Hello everyone. I mistakenly posted this question in the General Discussion forum (oops!) so I'll try my luck here.  I'm trying to decide which driver to use for my Voodoo card.  My 6 year old rig consists of the following:

Athlon 900
512Meg RAM
Voodoo 3 2000
WinXP SP2

Games that I play on it:
-  Quake (EZQuake)
-  Quake 3 Arena (point release 1.32)
- Diablo 2
- Frets On Fire
- Warcraft 2.

I'm planning on getting UT 2004. Does it have GL support or is it just strictly D3D?

I've read a lot of posts here about drivers, etc and it's come down to these 2 (which I've downloaded but not yet installed;waiting, no, counting on your feedback):

- AmigaSport 3.0
- SFFT Alpha 47

From what I've read the AmigaSport drivers is best for all around use and the SFFT Alpha 47 is more geared towards newer games with some issues with old games (and best for D3D games).

Based on the games that I play, what would you recommend?

Also I've downloaded WickedGL302.zip and MesaFX v06202.  Which of these two would you recommend (again based on my play list)? Pros/Cons.

Also, should I uninstall the MS drivers first or just let the 3rd party drivers do their thing?

In the event that something goes screwy, the rollback feature should just put things back to its previous state, correct?

I've been away from the 'net and computers for awhile and just getting back into it again.

When I was playing Quake 3 using the MSXP supplied drivers for my V3 2K card I thought it was set (thought I had a openGL driver installed with XP), getting decent framerates but when I tried playing ezquake-gl it gave me an error msg. saying GLW_StartOpen()- could not load OpenGL Subsystem. So that made me think something was missing. Sure enough, the MSXP supplied drivers were just insufficient.  That lead me on a quest to find good drivers for my Voodoo card. It took me awhile but I found the 3dfx archive and this forum. And I'm glad I did as there seems to be a lot of knowledgeable and experienced people on this forum regarding 3dfx products.

Sorry for the long post but I would appreciate any feedback you can provide.

Great forum!

p.s.
Do any of these drivers include a control panel app that will let me control the settings for my Voodoo 3 2k ?

If not what control panel app do you recommend me getting? Thanks again!

SFFT drivers are only really recommended if you are trying to play newer games which aren't 'really' meant to work on the Voodoo cards...

i.e. Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey, etc...

If you're using the system for classic games, just go for Amigasport 3.0

(also the fact that SFFT are beta drivers and can be unstable)

Thanks for your suggestion on what driver to use! I am leaning towards AmigaSport but which of the two is better to use with AmigaSport:

WickedGL

or

MesaFX?

..I think I should really create a small FAQ about this ::)

anyway,to answer your question first,I would recommend Amigasport 3.0xp (make sure you have a look at the readme before installing),updated with the most compatible retro glide2x/glide3x/opengl (just unpack to your windows/system32 folder after you install the driver,overwriting the previous files).plus wickedgl for quake3 based games.this should give you optimal performance in the games you mentioned (with the exception of UT2004,which wont run good on that system under ANY circumstances.Frets On Fire may need some additional tweaking too).

now,if you want to know why did I recommend all that stuff,continue reading,but be warned,it may be a bit too technical :P

1) why amigasport? the answer is simple,you want to use the pc for retro/light gaming,that means you need a fast,stable driver that runs old(er) games.SFFT is great if you really need a DX8 compatible driver (which you dont),but sometimes it can behave really erratic,and it tends to be a bit slower too.

2) why that extra package with glide drivers? the package contains 3 files:
-latest original glide2x from 3dfx-maybe not as fast in unreal tournament as the glide2x to glide3x wrapper included in amigasport,but much,much more compatible with all those glide2x games out there (diablo2).
-latest glide3x release from dborca (creator of mesaFX)-this is just an updated glide3x,you will need it if you want to use mesaFX.
-the latest opengl icd from 3dfx-maybe not as compatible with newer games as the opengl interceptor included in amigasport,but way better for retro opengl stuff like quake1/2 etc.

