VOGONS

VSA100-modefix

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First post, by sdz

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This is useful for Voodo04 and Voodoo5 cards with DVI output. Setting some resolutions, like 1920x1080 (with default timings), would result in VGA outputting a correct signal but DVI outputting 960x1080. The issue is triggered by the total horizontal width (active area, porches, sync). One way to get around this was by using Dolenc's timings provided here The Changeling 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 . This fixed the issue with digital video output, but, at least for me, broke VGA. I could never have both working at the same time.

Attached vsa100_modefix.exe. Just run it against the .sys or .vxd, eg:

Windows 95/98/Me MiniVDD: vsa100_modefix.exe 3DFXVS.VXD
Windows NT 4 miniport: vsa100_modefix.exe 3DFXVSNM.SYS
Windows 2000/XP miniport: vsa100_modefix.exe 3DFXVSM.SYS
Community 64-bit miniport: vsa100_modefix.exe 3DFXVSM64.SYS

It will patch it after creating a backup of the original driver. If the release isn't recognized, you can also try with --force : vsa100_modefix.exe --force 3dfxvsm.sys

After patching, install the driver normally. Regular timings can be used and both DVI and VGA should work properly.

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Reply 1 of 2, by Deksor

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Hi !
I tried this on my voodoo 4 4500 😀

Now maybe I misunderstood what you showed here : Re: Voodoo4 M4800 + Dell Precision M4800 + coreboot/SeaBIOS
But when I tried it, the vga output was still noisy on DOS text mode.

Also I tried it on the driver CD that came with my voodoo 4 (here https://theretroweb.com/drivers/2166) and even with --force it didn't seem to like it.
So then I tried with the latest drivers and it did the patch ... but yeah there was no visbile effects on the VGA output.

Is this only to fix the digital video output while keeping the VGA output working ?

Or maybe I got confused with your upcoming bios patch ? Re: Voodoo4 M4800

Anyways, thanks for providing these 😁

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Reply 2 of 2, by sdz

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@Deksor

This fix is only for DVI, for video modes that have Htotal > 2088 (Hactive + sync + front/back porches). With the unpatched driver, when you set such a resolution, the VSA will output half of that (horizontally). Eg. 1920x1080 becomes 960x1080 (and you get either a black screen or a 960x1080 image, if the receiver even locks on to that). With the patched driver you can do 1920x1080, and even more, via DVI.

For VGA noisy output, and for having both the DVI and VGA working at the same time at boot (and some other fixes), the patched BIOS is needed. I haven't provided that yet as I have to do more testing on the OEM cards, prepare variants for all the combinations out there (AGP/PCI, SDRAM/SGRAM, DVI/no DVI etc). Also, I am pretty sure the official flashing tool will refuse to flash that BIOS without some extra work.

If you want such a BIOS for testing, send a PM with your exact card specs. You will likely need a different flasher (I made one that works under Linux, that will back up the original BIOS first).

Regarding the driver that the patching utility refused to patch, what did it say exactly (some early drivers do not have that bug)?

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