I use Master Packager, which is a simple tool with which you can edit MSI packages. For example, you can change the Windows installer version. If, as with Windows NT for example, only Windows Installer 2 is available, but the MSI package requires Windows Installer 3 or even 3.5, you can simply change that, but with Windows Installer 4 it dont work. Otherwise you can simply delete the command that checks the OS version.

https://www.masterpackager.com

I dont think its actually working, but... thats crazy

Well, NT4 is mostly a re-skin of NT 3.5x. The video subsystems are different, so I wonder how that would affect the interaction of DirectX with the older video driver model.

yes, I know that it is not that different, I use a lot of NT4 DLLs for NT 3.51. if you change the version number of NTOSKRNL, almost all NT4 compatible programs will run.

and I think I have successfully circumvented the problem with the video subsystem by first installing video for windows and then Dxmedia 6, which updates the components required for DX6, at least in theory. but you will only see whether it really runs without errors when you test it on hardware. and it will take a while until I get there, I am now trying to write a simple installer that installs the DX5/6 hybrid and the dependencies on NT 3/4.

It took me more than i wanted, but i updated first most with your new findings.

1. I added ntcompatible.com list of compatible games, programs and hardware, through wayback internet machine, i wasnt able to make NT4 working filters in present web version, if you do let me know.
2. DirectX -

   Matrix359 wrote on 2024-12-14, 15:59:

   I dont think its actually working, but... thats crazy

   Could me post a link on used installer.. Have found some Direct5 unofficial packages and some DX6 - patches to patch existing dll and copied to system32, but it never worked.. There was mess with reporting of DX version - i got everything from DX3 to DX6 depends of utility or game.
   https://www.masterpackager.com - is there some version to work inside Windows NT, or you have to adjustment in modern Windows?
3. I tried NT4 on new machine IBM X235 server - with dual 32bit socket 604 Xeons. Machine has only 1 PCI slot and 5 PCI-X.
   I searched my stock and found 2 PCI-X compatible creative sound card - SB0570 (Audigy SE) - no Win98 drivers, i found some thread to make it working, there not error, sound device appeared, but only noise came out.. other user had exactly the same experience. I update drivers from Audigy CD, not found updated anywhere. So i not even reason to try this card in WinNT4.
   2nd Audigy Platinum SB0090 - WIndows 98 driver are working fine, but i have problem with NT4, drivers are working fine, only after installation - sound is working right away, but not after reboot, no audio related error, sound devices are present, but no sound at all. When i repeat to uninstall and install utility its working again after reboot, i game tried to find drive *.inf to install it without install and uninstall utility, but there is not.. and point Multimedia add device wizard it driver utility not working driver not found.. Pointing graphics card driver through display properties is working fine.
   I have tried to install VDMSound2.1.0-.exe fix.
   Details here:
   https://msfn.org/board/topic/186763-nt4-sound … Comment-1279216
4. I also tried to make Graphics cards - Geforce 2 MX 2000 and Radeon 7000 working, they are working on same machine like in other operating systems. 2D worked fine include DirectDraw, but i never got worked Opengl - always - not present OpenGL ICD. All drivers are installing some opengl dll, there is often OpenGL inside control panels, i have tried a lot of drivers, but no worked for 3D, except Direct3D test bellow, on Radeon i had OpenGl test worked only through software. So OpenGL is there added by mistake as dummy package, or its needed to add registry key or something like that to make 3D working..
   I had the same problem too with zillions of ATI Radeon on Windows 2000, but i finally found the solution - Radeon omega drivers. There some hint on Nvidia 43.45 driver that its support NT4 SP6 so it implies that oldest drivers should not support SP6, its strange. Maybe Microsoft somehow broken OpenGL in newer Service packs, but Anandtech tests bellow where done with Geforce 1 and Nvidia 5.13/5.14 drivers on Athlon 750 Sot A VIA AGP board.
   I also installed Server version of NT4, because of more CPUs and RAM support, maybe it has not OpenGL support, but it has DirectX included too.. and expected that someone could use it for some rendering too.
   I have checked if OpenGl related values from *.inf files where copied in registry and they where.
   Details here:
   https://msfn.org/board/topic/186764-radeon-70 … comment-1279406
   Update: I made Geforce 2 MX working with Lenovo quadro OpenGL drivers after uninstallation of KB891711 KB.. I need more debugging to check where was a problem.
5. I have found nice Direct3D / OpenGl / Direct tests from Roy Longbottom - 2005:
   - they support MMX,SSE,SSE2,SSE3 and 3D Now and dual CPUs, they have also 64bit versions.
   - OpenGL: http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/opengl%20results.htm
   - DirectD3: http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/direct3d%20results.htm
   - DirectDraw -http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/directdraw%20results.htm

