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Reply 60 of 79, by darry

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xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-06-17, 09:30:
All of that is true, except the part "Win9X runs under DOS". Win9X uses DOS as : a) a bootloader b) a compat layer (all of the a […]
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darry wrote on 2020-06-17, 07:53:
The version of MS-DOS that is provided with Windows 98 SE (95 and 98 FE too) , whatever Microsoft,you, me or anyone may choose t […]
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The version of MS-DOS that is provided with Windows 98 SE (95 and 98 FE too) , whatever Microsoft,you, me or anyone may choose to call it,
a) can be run standalone (without loading the Windows kernel)
b) can be booted entirely from a floppy disk
c) supports all DOS APIs
d) allows direct access to BIOS function calls
e) allows direct hardware access
f) runs in real mode by default
g) can run DOS compatible memory managers
h) is compatible with all DOS extenders that can run under the previous standalone version of DOS (6.22)
i) Runs essentially all DOS compatible software that can run under the previous standalone version of DOS (6.22), the exception being certain low-level disk utilities (because of the addition of FAT32 and the support for drives larger than 8.4GB).

All of that is true, except the part "Win9X runs under DOS". Win9X uses DOS as :
a) a bootloader
b) a compat layer (all of the above is thanks to that)

But other than that, it's very much like in Windows 3.X but extended since then :

Upon boot, it takes reign of the machine (that's why sometimes you STILL have to use the real thing for some games, because Windows does a lot to 'hide' itself but it cannot be perfect) with its own pre-emptive kernel (pre-emptive for Win32, cooperative for Win16/DOS stuff) that runs in protected mode, its own flat memory model (bye bye conventional memory, high mem, xms/ems and stuff), along with its own set of drivers and a lot of (incompatible with DOS) Win32 apps that all use its new API.

So overall :
"It's complicated."
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20 … 224-00/?p=24063

I agree with point a) (I had oversimplified to the point of inaccuracy ) and with point b), expect that I believe that it is not quite accurate to say that "all of the above is thanks to that", as it implies that, in a way, DOS depends on Windows 9x and that we have it to thank for its (DOS) featureset (whereas DOS was obviously there first).
I think I understand that what you meant by it was that DOS would not be there in its current form in Windows 9x had Microsoft not chosen to use it as a compatibility layer but, even then, a way to run DOS programs natively would still have needed to exist. Maybe its just me gleaning meaning where there wasn't meant to be any .

I also agree with the rest of yout post .

Reply 61 of 79, by tincup

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-06-16, 01:40:

You're saying the v5 has inferior IQ to the v3?

Ahaha... no I mentioned it - in a sort of off-topic ramble. From the Voodoo cards I have and use the V3 has the best IQ in my opinion - subjective of course. I love the V5 for all the things it does and it looks great too, but honestly the V3 turned my head with its clarity of image. It may just be the cards I have of course, but I think the V3 is underappreciated in that regard.

As a point of comparison I chose to dismantle my V2-SLI setup simply based on poor IQ. The added horsepower wasn't worth the rearward compatibility I wanted in the V2. The tradeoff wasn't necessary as the v3 or V5 are far far better options if glide performance is the main criteria. As mentioned in my first post up thread I use the V2 along with a "lowly" Rendtion card as my main 1996-1998/9 Glide/early 3D workhorse. And a V5 box for the ultimate glide experience. But a dedicated V3 rig wouldn't be shabby at all - it basically performs like a V2-SLI but with silk smooth IQ.

Last edited by tincup on 2020-06-17, 15:43. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 62 of 79, by darry

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tincup wrote on 2020-06-17, 15:30:
maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-06-16, 01:40:

You're saying the v5 has inferior IQ to the v3?

I mentioned it - in a sort of off-topic ramble. From the Voodoo cards I have and use the V3 has the best IQ in my opinion - subjective of course. I love the V5 for all the things it does and it looks great too, but honestly the V3 turned my head with its clarity of image. It may just be the cards I have of course, but I think the V3 is underappreciated in that regard.

Never had a Voodoo5, but my Voodoo 3 is incredibly sharp, even at 1600x1200@60Hz running through OSSC in passthrough (VGA to HDMI) . It actually looks better than when connected directly to VGA input on the monitor, . I have not run double-blind tests, but it looks indistinguishable from a native DVI/HDMI card in that setup to my eyes . The analogue stage of the Voodoo 3 is definitely well made .

