Just one question: why is not there yet a speciall forum here on VOGONs for Dege's Glide wrapper? Is it because of not wanting to compete with GliDOS? Or why else? This thread is getting a bit too long ...

Mirek

I'm pretty much certain that Paul has never considered the other wrappers as a competition against Glidos or OpenGlide -- as a matter of fact, he has many times encouraged Dege to further develop dgVoodoo 😀

DoomGaZer, yes, I think it's a problem has something to do with win95 compatibility, altough setting win95 compatibility for SW 3dfx doesn't change anything for me (to be quite frank, I don't know what EXACTLY those compatibility modes does). It's possible that the solution is very simple, but I should trace SW under XP to find what causes it all (that's what I currently have problems with 😖 ).

CraigG! It would really be nice to have a CD full of glide games! I'm rather boring hunting all kinds of games/demos on the net. However I don't like smail. Couldn't we solve it somehow I could download the CD (image)from somewhere? 🙄 If not, we can use smail in the last resort. 😀

Stiletto, as for me, I like the idea! 😎
At the same time at the moment I don't know how much free time I will have for it.

Dege,

I get no error messages, I just get missing textures if I enable W-buffering. Emulate W-buffering seems to work fine though, and I understand you've fixed the swimming textures bug, so I'm looking forward to trying a new version.

Unfortunately, I just can't get dgVoodoo to run on my normal XP partition. It works fine on a test partiton, but in my work environment, it starts VDMSound, and when it tries to start TR1, it just quits to the desktop without error message. It doesn't access the CD, it doesn't show the splash screen, it just quits. Anybody any ideas?

Aldo Bleeker

Dege,
I'll have to do it through post, I'm afraid. As I don't have the space to host this size.
If you goto my profile, and email your address to my adress in my profile, I'll mail you a CD. Or do you have a DVD drive ? If so, I'll mail you a DVD full of 3dfx stuff, including demos, screensavers, games, etc..
Anything, to help you further your superb wrapper, as long as I can help.

Don't worry about a piracy thing. Christ, some of these games are getting on for 8 years old now, and it's only for you to help you develop your wrapper.

It ain't as if I'm offering you a pirate copy of FarCry, for £10 🙄
So quite why somebody got their panties in a twist, is beyond me. 🙄

@Dege
Thank you very much for your help. I really appreaciate it.
By the way there is something strange happening sometimes after playing a game with dgVoodoo. It doesn't bother me but I though it would be interesting for you. A few minutes after exiting the game my computer suddenly restarts or shuts down. This happens on W98SE, haven't tested that on XP or 2K.
Also if you need a particular game just tell me. I will upload it for you in my hosting space. I work at a hosting provider company hehe 😀
You can contact me via ICQ: 115467797 or e-mail: barev at abv dot bg.

Hi ,
From the posts, I gather this gdvoodoo works nice for most people. However, i have problems. I am trying to run Blood and Shadow warrior, My system is P4 1.7GHz, GEForce 2, Running Windows XP. (I used dgvoodoo 1.21)

For blood, i applied the 3dfx patch, and use NOLFB in a dos command, set sound to none, and it comes until the first screen "Somethign demo" and "Please Wait" and freezes there. I even tried with cli2nop, with same result. For Shadow warrior, it doesn't even start up.

If anyone of you have either of these games working, can you please give the exact steps and settings to start me up?.

Thank you very much.
Rajesh

OK Craig, I'll send you my address, thanks for your help in anticipation! (I have a DVD drive).

Ableeker, what do you mean under test partition?
I'm going to compile a logging version of the glide2x.dll for the new version to make problems be detected easier.

Barev, this resetting thing sounds as if the vxd didn't get out of the kernel or maked something corrupted. I've never experienced this, but thanks you mention it! And thanks for offering your help!

Rajesh, unfortunately I have no idea. When you don't let dgVoodoo hide the console window, what can you see in that? Do you get back to the DOS prompt? If so, probably an exception occures in dos. Please wait for the logging version of the wrapper.
For SW, you need an updated glide2x.ovl I've attached in this thread in one of my posts, but you won't be lucky with the palette of the game under XP.

Craig, you don't have an email address in your profile!

It should be there, Dege.

Oh well, try this one

craigg@d-k-tronics.co.uk

Dege,

The 'test partiton' is a fairly fresh install of Windows XP, updated with SP2 RC1. I use this partiton to betatest SP2 RC1. It doesn't have many programs installed, compared to the work partiton I use most of the time, like a mailserver, an antivirus scanner, a popup-blocker, a download speed meter, SETI at home, etc. I've tried to disable all of that stuff, but it looks like there's still something there that dgVoodoo/TR1 doesn't like...

