vlask wrote on 2023-08-23, 14:49:

as every driver i install will add to multimedia tree video driver for mpact, but win98 doesnt detect it
as video card and wont allow anything that basic vga 640x480x16 colors. Anyone has newer driver that 1.6 or tested card on win98?

Doesn't the "1.4 D3D" package work on 98? It does have the "M1GFX.DRV" file (v1.5.2.1, according to the INF file), which seems to be the graphics driver.

There's also another, newer package here: https://vgamuseum.ru/gpu/chromatic-research/c … research-mpact/

Its "M1GFX.DRV" file is dated 1998/08/11, and is v1.14.2.1 (INF file).

eddman wrote on 2023-08-23, 18:11:

Doesn't the "1.4 D3D" package work on 98? It does have the "M1GFX.DRV" file (v1.5.2.1, according to the INF file), which seems t […]
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vlask wrote on 2023-08-23, 14:49:

as every driver i install will add to multimedia tree video driver for mpact, but win98 doesnt detect it
as video card and wont allow anything that basic vga 640x480x16 colors. Anyone has newer driver that 1.6 or tested card on win98?

Doesn't the "1.4 D3D" package work on 98? It does have the "M1GFX.DRV" file (v1.5.2.1, according to the INF file), which seems to be the graphics driver.

There's also another, newer package here: https://vgamuseum.ru/gpu/chromatic-research/c … research-mpact/

Its "M1GFX.DRV" file is dated 1998/08/11, and is v1.14.2.1 (INF file).

No its not working, just tested it with win95 and same results. Even if i force driver, i will get this message

So it looks like each vendor had driver locked to their card. On vgamuseum ru is driver for stb card only. Found some other including gateway, but from 5 drivers not single one working.
Each time 640x480x16 colors, no control panel and unable to raise resolution. I have cards from Jabil and DSystems. DSystems is off because they had drivers on ftp, which is not archived by webarchive and Jabil has no info at all about any cards.

I did not encounter this, IIRC. Maybe it happens on a particular computer?

By the way, someone called xa3d contacted me months ago about "Chromatic Shrine", a collection of Mpact goodies. Besides cards, they obtained a Mediaware Production Release 2.0 CD. At first, they said they would upload it, but later they promoted their shop. so I did not reply. But for driver hunters, it seems a 2.0 driver driver is somewhere out there. For Mpact2, obviously.

vlask wrote on 2023-08-27, 19:52:

No its not working, just tested it with win95 and same results. Even if i force driver, i will get this message https://vintage3 […]
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No its not working, just tested it with win95 and same results. Even if i force driver, i will get this message

So it looks like each vendor had driver locked to their card. On vgamuseum ru is driver for stb card only. Found some other including gateway, but from 5 drivers not single one working.
Each time 640x480x16 colors, no control panel and unable to raise resolution. I have cards from Jabil and DSystems. DSystems is off because they had drivers on ftp, which is not archived by webarchive and Jabil has no info at all about any cards.

This is the only driver working in Win98 for my Mpact 2 3DVD PCI. It has many issues though. Every time after the Win98 welcome screen my monitor blacks out saying input not support, then boots into the desktop, but with a glitching cursor. The only working resolution is 800x600 in my case.

Setting to 640x480 would lead to a dark color with blurry font, like this:

Setting to 1024x768 leaves a black area on the top range of the screen. My LCD thinks it's showing a 1280x800 image.

So if anyone got a different driver for Win98, please upload it, thanks.

Putas wrote on 2023-09-20, 04:20:

But for driver hunters, it seems a 2.0 driver driver is somewhere out there. For Mpact2, obviously.

Can you find this driver? Really need it now.

A long time ago (20+ years ago) I did get an Mpact variant to do do accelerated DVD decoding. Color banding was extreme, AFAICR. I was testing using a DVD of One night at McCool's.

If that thing was able to competently do anything other than produce heat, I would be pleasantly surprised (and glad to see it).

And if it wasn't, I would be quite content to see it crap itself miserably trying.

Leadtek Mpact 2, I was very impressed with it, and the main selling point advertised at the time was DVD hardware decoding, and nothing else.

GunKneeNeon wrote on 2023-12-10, 06:15:

Putas wrote on 2023-09-20, 04:20:

But for driver hunters, it seems a 2.0 driver driver is somewhere out there. For Mpact2, obviously.

Can you find this driver? Really need it now.

I cannot.
Have you tried the bios update from your driver? Turning down acceleration a notch?
What if you use the driver from here?

Putas wrote on 2023-12-10, 12:17:

What if you use the driver from here?

I've already tried them all. None worked.

Putas wrote on 2023-12-10, 12:17:

Have you tried the bios update from your driver?

Yeah, my card has a BIOS issue, it usually cannot initialize the vBIOS at boot up. So I flashed the BIOS included in that driver package. It's a downgrade(from 0.43.33 981106 to 0.43.24 980803) rather than an upgrade though.

I tried to dump my newer vBIOS, but failed to do that. The Flash Utility included is so simplified program that's without the /? or /help switch. I don't know how to use it to backup the original one.

Putas wrote on 2023-12-10, 12:17:

Turning down acceleration a notch?

Not working. I also tried Auto Select, nothing changed.

I am afraid there is something wrong with the card itself.
The only other idea is to give Windows 95 a go.

