Check this out folks,
this is an excerpt from a readmefile of a zip package that features a new
graphic driver for gpl togetther with 3dfx-banshee-cards (diamond, miro,
creative, ...) - it actually seems to be written to do something else than
the general gpl-hangs-while-engine-sound-is-still-roaring but it did help
with my MiroVoodoo2-hanging-problem (where glide 2.35 in both Windos/system
and GPL-directory did not help without this new driver) and Im even able to
play GPL in 1024x768 on a P2/333 with about 20fps average. Unfortunately Im
unable to remember the url from which I downloaded it - but the zip is just
32Kb long so whoever is interested can send an email to me - I will mail it
back
--------------
Being simply ***ed to GPL, a Banshee card owner, and a
halfway decent computer programmer I decided that the
responses I was getting from both 3Dfx and Sierra technical
support weren't getting the job done for me. I wanted the
problem fixed so I took matters into my own hands.
The result is a file that intercepts calls made by the GPL
rasterizer into the 3Dfx Glide DLL. This allows me to change
parameters into Glide and alter return values from Glide to
accomplish various tasks that make the problem go away. First
and foremost the current Banshee drivers don't seem to like
switching resolutions. You've probably noticed that the
problem starts when you go from the pits to the race track.
What is really happening is that GPL runs the menus at the
resolution of 640 x 480, however it allows you to configure
the resolution when in full screen driving & replay mode.
To get from one to the other GPL has to switch video modes.
For whatever reasons (bad hardware, bad drivers, etc.) the
Banshee gets off track and textures start to get messed up.
That is the base of the problem, to fix it I ignore the
resolution that GPL wants and instead plug in my own.
The game now runs at a single resolution and without the
texture corruption.
Sounds great, but what are the drawbacks?
- An extra layer of indirection in each overriden GPL Glide
call, this has been minimized starting with version 1.0.0.3
- Menus don't scale. If they did we wouldn't have this problem.
All menus will occupy the top corner of the screen instead of
the entire screen.
I think the above is a small price to pay for playing GPL
the way it was meant to be played.
As a bonus feature I've added the ability to control how
mirrors are updated in the in-car view. This is a simple
matter of not passing a function call onto Glide. Now
you can completely turn off the mirrors and when you
do you'll notice an immediate increase in performance.
If you like the mirrors, but want a little extra performance
you can select a refresh frequency. Mirrors will then
be updated every Xth time instead of everytime. The
larger X, the more choppy the mirrors are, but the
greater the performance increase. This is a variation
on what Papyrus does in their OpenGL rasterizer. Now
all 3Dfx users (including Voodoo 1/2 users) can benefit
from the same functionality.
(George M. Smiley)
--
Gruss
-Smudo
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