That error message appears when Glide can't find any 3dfx hardware. It's a common WinGlide error (almost everyone running glQuake for the first time must have seen it), but I had never seen it in DOS, because the usual behaviour of DosGlide games is to run in software mode if 3dfx mode fails.

This is what I've done: install Carmaggedon for DOS with Voodoo Graphics patch (CARMAV.EXE) and Voodoo^2 patch (VOODO2C.EXE). The former one seems to work fine until I try to enter a new race and then it crashes. The latter one works perfectly. I can force the first error ("Unable to load DLL") by renaming Glide2x.ovl file. To force the second error ("expected Voodoo, none detected"), I had to remove my Voodoo^2. So it is definitely a hardware detection problem. By the way, at first I couldn't read this error message because without the 3dfx card, CARMAV.EXE runs in software mode, so I redirected the output to a file by typing "CARMAV.EXE > ERROR.TXT", and then I found the error message inside the text file.

You can try to remove the card and insert it again in a different slot. Check if Windows can detect it. Also try other drivers, specially the latest 3.01.00 reference driver, which is a good driver IMHO, unlike the latest Voodoo2 reference driver. If you want me to test something else, just let me know.

batracio wrote:

I can force the first error ("Unable to load DLL") by renaming Glide2x.ovl file. To force the second error ("expected Voodoo, none detected"), I had to remove my Voodoo^2. So it is definitely a hardware detection problem.

I'm having a hard time believing just how flaky this stuff is... I used to have a Canopus Pure3D back in the day and unless I've repressed some memories, it really wasn't this hard back then.

You can try to remove the card and insert it again in a different slot. Check if Windows can detect it. Also try other drivers, specially the latest 3.01.00 reference driver, which is a good driver IMHO, unlike the latest Voodoo2 reference driver. If you want me to test something else, just let me know.

I tried all of my PCI slots, no change. Tried 3.01.00 (or glide2x.ovl version 2.48 as it is), no change. Last ditch effort, went through my BIOS configuration, set "PnP OS installed" to No and manually assigned all IRQs (except 5, which is for my ISA SB AWE64) for PCI use, and set "Init Display First" to PCI from AGP. No change.

Booting to Windows 98 on the other partition does detect the Voodoo (although I've elected not to install the Voodoo driver there at all to minimize possible conflicts, having Voodoo3 drivers there is sufficient for now). And, as we've proven, Tomb Raider working flawlessly in DOS now proves that the card is detectable.

It's starting to look like "just one of those things." The 3dfx patch for Carmageddon is apparently shitty and unreliable, not built to handle all contingencies. Unless you or someone else can come up with some BIOS config change or other magic trick, I don't see a way of getting it to forcibly detect my Voodoo card in any way or form.

The last thing I can think of is to try the Voodoo2 version of the 3dfx patch, VOODO2C.EXE. I'm not optimistic, but at least it's something I've not yet tried because I haven't found the file. According to this forum post, I might even be able to force the game to try and use the Voodoo 3 card instead with the -vrush parameter and a newer glide2x.ovl version, say 2.61. Who knows.

If you could attach the Voodoo 2 executable (and any required files that are not included in the official 3dfx patch, if any) or post it to Dropbox or something, that'd be great.

Ok, I've uploaded all my Carmageddon patches. IRQ settings in BIOS won't have any effect on Voodoo 1 or 2 because these cards don't need an IRQ.

And no, setting up a Voodoo Graphics should not be that hard. I've never had any serious problem but desktop corruption when I used my Voodoo^2 with a Radeon as primary graphics card (a well known bug). I personally think this problem must be related to the game, and not the 3dfx card itself.

Thanks for the patches! I was in luck; copying glide2x.ovl version 2.61 into the game directory and running it with voodo2c.exe -vrush worked great with the Voodoo3. No gfx issues that I could find, and no crashes in my brief testing.

Looks like it's good to have two generations of Voodoo in a retro rig just to cover all bases 😀

Does anyone have anyone have tips on how to get Carmageddon Max pack working with a standard Voodoo 1? I'm using the 2.48 driver.
It seems to work fine until about 30 seconds into a race where it crashes with a page fault (Windows 95 and DOS)

I've tried a few patches and nothing has worked so far. I did manage to get a different version of the game working Win95 UK Zombie version with 3dfx but not the Max Pack

Ignore, i've got it working.
For those that need help, I sacked off my Max pack CDs and found a version that was pre packaged for DOSbox on archive.org. This comes with Voodo2C.exe and some glide dlls in the pre installed folder.
I copied the folder, used by max pack cd at at this point and used Voodo2C.exe to run the game.

A total mess of a 3dfx patch and never got it working when I was ~14. No wonder. Through modern day internet support it's now working, almost 25 years later