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Which Driver for K6-2+/ Voodoo 4/5 machine? (Read 794 times)
gdonovan
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Re: Which Driver for K6-2+/ Voodoo 4/5 machine?
Reply #15 - 30.12.07 at 15:51:21
 
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Just because I am curious: Did at least some of the 3rd party programmers actually have the source code of the stock 3dfx drivers - or how else could anybody work on the driver cores itselves?



Yes, the source code has been floating around for several years now if you know where to look.
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FalconFly
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Re: Which Driver for K6-2+/ Voodoo 4/5 machine?
Reply #16 - 31.12.07 at 00:00:40
 
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Do you remember, how the Reid x3dfx 1.07.00 drivers were rated back then? You highlight them as recommended in your driver table (for Win9x). And you state "...based on the last official 3dfx DirectX Beta Core". As this is not being said about 1.08.04b, I suppose it does already have an overworked DirectX core. Is that correct? Thanks.

Roby


That's a very long time ago, but if memory serves me well, the x3dfx 1.07.00 introduced their Driver series to the public with great success, competed only by OmegaDriver's Releases.

I actually don't remember why I put that note (technically, it would mean that these VSA-100 DirectX Cores are using the Voodoo3 DX8 Beta core, which seems odd today - but I remember this actually worked in this direction, not the way around)

None of these x3dfx Drivers had an actually rewritten core, they were still limited to usage and max. exploitation of existing Cores at that time.
The OpenGL Core was 'touched' but to no real effect - 3dHQ later also claimed to have a reworked OpenGL core in the works but it never came from them...

I have a copy of an old Source Package floating somewhere on my HD as well, but from what I heard it is only one of several existing (supposedly it's the oldest one and became obsolete after the finding of a more recent one)
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« Last Edit: 31.12.07 at 00:03:05 by FalconFly »  
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Roby
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Re: Which Driver for K6-2+/ Voodoo 4/5 machine?
Reply #17 - 04.01.08 at 05:11:08
 
Hi FalconFly and all others,

This table shows which cores belong to which driver (until the end of the x-3dfx age):

Driver     .     .    Glide Core   .   DirectX Core  .  OpenGL ICD
=============================================
V3   1.07.00     2.61.00.0658     4.12.01.0666     1.0.0.0734
V3   1.07.00b    2.61.00.0674     4.13.01.0027     1.0.0.0761
=============================================
V4/5 1.04.00     2.61.00.0658     4.12.01.0666     1.0.0.0734
V4/5 1.04.01b    2.61.00.0658     4.12.01.0666     1.0.0.0761
V4/5 1.07.00b    2.61.00.0674     4.13.01.0027     1.0.0.0761
V4/5 1.07.00     2.61.00.0674     4.13.01.0028     1.0.0.0761
V4/5 1.07.01     2.61.00.0674     4.13.01.0028     1.0.0.0761
V4/5 1.08.04b    2.61.00.0674     4.12.01.0666     1.0.0.0761

By the way: I find it confusing, that V3 1.07.00b was released later than V3 1.07.00...

Interesting also to see, that x-3dfx's 1.08.04b steps back to the 4.12.01.0666 DirectX core. It is a kind of confirmation of what can be read in some forums: 1.07.00 is sometimes claimed to suffer from occasional image distortions in D3D. For instance, for "The Sims" (a DX7 game released in 2000) severe clipping issues were reported and for a different game (I cannot recall which) ugly plain green or white textures. On the other hand, x3dfx 1.07.00 is reported to offer better DX8 support than its predecessors. This is the dilemma: x3dfx 1.07.00's DirectX core does provide better DirectX 8 support, but is obviously not yet mature, while 3dfx 1.04.01b does not yet provide proper DX 8 compatibility, but seems to be more stable and predictable in terms of image quality.

The first REAL DX8 games were not released before November 2001: In October 2001, the #21 issue of the famous German PC magazine "c't" stated, that the first DX8 games were still pending, but expected for the next months. Actually, the next month "Aquanox" was released, which probably was one of the very first REAL DX8 games ever. I am stressing "REAL", because there were some games before, that required DX8 to be installed, although they actually did not use any DX8 features. "Max Payne" (released in June 2001) is one example. This was probably a sole marketing move in order to make these games appear more "state of the art" than they were.

To me, the conclusion is that I don't need DX8 support, since my planned K6-2+ rig won't be able to run most games released after 2001 anyway.

As I don't need DX8 compatible drivers, another question comes up: Why do you recommend the 1.04.00 drivers over 1.04.01b (don't know wether you can recall that)? Thanks.

Roby
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« Last Edit: 06.01.08 at 13:01:13 by Roby »  
 
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