3) wickedgl.this is the right thing if you want to play quake3 based games.small note-it wont work right unless you use that glide package ;)

3) mesaFX.this the latest opengl driver for 3dfx cards.very,very compatible,but it tends to be slower that wickedgl or default 3dfx opengl icd.dont use unless you need the compatibility boost or some of the special fixes (I think Frets On Fire may need mesaFX,we will see).note-wont work right unless you (guess what) use the glide3x from that extra package.

note: mesafx and wickedgl are not driver-dependant and can be used simultaneously (example: you can use wickedgl for quake3 and mesafx for frets on fire at the same time).

hope I didnt bore you to death ;D

ps47: Thanks for your FAQ! It was really helpful. I've decided to use AmigaSport 3.0 for my driver.

I have the amigasport-win2k_xp-30.zip taken from here:

http://www.falconfly-central.de/downloads/amigasport-win2k_xp-30.zip

When I look in the .zip, all I see is

amigasport3.0finalbuildfull.exe

There's no readme.txt. I'm concerned because if there's something I have to do before installing AmigaSport I would like to know so I don't screw anything up on my end. Did I d/l the right AmigaSport.zip?

its a self extracting archive,if memory serves.run it and it will unpack the driver,so you will be able to run the installer..including the readme just to be sure:


Code:

********************************************************************************  AMIGASPORT 3.0 FOR MS WINDOWS 2000/XP AND 3DFX VOODOO3 2000/3000/3500TV CARD win2k,xp Display Driver:  5.00.2195.0232 - 3dfx win2k,xp Miniport:        5.01.00.2604       - 3dhq Glide(tm) 3.X Driver:     3.10.00.30303  - glide.sourceforge.net Glide(tm) 2.X Driver:     1.0.1.106      - Colourless OpenGL(r) Driver Version: 1.0.0.0761 ICD - 3dfx http://www.3dfxzone.it ******************************************************************************** [ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS] This is a result of many people's contribution of technical knowledge and hard work. If you intend to distribute this kit, please do not modify or edit any of its contents. Thanks goes to all the glide.sourceforge.net project members, Colourless for their great Glide drivers. And special thanks to all beta testers!! [CONTACTS] Sport        <sport_3dfx@tiscali.it> Amigamerlin  <Amigamerlin@3dfxzone.it> Daniel Borca <dborca@3dfxzone.it> Glide        <glide@3dfxzone.it> KoolSmoky    <koolsmoky@3dfxzone.it> 1. Uninstall your previous driver and 3dfxToolkit 2. Run "Driver Setup.exe" in the extracted directory. 3. Restart your system. 4. Run "setup.exe" and follow the instructions 5. Restart your system. To list a few of the changes; New GLide and OpenGL driver Clone Option for TV-OUT (For Voodoo3 with TV-OUT) Fixed so that the original 3dfx Glide driver will work with out any hacks for winxp. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< For more information, visit the forums at http://www.3dfxzone.it Information regarding Glide can be found at http://www.sf.net/projects/glide >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

edit: tried Frets On Fire,no go.runs,but performance is terrible (looking at the readme,no wonder,opengl card with pixel shaders is recommended)..on athlonxp 1100/voodoo3 2000.

Ok. I'll give it a shot. If I don't post back that means I probably b0rked something hehe!

I agree with the slow performance of Frets on Fire. That's why I got the mod (MegaLights)  to reduce the poly count and greatly speed up its performance. Works great and I can now hit the notes:

http://www.mediafire.com/?209zdofe2sb

Changes
##################################
*Everything is blank except for the neck, 3d models, and title
*Use of my low-poly GH Notes
*Seafoo's N00b keys
*Get really high FPS on low-end machines
*Low-poly guitar cases, and cassettes
*1.2 Only

@ps47 to the rescue! 8-)

I'll leave this up to you mate...too many of my friends asking me to repair laptops and games consoles ATM... ;)

Whew! I just finished playing EZQuake in GL mode (been playing since I installed the AmigaSport drivers right after I posted here.. I'm starving hehe) and all I can say is 'WOW'. It brought back memories of the first time I booted up GLQuake on my Monster 3D. I forgot how sweet it looked. I'm getting between 60 - 134 fps @ 640x480 (playing against FrogBots) using normal setting and lots of effects turned off. Using Fastest setting gave me between 80 fps - 190 fps (sometimes hitting > 200 fps).  I haven't even played around with all the settings yet in game or in 3dfx tools.

