have you tried the AmigaMerlin or SFFT drivers for Windows XP?

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If you got this one working on Windows XP I'd like to know how.

Ah, well don't get your hopes up on NFS3. It doesn't work on WindowsXP.

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Hmm, that's interesting... I tried win ME and I never could have started the DOS mode in it. Thought that ME was crippled Win98 (without DOS support)...

Anyway, Amigamerlin driver doesn't have the option to fix the refresh rate problem, so you can as well skip that one, or get a TFT monitor. That's the reason I got back to the 3dfx HQ drivers. With 1.09 drivers NFS:HS runs flawlessly, as well as rollcage and Baldurs gate. However, Wizardry 8 doesn't work with them. I never tried SFFT, but hopefully it'll work out.

amigamerlin3.1=SFFT A29

and there is no need to run an older version (A29) once you have a much newer one (A42) available..as for the "ALPHA" status,I really think SFFT should drop the alpha suffix,as it is obviously scaring people away making them think its something that crashes every 5 minutes and you have to run 5 debugger programs together with it just to make it a bit more usable.

the driver is dead stable for me,and I dont have any problems with games as well,old&newer alike (very new games are usually buggy,but I'm not running those and Aussie is not goint to run them as well,considering his system specs),and I must say I really enjoy the extra features and improvements SFFT has made,so when I say its worth if,I mean it

as for the xp refresh idiotism,it can be fixed either with vcontrol (link in my previous post),or with voodoo frequency selector (this one works best for me).


wooooo,SFFT for the president

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Nah, DOS mode in Me is still awkward to get at...

Also '98 with the unofficial SP2 is still more stable!

Hi Guys,
Well I'm back again with some results. Firstly thanks to everyone for your ongoing advice so far. It's great. 

To give each version a fair chance for testing driver performance I formatted the hard disk and freshly installed WinXP & SP2 between each attempt (so there was no chance of latent effect from each earlier 3Dfx driver version).

First off I installed and tried:
AmigaMerlin V3.1-R11 WinXP/Win2K
-= Latest Release =-

The results were desktop image was sparkling sharp with image colours brilliant.
Then I installed Sachs Marine Aquarium screen saver which is always my first test software. I started the screen saver in default desktop resolution, which I run in 32bit 1024x768 on my Hitachi 20" monitor.
No good, the results the same as I've seen before where the water is blue but the fish, rocks & bubbles are white.
Then I installed Need 4 Speed II SE (old basic 3Dfx game), started the 3Dfx game vers exe and got the splash screen and intro movie then all went multi coloured large blocks of about 3"x3". finally the PC froze and needed reset.
Un-daunted I tried Sports Car GT. I installed and set the graphics to 3Dfx Voodoo 5. This managed to load to the game play but before I could complete even half the track it crashed the PC (auto restart on failure was ticked). I then decided I'd give up on AmigaMerlin V3.1-R11 WinXP/Win2K.

I formatted the hard disk re-load WinXP & SP2 and followed the instructions by ps47 for:
SFFT A42 driver with the latest 3dfx tools v2.6.1.110
No problems with that at all. Very nice instructions from ps47 (you put a lot of work into making it easy for me, I know)
Then couldn't get the link to work for the "this archive to your windows/system32 folder" I get booted before the download completes - this might be a members only download site.
Well I proceeded to get the the latest 3dfx tools v2.6.1.110. no worries so I installed these and re-started the PC to begin testing, without the original glide/opengl files.
The results were that the first thing I noticed was the desktop image was not as sparkling sharp, with image having a faded / blurred quality. Not terrible but just enough to notice and to make it a little hard to read white text on the blue background. Your eyes could get tired reading this all the time.
I installed Sachs Marine Aquarium screen saver and again started the screen saver in default desktop resolution = 32bit 1024x768. Whacko!!! - the first time ever on WinXP to get full colours, good Tiffany Clock image and at up to 95 FPS
I then installed  Need 4 Speed II SE and started the 3Dfx game vers exe. Got the splash screen and intro movie and ran the whole game. No Problems here!!
Crikey . . . I can't stop smiling.

I then tried Sports Car GT. I installed and set the graphics to 3Dfx Voodoo 5. This managed to load to the game menue screen but began playing up with black curser sized block trail behind the cursor. Moving the cursor around more and the game froze. I reset the PC and went straight back into the game, selected options with a minimum of cursor movement and into the game play. I managed to cover some laps without crashing so I left the game. Very Glitchy but seems to work.

I then had an idea to try on 16bit 1024x768 and tried the Sachs screen saver again. Still good colour but when exiting I got a blank screen and had to move the cursor over in the dark to find and click the Show Desktop in Quick Launch to return to the Desktop. ???
I change back to 32bit and the screen saver comes out back to the desktop no problems.

16bit colours gives the driver gas

Next I load Carmageddon and run 3Dfx version. This gives a frozen black screen and no way to get out without hitting reset.

I then tried StarWars Racer. This ran through all menues and in the game as well as it did under WinME.

I also tried the Quantum Flux Screen savers (all at my desktop resolution) and found that, (1) VIM 3.0 - frozen black screen (2) VIM 3.3 - runs smooth n sweet (3) VIM 4.0 - runs smooth n sweet (4) VIM Raptor - runs smooth n sweet @ 60.06 fps 8)

I then tried to copy some original glide/opengl files from 3dfx CD into windows/system32 folder, as this hadn't installed as ps47 had said to, but I mucked something up and colours are now a mess with a GREEN 3Dfx splash screen, blocks and crashes.

No drama. Just format and start again.

My findings so far is:

AmigaMerlin V3.1-R11 - not on my machine

SFFT A42 driver with the latest 3dfx tools v2.6.1.110 - looking good but still some distance to go yet. (is there another link to try for those original glide/opengl files to copy into windows/system32 folder - I'm up for another try with that). Also I'll give the vcontrol a run through next installation cycle.

Original 3Dfx drivers and Tools on Mistaken Edition - Still blitzing the field, but I'm persistant and hopeful to get similar in WinXP eventually.

That's where I'm up to so far. Keep throwing ideas guys they are really helpful.

I didn't try loading the VIA drivers for the motherboard in this testing. I read elsewhere that someone complained that VIA drivers particularly with AMD boards gave 3Dfx gas although I'm running Intel PIII CPU & not AMD - any opinions there?

Thanks again so far.
Cheers
Greg

..just try to download the fix archive again,it is a public download (I know that for sure),the site was probably simply undergoing some maintenance when you tried to download it last time..btw have you tried win9x compatibility for those old games? some of them may actually refuse to run correctly because of xp,and not because of your voodoo drivers