Reply 63 of 79, by tincup

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darry wrote on 2020-06-17, 15:43:
tincup wrote on 2020-06-17, 15:30:
maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-06-16, 01:40:

You're saying the v5 has inferior IQ to the v3?

I mentioned it - in a sort of off-topic ramble. From the Voodoo cards I have and use the V3 has the best IQ in my opinion - subjective of course. I love the V5 for all the things it does and it looks great too, but honestly the V3 turned my head with its clarity of image. It may just be the cards I have of course, but I think the V3 is underappreciated in that regard.

Never had a Voodoo5, but my Voodoo 3 is incredibly sharp, even at 1600x1200@60Hz running through OSSC in passthrough (VGA to HDMI) . It actually looks better than when connected directly to VGA input on the monitor, . I have not run double-blind tests, but it looks indistinguishable from a native DVI/HDMI card in that setup to my eyes . The analogue stage of the Voodoo 3 is definitely well made .

Yes. I run all my retro rigs through the VGA port on my modern flatscreen. At one point I had a cumbersome 4-port KVM setup and the card looked good setup that way too. I did away with the KVM as it was more of a hassle.

Reply 64 of 79, by martinot

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athlon-power wrote on 2020-01-12, 23:37:
Not joking about this, I was looking up to see if my specs checked out with the kind of computer I was building (for the most pa […]
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Not joking about this, I was looking up to see if my specs checked out with the kind of computer I was building (for the most part, they do), and I have ran into Gateway's ads for whatever computers they had at the time.

Multiple times, in different ads from different months, Gateway sells the TNT2 in higher-end setups, the Voodoo in lower end setups, and allows an "upgrade," to the TNT2 from a Voodoo 3.

https://books.google.com/books?id=SLTy_WcWY_s … %2032mb&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=cr7PRid0y5U … %2032mb&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=FWcSP5-fyYk … %2032mb&f=false

This is all Gateway, so maybe this was some idiotic concoction by their marketing team to sell the 32MB card as better because the number was bigger than 16MB. The problem I have with this is that at least with games that support Glide, performance is much greater on the Voodoo 3 than the TNT2. I have a TNT2 32MB, the real one, with a 128 bit memory bus, and I want a Voodoo 3 3000 because of Glide. The CPU load is reduced significantly, allowing it to do whatever the hell it wants, so boom, more performance. I'd hate to be the guy that was going to get one of the models with a Voodoo 3 in it and "upgraded," to the TNT2.

I get that the Voodoo 3 didn't have 32-bit color capability, but the cost of performance just for true 32-bit color seems a bit unnecessary. I don't know, maybe I'm talking about things I know nothing about, but I just found this odd and thought I'd share and maybe get some answers and/or figure out why I'm wrong on this.

When I at the time was looking for my first 3D graphics card I choose TNT2 over Voofoo 3 as I prefered 32-bit, better standard support for OpenGL and DX3D (did no like HW manufacture proprietary standars like Glide) and better drivers for my main OS at the time (NT4). For me TNT2 was the clear winner, and I was very happy with that choice of direction.

Reply 65 of 79, by appiah4

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martinot wrote on 2020-06-22, 11:43:

When I at the time was looking for my first 3D graphics card I choose TNT2 over Voofoo 3 as I prefered 32-bit, better standard support for OpenGL and DX3D (did no like HW manufacture proprietary standars like Glide) and better drivers for my main OS at the time (NT4). For me TNT2 was the clear winner, and I was very happy with that choice of direction.

You used NT4.0 and were worried about D3D drivers? Did NT4.0 even have D3D? I don't think it had DirectX beyond 3.0 or something?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 67 of 79, by matze79

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No, NT 4.0 only has Software Emulation in D3D.

Maximum is unofficial DirectX 5.0.
But no Hardware D3D at all.

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 68 of 79, by martinot

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matze79 wrote on 2020-06-22, 11:54:

No, NT 4.0 only has Software Emulation in D3D.

Maximum is unofficial DirectX 5.0.
But no Hardware D3D at all.