Found another driver https://disk.yandex.ru/d/nwPCPBPICiuhug

Takedasun wrote on 2023-12-11, 21:41:

Found another driver https://disk.yandex.ru/d/nwPCPBPICiuhug

Oh! Thanks a lot! That's great!
The driver is newer(4338) than mine(4324). The resolution issues keeps the same unfortunately. However the 3D performance increased obviously. I've done a 3D testing through GLQuake timedemo1. Here is the results (I set the MPact 3D Performance to Auto Select through out the whole test):

1st test (with 4338 driver):
800x600-16bpp: 8.4fps
640x480-24bpp: 12.1fps (Darkened color)
640x480-16bpp: 12.8fps (Darkened color)
320x240-16bpp: 37.2fps

* 800x600-24bpp and 320x240-24bpp have display issues, the former leaves some part of image out of the top/bottom boundary and the later results in the image limited at the left corner of the screen.

2nd test (with 4324 driver):
800x600-16bpp:4.0fps
640x480-16bpp: 5.2fps (Darkened color)
640x480-32bpp: 8.1fps (Darkened color)
320x240-16bpp: 32.3fps

After this, I thought the results may be affected by the heat accumulation on the card. So I decided to do a second test. And the results are:

3rd test (with 4338 driver):
800x600-16bpp: 8.3fps
640x480-24bpp: 10.8fps (Darkened color)
640x480-16bpp: 12.5fps (Darkened color)
320x240-16bpp: 32.9fps

The result proved my thought. The performance does reduced, but it still a lot better than with driver 4324. So I decide to make an extra test just to see the result with more heat.

4rd test (with 4338 driver):
800x600-16bpp: 7.4fps

After so much comparison, I think the new driver indeed increased the 3D performance of the card.

This guy got a better performance than mine. He used the 4333 version which I don't have. But I think he might set the 3D performance slider to the max, hence the result.

GunKneeNeon wrote on 2023-12-12, 14:21:

He used the 4333 version which I don't have. But I think he might set the 3D performance slider to the max, hence the result.

Let's look for more https://disk.yandex.ru/d/lPSUiWx2f1aULQ

GunKneeNeon wrote on 2023-12-12, 14:21:

After this, I thought the results may be affected by the heat accumulation on the card.

At this point in time hardware didnt have any throttling capabilities, and mpack doesnt even have a temperature sensor. One possibility would be some hardware error correction forcing repeated execution, but again at the time this was infeasible, hardware simply visibly glitched out and vendors solved problems by keeping safe operating margins.

The only way your theory could be correct if if you used a Pentium 4 (or newer) platform with very poor thermal solution.

GunKneeNeon wrote on 2023-12-12, 14:21:

This guy got a better performance than mine. He used the 4333 version which I don't have. But I think he might set the 3D performance slider to the max, hence the result.

I hope it is clear from the review and the test specifications page that a few drivers were used. Also, the performance slider was left at default except one game.
When I said "lower the acceleration slider" I meant the generic Windows one, under display options.

Since Chromatics own OpenGL wrapper is quite problematic, other one was used.

Takedasun wrote on 2023-12-12, 19:02:

Let's look for more https://disk.yandex.ru/d/lPSUiWx2f1aULQ

with v4333 driver and the performance settings set to Auto Select:
800x600-16bpp: 7.4fps
640x480-16bpp: 11.2fps (Darkened color)
640x480-24bpp: 10.8fps (Darkened color)
320x240-16bpp: 33.0fps

It seems Chromatic constantly improved their drivers. The results produced by this version is somewhere in-between v4324 and v4338. The resolution issues have no changes. That is to say the issues have nothing to do with the driver. It should be some faulty at hardware layer. But that darkened color in 640x480 mode makes me remind my old sis6326(8mb AGP), which is my first video card. See this video. I don't know if they have any design problems in common. But sis6326 didn't do this in Windows desktop, only in some 3D games.

By the way, sorry for digressing. But you seem to be very good at finding rare driver for old hardware. Could you please help me finding the driver for Acer Magic v1 MPEG decoder? See this topic. I've been wishing there would be someone able to find it for me someday.

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-12-13, 05:52:

hardware simply visibly glitched out and vendors solved problems by keeping safe operating margins.

Yes, this has been happening to my card. Sometimes it will just glitch and freeze the whole system and I have no choice but to hit the restart button on my case.

Putas wrote on 2023-12-13, 07:55:

When I said "lower the acceleration slider" I meant the generic Windows one, under display options.

I tired that one. It worked immediately after the reboot. But as I moved the cursor the whole screen glitched out and the system hung. I think my card has issues with the hardware. Maybe the memory has some sort of failure.

Putas wrote on 2023-12-13, 07:55:

Since Chromatics own OpenGL wrapper is quite problematic, other one was used.

Which one? Do you mean that d3d wrapper used only for Quake III? The guy doesn't mention another wrapper being used in the article. I think the difference in performance is because of the different card interface. Mine is a 4MB PCI card. It should be slower than the AGP one.
In fact, I don't care the 3D performance of this card. It has decent DVD decoding ability and good 2d compatibility. There is one more thing to discuss. Can I somehow use the card as a sound card either in Win98 or DOS? It plays DVDs with audio despite the fact that I don't have a sound card in the machine.