DirectX 8.1 and 3dFX Voodoo3: A problem?

[Goku7]

This is mainly concerning my 3dFX hardware's capabilities, but I do have a few issues on two non-FF games that I'll describe later.  I think the cause of all these problems is related.  That said, here goes:

In the dxdiag program, when I run the D3D acceleration test, it passes the DX7 interface test, but when it tries the DX8 interface, it fails, with the test report saying:

Direct3D test results: Failure at step 5 (GetDeviceCaps): HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)

Judging from what it says, it sounds like a driver problem.  So, I go and install the DX8 compatible 3Dfx drivers, run the DX8 interface test again, and it still fails.  Why?  Is DX8 only able to do 32 bit rendering (it's known that Voodoo3 cards can't do 32bit texturing)?  What gives?

Now, here's where I'm getting trouble.  The latest version of Moto Racer 2 (version 1.34), will not run.  I get a "crash to desktop" in the middle of loading a level.  Is it related to the DX8 test failure problem?  Second, Homeworld:Cataclysm has never been able to run ever since I upgraded my 233mhz system to the P4 1.5ghz system.  It simply dumps back to windows after playing the two intro movies.

[J*** H*******]

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[Goku7]

Oh, I forgot to add that I'm running Windows 98SE.  No problem-laden XP install here.  I don't want to pay 200 bucks for something that'll deliberately break compatibilty with almost all known PC FF games.

Same thing with the graphics card.  I don't want to shell out the money for a card that has nothing but problems with the games I play.  Now, it'll be a different story if they were still selling the Voodoo5 cards, but no, nVidia just had to bury the competitor.

Oh, wait, I also forgot to mention that I'm using the DirectControl Program (Version 5.5) to assist DirectX.

Ack. I'm rambling from place to place.  Ok.  So, are you saying I should try out the 3rd Party drivers?

[ficedula]

Well, three years ago I bought a Savage4 (it's not my main card now), and that works fine with old games. FF7, FF8, both played OK. Supports a lot better features than a Voodoo 3 did (and the real joke was, at the time it was a lot cheaper than a V3). I use that as my "Ye Olde Backwards Compatible Carde" right now. Since it was only £30 ($45) 3 years ago, I can't imagine you having a problem picking up that or a similar oldish card cheap.

[J*** H*******]

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[Sir Canealot]

Bah...just get a cheep GeForce 2 or something. They work fine with FFVII/VIII with some tweaking.

[Goku7]

Now I'm confused!  

I recently tested Star Trek: Bridge Commander on my comp, since the game uses DirectX 8.0a.  To my pleasent surprise, it works.

So now, unless I'm mistaken, driver support was broken between version 8.0a and 8.1.

By the way, how reliable are these 3rd party drivers, anyway?  And why do the 3rd party drivers exist in the first place?  Did 3dFX make the official drivers open source, as a last ditch effort before nVidia offed them?
[edited] 239 2002-04-10 01:36

[J*** H*******]

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[Goku7]

Wow......I'm sorry.  I knew nothing of the 3dFX/nVidia court cases.  All I knew, is that one day, I go to 3dFX's web site, and there's this "Dear John" letter to all the customers, saying that nVidia bought them out.

Second, all of my friends were bashing 3dFX, and I sided with 3dFX out of sympathy for the underdog.  I still feel as though nVidia just buried a competitor because that competitor seemed to be the only one that correctly implemented FSAA, better than nVidia did.

[Qhimm]

Problem with 3Dfx was that even though they implemented a beautiful FSAA in their latest line of cards, that was pretty much their only edge.

[J*** H*******]

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[Goku7]

Anyway....Getting back to the last technical question:

On 2002-04-09 21:17, Jari Huttunen wrote:
Huh? How did you test it? Did you un-install DX8.1 and install DX8.0a? Did that fix the other games?

No.  DX8.1 is installed.  The game (ST:Bridge Commander) works, but the DX 8.1 interface test is still failing.