🚀 go-pugleaf

I am also cruising these groups looking for answers.  I played the first
half of Half-Life with almost no problems, with my ATI All-InWonder card,
and standard Win98 drivers.  Then I tried to update the drivers.  I have
spent longer than I played the game to make them (kinda) work.  Very similar
problems.
1.  The properties on the video card seem to require, that I allow the
driver to select the refresh rate.  If I select it myself, it crashes
anytime I need it to work away from the "required" refresh rate.  I believe
the driver uses more or less video memory depending on the refresh rate, and
doesn't properly allocate / de-allocate it.
2.  D3D doesn't work anymore for more than about 10-15 minutes.  Then crash.
Not a heat problem as the video chip never gets more than "warm"
3. I have heard rumors that DirectX 6.1 is a possible answer, but you must
be a MSDN DirectX beta tester to get in to download them.
4.  According to my DirectX diagnostic tool, DirectX 6 is OK, but I notice
that Hardware rendering of the DirectX Test screen is only about 10% faster
than the software version of the test.  Kind of makes me wonder what my
hardware is doing for me. (not much)
5.  The decals in Half life never work properly with all the versions of
OpenGL / D3D / beta that I can find (5 - 6 different drivers.)  The Win98
drivers work OK with D3D, but are so slow as to make software rendering the
prefered way to play.

scorch56 <burn@babyburn.com> wrote in message
news:3675143e.39447663@news.supernews.com...
>Every couple of months I wander into these groups and ask if anyone
>who has the same setup as me has had this problem. As of yet; I
>haven't gotten any replies. I can't be the only person in the world
>with these two cards together though.
>
>Here's my problem... I have a 1st pre-1st generation; semi-quasi;
>pseudo- 2D/3D card the old Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 w/ 2 megs of ram
>(the very 1st model with the original Virge chip). I also have a
>Matrox M3d accelerator card with 4 mb of dedicated texture ram (uses
>the PCX2 Power VR chip).
>
>Normally; these two cards work together just fine. They rarely
>conflict; and when they do... it's usually game specific and results
>in the game recognizing the Stealth when I want to use the Matrox for
>D3D.
>
>My problem is... as far as I can tell... I cannot ever play any game
>based on the Quake I or Quake II engine for more than 10 minutes or so
>without it crashing. Sometimes it just exits out to my desktop with no
>errors all of a sudden. Sometimes there is an error message; but with
>no set pattern. Sometimes the damn thing just re-boots the PC on it's
>own. I get the same exact behavior with Quake I; Quake II; and now...
>with both SiN and Half-Life! I  have plenty of RAM (64 megs) and
>plenty of free space on my HD for virtual memory (3 gigs); so I don't
>think it's a memory issue. I used to think it only happened with the
>GL versions; but it seems to more prerequisited on just any Quake
>engine game. Oh yeah... Hexen and Heretic too; of course.
>
>I have gone round and round with Activision; Matrox and the Diamond
>people about this. No one seems to have a clue. I have tried using the
>Matrox M3d mini-gl drivers for Quake games; it makes no difference
>either. I have tried using non-Matrox and non-Stealth drivers and just
>used the generic S3 Virge and Power VR drivers respectively...S.O.S..
>I'm beginning to think it's just a compatibility conflict between the
>two cards that only manifests itself when trying to play these types
>of games. As I remember; I never had any problem like this before I
>got the M3d and just ran the Diamond alone. The M3d is not a
>pass-through card; it is a stand-alone accelerator though. I could
>chuck the M3d and go back to the Diamond; but then these games look
>pretty crappy using it; and forget playing GL versions. The Matrox
>definitely has better D3D graphics.
>
>The reason I'm posting this in the 3dfx.opengl group this time as well
>is because I hope to get a Monster card soon (I have a pentium non-MMX
>166 and a Voodoo II would be over-kill) and the people at Diamond have
>always assured that the old Monster works quite nicely with an old
>Stealth card; but i was wondering if anybody already had that setup
>and could confirm it for me. Also; as always... I was hoping anybody
>with a Stealth/M3d combo could tell if they ever had any problems.
>I've almost given up; and although a fix would be great; I'd just like
>to know that it does happen so I'd know I'm not alone in this. Oh
>yeah; I've tried shifting the boards around in all the PCI slots as
>well... and no, there aren't any IRQ conflicts under Device manager
>either. Thanks to everyone for your attention.