6) I have also filtered nice Nirsoft's utilities package to these which have GUI and starting on NT4 there some service / device magers too - serviwin and installedriverslist and myeventviewer- better Event explorer and zillion other nice utils, half of them for low level networking stuff (some too powerfull so there are false virus detections on modern windows 🙁). I would be nice to do the same some System internals suite - only oldest version which i found is from 2006.. yes there are probably some utils newer than 2006 which would still work too, but its lots of work to test each version of each utility..
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/75fmhn7yxwx0ib … mvssa0sfyz&dl=1
Password: gustav

7) I had problem to make find Virtual CD driver utility for NT4, Daemon not worked, solution is Imdisk 1.6.0 and it can do virtual hardisks (but not working for Virtual PC 4 .vhd) + floppies too as bonus.
Winimage 8.1 - paid - 30 days trial are working fine, for Virtual PC *.vhd.

😎 Its maybe make no sense, because you can to do it on modern OSes, but there is VirtualPC 4 for NT4, but i tried fun fan install Windows XP and its supper slow on my system and ram is not problem 512 MB and networking seem to be broken, maybe different Intel NIC driver would help or it dislike my Broadcom Gigabit NIC controller driver.

9) Live Backups - i have R-Drive 1.1 image working, i can get version 2, even through - Wayback machine, even i download installer version 2, its actually version 3 not compatible for NT4. Unfortunately live backup of whole partition is bluescreening and backup of FAT32 seems broken too - wrong partition size detected its not compatible with FAT32 for NT4, but other FAT32 for NT4 working fine.
I some old license of Paragon partition manager 9, its working fine, but cant do live backup.

10) Better console: I have found 4nT 6.01 working - https://4dos.info/v4nt.htm and even better Take command 6.01 from same page working - https://4dos.info/tcmdvers/tcmd601a.exe

11) Registry autobackup after every boot - https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/erunt.html it saved my skin more than once, when i was in situation of not booting even to safe mode, but when machine crashed through loading of start up items, i had some problem to load NT registry hives from other OSes. NT registry seems not compatible with tools which are tried.

12) Matrox millenium and ATI RAGE II are proven to work too for 3D, but they are using some different Opengl MCD model, instead of ICD, nice artictle about them:
https://retro.swarm.cz/nt4-opengl-mini-client … ti-rage-ii-pro/

For Sysinternals you can probably start here.
This post was for minimum of XP compatibility but it's a place to start.
Re: VOGONS github
Re: VOGONS github

Possibly useful for older than XP
Re: VOGONS github

ruthan wrote on 2025-04-04, 20:34:

It took me more than i wanted, but i updated first most with your new findings. […]
Show full quote

It took me more than i wanted, but i updated first most with your new findings.

1. I added ntcompatible.com list of compatible games, programs and hardware, through wayback internet machine, i wasnt able to make NT4 working filters in present web version, if you do let me know.
2. DirectX -

   Matrix359 wrote on 2024-12-14, 15:59:

