Given
the current state (Or lack) of 3dfx I decided I may as well update this guide
for the latest 3dfx Voodoo 3 drivers that are available, given that the past
version of the guide has been outdated for quite some time now. Of course, where
appropriate I’ve listed alternative download links, rather than those to the
soon to be removed 3dfx servers.
This guide has been prepared in Windows 9x/Me & Windows
2000 using the latest drivers.
Drivers
You should start by downloading the latest drivers for the
Voodoo 3 2000/3000 PCI/AGP you can download the latest from 3dfx for Windows
9x\Me, Windows
2000 & Windows
NT4. If you own a Voodoo 3 3500 or other Operating System, e.g.
Linux, then select the appropriate driver from Voodoo
Files. Once
these are installed you might also want to try the new beta drivers from x3dfx,
although you must have a current driver installed before installing
these.NOTE
- Before you install the x3dfx drivers ensure you backup your current 3dfxvs.dll/3dfxvs.vxd
(Depending on which Operating System is installed). Once the x3dfx driver is
installed then replace their 3dfxvs.dll (Or 3dfxvs.vxd) with the
version you backed up. This is because the x3dfx Direct3D driver is basically
messed up.
You also should have DirectX
7/8.0Aor later installed. NOTE
– DirectX 7 is reportedly more stable for some users although personally
I’ve not had any issues with DirectX 8 & the latest drivers do
support it.
You should also install the latest WickedGL
for OpenGL games, particularly Quake 3 engine games (such as FAKK
2) as it can give better performance & visual quality than
the 3dfx OpenGL driver. Those of you playing older Quake 1/2 engine games may
find that the 3dfx
MiniGL 1.49 delivers better performance than the 3dfx OpenGL
driver in those games too.
Troubleshooting
There may be some incompatibilities between the
Voodoo 3 & some games. To rectify
these problems there is usually a patch available for the game. Try Fileplanet
for game patches.
If you are encountering issues with installing 3dfx Tools
(or rather you just can’t). Take the following steps.
1.Uninstall the current (If any) 3dfx Tools installation. This is
required & you should have already done this.
2.Ensure you have the latest Windows Installer installed. The latest
version is 1.1 & is already included with Windows 2000. You can download it from Windows 9x/Me here
& Windows NT 4 here.
3.Install the latest version of Internet
Explorer. This is required for the installer to function
correctly as well. Although you don’t need the latest version it is
recommended as these are better optimized than the 4.x versions.
4.Reboot & re-attempt installation. If it still fails to install try
the remaining steps;
5.Open x:\Program Files\Common Files\, where x
represents the appropriate drive letter, e.g. C. Rename the InstallShield
folder to InstallShieldBackup (Or something like that).
6.Re-attempt installation. The renamed directory will
be re-created during the install procedure.
Check the BIOS
guide for optimized BIOS settings that can improve your graphics
cards performance & may also fix some problems that can occur. 3dfx also
recommends that you Disable
– Hidden refresh, Byte merge,
VGA palette snoop, DAC
snoop & any Caching/Shadowing. If you own an AMD K6 system then set K6 write allocate
to enabled in the BIOS, if available.
If you are experiencing problems with an AMD based system
running Soldier
of Fortune try Editing the following line in your config.cfg
file (located in the SoF\user\
directory). set ghl_no_texture_stack
"1".
