Heh, I guess the source code must have been real, I've already started to reap the benefits from the newer driver sets coming out, as it appears that my Voodoo3 now has, among the unexpected things:
Full-Blown DirectX8.1 Compatibility -- It now passes all three DXDIAG tests, it can now initialize under the D3D7, 8, and 9 interfaces.
Not sure if this is actually occuring, but I also appear to have some sort of
software-based DOT3 Bump Mapping Emulation.....It is weird, but that's what the circumstantial evidence is suggesting, as I loaded up Star Trek Armada2, which uses that Bump Mapping technique, and for some reason it doesn't complain when I enable it in the options, considering that I know for a
fact the V3 should ONLY be capable of Emboss Bump Mapping in hardware.
I'm gonna try utilizing the DOT3 Bump Mapping test in 3DMark2k1SE to determine whether or not my suspicions are correct. Speaking of 3DMark2k1SE, it doesn't give me any more errors upon initialization anymore (I've only used it to see how well its running the demo part of the program....that Lobby Scene made full use of my Subwoofer, LOL.
)!
Can there be any more good news?! Appearantly so:
Geometry Assist, AKA "Hardware TnL emulation" appears to be stable for once when used in a D3D8 game, and is presumably completely stable in D3D7 games.
Now, I have to clarify something here....yes, on the whole, any of the previous driver sets I used would cause D3D8 to crash and burn upon initialization, thus meaning I couldn't play most DX8 games.....except for Star Trek: Bridge Commander, oddly enough. In the past, that game would run thinking it had a HW TnL card, due to the Geometry Assist feature.....but would usually crash after maybe 5 or 6 minutes.
A few D3D7-era games, like HomeWorld, and HomeWorld Cataclysm, would randomly lock up when using D3D (they are capable of using OpenGL or a software render too), when Geometry Assist was enabled, with the length of time before the lockup being somewhere between 10-15 minutes.
Now, as far as this feature is concerned, it is the most unstable when attempting to run D3D8 games in comparison to D3D7 games, so the fact that it is running D3D8 so much more stable (relatively), leads me to believe that this also should mean that D3D7 games are even more rock-solid.
And for my next trick:To get my hands on a V5 so I can actually not be limited to 16bit textures and that 256x256 texture limit....