   I dont think its actually working, but... thats crazy

   Could me post a link on used installer.. Have found some Direct5 unofficial packages and some DX6 - patches to patch existing dll and copied to system32, but it never worked.. There was mess with reporting of DX version - i got everything from DX3 to DX6 depends of utility or game.
   https://www.masterpackager.com - is there some version to work inside Windows NT, or you have to adjustment in modern Windows?
3. I tried NT4 on new machine IBM X235 server - with dual 32bit socket 604 Xeons. Machine has only 1 PCI slot and 5 PCI-X.
   I searched my stock and found 2 PCI-X compatible creative sound card - SB0570 (Audigy SE) - no Win98 drivers, i found some thread to make it working, there not error, sound device appeared, but only noise came out.. other user had exactly the same experience. I update drivers from Audigy CD, not found updated anywhere. So i not even reason to try this card in WinNT4.
   2nd Audigy Platinum SB0090 - WIndows 98 driver are working fine, but i have problem with NT4, drivers are working fine, only after installation - sound is working right away, but not after reboot, no audio related error, sound devices are present, but no sound at all. When i repeat to uninstall and install utility its working again after reboot, i game tried to find drive *.inf to install it without install and uninstall utility, but there is not.. and point Multimedia add device wizard it driver utility not working driver not found.. Pointing graphics card driver through display properties is working fine.
   I have tried to install VDMSound2.1.0-.exe fix.
   Details here:
   https://msfn.org/board/topic/186763-nt4-sound … Comment-1279216
4. I also tried to make Graphics cards - Geforce 2 MX 2000 and Radeon 7000 working, they are working on same machine like in other operating systems. 2D worked fine include DirectDraw, but i never got worked Opengl - always - not present OpenGL ICD. All drivers are installing some opengl dll, there is often OpenGL inside control panels, i have tried a lot of drivers, but no worked for 3D, except Direct3D test bellow, on Radeon i had OpenGl test worked only through software. So OpenGL is there added by mistake as dummy package, or its needed to add registry key or something like that to make 3D working..
   I had the same problem too with zillions of ATI Radeon on Windows 2000, but i finally found the solution - Radeon omega drivers. There some hint on Nvidia 43.45 driver that its support NT4 SP6 so it implies that oldest drivers should not support SP6, its strange. Maybe Microsoft somehow broken OpenGL in newer Service packs, but Anandtech tests bellow where done with Geforce 1 and Nvidia 5.13/5.14 drivers on Athlon 750 Sot A VIA AGP board.
   I also installed Server version of NT4, because of more CPUs and RAM support, maybe it has not OpenGL support, but it has DirectX included too.. and expected that someone could use it for some rendering too.
   I have checked if OpenGl related values from *.inf files where copied in registry and they where.
   Details here:
   https://msfn.org/board/topic/186764-radeon-70 … comment-1279406
   Update: I made Geforce 2 MX working with Lenovo quadro OpenGL drivers after uninstallation of KB891711 KB.. I need more debugging to check where was a problem.
5. I have found nice Direct3D / OpenGl / Direct tests from Roy Longbottom - 2005:
   - they support MMX,SSE,SSE2,SSE3 and 3D Now and dual CPUs, they have also 64bit versions.
   - OpenGL: http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/opengl%20results.htm
   - DirectD3: http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/direct3d%20results.htm
   - DirectDraw -http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/directdraw%20results.htm

Where are the working downloads for benchmarks?
http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/Graphics%20Benchmarks.htm

fosterwj03 wrote on 2024-12-14, 20:05:

Well, NT4 is mostly a re-skin of NT 3.5x. The video subsystems are different, so I wonder how that would affect the interaction of DirectX with the older video driver model.

In Windows NT 4, GDI was being moved from user space to kernel space.
Good for performance, bad for stability.
There's a good reason NT 4 never saw more than VGA driver in relevant applications.
In NT 4, the whole graphics sub system can crash and take the system with it.

https://www.abortretry.fail/p/the-history-of-windows-nt-4

marxveix wrote on 2025-04-05, 08:52:

Where are the working downloads for benchmarks?
http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/Graphics%20Benchmarks.htm

1st in the thread at the bottom point 8 there 3 links link on the and scroll a bit down and there are *. zip to download.

1) I repackages Videotest (in attachment) - to include everything for DirectDraw, D3D, OpenGL and DX9-both 32 and 64bit (if available) - directory per type of test, descriptive directory names as i like= most fail proof as possible.

- What is nice in these these text is they are running on everything from Win95,WInNT (except Direct9) to Windows 10, its shame that these are virtually unknown in public and shadowed by much less compatible tests.. and there is not reason for it, but they are not some command line hell, but have nice GUI. I found them by looking for some OpenGL NT tests..
- On Robs Page is a lot of other utils, even DOS package, Java speedtest, multithreading tests, LAN / USB / CD / Disk speed test.. CPU test for everything from 1980 to 2014, or maybe later, even some Linux and Raspsberry test and there are source codes. From Linked picture he would be like ~65 and he is one of these guys which see to remember everything from the start and are able to write and compile, everything on everything.. and tools could be used home pro users and professionals (after licensing) too.
- Other nice of these test are that have very low requirements, i didnt find what Direct3D is or DirectX is required, but it seems that DirectDraw test from its name could be actually directX 1 or 2, it runs on DirectX3 for sure, same with Direct3D test, its Direct3D 5 or less, OpenGL from name could be Opengl 1 or 1.1. So you really run it on virtually everything capable to run Windows 95, NT to modern machines.

