This was something that I was planning to release here.

This is a patch that will allow UniVBE to work with S3 Trio3D/2X cards, both AGP and PCI versions. I've noticed that the clock chip is exactly the same as the one used on the S3 ViRGE/GX2 and said clock chip is supported on both 6.53 and 6.7 (this one even supports the original S3 Trio3D). So I decided to change one of the video device ID that was hardcoded by hex-editing both UVCONFIG.EXE and CONFIG.EXE, and voila the card gets configured automatically without any issues and works surprisingly well.

Why do you want to use this?

The reason for this is that while this card is fast in DOS and has an amazing VESA 2.0 support with a crazy amount of video modes, it has some bugs and S3VBEFIX won't be able to fix everything.

UniVBE will address the following issues:

• Lower performance compared to other cards in Build-based games the MBF source port for Doom. The Serpent Rider stated this in his specific notes when he was doing benchmarks with many video cards and I can confirm this.
• Being able to use different refresh rates especially on 1280x1024 as S3REFRSH is a mixed bag on this card.
• Glitches when using the VBETEST utility by SciTech and certain demoscene programs that uses VESA video modes.

For installation simply download the file depending of the UniVBE version that you are using and copy the files into the directory where UniVBE (or SDD) is located, then run UNIVBE so the card gets configured. I recommend running UNICENTR to adjust the screen position and setting the screen refresh rate if possible for each video mode.

Each file contains the modified UVCONFIG.EXE and CONFIG.EXE (only for 6.53).

Important notes:

• UniVBE will report the graphics chip as unknown when it is loaded. This is not a big deal.
• For 8MB cards it will report 4MB. Don't worry, this is normal and hardly any DOS programs uses that much amount of memory.
• 720x480 and 720x576 resolutions are unsupported by UniVBE.
• 8-bit wide DAC support will not be available while running UniVBE.
• Certain video modes will only display less than the right half of the screen. To fix this run UNICENTR, select the video mode with the problem and press "[" key.
• Avoid using the Windows version (UNIVBE32.EXE) since you will get a glitched desktop. Loading the DOS version prior to starting Windows (UNIVBE.EXE with the -w command line switch) and the VBE/AF driver generated in 6.53 are fine.

This can be used in conjugation with S3VBEFIX loaded prior as this utility employs the FIFO fetch fix for VGA modes which helps to improve compatibility with certain games that doesn't use VESA video modes. However I don't recommend changing any settings for S3VBEFIX while UniVBE is active. To unload UniVBE when it is no longer needed use the "-U" parameter.

Disclaimer:

This is provided "AS IS" and without any kind of warranty.