 .
I just found a PC Action article with the Voodoo 3 proclaiming 30fps! in Quake 2 @ 1600x1200!!!
2-page spread, serious nostalgia.

AlphaWing wrote:

Which isn't fair since its a 16-bit color modegame.

But isn't this the point of this mode? To make games that only support 16 bit look nicer? If it's a 32 bit colour game then you would go straight away with a GeForce or Matrox supported 32 bit colour directly.

Its not fair to the TNT 🤣 .
I remember this article because of that, and pretty sure made no mention the TNT could do 32-bit color in other games 🤣 .
It was straight up hyping the V3, and using one of my favorite games to do it!

Still looking, sadly its looking like I don't have it anymore. Prob was in a box that suffered water damage and had to toss last year 🙁

Ok not mentioning that the card supports 32 bit is a dirty move. On the other hand 32 bit mode was quite slow on most cards back in the day? But many games, most I use for my V2 benchmark, like Forsaken or Incoming, all support 32 bit. So when the V3 came out this game must have been quite old...

Nah XWA used the X-wing Vs Tiefighter engine which didn't support 32-bit rendering, even tho it was a game released in 1999.

F2bnp wrote:

RetroMags to the rescue!

Should be around February to May 1999, so I will start looking at these as well!

Ok, now I feel dumb. They haven't uploaded these yet... 😒

They probably don't have them still 😵

Stiletto wrote:

Nope, it's dependent on your driver pack. You need 3dfxSpl*.dll as part of your Voodoo drivers. […]
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Agent of the BSoD wrote:

Oh, and something I didn't mention. I know that Tomb Raider has a 3DFX logo appear right before the menu, but for some reason it doesn't appear when I'm using the real thing. Is this the work of emulators and there shouldn't be any splash logo?

Nope, it's dependent on your driver pack. You need 3dfxSpl*.dll as part of your Voodoo drivers.

3DfxSpl.dll is a splash plugin for glide.dll.
3DfxSpl2.dll is a splash plugin for glide2x.dll.
3DfxSpl3.dll is a splash plugin for glide3x.dll.

I have those, except for the first set, and I still can't get it to show up. Apparently the Voodoo 2 drivers don't come with glide.dll and 3dfxspl.dll. They're all located in the C:\Windows\System directory.

Borderman wrote:

i am having same problems. messed up control panel text (suspecting have something to do with riched20.dll file) and having to restart pc after dos game. or just open V2 control panel and close it. that somehow resets V2 cards without reboot. (doesnt always work)

That's a neat trick, it definitely works here. I think I remember seeing somewhere that the control panel is always messed up looking. Doesn't bother me too much as I can still read it.

If your having driver control panel issues.
Try the creative voodoo 2 DX6 drivers MAR 1999, there compatible with all V2's.
I only use them with machines having trouble with the last reference set.
They have a much better control panel.

http://www.falconfly.de/voodoo2.htm

Some quotes from the 3dfx article on our Wiki

"Banshee
...
It also was the first to have the "22-bit" 2x2 filter (see below).
...
Voodoo 3
...
At that time, 3dfx's marketing was centered around speed, but to demonstrate that the image quality was still better than their last year's high-end setup, they invented the term "22-bit", describing the added 2x2 box filter that masks dithering.[5] "3D Filter Quality" in the driver allows to select between the 4x1 linear filter from Voodoo1/2 and the 2x2 box filter."

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

F2bnp wrote:

Speaking of 22bit, does anybody have a comparison between 16bit and 22bit on the Voodoo 3?

[...] how does the 22 bit work when you select a game in 16 bit colour mode.

Was wondering about that too. In games you can only select 16-bit with Glide rendering, while it's possible to select 24-bit on the desktop. With desktop set to 24-bit (and I assume it's doing its 22-bit thing then), I can't tell the difference between real 24-bit and fake 22-bit on a gradient (like this). Now switch to 16-bit and it's easy to see.

Looking on my Voodoo3's 3dfx tools there are these settings

- Normal = 4x1 linear filter (what you're witnessing on the Voodoo2, lines included)
- High = 2x2 box filter

and the high filter is nothing like the 4x1 previously mentioned. The Voodoo3 did not first introduce that filter. also it does this on the DAC level going out to VGA, not the (locked to 16bpp) pixel buffer. It's not something that'll ever show up in your screenshots either, you'd have to use VGA capturing hardware.

It does have Svideo out but the filter becomes far less identifiable then, making it ideal for would-be consoles 😀

I still haven't been able to figure out why the 3DFX splash logos are not appearing. I have the dll files for them, and I've tried copying them to the game directory too but I just can't get those splashes to show. It would be nice to see them. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The only time I get to see one show up is in the control panel on that tiny screen. Is there a proper way to do this that the drivers missed or something?

Agent of the BSoD wrote:

I still haven't been able to figure out why the 3DFX splash logos are not appearing.

Because not all glide games call the logo. This function (grSplash) is not automatical, it must be called by the game.
To test the logo - use test16 from the glide2x/3x Diagnostic Kit.

AlphaWing wrote:

If your having driver control panel issues. Try the creative voodoo 2 DX6 drivers MAR 1999, there compatible with all V2's. I on […]
Show full quote

If your having driver control panel issues.
Try the creative voodoo 2 DX6 drivers MAR 1999, there compatible with all V2's.
I only use them with machines having trouble with the last reference set.
They have a much better control panel.

http://www.falconfly.de/voodoo2.htm

Thanks, I was looking for the driver set to correct the CP too.

Gamecollector wrote:

Agent of the BSoD wrote:

I still haven't been able to figure out why the 3DFX splash logos are not appearing.

Because not all glide games call the logo. This function (grSplash) is not automatical, it must be called by the game.
To test the logo - use test16 from the glide2x/3x Diagnostic Kit.

Thanks! OK, so it is indeed fine. (glide3x doesn't work but I think that's because it's trying to use a window and IIRC the Voodoo 2 is only fullscreen) I was just used to Tomb Raider using the splash logo when using emulators so it was strange that when using the actual card, it doesn't get called. I guess the emulators are putting in a special call for it then.