2) I tested a bit more Geforce 2 MX PCI in PCI-X slot (its nice that some these cards are actually able to at 66 MHz PCI not 33 Mhz in my server so its like AGP 1x speed (266MB/s).. less bottlenecked by PCI bus, PCI-X slots are able to run at 100 MHz or 133 MHz, but its outside PCI 2.3 specs, so you would need some very special PCI-X videocard for it ) on Windows NT4 server.

2.1) OpenGL - It seems that drivers are hit and miss and every driver version is running or not running some games, its not like that newer driver is better - not even speed point of view - we all know probably test Phils Win9x nvidia driver version comparison video -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRhm4aGNI3o&t … hilsComputerLab , but also compatibility is often worse in new drivers (well my test on WIn9x proved this too). Im using my Windows 98 games demos mega pack - https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/windows-98s … dware/34540/217
I have the small testing package Hexen 2 demo, Quake 2 demo, Quake 3 demo and Unreal tournament 99 demo (on NT actually OpenGL is working, but i never got OpenGL working in Win9x- its only for demo, full version works fine). Descent 3 demo was twice able to detect OpenGL device, but when i run it freezed, or i got classic like 3 layers of picture error - only when i alt+tab i saw that picture and acceleration is working for fine for a short moment. Im not sure, but my memory is saying that tripled picture was connected with wrong refresh rates, i remember it back from Win9x erra.

I have tested - Nvidia driver with 6.xx driver i got boot bluescreen, 12.xx, 29.42 and 44.xx and often is working only 1 or 2 of these games. So far it did not working Quake 3 - enough through forcing -openGL dll and deleting config what sometimes helps. On some drivers Hexen slowed dont like 10x times. I will try to created some testing matrix. Drivers between 6 and 12 aren't easy to find. And these seems to be some branded drivers too - from Elsa, IBM and Creative, which could have some additional fixes.

2.2) Direct 3D - So far i made only Robs Direct3D test working, its working with all drivers, but none of D3D <=5. Maybe my DirectX5 official packages are wrong, they are not proven for me. They have some DirectX configuration Dxdiag like panels, there is often Direct 3D hardware acceleration reported as working, but that is all, DirectDraw is sometimes reported as working sometimes not, but Robs DirectDraw test is always working, there control panels have some checkboxes to enable DirectDraw acceleration or FPS counter and apply button, but it seems dummy, when i check them, use apply and reported them, settings is not saved.
Regards of list of Direct3D 2-7 games - make DirectX6 work, would be big deal, because stats are like this, some games maybe missed in list too:
- Direct3D1 - only 2 games
- Direct3D2 - only 6 games
- Direct 3D3- ~25 games // Up to here these should run with official in-build Direct3D as far as them support NT (that is problem because some game have stupid if NT dont run check..)
- Direct3D4- never released
- Direct3D5 - 125 // So its big thing.
- Direct3D6- 291 so its like 2x more that Direct3D 1+2+3+4+5 all together.
- Direct3D7 - 572
There should be some NT compatible Direct5 on some Windows 2000 early beta, i downloaded its ISO, but wasnt able to find it, i searched through files, even strings within files, but i wasnt able to find some install package to use and found very few directx or directinput etc strings to identify DX5 dlls etc. Someone pointed somewhere that there could be Direct 6.1 for NT on some Elsa bundled drivers *.iso i download few of them from Archive.org, but so far it seems that there was only Direct 7, except one package, where are actually too conflicting numbers - 6.1 and 7.0 - i have not time test it yet.

Im also not quite sure that some games which i tested, actually running in software or in early Direct3D, because info about games is on pcgaming wiki for full games, or even patched version of games and lots of such games get 3D acceleration month original release. For example Forsaken Demo (movement seems broken by classic rotation not existing turn key press error) and Motoracer demo - are running maybe in software or maybe in early Direct3D..
I usually using Fraps or other FPS counter to confirm that something is running in D3D accelerated mode.. So far i dont know any framecounter for NT, other solution would be in possible in task manager identify some D3D related processes or check with any other tool if something is running in 3D accelerated mod or not.
I have like 15 D3D5 or lesser supposed to game demos, but all except those about complaint that Direct3D device is not present, before game start, or in game menu, when 3D APi is within game.. Unreal Tournament has some bug, that it reports Direct3D, but its really running in software windowed mode, the most of old games not supported 3d accelerated Windowed mode.
And i searched whole like 200+ Windows 9x game demos package to find like ~20 games <=D3D5 and like third refuse to start because of NT instead of Win9x and as i wroken, maybe even some of demos, not supporting it and 3d support was added only to full release.

