Hi all...Im a n00b to voodoo cards and could really use some help..Been playing F16 MRF by Novalogic for about 3+ yeras with an ATI rage ultra 128...Recently got a voodoo card and the excitement is wanning cause I really havent a clue what Ive done/not done...lol...origanaly posted on Voodoo files forum and was told to download the Amigasport 3.0 for xp which Ive done...seems my glide just dont want to work in this game...its the only game I play too.. My graphics look exactly the same as the ati rage....when this game is loading its supposed to say "loading 3d accelerated hardware"..however is doesnt...I have the glide enabled in the game options but just doesnt work it seems....I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it also and got the latest update for the game...what am I missing?..thanx for any and all help!!!

Hm, for such an old Game, you might simply try using an older Driver (those are archived for a reason).

Since the Game has only minimal requirements, it might actually be that it has native support (shipping with own Glide files) for Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 only.
While the Voodoo3 was always able to run most older Glide Titles, a few incompatibilities were also known.

In that case, you would have to look out for Glide Core files (e.g. named glide2x etc.), and either remove them, so the Game must use the installed Glide Files from the Driver...
...or manually replace them with copies of the installed Glide files found in your System directory.

Either way would force the Game to use the Voodoo3 Glide files, and have the old ones removed/deactivated.

In case there isn't anything to be found in the Game installation at all, the Files might either be incorporated into the engine (very unlikely), or the Glide files with your AmigaSport are simply too new/optimized for the old Game.

In that case, an older Driver really should have more 'compatible', "oldschool" Glide Files that suit your special situation better.
-----------
Another Option :
Try one of the available "Glide switchers".
Those can swap around different Sets of Glide Files 'on-the-fly' , which makes testing more easy.
(don't know how well those work under WinXP though, but technically, they should)

Oh, and while I'm sure you already have :
Make sure you got the latest Patches (if available) installed for the Game of course...
...many of the few Companies offering Glide Games and encountering problems with a Voodoo3 created patches for their Titles.

It may not be of much help, but here is what I see on my system with F-16 MRF:

My system has the following components

  Soyo SY-7VCAE Motherboard
  Intel Pentium III  933 MHz Socket 370 Processor
  3dfx Voodoo5 64MB AGP Graphics Adapter (3dfx Reference Driver Version 1.04)
  Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Platinum (Model SB4760P)
  256 MB SDRAM
  Microsoft Windows 98 SE
  DirectX 8.1b

I installed F-16 MRF and then the f16upd8.exe patch.  Under the Options option, the Video/Performance screen shows the following without any changes made by me:

  3D Card Driver:  3D Voodoo1/Voodoo2 (Glide)
  3D Acceleration:  Enabled

When I start actual gameplay, I see the 3dfx splash screen and then the following message:

  Loading
     3D Hardware accelerated


The Readme.txt indicates the following:



3DFX Support:
-------------

F-16 supports 3dfx compatible cards.  If you experience problems with
graphics display, it may be because you do not have the most recent
Glide drivers.  We've found that there are many graphic "glitches"
associated with older 3dfx drivers.  You should check your video card
manufacturers' website for their latest drivers.  3dfx also maintains a
website at http://www.3dfx.com .  You can find links to most video card
manufactures on their site.  Also on the site are "reference drivers"
for the various 3dfx chipsets (Voodoo, Voodoo Rush, Vooodoo 2.)  These
are generic drivers which may not support particular features on your
card, but contain the most up-to-date driver fixes.

Issues:

Voodoo RUSH: Run the game with menus in Window'ed mode ONLY.

Also, the F16.INI file has the following section:

//---------------------------
// MISC OPTIONS
//---------------------------

SMOOTH_COCKPIT_CAMERA 1
AVIONIC_SOUND_VOLUME 255
WEAPON_HUM_VOLUME 255
JOYSTICK_INSTANCE "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
FEEDBACK_ENABLED 1
BITDEPTH_SOFTWARE 16
BITDEPTH_HARDWARE 16
HW3D_DLL_FILENAME "hw_3dfx.dll"
CARD_NUMBER 0


and there is a file Hw_3dfx.dll in the game directory, but no 3dfx Glide files that I can discern.

