3dfx Archive - glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k

Chris Haley

Guest

glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
26.12.03 at 12:37:45

Can anyone help?
I'm running win2k using the latest official win2k drivers with a voodoo 3 3000 card (driver vsn 5.0.2195.232, glide3x vsn 3.10.00.658) and writing to the glide3 api. (Yes I know it's not as up to date as directX, but directX has a design fault when using multipass texture blending and fog, which glide does not).

Anyway, when I enumerate display modes, it correctly lists all the resolutions and refresh rates, but whatever refresh rate I actually set when starting up glide (eg 85Hz) it always actually sets it to 60Hz, even though the higher rate is supported and DirectX allows it to be set. In fact I use 85Hz all the time on the Windows desktop, so it's clearly supported by the card.

I've tried using the 3dhq tols to set 85Hz as the rate for 1024x768 (even though this should not be needed) but it makes no difference.

So how do I get glide to use the refresh rate I want? Is this a programming issue, or a glide/driver bug?

Thanks for the help.

Back to top

IP Logged

v33kq2 YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 5	Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k Reply #1 - 26.12.03 at 13:11:28 It's a Win2k/WinXP thing as I understand it. Look up a program on google called "RefreshLock", freeware I believe, just a small little program. It will allow you to force whatever refresh rate you want at a given resolution/bit-depth. I used it with my Nvidia card on Win2k with good results.
Back to top	IP Logged

Micha

Senior Member

Offline

Got milk?

Posts: 317
Gender: male

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #2 - 26.12.03 at 14:23:55

v33kq2 is right, it's a win 2k/xp specific bug appearing on all graphics accellerators only in Glide & OpenGL modes.
well, the 3dhq tools should solve the problem as they come with koolsmoky's v.control, if I'm right Undecided

.
anyway, you can also try
http://www.3dfxzone.it/koolsmoky/vctrl.html
to get the actual version. here's the way to do:
1. set your framerate for your resolution
2. don't forget to apply the 'auto apply these settings when v.control is active'-field
3. --> leave v.control as active
4. start your game in your setted screen resolution, should work now Wink

Back to top

AMD Athlon XP Thorton 2400+/2GHz (256KB L2, FSB DDR266MHz) @ Barton 2800+/2.083GHz (512KB L2, FSB DDR333MHz), HIS Radeon 9800Pro, Kingston 768MB PC2700 DDR-RAM (CL 2-3-3-7), Asus A7V8X-X, Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS, Seagate 160GB 7200rpm ATA100 HDD, be quiet! 400Watt PSU, Windows XP Pro MCE05

IP Logged

janskjaer

Ex Member

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #3 - 15.04.04 at 17:51:15

Hey guys,
I'm having this problem on the Voodoo3 3000 PCI. Undecided

Installed it last night with the latest AmigaSport 3.0 drivers for WinXP.

Ran the 3dfx donut demo to see if the card was running fine, and the refresh rate is either so high or so low, that it scrambles on the screen! Embarrassed

I still have DirectX 8.1 installed (default from the WinXP installation, don't know if that affects it or not).

I tried running the Windows 3D Text screensaver, as that is only the OpenGL based piece of software I have on the machine right now as I've just done a fresh install. Tried that and it seemed to struggle a bit but worked successfully in the end, but the screensaver preview would not work, in the little monitor illustration in the Display Properties settings. Weird.
So I ran DxDiag and ran the Direct3D tests, and they ran absolutely fine. Sounds like Micha is right, and the fact is, is that it is only a problem with Glide or OpenGL based stuff.

Anyone have any further advice which may help, or shall I try out the tools above?

Back to top

IP Logged

Micha

Senior Member

Offline

Got milk?

Posts: 317
Gender: male

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #4 - 15.04.04 at 19:46:47

for voodoos, v.control is just the best to overcome this problem..
well it also appears on battlefield 1942 & battlefield vietnam; both are directx based..dunno why. some ogl programmers fixed the problem by giving you a refresh control inside the game, but that's rare stuff at the moment & voodoo cards are mostly not affected by (as most games won't support a voodoo)

Back to top

AMD Athlon XP Thorton 2400+/2GHz (256KB L2, FSB DDR266MHz) @ Barton 2800+/2.083GHz (512KB L2, FSB DDR333MHz), HIS Radeon 9800Pro, Kingston 768MB PC2700 DDR-RAM (CL 2-3-3-7), Asus A7V8X-X, Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS, Seagate 160GB 7200rpm ATA100 HDD, be quiet! 400Watt PSU, Windows XP Pro MCE05

IP Logged

janskjaer

Ex Member

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #5 - 16.04.04 at 15:47:57

More anomolies! Undecided

I installed the 30/60Hz Glide demo and the Orchid Glide demos (ATS Flip and Demoroom). They worked perfectly in Glide. I didn't install the VoodooControl or anything else for that matter. It seems my Voodoo3 just has trouble running the donut demo in a stable refresh rate. All other benchmarks work fine.
Is it possible that the 3dfx donut demo was hard coded to run at a bizarre refresh rate? ???