Im also for years working for some ad hoc utility which could be able to fool program that its running on different version of Windows, i google and found some registry keys to change such info, but its system wide and its dangerous.. Im quite sure that some games, which just write you cant run me on NT would work fine.

3) About stability with vide drivers in kernel mode, so far from my its much more stable that Windows 9x, because when some game freeze, ALT+TAB and Task manager is actually working to kill the process. It took very long time to make Windows more and more stable - and it its still freeze on same errors as old machine - like IRQ is not equal error - even Chrome browser can cause it. Linux kernel claims to have great architecture, but when it games to real stress test = 3D games, its kernel + Xserver or Wayland, are much less stable than Windows.. I have tried quite and lot alternative task managers for Win9x but as processes and explorer seems not to fully run it seperate processes or how multitasking and kernel is done, its much less stable than NT, at least on modern HW.

4) Other interesting thing to research is if there is some Glide wrapper which is OpenGL based, so it could in theory run on WIndow NT, the most of them is Direct3D based and quite sure than they need higher version than 6.1?

5) I added some OpenGL list games to the first post.

(Has sudden and curious inklings to try shoehorning the WINE project implementations of D3D DLL files, along with a suitable OpenGL hardware driver made for NT4, to see if that is enough to ham-fist getting "Direct 3D" (ahem) working.)

(It probably would not work correct out of the box, but IIRC, even still, Wine project DLLs *DO IN FACT* support rendering output to GDI backbuffer devices, using a registry setting, since it is used for regression testing and other silliness. /HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/Direct3D/Renderer="gdi" to be precise. If used with a hardware OpenGL driver, the use of /HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/Direct3D/MaxVersionGL="FOO" to set the OpenGL version supported, it might maybe have a shot at working.)

(Thats assuming there arent any unresolvable/unresolved dependencies on more recent kernel and userspace library functions in the mix...)

Matrix359 wrote on 2024-12-14, 15:59:

The attachment Zwischenablage01.jpg is no longer available

I dont think its actually working, but... thats crazy

I wonder how many core system files were modified in NT 3.51 to get this working. Or maybe DXDIAG only detects the presence of the files and does not really care about whether the libraries can actually work.

I once experimented with DirectX stuffs on NT 3.51 before, and from what I can tell D3D stuffs simply aren't going to be usable -- a lot of imports are missing according to Dependency Walker. I also inspected them on NT4 a bit as well and the situation was similar. It was only since Windows 2000 did the Windows NT family get formal support of DirectX in its entirety.

The good part, however, was that DirectSound/DirectMusic files up to 8.0a can be used as-is with NT 3.51/4. I could even make Yamaha S-YXG50 (which relied on DSound/DMusic files) output music with its included XGPlayer on NT 3.51, but I was not able to make other applications work with it (only silence). Maybe the soft synth doesn't really work with old WinNT's MCI, and XGPlayer accessed the soft synth in a different way (DirectMusic?).

wierd_w wrote on 2025-04-06, 08:07:

(Has sudden and curious inklings to try shoehorning the WINE project implementations of D3D DLL files, along with a suitable OpenGL hardware driver made for NT4, to see if that is enough to ham-fist getting "Direct 3D" (ahem) working.)

(It probably would not work correct out of the box, but IIRC, even still, Wine project DLLs *DO IN FACT* support rendering output to GDI backbuffer devices, using a registry setting, since it is used for regression testing and other silliness. /HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/Direct3D/Renderer="gdi" to be precise. If used with a hardware OpenGL driver, the use of /HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/Direct3D/MaxVersionGL="FOO" to set the OpenGL version supported, it might maybe have a shot at working.)

(Thats assuming there arent any unresolvable/unresolved dependencies on more recent kernel and userspace library functions in the mix...)

When D3D on top of OpenGL work was beginning, the devs were using the best Nvidia cards at the time. I think the minimum version of OpenGL ended up being 2.0, and I remember that version 1.5 was kind of dodgy. What is the best you can do with NT4.0? OpenGL 1.1? Maybe there are newer vendor provided drivers that come close. Sorry, I don't think I've ever done OpenGL with NT 4. I doubt anyone thought about testing and make working Wined3d on NT 4.0 for what limited set is available. It will be interesting to see.

Nvidia's drivers for NT4 should support up to OpenGL 1.5 per the driver documentation.

fosterwj03 wrote on 2025-04-06, 14:45:

Nvidia's drivers for NT4 should support up to OpenGL 1.5 per the driver documentation.