Well to be honest Ive bout had enough...Im not a tech so that makes it harder....I have uninstalled amigasport and tried to install the drivers that are on the installation disk and all I get upon startup is out of range message or a garbled screen ....I see absolutly NO glide files within my F16 folder at all....Ive tried running it on the XP drivers that come with XP and I get no 3d acceleration either...I guess I need to find this "glide switcher" somewhere and try that....but have spent so much time on this now Im ready to take it to a tech and pay for the freakin fix! :'(

Well, there are no official (full) Drivers for WinXP.

That's the reason the original (Win2000) Drivers never worked well (if at all), and the default Driver coming with the WinXP installation is a mediocre DirectX only Driver (no OpenGL/Glide).

So the Problem likely isn't your Game nor the Voodoo3. It's WinXP actually.

A Tech handed money will likely only try to sell a new Card I'm afraid.

My advice :
http://www.falconfly.de/voodoo3.htm

Scroll way down to the Voodoo3 WinXP Drivers (3rd party)...
You'll see that the Amigasport 3.0 is the latest one, but there are a number of older releases as well.

Installing the old ones is a bit more painful, but the few steps needed are simple.
If the 3dfx Tools says it had an error after installing the Driver, just click okay, but do not reboot when prompted.
Install the 3dfx Tools again (setup is found in the Driver Directory), and now you can choose "Repair" as an Installation Option.

In most cases I know of, that solved the Problem, and now after a reboot, you got the Driver + 3dfx Tools correctly installed.
--------------
Basically, I would work my way up, starting with the oldest Voodoo3 WinXP Driver first.
If the game still fails to initialize Glide, walk your way up in Release dates....

A bit of work, but I'm afraid it's the only way (under WinXP).
Running a 3dfx Card under WinXP is simply not the best Operating System; all Glide Games were originally developed for Win95/98.

Last hint : If the Game refuses to initialize alltogether, using the WinXP Application compatibility Option might help (sort of fools the Application to think it's running under an older OS like Win9x )

Bottom line is :
You'd be way better off with Win2000 or 98SE on your machine (with it's current Hardware)

Thanx for your trouble Falconfly I really appreciate your knowledge...this stuff is overwelming when your a n00b at it like me...lol

Thanx a TON bro Falconfly...Amigamerlin 2.5 did the trick and was first one I used...have a great day bro!

Hammer, if you are still monitoring these posts, please try to answer my question:

It may a BIG long shot, but are you Hammer of HardWar?

The guy who hosts his own server for this brilliant game? ;)

No sir Im Hammer of F16 mrf by novalogic....

OK, thought it was a long shot!

I know a guy called Hammer who plays this Glide game called Hardwar (the best game EVER!  :) )

It was worth a try.

Hello all again...I seem to be havng some problems possibly with my card....Like said previously I really only play one game online (f16) but occaisionally play Thief also ..Sometimes with either game there is some strange sparkling going on with the graphics....in f16 the ground sparkles a bit but the rest of the graphics are great...with Thief2, and Gold at times the whole screen looks like the matrix but I can still lay the game...it just looks weird...lmao....it just happens once in awhile....Im wondering if its from the card getting to hot or something?....Im using the Amigamerlin 2.5...however I could never get the 3dfx tools hub to ever appear no matter how many times Ive followed the exact instructions to install...the only the I seem to be able to use out of it is the screen display settings....Im going to search the games list also to see why thief3 wont work at all...thanx again for the help... ;D

Hm, VoodooControl (www.falconfly.de/tools.htm) should give you all the Settings you need, if the 3dfx Tools themself doesn't work :)