revolstar wrote on 2026-11-13, 11:12:

Seeing as the G200 and the G400 are pretty similar, maybe pletted texture support can be brought back via some driver hack?

I tried that a few years back. It resulted in severe graphical glitches.

Speaking of the Matrox G200, I would appreciate if someone could post the relevant screenshots of its table fog and paletted texture tests. Preferably using Thief 2 and Final Fantasy 8. I'm asking because we had reports of these features "working" on some cards in the past, but the end result (especially for table fog) looked completely different (broken) compared to the 3DFX and Nvidia implementation. I sort those kind of cards into the "partial" category, while the ones with full support go into the "properly working" category on the wiki. I've posted the testing instructions here.

Matrox Parhelia (later model with AGP 8x and later PHF-D2 stepping) with latest drivers running on Windows 2000. I didn't see any differences with any of the drivers I used. No table fog support and no paletted textures support. The 16-bit dither looks really good though.

The Parhelia probably does have table fog, but not compatible with how Thief 2 does it, it's a game bug. At least on the P690 (Parhelia family) it works with a driver patch:

I don't have details on the patch right now and Vogons doesn't allow Python scripts as attachments so I can't hand you a way to test-patch the game exe, but trust me bro.

You can try Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for another table fog test.

Specifically, use cheats to access Mission 2: Escape from Echo base. It's easy to check for the fog there.

vvbee wrote on Yesterday, 08:21:

The Parhelia probably does have table fog, but not compatible with how Thief 2 does it, it's a game bug. At least on the P690 (Parhelia family) it works with a driver patch:

The attachment t2f.jpg is no longer available

I don't have details on the patch right now and Vogons doesn't allow Python scripts as attachments so I can't hand you a way to test-patch the game exe, but trust me bro.

It’s missing fog on shogo as well. So is this a game bug or driver bug? If there’s a way to fix it, please share.

vvbee wrote on Yesterday, 08:21:

I don't have details on the patch right now and Vogons doesn't allow Python scripts as attachments so I can't hand you a way to test-patch the game exe, but trust me bro.

You can zip up the Python script and then attach it.

For Thief 2, it's a game bug that ends up working on contemporary hardware anyway. So depending on how you look at it it's a test of quirks compatibility, which can be patched into the Matrox driver. I don't have anything shareable at the moment other than that and the fact that the Parhelia likely supports table fog just as the P690 does.

True, the Python script can be zipped:

Script made with AI and explains the issue and how to run the script. It's for the thief2.exe that came with gog's distribution as the original version. Probably it's 1.18, but no idea.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Yesterday, 08:44:

You can try Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for another table fog test. […]
Show full quote

You can try Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for another table fog test.

Specifically, use cheats to access Mission 2: Escape from Echo base. It's easy to check for the fog there.

Even ATi Rage3 has some fog in this game now if used with Velocity9x driver (made with help of AI).

vvbee wrote on Yesterday, 17:17:

For Thief 2, it's a game bug that ends up working on contemporary hardware anyway. So depending on how you look at it it's a tes […]
Show full quote

For Thief 2, it's a game bug that ends up working on contemporary hardware anyway. So depending on how you look at it it's a test of quirks compatibility, which can be patched into the Matrox driver. I don't have anything shareable at the moment other than that and the fact that the Parhelia likely supports table fog just as the P690 does.

True, the Python script can be zipped:

The attachment t2fpt.py.zip is no longer available

Script made with AI and explains the issue and how to run the script. It's for the thief2.exe that came with gog's distribution as the original version. Probably it's 1.18, but no idea.

I can’t look at what this is doing at the moment but is it not just emulating or translating the table fog into something else? Otherwise, the fog would also be present in other games like shogo. I still need to test star wars. Unless it’s strictly a driver bug.

Also, I’m not familiar with Thief 2 but I believe the gog release already has some fixes applied. Does the gog release fix the fog? All the testing here is with the non-gog retail version.

Not emulating, yes original Thief 2, yes the P690 supports table fog. No idea whether your Parhelia does too but ask yourself whether it's a feature Matrox would introduce in 2007 with the P690.