Quake 3 I haven't noticed a difference (I'm looking around for the command to bring up the FPS counter in the upper right corner of the screen.. it's been awhile) but it's probably because I haven't installed the WickedGL yet. What I did notice was I can choose Voodoo as a custom setting now but not much different from default.

What I did was just took the opengl32.dll and glide32.dll from the MesaFX.zip and dumped it in my Quake(1) folder, just to get a taste of it :) But I'll install Wicked right now after posting...
then play some more! (sleep, what's that?). Good stuff.

One thing I noticed though is that after playing EZQuakeGL and I watch an mpeg (using MediaPlayer 9) the screen turns all skitzy (horizantal technicolor lines all over the place).  This doesn't happen after playing Q3 though. No sweat.A reboot fixes the problem.

Thanks for taking the time to explain ps47!

UPDATE:
Just finished installing WickedGL. Like mentioned above and as confirmation on my end, it helps in Quake 3 have a stable framerate during lots of onscreen action.

I can't use WickedGL in Quake(1) because I have the ezquake-gl.exe client and it's looking for the original GLQuake. I'll download it and compare it with ezquake-gl. For that I just use the opengl32.dll included in MesaFX :)

Regarding my mpeg problem, it went away after I unzipped the sfft.zip in my windows/system32 folder. All in all, extremely satisfied!

Oh yea, installed UT 2004 demo and it's playable against a few bots but have to turn settings all the way down and it looks like crap. I tried messing around with the .ini and stuff but it won't start. Guess I'm stuck with playing it with Direct3D :P

I recently did a fresh install of Win98 over the weekend. I loaded the original Voodoo 3 2k drivers (from the original CD) then updated to the last drivers that 3dfx put out and loaded up Quake. It seems I'm getting about 2 fps - 5fps more than I was under WinXP (using AmigaSport. Also around the same 'boost'  in fps with Q3.

hehe, you can be lucky that UT2004 even runs with a Voodoo3.

I remember talking to Mark Rein about the 3dfx support in UT2003 back then, and the result was the working, but somewhat poor looking Voodoo3 Support.
I actually didn't realize they ported 3dfx support to UT2004 as well. Sweet.

(I also remember using the Beta Software renderer in UT2003, actually worked quite well, considering I was playing the most demanding 3D Shooter of its time in pure Software Rendering...)

I can confirm that,ut2004 runs on a voodoo3 and actually has fewer errors than ut2003,but no matter what you do,its still too slow to play..even on 2Ghz+ cpu.

blitzfire wrote on 05.03.08 at 05:44:06:

What I did was just took the opengl32.dll and glide32.dll from the MesaFX.zip and dumped it in my Quake(1) folder

not a good move.mesafx is not exactly quake1 friendly.minigl/icd/wickedgl will do a much better job.as I said,you should only use mesafx when you really need to..keep in mind that while it is compatible and supports many opengl extensions,it is slower (in most cases) than any other 3dfx opengl driver..

FalconFly: Yeah, I had to turn the settings all the way down making UT2k4 butt ugly. Oh well, I'll stick with Quake :) UT moves too slowly anyway (gameplay, not fps!)

ps47: The problem with WickedGL in my case is that it looks for the GLQuake client (glquake.exe) but I use ezquake-gl.exe (quakeworld client). I  renamed ezquake-gl.exe to glquake.exe but nothing happened (it just goes to a blank screen but you could hear the sounds going on). But I heeded your advice removed the opengl32.dll from MesaFx from the Quake dir.

p.s. just for informational purposes: 3dfx tools won't completely install in safe mode!