I suppose I could try running the donut demo after changing the setting with VoodooControl but I've just packaged the card back up in it's box and put it into my cupboard, and I can't be arsed to get it back out again! Wink

Back to top

IP Logged

Andrew Boiu

Senior Member

Offline

LDE-BDreams

Posts: 267
LDE-BDreams
Gender: male

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #6 - 04.05.04 at 09:49:16

In respect to this refreshrate problem, it seems to happen for all the videocards driver for windows 2k/XP. No matter if you have a 3dfx/S3/Nvidia/ATI card, you get to the same result: stuck in 60 Hz in Dx and OpenGL apps, and in Glide too, for 3dfx cards.

I've never heard of RefreshLock until now. What can I say is that if the program eats some CPU cycles it's not the best way, but hopefully there is at least a sollution to the 60 Hz refresh-rate.

In general, regarding D3D there is a direct approach to that 60 Hz problem. About OpenGL is a bit more complicated.

What is uncertain is that if ATI drivers are having the same problem under windows 98 SE (locked in 60 Hz, strange for this Windows). I have seen that on a Radeon 9000.

Back to top

IP Logged

FalconFly

YaBB Administrator

Offline

3dfx Archivist

Posts: 2445
5335N 00745E
Gender: male

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #7 - 04.05.04 at 10:42:04

Hmm...

ATI Win9x/ ME Drivers indeed have a Bug (since more than a year now), which occurs on many older Monitors when the Card attempts to read its DDC1/2 parameters.

Fix :
Goto Registry and enter a new DALRULE Key (Binary) :
"CRTSUPPORTSALLMODES" = 1

Win2000/XP (native 60Hz Bug)

Option 1 :
Force Refresh Overrive via DXdiag

Start-->Run-->dxdiag-->Further Help-->Override-->Value for Overrive (insert desired Refresh rate)

Shortcomings :
Direct3D Only
Only one Refresh rate for all Resolutions

Option 2 :

Utilities Refreshlock / RefreshForce
http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/

There are other, ATI/NVidia/PoverVR specific Tools as well, and a few more advanced possibilities (tweak monitor.inf or manually work it from the Registry).

Back to top

« Last Edit: 04.05.04 at 10:42:18 by FalconFly »

WebMaster FalconFly Central 3dfx Archive

IP Logged

Andrew Boiu

Senior Member

Offline

LDE-BDreams

Posts: 267
LDE-BDreams
Gender: male

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #8 - 04.05.04 at 10:46:18

I knew this sollution to Win2000/XP refresh-rate problem and ATI's problem in Windows 98, but I must say that this simply works for any videocard, and on Win98 and Win 2000/XP as well. Still the problem remains on OpenGL and Glide, although they both use DirectDraw, and there should be a way to force the DDraw to work only with the desired refresh-rate, not the fixed one through the registry.

However as far as I know, making a new monitor.inf doesn't really help. The same monitor.inf that don't make a change on refreshrates on Win2K (it is from the Windows drivers kit) works perfectly on Win98SE.

I suspected the system registry being the cause, but as far as there is no driver at the moment to overcome this problem, I am thinking that the problem is much more complicated to solve.

Back to top

« Last Edit: 04.05.04 at 10:50:43 by Andrew Boiu »

IP Logged

Micha

Senior Member

Offline

Got milk?

Posts: 317
Gender: male

Re: glide refresh rate stuck at 60hz on win2k
Reply #9 - 04.05.04 at 14:17:40

well..let's sum up:
ATI
there's an option in the drivers menu (at least in winnt5.x) to set a unique refresh rate for all 3d apis & resolutions.
NVidia
you can set refresh rates for all resolutions in the drivers menu (settings also for both apis)
3dfx
v.control, as said above..really doesn't eat up much cpu power

& of course not to forget, the override in dxdiag for d3d, as falcon said..

Back to top

« Last Edit: 04.05.04 at 14:19:35 by Micha »

AMD Athlon XP Thorton 2400+/2GHz (256KB L2, FSB DDR266MHz) @ Barton 2800+/2.083GHz (512KB L2, FSB DDR333MHz), HIS Radeon 9800Pro, Kingston 768MB PC2700 DDR-RAM (CL 2-3-3-7), Asus A7V8X-X, Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS, Seagate 160GB 7200rpm ATA100 HDD, be quiet! 400Watt PSU, Windows XP Pro MCE05

IP Logged

	Welcome, Guest. Please Login