VOGONS


Voodoo 3 and directx

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First post, by Baoran

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It has happened to me now 3 times with different systems. I install a voodoo 3 card and after that I install win98se that comes with directx 6.1a. After installing windows I install the driver for the voodoo 3. After that when running dxdiag, it shows that there is no 3d acceleration available.

I know I can fix that by installing newer directX version. If I install directX 8 or directX 9, 3d acceleration becomes available in dxdiag.
Is there any way I can keep older directx 6.1a that comes with the windows and make 3d acceleration to work with a voodoo 3 card? I have seen many people say in the forums that those newer directx versions are too new for voodoo 3.

Reply 1 of 10, by lost77

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Direct3D drivers require the version of DirectX they were written for.

Did you try with old drivers that was released before DirectX 7?

I think that was September 1999.

Reply 2 of 10, by Baoran

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I think I have only tried drivers that I downloaded from philscomputerlab web page and those are newer.

Reply 3 of 10, by Koltoroc

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directx versions are generally backward compatible with older ones. What they mean with DX7 is "too new" is, that voodoo 3 cards don't support all features (Hardware T&L beiing the big one). sticking with old versions of DirectX is pointless, you merely limit the software you can run even if that software would run on your hardware.

Reply 4 of 10, by Baoran

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I just don't think any pc that has voodoo 3 can run any directx 8 or 9 games anyway, so there would be no harm in staying period correct directx versions too.

Reply 5 of 10, by Koltoroc

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As I said, the only thing you accomplish is locking yourself out of games that require higher DirectX version but still run on it. DirectX 7 examples are Unreal tournament, DeusEx, Ultima IX ascension (which in its original release only worked reasonably on voodoo cards anyway),quake III and so on. Same with DirectX 8 and 9 titles. Just because a game requires a certain directX version it does not mean it actually uses the modern features. Even in the mid 2000s there were still some games that didn't even require hardware T&L.

BTW, DirectX 7 is from september 1999, the voodoo 3 released april 1999. period correctness is not exactly a valid argument here. And even with directX 8 (november 2000) is reasonable.

Reply 6 of 10, by swaaye

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I suggest not going beyond DirectX 7.0a on Win9x unless you have a good reason to. Some drivers can cause stability problems with DirectX 7.1 or later. Later Aureal drivers come to mind.

Reply 7 of 10, by chinny22

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Using the drivers off Phil's page:
Earliest driver is voodoo3tm_driver_kit_1.03.04.zip (October 1999)
According to the readme.txt step 5 "Install DirectX 7.0"

Latest driver is voodoo3tm_driver_kit_1.07.00-whql.zip (November 2000)
According to the readme.txt step 6 "Install DirectX 7.0"

So 7.0 is the earliest you can use reliably

Reply 9 of 10, by peke12

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I'd like to install Fifa 2003 on my system: AMD Athlon 600 with a Voodoo 3 2000.
The game requires directX 8.1. Is it ok to install this without breaking anything?

like for example Dark Forces 2.

Reply 10 of 10, by derpmochump

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peke12 wrote on 2020-12-28, 18:28:

I'd like to install Fifa 2003 on my system: AMD Athlon 600 with a Voodoo 3 2000.
The game requires directX 8.1. Is it ok to install this without breaking anything?

like for example Dark Forces 2.

I know this is 2 years later but, what I ended up doing is dual boot win98se with dx 7 and win XP with dx 9 and used amiga merlin drivers for XP.
Worked wonders for me, in fact there were several games that wouldn't run in 98 but in xp with these drivers worked good.

MSI MS-6734 KM3M mobo / Athlon XP 3000+ /512mb ddr1 ram
Voodoo 3 3000 PCI @185mhz / Aureal vortex 2 (dell oem)
3dfx ref. drivers win98se and dual boot with winXP-32 bit running amigasport 3.0 3dfx drivers oc'd with koolsmokey's V.Control in XP