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Which Graphics Cards can play Dark Omen with 3D-acceleration in Win 95/98?

[Paddan1000]

Hello!
I have an old Pentium III lying around for the purpose of playing older games.
Operating system: Windows 98 SE, Processor: Pentium III 500 MHz, Ram: 256 Mb PC-133, Soundcard: Sound Blaster Live.

I've been able to play Dark Omen with "3D" selected in the options, instead of "CPU", as long as I had a Voodoo Banshee (Elsa Victory II) graphics card in it and the latest drivers for it. But when I replaced the Banshee with a Voodoo3 3000 or a Voodoo2 (+ a 2D card) it refuses to work.

With the Voodoo2 I can only play the game with "CPU" selected in the options. With the Voodoo3, the game crashes even before the intro and I get an error message that says I need to update my graphics drivers or my DirectX version (I have the latest drivers for the Voodoo3, released shortly before 3DFX went bankrupt. My DirectX version is 6).

So my questions are:

1) Is there any way I can run the game with 3D-acceleration with a Voodoo2 or Voodoo3 graphics card in Windows 95 or 98?

2) Which graphics card at all are known to work with Dark Omen and 3D-acceleration? The Voodoo Banshee works apparently, but is there a more powerful one, so I don't have to switch graphics card every time I want to play a more demanding game on the same computer?

[Ghabry]

I have an old 350mhz PC too and the 3D acceleration works.
I can't remember the graphic card name completly, but it contained "Elsa Erazor"...

On my second PC 3D works under 98 with a Geforce FX 5700.

But at least we have now the question solved if Dark Omen supports 3dfx...

[Paddan1000]

I've now taken my box of old graphics cards out of the closet and tested them all with Dark Omen. The results of my round-up are as follows:


3Dfx Voodoo1 (Orchid Righteous 3D) connected to a S3 Trio64 2D-card: I can watch the intro and enter the options menu where, for some reason, I can't disable color cursors. The game gets stuck on the "Preparing for battle"-screen when I try to start a new game. If I press enter, I go back to Windows. I've tried both the 1999 driver, that came with Win98 SE, and the 1997 driver that is included on the Dark Omen CD and neither works. This is strange, since the manual specifically mentions compatability with the Voodoo1. Could the problem be the S3 Trio64? Probably not, since that card is very common and known for its reliability, and the game works fine without 3D-acceleration.

3Dfx Voodoo2 connected to the S3 Trio64: The game doesn't detect the Voodoo2 card so I can't choose "3D" in the options menu.

3Dfx Voodoo3 3000: The game crashes before the intro and I get an error message that tells me to update my DirectX and/or drivers. But I already have the latest drivers.

3Dfx Voodoo Banshee (ELSA Victory II): The game runs fine on the highest settings. Every time I start the game, the screen goes blurry, but I can remedy that by pushing Alt+Tab and go back. The screen also goes blurry if I push "Escape" during the game or if I choose the "Quit Game"-option from the main menu. But as long as the gameplay itself works I'm content.

Winfast Geforce 2 Pro: The screen goes blank and the computer crashes even before the intro and has to be resetted.

Ati Rage Lt Pro: When I first tried this card 3D-acceleration worked, but the 2D-sprites' colors were messed up. For instance, the cavalry's brown horses were green. But then I entered the "Dark Omen Hardware Troubleshooter" and chose to "patch" the game for "ATI Rage Pro". Now the game runs perfectly on the highest settings, with color cursors and everything.


So to summarize, the only card that worked flawlessly was the Ati Rage Lt Pro (With some "patching"). The Voodoo Banshee from ELSA worked too, but not perfectly. I find it strange that there should be so many compatability issues with contemporary cards.

I would be very grateful if more people could add more cards to this list and tell us if, and how well, they work with Dark Omen. It would also be nice to hear if someone else has tried any of the cards listed above with different results than me. I'm especially interested in getting the game to work with the other Voodoo cards.


The computer I used for the tests was:
Operating system: Windows 98 SE, Processor: Pentium III 500 MHz, Ram: 256 Mb PC-133, Soundcard: Sound Blaster Live.

[bembelimen]

Hello, thanks for your tests, very cool, sadly I have win XP only, so I cannot make own tests.

[Ghabry]

I plan to install Windows 98 on my Laptop tomorrow (on an USB-Stick).
It looks like the BIOS simulates USB Sticks as normal Harddrives at least I was able to boot DOS from it and then access the stick... (I get a win98 CD tomorrow ^^).

The problem now is: IF Win98 is able to boot (I don't really believe that it will work ) where can I find drivers for the 8600m GT? It looks like the 6000 series was the last one with win98 drivers. Are there some unofficial driver available?

[olly]

The last time I tested on Win98 -my Nvidia FX5200 128mb Card Worked but sadly my NVidia 7800 256mb didn't, so you're probably right about the 6 Series perhaps being the last Cards to work on Win98. Maybe you could splice 2 different Drivers together?

I'm still desparate to test my Dark Omen Full 3d Mode on a new Style TFT Flat Screen or TV, since they now also have 100hz technology (as well as 2-8ms Repsonse Times) and should behave like an old Style CRT monitor that also has 100hz Refresh rates. Lets Hope!




http://forum.dark-omen.org/help-section/dark-omen-in-full-3d-mode-high-res-xp-and-no-flicker-t248.0.html