VOGONS


First post, by AngieAndretti

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A buddy recently gave me a burned copy of the original Half-Life PC game, as I wanted to try it out on my Voodoo2 SLI rig. It runs but there is no option for "3dfx OpenGL." Choices are simply Software Renderer, OpenGL, and D3D. I believe this may be due to it being a hacko/early version of the game because I read that there's supposed to be a choice between "Standard OpenGL" and "3dfx OpenGL" and I don't have that. The game EXE reports itself as version 1.1.1.1

So I was looking for a way to force it into 3dfx mode and the only things I've had luck with are WickedGL and MesaFX (dropping the respective opengl32.dll file into the game folder):
MesaFX 6.2.0.2 seems to work fine except there's no mouse pointer being rendered so I have to navigate game menus with keyboard only.
WickedGL 2.31 does render the mouse pointer but it's not exactly the most stable thing in the world, as I've had some BSOD's.

Finding information on this topic is getting somewhat difficult and I've encountered a lot of dead links. Any of you fellow retro hackers have any ideas or suggestions?

Reply 1 of 5, by leileilol

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Either it's a steam repack (V1/V2's weren't in vogue in 2004, so 3dfx MiniGL's gone) or your pirate friend forgot that gldrv/ folder (which would contain a 3dfxgl.dll 1.45 MiniGL and a drvmap.txt file to point to this)

It's certainly no early version.

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long live PCem

Reply 2 of 5, by Srandista

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Version 1.1.1.1 is definitely too new. My WON version, fully patched by latest WON patch is still "just" 1.1.1.0, with option to choose either Default or 3dfx Mini Driver under OpenGL renderer. But version right after the installation from CD is just 1.0.0.5, IIRC.

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Reply 3 of 5, by AngieAndretti

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The gldrv folder is actually there, and the two mentioned files are contained within it... and the game CALLS ITSELF the "non-steam version" within the Install process, but you're right - who knows when it's hacko software. The game could even be made up of repackaged components from multiple versions. As for the EXE, it looks to be too new, rather than too old.

Guess I'll have to try it out on my GeForce card (which it defaults to) and see if I like it enough to search for a legit copy - unless of course anyone has any bright ideas on getting it to work better with MesaFX in the meantime.

Reply 4 of 5, by voodoo47

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I'll just add that MesaFX is compatibility focused, meaning it will be way slower with old games from the 3Dfx era. minigl or WickedGL will work much better in this scenario - you can always force them by renaming to opengl32.dll and dropping them in the game root (and selecting opengl in the video options). activate the 3dfx shameless plus in the registry to see whether the game runs on the 3dfx hardware.

3Dfx Help Page

Reply 5 of 5, by weldum

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i think yours is the same half life version as the older steam version but patched. it's the version that comes packed with pirated counter strike 1.6 in a lot of web pages
you need the WON version that has full support for 3dfx

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