Refresh rate stuck.

[justin]

Hello,

I've got problems with the refresh rates on my Voodoo5 5500 AGP. They're stuck at 60 hertz in dos 3dfx glide mode. Windows (98SE) glide is fine. Tried windows dos prompt and pure dos, but that doesn't work because dos glide games crash in pure dos. Any fix for that as well?

I have already tried unirefresh but the card won't listen to that, the variables SET FX_GLIDE_REFRESHRATE=85 and SSTH3_SCREENREFRESH=85 wont work either. V.Control only works for Windows games. I'm currently using RazielEvolution drivers, but I tried others and those won't work either. Also, since I have this Voodoo5, I no longer get the glide2x spinning 3dfx logo. Is it possible to get it with the v5 card? I liked it

I'd really like to play glide games in dos @ 85 hertz again so any suggestions are appreciated

Justin

[pierrickuk]

Hi there,

As mentioned in other places in the forum, Voodoo5 is REALLY not that DOS friendly.
I have spent hours trying to set some batch files to make the Voodoo5 appear like a Voodoo1/2 with almost no success (and this just to play screamer 2 and screamer rally).
Even with only an old matrox mystique and one voodoo2, I couldn't get screamer 2 to play nice.
I am convinced there are some variables that need to be set correctly in order for voodoo2/3/4/5 to behave almost like a voodoo1, but, to my knowledge, they still remain to be found. If you have hours (days?) on hand and can suffer the zillions of reboot to try some settings, please go ahead and report.

Windows dos prompt for dos glide games is a no no as far as I know.

For pure DOS, you might try putting the relevant files in your game folder and see where it takes you. Patience and this forum and even more patience are gonna be your best friends for this. Get many driver versions in zip/rar. Extract the content in your game folder. Reboot into DOS. Reboot again because you forgot to press F8 (or F3, I never know) and got right into windows. Try game. Crash. Reset. Boot into windows. Extract next drivers in game folder. Reboot. Try game...

I personally would settle for 3 old comps, one with a voodoo1, one with a voodoo2-sli and one for a voodoo5, all properly set up with appropriate games, then tucked away and connected with a KVM to a nice and big CRT.
However, I'm still considering a setup with a voodoo5 and a voodoo2, but don't really have the time nor the nerves to try it now.

What games are you trying to play?

Good luck and Merry 3dfX-mas!

[justin]

Hey pierrickuk,

The games I'm trying to play are Carmageddon - Max Pack and Lands of Lore 2. The computer reboots when trying to play LoL2 in dos, windows dosbox works though. The things I've tried for starting them are;

Set SSTH3_SLI_AA_CONFIGURATION=0 <-- have to use this for every dos glide game
and remming out emm386.exe

The emm386.exe has to be remmed out when you're using banshee, voodoo3 and voodoo5 under MS-DOS. Another thing you can try with voodoo2 and glide games is the newest drivers (from 3dfx), the old ones didn't work for me unless i lowered my cpu speed from 700 to 333 (or something like that).

Thought I'd post that, maybe it works with your scream game.

Anyway, I'll try the different drivers and throw them in the game map. It appears I need the correct set variables for refresh rates, a variable to override the game refresh rate and the correct drivers that listen to the variables.

Thanks alot for the reply, I'll try these things soon.

Merry 3dfX-mas

[pierrickuk]

Hi Justin,

I dug into my glide box and here are some settings that helped me get the Screamers games running.

This is a list of environment settings I worked with when trying to get Screamer working. I used it as a reference to try to make the right batch file for my games.


