akula65
Full Member
Offline
Don't Feed the Trolls
Posts: 155
Gender:
|
There is no "official" EA patch for the game to enable 3dfx/Glide, and there is no official EA support for 3dfx/Glide mode. However, the developers did include the voodoo2a.dll, but the only way to enable it is to use the registry modifications outlined above.
If you use the registry changes listed above to enable 3dfx/Glide, you will NOT see the 3dfx splash screen when the game starts even though you ARE in 3dfx/Glide mode.
If you use the registry changes listed above to enable 3dfx/Glide and you use the 3D Device Setup program to see what mode you are using, it will report that you are in Software Rendering Mode, but you are not. If you use the 3D Device Setup program to make changes after manually applying the registry changes listed above, it will wipe out your manual 3dfx/Glide registry entries and put the game back in Software Rendering mode or D3D mode, whichever you choose.
I just installed the game and used the registry changes above on a machine with a Voodoo5 and 3dfx Voodoo5 Version 1.04.00 Reference Drivers, and it works well in 3dfx/Glide mode in 640x480 resolution. With 4 Sample Anti-Aliasing, the jaggies are gone and the dust and specular effects are nicely blended compared to the D3D mode. Rendering is smooth regardless of circumstances, and this is quite different from using 4 Sample Anti-Aliasing in D3D mode. D3D AA in 640x480 mode is sometimes smooth, sometimes jerky, and it doesn't look nearly as good as 3dfx/Glide AA mode.
Since you have a Voodoo4, you can't get as much improvement from anti-aliasing as a Voodoo5 user can. If you tend to run at a higher resolution, any improvements in Glide vs. D3D are probably going to be more subtle as well. If you are using 3rd-party drivers instead of 3dfx Reference Drivers, that may change your results as well (could be better in some respects, could be worse in others).
|