Nope, up to OpenGL® 2.0 support, see https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/13/

There's also the potential to just'rock of Sisyphus' that whole thing with Mesa for windows, and draw on GDI backend... it would *require* modern iron to do that much work though.

From what I am reading, the NT4 methodology for using OpenGL is 'MCD' based client model, not ICD. This approach has microsoft's supplied OpenGL32.dll be the single target, which then hooks the MCD subsystem. This subsystem *Always* does the Lighting and Transform functions in software, then looks for a hardware acceleration based output device to do texturing and rendering on. If it fails to find one, it uses 100% software rendering on top of GDI.

This means OpenGL for NT4 was already Sisyphean in nature, from the start.

A complete replacement of opengl32.dll would be required to get away from this to do hardware transform and lighting, and it would need an ICD to talk to.

It's likely this is what nvidia's driver mentioned above does.

Mesa's software GL goes all the way up to GL v4.xx, and in theory, can ALSO talk to a suitable hardware device (which is how it is used on linux) to accelerate functions where they can be done with hardware.

'In theory' it can be configured to probe the capabiliies flags from any present MCD or ICD based driver, and use whatever returned acceleration functions are present, and then do everything else with software and just be 'a better opengl32.dll'.

It could then provide the needed target for wine's DX dlls, and 'whatever support in hardware is actually present' could be used, with everything else done by sisyphus pushing the rock up the mountain the hard way.

ICD+ openGL / Direct3D version testing utility
1) ICD is definitely supported, because if im not wrong newer card does not support MCD, because it would make additional work only for NT and i already made some games running on newer cards.. For some reason MCD only urban legend stays, probably because there was not some big MS article about ICD and it was implemented by vendors.. Its sort of the same, Glide is working too on NT4 and it has zero support on ms side.

MCD was used as transition, i was supported by ATI Rage II and Matrox card, i already linked this article for them - https://retro.swarm.cz/nt4-opengl-mini-client … ti-rage-ii-pro/
Im not by machines to test these OpenGL 2.0 drivers, by the way what is the best way how to test OpenGL 2.0? Yeah some diagnostic utils will print OpenGL version, but they are often wrong, so real test would be nice. I this dream about some OpenGL 1.0,1.1, 1.2 etc.. and Direct3D 1,2,3.. etc testing utility if someone can write such simple tool it to render 1 simple model it would be very nice.

Glide to Opengl Wrappers
2) Dig into Opengl Glide wrappers for NT i downloaded virtually every OpenGL glide wrapper quick i found, there is nice repository of the most of them in Vogons library already:
https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/wrappers/files/Glide/OpenGL/
I made testing package if someone want to help with real testing, not just chat around 😀, im out of my retro lair right now..
I not fun of generic filenames, so i added every wrapper to directory - with much info as possible - with version- release date and info if NT mentioned in readme or not, i found some positives - where NT is mentioned, but if NT is not mentioned it does not mean that it will not work. Look at nglide it was never meant or supported on Win9x, but it works well.
Some wrapper have not readme and i wasnt able to extract earlier Zecke wrappers installers and dont wanted to mess my modern machine setup installing something.
Testing should be quite simple:
- 1st - tier test: just copy dlls into game directory and run the game.
- 2nd tier test- delete some dlls which game originally using one by one
- 3rd tier test - try to give new dlls name of orginally delete one by one
More people testing with various machine, bigger chance to get it working. If we get at least 1 possitive results, we can elaborate around it. What is nice lots of these wrappers have source code available. Maybe one day someone able and willing to code and enhance it will emerge. I see it NT4 so of the last land , the edition of Windows, to conquer for the retro gaming.
I also added wrappers which will should not work - 2000/XP or direct3D based on, to just show dead ends, that i will already checked, maybe internet is full on wrong info.

Positives:
- directory names in the package:
gl2ideal10-2002-02-NT-mentioendAsSupported-IfTo-OpenWindowStuckPressFewTimes-F5
gl2ideal16-gl2ideal10-2002-02-NT-mentioendAsSupported-IfTo-OpenWindowStuckPressFewTimes-F5
openglide5-NT-MentionedInReadme-2000-01
OpenGLide_004-NT-Is-MentionedAsSupported-1999-12
Zecke-GlideWrapper080e-NT-Mentioned IN Readme-As-Seems-As-Supported-2004-07.exe
Probably another versions of the packages where is NT mentioned in some version will work too, in the package are all version which i have found.

