VOGONS


First post, by Scythifuge

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Greetings,

I may have to give up on my plan to have a Voodoo1, 2, and 5 in the same PC. I have an SD-to-IDE drive coming (hopefully by tomorrow,) as my Gateway won't work with a SD-to-CF to CF-to-IDE drive. CF cards work, but not SD cards in a CF adapter (though they work perfectly in the Asus P2B.) I ordered an ATA133 PCI controller card, but things are simply too tight to fit every component card plus Live! Drive cable & two extra IDE cables in the same machine. I ordered the ATA133 card to see if it would work better with 120-137GB drives, and read the SD cards in the adapter (and also get extra IDE ports.) If I remove the Voodoo2, I would have plenty of room.

So my question is: Are there ANY games that look better on a Voodoo2 than a Voodoo5? Are there graphical differences that would be noticeable if using a V5 to play a V2-era game? I know that having a V1 makes it easier to play glide games in DOS and Windows from the V1 era and thus should leave that in there, but do you really need a V2 if you have a V3/4/5? I know that opinions will differ, so I am looking for actual documented differences, such as textures looking different and thus better on the V2, etc.

This is all happening because my P2B has problems recognizing slave drives and drives on the secondary IDE during reboots with the final beta BIOS, and the only way to get the drives back is to power down and back on, which is annoying when you just need a reboot. I then got my hands on these Gateways that are similar to, but better than the one I had in 1999, and then discovered the SD card issue. If the SD-to-IDE drive works, then all is good and I can have all three Voodoos in the system, AND leave a slot open for more airflow to the V5, or I can put a slim, low profile card in there, such as a USB 2.0 card, or a NIC (someone bought the NIC/USB combo card I was watching, unfortunately, though I hope that it works for them for what they need it for.) If the new drive doesn't work, I have to CRAM everything into the PC, have cables everywhere, and/or remove the V2. If there is no discernable difference between the V2 and the V5, I can put the V2 in the P2B along with a GeForce Fx 5200 which came with one of the Gateways, or pair it with V3 in the recreation of my old Gateway, or in some other PC (such as wasting it on my 486DX2/66 just to see how well Quake runs, hehehe..)

Thanks!
Scythifuge

Reply 2 of 6, by Scythifuge

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2021-06-16, 21:32:

You can play glide games in DOS on a V2 as well. I would pair those two together.

True, though it takes a few extra steps, and if I have to remove a card, I feel that I should put the V2 in a system that lacks a 3dfx card. If I keep the V1 with the V5, all glide games should work with very little fuss. I am also setting up a retro LAN as a part of the overall project, and it would probably be best to put the V2 in a non-3dfx system for multiplayer games. I will have around four P3 systems, and in a month or two, if they are still available, I will get 2-4 more P3 systems with 20"-21" CRT monitors and SuperDisk drives for cheap. I have the V1, V2, V3, and a V5, though I probably won't end up with more 3dfx cards unless I find a good deal.

Reply 4 of 6, by chinny22

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You can enable antialiasing and texture filtering on the V5 which will enhance the image.
Was a post here a good few years ago comparing V2 to V3 from memory. Removing the pass though cable did improve things slightly but definitely noticeable when compared side to side. I cant seem to find it now but thought it was a post by Phil and had Decent as one of the examples.

But I cant think of any benefit of V2 and V5 in the same rig unless its for game compatibility where the V1 just doesn't cut it.
Personably I'd keep the V2 for that other build.

Reply 5 of 6, by Scythifuge

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Carrera wrote on 2021-06-17, 08:46:

There is a batch file you can use to "dumb down" a V2 to a V1... I had it somewhere...

I heard of such things, though I don't know how much exactly like a V1 a V2 can behave...

Reply 6 of 6, by Scythifuge

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-06-17, 10:11:
You can enable antialiasing and texture filtering on the V5 which will enhance the image. Was a post here a good few years ago c […]
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You can enable antialiasing and texture filtering on the V5 which will enhance the image.
Was a post here a good few years ago comparing V2 to V3 from memory. Removing the pass though cable did improve things slightly but definitely noticeable when compared side to side. I cant seem to find it now but thought it was a post by Phil and had Decent as one of the examples.

But I cant think of any benefit of V2 and V5 in the same rig unless its for game compatibility where the V1 just doesn't cut it.
Personably I'd keep the V2 for that other build.

I'm probably going to just keep the V1 & V5 together, and put the V2 in a non-3dfx build, giving me three different Voodoo builds. If the SD-IDE drive works (getting it by tomorrow, I hope,) I will use the ATA133 card elsewhere as well. This will allow me to add something else to the main project build.