VDMSound 2.1 loads, TR1 starts, the first two movies play, but then it doesn't start the game, it just quits back to the desktop. I've no idea what causes this, as the other XP SP2 partition runs dgVoodoo/TR1 just fine.

Aldo Bleeker

Dege,

Okay hang on for the big cut 'n' paste! Just ran NFS2SE with the test version you posted (P4EE 3.2GHz, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9800XT, Catalyst 4.4).

emulate W-buffering selected:

------ dgVoodoo: driver description -------
dwDevCaps: 61bbef1
dpcLineCaps
dwMiscCaps: 1b2c83
dwRasterCaps: c7361b3
dwZCmpCaps: ff
dwSrcBlendCaps: 1fff
dwDestBlendCaps: 1bff
dwAlphaCmpCaps: ff
dwShadeCaps: c528a
dwTextureCaps: 7ed4f
dwTextureFilterCaps: 703073f
dwTextureBlendCaps: cf
dwTextureAddressCaps: 37
dwStippleWidth: 0
dwStippleHeight: 0
dpcTriCaps
dwMiscCaps: 1b2cf3
dwRasterCaps: c7361b3
dwZCmpCaps: ff
dwSrcBlendCaps: 1fff
dwDestBlendCaps: 1bff
dwAlphaCmpCaps: ff
dwShadeCaps: c528a
dwTextureCaps: 7ed4f
dwTextureFilterCaps: 703073f
dwTextureBlendCaps: cf
dwTextureAddressCaps: 37
dwStippleWidth: 0
dwStippleHeight: 0
dwDeviceRenderBitDepth: 500
dwDeviceZBufferBitDepth: 400
dwMinTextureWidth: 1
dwMinTextureHeight: 1
dwMaxTextureWidth: 800
dwMaxTextureHeight: 800
dwMaxTextureRepeat: 800
dwMaxTextureAspectRatio: 800
dwMaxAnisotropy: 10
dvGuardBandLeft: -960.000000
dvGuardBandTop: -960.000000
dvGuardBandRight: 2880.000000
dvGuardBandBottom: 2880.000000
dvExtentsAdjust: 0.000000
dwStencilCaps: ff
dwFVFCaps: 100008
dwTextureOpCaps: 3ffffff
wMaxTextureBlendStages: 8
wMaxSimultaneousTextures: 8
dwMaxActiveLights: ffffffff
dvMaxVertexW: 10000000000.000000
wMaxUserClipPlanes: 6
wMaxVertexBlendMatrices: 4
dwVertexProcessingCaps: 3f

Depth buffer config: Emulate W-buffer

Desired depth buffer bit depth: 32
Used depth buffer bit depth: 32
Creating depth buffer OK
Used Z-buffer mode: D3DZB_TRUE
Return of setting z-buffer mode: 0 means no error
^^^THE 2 LINES ABOVE REPEAT A LOT AFTER THIS!^^^

enable W-buffering selected:

------ dgVoodoo: driver description -------
dwDevCaps: 61bbef1
dpcLineCaps
dwMiscCaps: 1b2c83
dwRasterCaps: c7361b3
dwZCmpCaps: ff
dwSrcBlendCaps: 1fff
dwDestBlendCaps: 1bff
dwAlphaCmpCaps: ff
dwShadeCaps: c528a
dwTextureCaps: 7ed4f
dwTextureFilterCaps: 703073f
dwTextureBlendCaps: cf
dwTextureAddressCaps: 37
dwStippleWidth: 0
dwStippleHeight: 0
dpcTriCaps
dwMiscCaps: 1b2cf3
dwRasterCaps: c7361b3
dwZCmpCaps: ff
dwSrcBlendCaps: 1fff
dwDestBlendCaps: 1bff
dwAlphaCmpCaps: ff
dwShadeCaps: c528a
dwTextureCaps: 7ed4f
dwTextureFilterCaps: 703073f
dwTextureBlendCaps: cf
dwTextureAddressCaps: 37
dwStippleWidth: 0
dwStippleHeight: 0
dwDeviceRenderBitDepth: 500
dwDeviceZBufferBitDepth: 400
dwMinTextureWidth: 1
dwMinTextureHeight: 1
dwMaxTextureWidth: 800
dwMaxTextureHeight: 800
dwMaxTextureRepeat: 800
dwMaxTextureAspectRatio: 800
dwMaxAnisotropy: 10
dvGuardBandLeft: -960.000000
dvGuardBandTop: -960.000000
dvGuardBandRight: 2880.000000
dvGuardBandBottom: 2880.000000
dvExtentsAdjust: 0.000000
dwStencilCaps: ff
dwFVFCaps: 100008
dwTextureOpCaps: 3ffffff
wMaxTextureBlendStages: 8
wMaxSimultaneousTextures: 8
dwMaxActiveLights: ffffffff
dvMaxVertexW: 10000000000.000000
wMaxUserClipPlanes: 6
wMaxVertexBlendMatrices: 4
dwVertexProcessingCaps: 3f