Your correct. It was OpenGL that was HW acc 3D in NT.

The problem with the Voodoo card drivers at the time was that they had worse/poorer support for full OpenGL applications (used for 3D apps, and not only games) compared to nVidia. Another problem I heard from others (did not test myself) was that the Glide drivers for NT4 did not work so well in SMP machines (had a dual Celeron 300A SMP-hacked machine).

So better driver support was the main reason for me to go with Nvidia over options from 3DFX and ATI (Matrox also had excellent drivers at the time, but never any good at 3D).

Reply 69 of 79, by appiah4

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I don't think even the TNT2 OpenGL drivers at the time were feature complete for workstation applications.. I mean someone can come out and tell me I'm wrong but you couldn't run say Maya on a TNT2.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 70 of 79, by martinot

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appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-22, 12:33:

I don't think even the TNT2 OpenGL drivers at the time were feature complete for workstation applications.. I mean someone can come out and tell me I'm wrong but you couldn't run say Maya on a TNT2.

Never used Maya, so can not comment on that one.

As with most software things the drivers got improved over time. They key thing was that the drivers Nividia had was extremely much better and more complete than those from 3DFX (which was pure garbage in comparison).

Could not afford any professional 3d cards (such as those from Intergraph and others), as I was a student at the time. For my limited budget the TNT2 was a really great choice and option!

Leading performance and great drivers, for the money. 😀

Reply 71 of 79, by appiah4

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martinot wrote on 2020-06-22, 12:42:
Never used Maya, so can not comment on that one. […]
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appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-22, 12:33:

I don't think even the TNT2 OpenGL drivers at the time were feature complete for workstation applications.. I mean someone can come out and tell me I'm wrong but you couldn't run say Maya on a TNT2.

Never used Maya, so can not comment on that one.

As with most software things the drivers got improved over time. They key thing was that the drivers Nividia had was extremely much better and more complete than those from 3DFX (which was pure garbage in comparison).

Could not afford any professional 3d cards (such as those from Intergraph and others), as I was a student at the time. For my limited budget the TNT2 was a really great choice and option!

Leading performance and great drivers, for the money. 😀

Oh, I get where you are coming from. I was a Mech. Engineering student and had to use I-DEAS (illegally) at home, and I remember 3D acceleration did not work on my Voodoo 3 at all, I only got it to work after ugrading to a GeForce2 MX later down the line. But even that was not perfect. Some functionality is better than none for sure, but neither setup was ideal.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 72 of 79, by johnyept

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Sorry for digging up this topic, but the title is very close to the doubt I have for a computer I'm assembling for early DOS Glide and Windows Glide games, and also for later DOS games and OpenGL/D3D games from the Windows 95 era. It compiles all the old hardware (oddware?) I have into one machine: Asus P3B-F with a Pentium 3 550Mhz, 192MB Ram, Terratec Gold 16.96 ESS1868F, 3Com 10/100Mbps, IDE HDD 120GB, IDE Iomega 100MB, IDE DVD, SCSI CD, 1.44MB floppy drive and HP Colorado Tape Drive . My doubt is about the graphics card selection: since I don't have much to choose from, I've round it up to a HP PWA-G4000Pro AGP (not sure if it's a TNT2 M64 or TNT2 Pro), a Diamond Monster 3D II PCI, and a Voodoo3 2000 AGP.

Should I just use the Voodoo3 2000 AGP, or the Voodoo3 2000 AGP + Voodoo2 PCI, or the PWA-G4000Pro AGP + Voodoo2 PCI? The last one is the current setup I'm using, since I was going to use the TNT2 for OpenGL/D3D/DOS games, and the Voodoo2 for Glide games, but... is the Voodoo3 2000 better/faster than the TNT2 in OpenGL/D3D/DOS games?