Good news and i found out that Fraps 1.8 and 1.9d are working for FPS monitoring. At least for Nvidia with all 3 driver versions which i have tested.
- OpenGL is working everytime, software rendering mostly - Unreal Tournament demo, ODT and Dark Reign (it could be in theory Direc3D mode).
- im still unsure about Direct3D because im still not sure if Moto Racer 1 demo or Forsaken running in Software mode, because some part of picture looks like antialiased and some dont.. that my main tool how to recognize 3D acceleration. They laso dont working Robs DirectDraw and Direct3D Vidtests, only for OpenGL one.
- Fraps 1.9 complains about missing dinput probably for its hotkeys implementations, 1.8 does not.

I had time to test 6 (year very small sample) OpenGL games with 3 drivers versions (12.20,29.42,77.72):
- as i wrote there is not clear winner, but oldest driver run 5 of 6 games.. more modern 3 or 4, so its not bad for demoversions, even on Win98, i could get 1 fail with demo / shareware versions.. Simply Descent 3 demo10, not fully worked on any driver version.
- Problem with these early 3D implementations is often, that they are doing not totally clean operations, or include some performance hacks, which are disabled/"fixed" in newer versions, demos are not final stable code too or not patched one.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y312n … dit?usp=sharing

If someone have some early drivers between 6 and 12 and between 12 a 22 upload them somewhere, they would be probably best for older Nvidia cards, same as in case of Win9x.

I spent quite lot of time yesterday and made some NT4 Nvidia driver collection, because there were 3 drivers releases - 1) 9x 2) 2k/XP and 3) NT.. Some sites are claiming that there are universal drivers for NT/2k/XP, but its not true.
Re: VOGONS Driver Library

I digged a bit more in Direct3D on NT part, to understand it more, conclusion:

1) Direct3D/X - history, changelog

Direct3D 2 (1996/2) + 3 (1996/9)
- licenced (1995/2) from RenderMorphics original APi name was Reality Lab (stared in 1992) used for medical imaging a CAD SW
- too high level from the most developers view, they wanted more low level control
- only 2 games with significant sales - Lego Island + Lego Rock Raiders
- DX3 - Support for the MMX technology.
- DX3 - Added support for keyboards and mouse.
-DX3 - Improved support for joysticks.

Direct3D 4 never released, canceled

Direct3D 5.0 1997/8
- DrawPrimitive API to eliminate need for applications to constructs execute buffer, to make Direct3D more like OpenGL and GLide
- Improved support for MMX
- Support for multiple monitors on Windows 98
- Improved support for joysticks.
- Improved mouse support by increasing the number of buttons from 4 to 8.
- Added a Game Controllers control panel.
- Added support for force feedback controllers.

Direc3D 6 1998/6
- multitexture and stencil buffers
- optimized geometry pipeline for X87- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X87 (MMX included) ,SSE and 3DNow!
- optional texture management to simplify programming
- S3 texture compression support - licenced, renamed to DXTC
- Bump mapping - licenced from Tritech

Direct3D 6.1 - 1999/2
- Added DirectMusic
- Improved support for Pentium III 3D extensions

Direct3D 7 - 1999/9 - Unsupported in NT4, just to show what we missed
- T&L- transform and lighting hardware acceleration - first on Geforce 1 (=256 or SDR)
- vertex buffers in videocard memory - first feature that bast better in Direct3D in comparison with OpenGL
- improved multitexturing
- added DirectX video acceleration
- Introduced DirectPlay Voice

Conclusion: again if would Direct3D 6 really work on NT4, it would huge difference, because its features as multi texturing and support of new CPU acceleration.

2) DirectX unofficial packages for NT analysis:
- Direct 3D 3.0 is last official
- these packages are floating around

a) DirectX 6 for Windows NT 4.0 from retrosystemsrevival.com - Direct X 6 NT4.7z
https://retrosystemsrevival.blogspot.com/2024 … dows-nt-40.html
- this just vaporware, click bait, its including just DirectX 6 media part which is just one of ~10 directX components - source - https://www.codingunit.com/the-history-of-directx:
DirectDraw: Used for drawing 2D graphics. (Deprecated, but still used).
Direct3D (D3D): for 3D graphics.
DirectPlay: network communication.
DirectInput: Used for processing input (from mouse, keyboard, etc).
DirectX Media: DirectShow, Direct3D retained mode, multimedia playback, streaming, etc).
DirectMusic: playback of soundtracks (created in DirectMusic Producer).
DirectSound: Playback and recording of waveform sound.
DirectSound3D: (DS3D) playback of 3D sounds.
DirectX Media Objects: Streaming objects such as encoders, decoders and effects.
DirectSetup: Installation of DirectX components.