REM ===== VOODOO 1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES =====
set SST_GRXCLK=50
SET SST_FT_CLK_DEL=0x4
set SST_TF0_CLK_DEL=0x6
set SST_TF1_CLK_DEL=0x6
set SST_VIN_CLKDEL=0x1
set SST_VOUT_CLKDEL=0x0
SET SST_FASTMEM=0
set SST_TMUMEM_SIZE=2
SET SST_SCREENREFRESH=60

REM ===== GLIDE (?) ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES =====
SET FX_GLIDE_LOD_DITHER=1
SET FX_GLIDE_SWAPINTERVAL=0
REM SET FX_GLIDE_NO_SPLASH=1
rem SET FX_GLIDE_ALLOC_COLOR=3

REM ===== VOODOO 2 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES =====
SET SSTV2_GRXCLK=50
SET SSTV2_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0
SET SSTV2_SCREENREFRESH=60
SET SSTV2_VIDEO_24BPP=1

rem disable (0) might be more stable
SET SSTV2_FASTPCIRD=0

rem enables FAST DRAM compatibility (1 faster)
SET SSTV2_FASTMEM=0

set SSTV2_SWAPINTERVAL=1
set SSTV2_ANTIALIAS=1
SET SSTV2_SCREENREFRESH=60
set SSTV2_REFRESH_512x384=60
set SSTV2_REFRESH_640x400=60
set SSTV2_REFRESH_640x480=60
set SSTV2_REFRESH_800x600=60
REM SET SSTV2_GAMMA=1.7
REM set SSTV2_RGAMMA=1.20
REM set SSTV2_GGAMMA=1.20
REM set SSTV2_BGAMMA=1.20
set SSTV2_OVERLAYMODE=1

REM ==== VOODOO 3-5 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES ====
SET SSTh3_GRXCLK=50
SET SSTh3_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0
SET SSTh3_SCREENREFRESH=60
SET SSTh3_VIDEO_24BPP=1

rem disable (0) might be more stable
SET SSTh3_FASTPCIRD=0

rem enables FAST DRAM compatibility (1 faster)
SET SSTh3_FASTMEM=0

set SSTh3_SWAPINTERVAL=1
set SSTh3_ANTIALIAS=1
SET SSTh3_SCREENREFRESH=60
set SSTh3_REFRESH_512x384=60
set SSTh3_REFRESH_640x400=60
set SSTh3_REFRESH_640x480=60
set SSTh3_REFRESH_800x600=60
REM SET SSTh3_GAMMA=1.7
REM set SSTh3_RGAMMA=1.20
REM set SSTh3_GGAMMA=1.20
REM set SSTh3_BGAMMA=1.20
set SSTH3_SLIDETECT=0
set SSTh3_OVERLAYMODE=0



Of course, you need to pick up the ones for your card and adjust.

Things I noticed with the Voodoo5 card that made things kind-of work:

• set ssth3_antialias=0 (as you said)



• SET SSTh3_GRXCLK=50
  This was an interesting one:
  
  
  
  • if not set (default), the game would run nice and smooth (apart from the speedometer being too big (see one of my other posts in this forum).
  
  
  • if set to 50 or 100 something else (I think default value is 166), while racing, the rendering speed would vary depending on the complexity of the scene, so sometimes playable, sometimes way too fast.
  
  


• set SSTH3_SLIDETECT=0 is probably the most important one, it disables one chip of the voodoo5.
  

Some of my sources of inpiration:
http://forum.3dfx.cz/viewtopic.php?t=332
http://www.rashly3dfx.com/index.html
http://www.smokeypoint.com/glidos.htm
http://www.smokeypoint.com/flash.htm <--careful there, the GRXCLK is 200 mhz!!!
http://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?t=76
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=13809
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?p=85790#85790


Just in case, my config.sys:

shell=c:\command.com /p /e:4096
device=c:\windows\himem.sys
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems
dos=high, umb
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\oakcdrom.sys /D:realcd
REM FOR GP2
fileshigh=20
buffershigh=20
rem for sbpci
rem stackshigh=18,256

[justin]

Thanks for the useful variables pierrickuk, some of them improved the visual quality and speed (think they are overlaymode=1, fastmem=1 and fastpcird=1)!
I am, however, still unable to increase the refresh rate and the 3dfx logo (dos spinning one) wont come up either (maybe it's removed from voodoo3-voodoo5 cards?).

I won't give up and I'm still trying to get higher refresh rates out of it. Anti aliasing would be incredible with old games like Lands of Lore 2 and Carmageddon 1. Any more suggestions from anyone are very welcome!

Happy new year.

Justin