rec.autos.simulators

Which BIOS and drivers are you using?

--


http://www.racesimcentral.net/

SimRacing wrote in article

Greetings o hardware and simulation gurus

In the office yesterday for a Quake clan match (yes we won :) Thanks
for asking!) I also took the chance to download Ubisoft F1 demo,
MS-CART demo video and.....SODA demo (these are biiiiig).

I was messing around with SODA a little in the office using the keys
and then again at home with the joystick, and I must say the physics
seem pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to hooking this up
with the wheel and giving it a real go. There is one problem...

*** How do you get Rendition support working? ***

At home I have Rendition (Intergraph Reactor with latest 1.03(?)
BIOS), and ICR2, N2 etc work fine with it. SODA seems not to see it,
and consequently no pretty pictures and nice frame rates for me. Some
mention was made about Redline drivers, but never having had to use
the 3D stuff under Win95 (my 3dFX does that) I've no idea what these
are and where to find them.

Can someone tell me...

- Will installing Redline drivers cause SODA to work with Rendition
support?

- If so, where can I find them?

- If not, what will fix it or what else do I need to do?

Thanks for any help,

Cheers!
John

With the above mentioned scenerio, I was able to run SODA, however,
something was really amiss with the framerate and playability. I tried
knocking down windoze res. from 1024*768 16bit to 640*480 256color and
this did give slightly increased performance in SODA. I decided to
give the rendition drivers (with SODA demo) a try. Bingo! Great
results, very huge improvement in the framerate (I can actually drive
this dunebuggy thing now, just have to learn how to get off the gas to
keep from spinning out on every turn ;)). Also, windoze speed has
noticeably increased at 1024*768 16bit. One slight problem so far is
distortion of icons in the toolbar with some apps. I'm still
hoping/waiting, like many others,  for a stable set of drivers that
actually work with everything rendition, windoze95, ect...
BTW, I have directX 5 installed. System is P166MMX, 32meg. EDO,
Intergraph's Reactor (Intense 3d)...

Ron L.

Home of the SSC http://www3.pgh.net/~lazer/    
For Nascar2 & Winston Cup Fans!

I have a P166 32mb Intergraph Reactor(now Intense 3d) and Diamond Monster
3D.
I had the same problem trying to get the Rendition version of SODA to run.
I originally tried drivers from the demo, but here is what finally worked
for my setup.
First, download the Windows 95 Driver: Release Candidate 1 from Intergraph
at:
http://www.ingr.com/ics/i3d100/support.htm
The file name is WN953130.ZIP
Follow closely the directions for installation from the README file
included in the zip.  The instructions are different depending on which
version of Win95 you are running. They also want you to change your display
adapter to Standard and reboot before, installing the new drivers. After I
did this SODA ran in the Rendition version, and both Nascar 2 and Indycar 2
Rendition version are still running fine. Hope this helps. While not as
graphically impressive as the Rendition versions of Indycar 2 or Nascar 2,
the physics seem pretty good and so far is quite a challenge.

Don Chapman

Canopus Bios 1.02.74

Drivers are the current (7/97) rredline ones, but I'm now back to
the 5/97 drivers, as this at least allows me to run full screen.  =P

Cheers!

Marc

I installed it over the top of my Screamin 3D drivers and it works great.
SODA didn't recognize my Rendition card before I replaced my drivers, but
now it does.

Jim Getzen

Greetings yourself Mr. 3D-Card_Fast_System Sir!!  =)

Didya' win John?

Congratulations, ol' boy!!

Big - yes, but how long did it REALLY take you John?  ;)

then again at home with the joystick, and I must say

Ooooh, no!!...You too?  =(

As mentioned in another reply, I used the rendition folder to
update my drivers so that I could get SODA to "see" my card, but
this still doesn't work!!  All other Rendition games run fine (namely
the ones sent by a certain Scot).  ;)

This has got me stumped...BTW, I've uninstalled and reinstalled
(clean - removed drivers from registry) all from scratch.

It's supposed to.  I mentioned this delima to Steve Travers,
producer for SODA, and he was equally puzzled.  I'm sure it
has to do with what I'm doing (or not doing) correctly, as others
are saying that it does indeed work.  I too would appreciate
someone shedding some light on this subject.  =P

They're in the rendition folder in the SODA dir...mine have
mysteriously vanised - would you mind zipping the folder and
e-mailing them over?  Thanks.  =)

If you find the key, let me know...I'll do likewise.

Cheers John!

Marc

Julian, thanks for the help. I installed the demo and deleted the temp
dir without even looking for drivers.

Situation now is....

- SODA sees my Rendtion card and works.

- SODA's graphics crash or freak out after 5-20 minutes using the
drivers with the demo. The game still works, but my screen is frozen.

- With the latest Intergraph drivers my Win95 goes _well_ mental when
I boot up, giving me lovely moire style chessboard patterns all over
the screen.

Looks like a driver issue, and I'll fart around with it tonight -
girlfriend was getting a bit humpty last night that I'd disappeared
for ages :)

I'm running iP225-MMX and it is pretty bollocks unaccelerated, but
fire up the Rendition and this baby comes to life - it's great!

Too much real life footage mixed with the game stuff. Several seconds
of real life CART and then one/two seconds or so of game, so it's
difficult to get any impression. It looks nice, but that sort of stuff
always makes me very suspicious about what they are hiding.

Thanks again Julian

Cheers!
John

Hiya Marc,

Clan McNailz did indeed prevail. Sadly I had a tragic time, I plugged
too many things into the system I was using and the hard disk kept
spinning down. This gave me a frame rate of about 2fps (!!) so I was
reduced to cowering in a dark corner with a grenade launcher and
***ing unsuspecting people who ran by.

Not very glorious I'm afraid...

Ubi took about four minutes, SODA about ten and MS-CART less than one.
Someday I hope we all get ethernet connections at home :)

Yep. I'll do that tonight. That fixed my problem and the game works,
but it gave me another problem in that the graphics lock up sometimes.
See how it works for you.

Cheers Marc!
John

Geez...I really feel as though my ol'28.8 is actually a 2400 in
disguise.  =P

No worries, as a local sent them to me this morning, and SODA
(full screen) runs Rendition great!!  However, when selecting
it for a window, I don't get the Rend logo...No big deal, just
puzzled.

Thanks for your assistance in this!!  =)

Cheers!

Marc

N2 has never hung on either of these machines, but it hangs in my Asus
with Intergraph Reactor and Intel P233mmx.

Could this be an Intergraph problem?  

Or is it just the way the Papyrus code interfaces with the Rendition
Chip?

Any ideas?

--
Best Wishes!!!
Robert Huggins
Raleigh, NC

Same happens to me...sometimes right away, and then sometimes
not...I haven't yet tested it, but it may have to do with whether
replays are turned on or not...I only noticed the problem once I
enabled them, so I'll check it out tonight.

I also notice that with the current drivers, whenever I exit N2 or
SODA, the buttons on my window apps go black...I know what
they are, but it's a pain counting the number of black squares on a
form just to open something.  =P

Cheers!

Marc - Joining the I Hate Mr. Bill Club

Dave Otterness

Hi Julian,

I'm using this.....

I'll try grabbing the older one and see if it makes any difference. I
don't really like the new one anyway, no full screen in ICR2-3D. I did
have a problem with the older one though, the Win95 "install hardware"
routine would crash all the time. I guess I'm destined to be a 3dFX
sorta guy!

Cheers!
John