Depth buffer config: Enable W-buffer

Desired depth buffer bit depth: 32
Used depth buffer bit depth: 32
Creating depth buffer OK
Used Z-buffer mode: D3DZB_USEW
Return of setting z-buffer mode: 0 means no error
^^^THE 2 LINES ABOVE REPEAT A LOT AFTER THIS!^^^

Again, the swimming is no longer present, but the breakup on lines/shadows OR see through hills (on previous screenshots) remain.

Ice

Okay hang on for the big cut 'n' paste! Just ran NFS2SE with the test version you posted

Is that the logging version dege mentioned, for debug purposes? Is it posted already? Am I missing something?

Yes that's from the debug version. The previous log-file was from Ableeker who has a different Radeon card to me (and probably ran a different game!).

Just thought I'd post my feedback in case any of it differs from Ableeker's. I posted the shots of NFS2SE earlier.

Ice

I have released a new version in which I changed the code of handling depth buffers but I'm not sure at all if it solves your problem.
A version making log file is also downloadable.

Tried in in NFS2SE: pretty much the same unfortunately. However I did notice that switching between 16bit and 32bit in Global settings (Optimal in other tab) changes what is flickery - with 16bit in Global, the flickering is much reduced with just narrow bands flickering and the shadow right under the car wheels flickering. Some road signs have issues and show the back instead of the front (driving towards them slowly the correct texture comes on, goes off, a narrow band of correct texture goes across then the correct texture shows again and this repeats). Signs at the North (something like that!) track (Germany) show this best. This is using Emulate W-buffering as Enable causes the see-cars-and-road-lines-through-other-scenery bug.

I also tried the wrapper in Test Drive Off Road 2. Version 1.20 showed psychadelic colours of the ground (bright pink!) but 1.21 and 1.22 show no ground or sky, it's all black. The car is missing unless you use Emulate W-buffering too! Are there any specific settings I can try? I use Zeckensack's wrapper for everything else - in TDOR2 his shows the ground correctly but odd polygons appear incorrectly across the screen from time to time.

Ice

Freeweb appears to be behaving right now, but in case anyone has trouble with it, here's the file.

Tried in in NFS2SE: pretty much the same unfortunately.

Somehow I'm not surprised.
There is a thing I haven't talked about so far. When I got my new computer and tried my wrapper with my GeForce, I noticed that w buffering doesn't work with it. I quickly started finding out what could the problem be. Finally I realized that my video driver doesn't expose the D3DPRASTERCAPS_WBUFFER flag in the raster caps to indicate capability of w buffering. Since the wrapper depended on this flag, I modified it not to take it INTO account, and always "force" w buffering if the glide application uses w buffering (and the user enables true w buffering). Thus, w buffering now works with my card. According to your log file you attached previously, your card (or videodriver) also doesn't support w buffering. It seems forcing doesn't work for you. Anyway, this all is an interesting thing.

I also studied TDOR2: you are right. When I set texture bit depth to 16 or 32, the sky and road are black. There is a bug somewhere, I will fix it. Damn, I hate it: every time I've just released a new version, I (and others) find a few bugs at once.
Ok, I'm going to fix this darkness and some other minor bugs, and maybe re-release 1.22. (or 1.22b or something like that.)

Hey Glide and bugs go together! Seriously though, I do think the later Catalyst ATI drivers aren't brilliant. In many (many!) games I get the scenery clashing and showing through other scenery in the distance. Seems like they don't do w-buffer or even z-buffer nearly well enough! That and the supposedly better-than-Nvidia anti-aliasing messing up more games than it makes look good, I'm pretty much gonna go Nvidia way when I get a new graphics card (which won't be soon as the ATI 9800XT ain't that slow yet)!

Ice

Well, yesterday I decided to install NFS2 SE, and indeed got the cars through walls thing, with W-Buffer on.
But with emulate W-Buffer on, 32bit colour ticked, Direct T&L HAL, Force Triple Buffering, Cliiping by D3D, Enable hardware vertex buffers, and a resolution of 1024x768, everything looks and plays perfect.
No missing or flashing textures, perfect.