VOGONS


First post, by rug

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Hi guys.

I've just acquired a Voodoo1 card. I plugged it in, but the games (Quake, Duke3d) just seems to run the same as usual.

Is there any software for DOS that can test the card? Do I need to patch the games?

Help, please, I'm clueless!! 😀

Note: I just run DOS. No Windows 9x.

Cheers,
Rita Graça.

My DOS machine: MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium MMX 200MHz, 64MB RAM, AWE64 Gold, 4GB HD, Philips 19" CRT, 3"1/2 Floppy, CDROM, Parallel ZIP, ThrustMaster FLCS+TQL+Elite.

Reply 1 of 11, by vetz

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You need GLQuake to run accelerated Quake on the Voodoo and GLQuake is Windows only. Duke3D is not accelerated at all.
If you want to test you could download the Tomb Raider 3DFX demo. It is easy to find on Google.

Full list of DOS 3DFX Glide games: DOS Glide Games List

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 2 of 11, by rug

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I tried GTA, but get the following message:

"Fatal Error: unable to load dll"

🙁

How come it's asking for a DLL in DOS?

Cheers,
Rita Graça.

My DOS machine: MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium MMX 200MHz, 64MB RAM, AWE64 Gold, 4GB HD, Philips 19" CRT, 3"1/2 Floppy, CDROM, Parallel ZIP, ThrustMaster FLCS+TQL+Elite.

Reply 4 of 11, by JaNoZ

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I thought that 3dfx in dos needed the package from windows to be installed, and needed some , OVL file to load the 3dfx.dll? i am not sure.

Probably it would work if you just had installed win9x, maybe interesting to install maybe you can need it for networking and moving files.

Reply 5 of 11, by rug

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vetz wrote:

Depends what kind of GTA version you are playing I guess. You also need the 3DFX patch as far as I know.

Again, easiest method is to download the 3DFX demo of Tomb Raider.

I downloaded TR1 3DFX demo, and got the spinning 3DFX logo at the beginning, though, as far as I can see, it looks pretty much the same as the regular game.

In any case, if I want to run games with 3DFX support, the rule of thumb is to go on the web and try to find a patch, otherwise they won't support voodoo1 in DOS?

Cheers,
Rita Graça.

My DOS machine: MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium MMX 200MHz, 64MB RAM, AWE64 Gold, 4GB HD, Philips 19" CRT, 3"1/2 Floppy, CDROM, Parallel ZIP, ThrustMaster FLCS+TQL+Elite.

Reply 7 of 11, by rug

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Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

The 3DFX version of Tomb Raider looks totally different. I recommend you download the regular DOS demo as a comparison.

Did that. The regular DOS demo is much lower resolution, so the V1 card is working.

I just don't quite understand if I have to search the web every time I want a game to use the V1 card. If that's the normal procedure than it a bit of a chore.

Cheers,
Rita Graça.

My DOS machine: MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium MMX 200MHz, 64MB RAM, AWE64 Gold, 4GB HD, Philips 19" CRT, 3"1/2 Floppy, CDROM, Parallel ZIP, ThrustMaster FLCS+TQL+Elite.

Reply 8 of 11, by vetz

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The Voodoo card(s) was mostly targeted towards Windows usage. Remember that few of the accelerated DOS games (that came out in 1996 and 1997) came with true retail 3DFX support out of the box. Many of the developers released patches later on when 3DFX cards caught on and got popular. There are also probably re-releases of the games which includes the patches (like my Descent II re-release), so if 3DFX support is included or not can not be guaranteed in all cases. You will need to research a bit to find out, but you already have the list of all the supported DOS Glide games so that should help you on the way 😀 If you are looking for a patch then http://www.patches-scrolls.de is a good place to look.

This issue is also why I included information if support were included in the OEM, patch or retail release in my Early API 3D Accelerated Supported Games list, but that list does not contain the 3DFX games (as they are way more documented elsewhere).

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 9 of 11, by Mau1wurf1977

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rug wrote:
Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

The 3DFX version of Tomb Raider looks totally different. I recommend you download the regular DOS demo as a comparison.

Did that. The regular DOS demo is much lower resolution, so the V1 card is working.

I just don't quite understand if I have to search the web every time I want a game to use the V1 card. If that's the normal procedure than it a bit of a chore.

Vetz explains it nicely!

My memory is quite fuzzy from that era. I had a Voodoo in a Pentium 133 and most games at that time were using DOS. It must have been a transitional period from DOS to Windows.

I remember MDK and Tomb Raider being DOS games but Tomb Raider 2 and Wing Commander Prophecy running in Windows.

Computer magazines would come with a CD and often you would find 3D patches for games. These CDs were also the main source for DirectX and Windows driver updates. The Internet wasn't really around back then...

My website with reviews, demos, drivers, tutorials and more...
My YouTube channel

Reply 10 of 11, by rug

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Ok guys, I think I get the gist of it now.

That patch scrolls site seems a good place to start searching.

Thanks everyone!!

Cheers,
Rita Graça.

My DOS machine: MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium MMX 200MHz, 64MB RAM, AWE64 Gold, 4GB HD, Philips 19" CRT, 3"1/2 Floppy, CDROM, Parallel ZIP, ThrustMaster FLCS+TQL+Elite.

Reply 11 of 11, by rug

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I also solved the .dll problem.

It seems that although GTA supposedly should access the V1 directly, it still needs the Glide drivers.

Now GTA's CD has those drivers, they're in the .exe in the \3DFX directory. The thing is, that .exe is a win32 executable, so can run it in DOS!!!

Anyway... I figured out that it was actually a self-extracting ZIP archive, so I decompressed it to a temp directory. Only to find out, that the setup.exe only runs on Windows 95!!!

After I finished cursing Rockstar Games for their sheer incompetence, and after quite a bit of trial and error, I realised that I only had to copy "glide2x.ovl" to my Windows\System directory, and that's that! Problem solved, got GTA1 running on the V1! Feeling proud! 😀

Cheers,
Rita Graça.

My DOS machine: MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium MMX 200MHz, 64MB RAM, AWE64 Gold, 4GB HD, Philips 19" CRT, 3"1/2 Floppy, CDROM, Parallel ZIP, ThrustMaster FLCS+TQL+Elite.