B) Direct5 on Windows 2000 beta - it should be 4.05.00.0155 version - what seems to be a same as in C and D - name of file is NT4dx5.exe
- i have now problem to find which build of Win2000 beta, had it, but because its version number is same, its probably same package
- Available as a beta for Windows NT 5.0 (=WIn2000) that would install on Windows NT 4.0 - source - https://microsoft.fandom.com/wiki/DirectX
- ISO is floating around but i did not managed, to find here some DirectX installer of full package of directX dlls

C) Winworld Direct5 NT unofficial package - DirectX 5 NT4.7z:
https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-direct-x/50

D) Other version of Archive.org NT4DX5.ZIP - https://archive.org/details/nt-4-dx-5 , after check its the same package as DirectX 5 NT4.7z: from Winworld
It claims that could make Tomb Raider 2 and LBA2 to work

E) Labdv.com - DX60eng (winNT4).exe
https://web.archive.org/web/20060108105320/ht … e/utils-en.html
I cant find it, for Download.

f) So other DirectX6 patcher floating around - setdx6.zip author: Hans Wilson/AbSoLuTe - its just numbers faker:
SETDX6 - Patch NT4 DX3/5 .Dll version # to v6.1 for games that require DX6.1
I suppose that by small update can someone fake it up to DirectX 9, but i will not fix games really using APi calls which arent in DirectX5.
I checked it by AIDA, its really patching only like half of DirectX files anyway.

3) Debugging
Problem is that i cant say if DirectX3D is not working in games, because:
a) Direct3D part of Direct is not working as it should OR
b) Direct3D of implementation of used graphics drive is not working
It would need to find some Direct3d testing utility.. i tried HWinfo,Aida 64- 5.xx and Astra, but only AIDA is able to report which DirectX dlls are installed and its version, but its about all and not enough.
Im usually getting errors like - 3D hardware chip not found; Carmageddon 2 - Failed: Not enough memory - BRender error detect. Failure to allocated Main Front speed. Sub cultute - Unable to start the display device.

Roy Longbottom test is working fine on my Geforce 2 MX PCI.
http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/Graphics%20Be … rks.htm#anchor5

Forsaken demo - In demo readme is this part in System requirements - Microsoft 3D graphics accelerator card or 100% compatible, it would imply that if it running Direct3D is running -its running fine on my Geforce 2 MX PCI card, but there some constant rotating bug at least on my machine.
I have to learn to use tools like Dependency Walker or i saw some dll loaded list tool somethere - So far when i run Forsaken - i window with first collumn listem some D3D*.dll without any obvious error, im not sure if its enough as proof that Direct3D is running.
Motoracer Demo 1 - report D3DHALF.dll aslo in Module section; there are mesages like D3DRGBF.dll successfully hooked module.

Tomb Raider - for example show these functions as failed, its similar for other failing games, im working what is different screen so there could be typos:
Setupapid.dll - SetupDiGetDiveceInterfaceDetailW
User32.dll - SetLayeredWindowAttributes
Kernel32.dll - OpenVxDHandle
User32.dll - MonitorFormWindow
Kernel32.dll - ProcessIdTOSessionID
Kernel32.dll - isTNT // It seems like some Nvidia card failed check

In the log is at least seen that DirectX5 files are used, im using DirectX 5 NT4.7z package. I later discovered so some of these error could be related to Powermenu tool which i was using, but after turn it off, there so not change from 3d working perspective, i also killed Fraps to be sure. Some error are related to Bink and Smack video tools and Quicktime, i installed both runtimes, but no change.
Logs attached.

4) Matrox Mystique+Millenium I/II + Productiva and ATI Rage II
I have tried to test x86BOx Matrox cards, based on this article - https://retro.swarm.cz/nt4-opengl-mini-client … ti-rage-ii-pro/
After double checking OpenGL MCD implementation means that all is done in software and forwarded to videocard, i manage to run Quake 2 its rendering fine, but its slide show < 2 FPS, not really usefull.
Some only real chance are Matrox G200 to G450 cards, which are not supported by x86 yet, only Riva 128 supports in works, right now only 3DFx cards NT4 emulation is working fine (proven by me).

Ati Rage II - it actually supported OpenGL through MCD, only on Windows NT4, but not on Win9x. Much better and faster implementation on old Matrox cards (article above claims 30x times).