RETRO-W95/NT4: ASUS P3B-F, P3 550, 192MB, GF2+VD2 PCI, AWE64+VIBRA128, 80GB IDE
RETRO-W98/2K: ASUS A7N8X-E, Sempron 2.8+, 512MB, FX 5700LE 256MB, SB Live! CT4830, 320GB IDE
RETRO-WXP/7: ASUS P5KPL-AM EPU, XEON E5450, 4GB, GTS 450 1GB, 120GB SSD, 1TB sATA

Reply 73 of 79, by chinny22

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I'd go with the V3
Dos, compatibility both are on par
D3D, TNT2 maybe marginally better, but it's close.
Glide, V3 is the clear winner.

if the Nvidia card was something more powerful, even a GF2 I'd maybe pair it with the V2 but here you don't gain much by using a TNT2

Reply 74 of 79, by johnyept

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-10-06, 09:50:
I'd go with the V3 Dos, compatibility both are on par D3D, TNT2 maybe marginally better, but it's close. Glide, V3 is the clear […]
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I'd go with the V3
Dos, compatibility both are on par
D3D, TNT2 maybe marginally better, but it's close.
Glide, V3 is the clear winner.

if the Nvidia card was something more powerful, even a GF2 I'd maybe pair it with the V2 but here you don't gain much by using a TNT2

Thanks for the input. If I had another Voodoo2 PCI I would love to try SLI, but I see many people having some issues with that, and having one single Voodoo 3 AGP card makes things much easier, also I have the RETRO-W98 computer for those games that require better hardware anyway. 3Dfx cards don't support OpenGL, but I'm pretty sure that games with OpenGL will also support either Direct3D or Glide.

RETRO-W95/NT4: ASUS P3B-F, P3 550, 192MB, GF2+VD2 PCI, AWE64+VIBRA128, 80GB IDE
RETRO-W98/2K: ASUS A7N8X-E, Sempron 2.8+, 512MB, FX 5700LE 256MB, SB Live! CT4830, 320GB IDE
RETRO-WXP/7: ASUS P5KPL-AM EPU, XEON E5450, 4GB, GTS 450 1GB, 120GB SSD, 1TB sATA

Reply 76 of 79, by soggi

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johnyept wrote on 2021-10-06, 16:39:

...3Dfx cards don't support OpenGL...

That's wrong! All video cards from the mid to late nineties had there problems with OpenGL, that's undeniable. But 3dfx cards for sure support OpenGL and with a special driver called "3dfx MiniGL" there is even great support for some games w/o Glide support (f.e. Half-Life, GLQuake, Quake II, Heretic II, Hexen II or SiN), because this driver supports the game-specific subset of OpenGL and redirects/wraps it to the Glide API.

kind regards
soggi

Vintage BIOSes, firmware, drivers, tools, manuals and (3dfx) game patches -> soggi's BIOS & Firmware Page

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Reply 77 of 79, by johnyept

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Good to know! I guess my noggin doesn't work as it used to, forgot all about the MiniGL stuff...
Since I'm going to replace the graphics card, I'll go ahead and start fresh with the HDD, get rid of the 3 partitions and make Windows 95 OSR2 and NT4 run together on the same FAT32 partition. It requires some workarounds, but I already did it on VirtualBox and it's easier than it seems, and since I'm using different languages for 95 and NT4, the "Program Files" don't overlap because they have different names 😉

RETRO-W95/NT4: ASUS P3B-F, P3 550, 192MB, GF2+VD2 PCI, AWE64+VIBRA128, 80GB IDE
RETRO-W98/2K: ASUS A7N8X-E, Sempron 2.8+, 512MB, FX 5700LE 256MB, SB Live! CT4830, 320GB IDE
RETRO-WXP/7: ASUS P5KPL-AM EPU, XEON E5450, 4GB, GTS 450 1GB, 120GB SSD, 1TB sATA

Reply 78 of 79, by Joseph_Joestar

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Later drivers add full OpenGL ICD support to certain Voodoo cards. Using those drivers, you can play OpenGL games natively, without the need for MiniGL DLLs.

The tradeoff is, you get slightly improved visual quality at the cost of performance.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 79 of 79, by gerry

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-10-06, 09:50:
I'd go with the V3 Dos, compatibility both are on par D3D, TNT2 maybe marginally better, but it's close. Glide, V3 is the clear […]
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I'd go with the V3
Dos, compatibility both are on par
D3D, TNT2 maybe marginally better, but it's close.
Glide, V3 is the clear winner.

if the Nvidia card was something more powerful, even a GF2 I'd maybe pair it with the V2 but here you don't gain much by using a TNT2

sounds right, tnt2 wins on price too, however if that was a factor