As most of the Mac gaming world knows by now - someone released generic drivers that allow PC Voodoo II cards to work on the Mac. The first URL was taken down after a short time as was a 2nd page posted later.
Before you decide to use these drivers with a PC card - read the 'Truth about the Generic Drivers' - a new page posted 11/3/98 by someone in the game/publishing industry.
"
Mike,
As I'm sure you are aware, these drivers are being distributed
illegally. The only people who had access to them are under strict legal
agreements with 3Dfx to NOT distribute them. Any support of such blatent
copyright violation can not be conducted with 'clean hands.'
Furthermore, they are OLD and unsupported. As the 'legal' versions of
Mac drivers become updated and improved, anyone with these and a PC card
will NOT get advantages such as: Mac control Panel (with many features),
SLI support, tweaker and most importantly, on-going game support.
As many people recognize, the wide-spread use of these drivers does NOT
support the best interests of the Mac community.
Their origin is being tracked but will undoubtably have come from
someone under an enforceable nondisclosure agreement and in absence of a
license to distribute. This is a flagrant example of pirated software
and prosecution toward all criminal and civil remedies will be actively
pursued.
Bob Archer
Micro Conversions, Inc.
PS: BTW, we got more than a thousand new boards in last week and all
backorders to-date will be cuaght-up within two weeks.
"
Latest Reader Feedback:
Generic Voodoo 2 Drivers Tip: A reader tip on how to run more than one game in a row with the drivers (avoiding a restart).
"
Heya,
Well, after seeing that MC had lowered the prices today on their voodoo2
cards, I decided to go find some sort of work-around so that I could use
my generic driver voodoo2 card with myth more than 1 game in a row. SO,
I have found that I CAN get it to work by command-tabbing (if you have
8.5; other programs such as GoMac may work as well) out of myth, double
clicking on my future cop preview, at which one of the .out boxes you
see every time you start up an app flashes on the screen momentarily,
but the program doesn't start. You can then command-tab back into myth
and go at it. You will have to do this after each game, but if you like
myth as much as I do, you'll find it worth it. :) Now, I haven't tested
this with any other programs, but I'd guess it is likely that you could
use any voodoo2 using program to reset the voodoo2, and you can probably
do this to play successive games of future cop or unreal or any other
programs that have similar video restart problems.
This has made me very happy, and I hope it makes others happy as well.
I haven't fully tested it out with other programs and the like, but I
felt I needed to let you guys know. I have had someone else with the
generic drivers try it and have it succeed though.
Happy Gaming,
David Billings
"
FutureCop Comments:
"
Mike,
I've received today Future Cop and it's works perfectly at 1024x768 with
my 3Dfx Diamond Monster II 12 MB and generic voodoo 2 drivers!! I use it
in my 7600 with PowerForce 220/110 (running stable at 315/126) and 8.5
us. It strangly doesn't work at 800x600 according with feedback of other
readers. The other 3Dfx games works or doesn’t work exactly as the other
readers reported.
Thank you for your hard work, xlr8yourmac.com is the best!
Alessandro De Chiara,
"
[added 12/09/98]
F18 Hornet w/Voodoo II patch Feedback:
"
Hi Mike,
Love your pages - keep up the great work !
I have some feedback for you on Unreal and Voodoo II cards. I scored a
Diamond Monster Voodoo II card (12 meg version)
on the weekend and tried it out with Unreal and Hornet 3 - Korea. I have to
say that on Unreal, the game "felt" faster than my
older Diamond Monster Voodoo I card I was using previously. I have detailed
the timedemo results below.
I was interested to read that you said on your pages that Hornet 3 - Korea
did not work with a 3dfx Voodoo II card. Well, I'm happy to say that you are sorta wrong. GSC recently posted a Voodoo II beta patch for the Mac version of this game to their
web site (www.graphsim.com). I triend it out and it works, but it's far
from perfect. When you run the game for the first time from cold, it works fine. However, if you do a second mission from the same session, the game bombs out and goes to the
desktop. A bit a bummer but something GSC will probably be working on. I
can't believe how fast they got the Voodoo II patch out - a pat on the back for GSC supporting the Mac. Again, the game felt faster - but I don't really have any way of
testing this.
Cheers
Sonny Foster
"
The Recent Site features page has a link to the patch (scroll down on that page - it was posted some time ago)
Myth II beta 7 Feedback:
"
Hi Mike,
I thought you may want to know the following:
I tested the VooDoo2 generic driver with Myth II (Beta 7) and it works fine with
800X600 resolution!!
I haven't experience any "white blocks" or freezes. Basically, it works fine and
smooth. I do have that problem in Myth I [noted below], and experienced that in beta 5, but I have no trouble with it on beta 7!
"
Myth Problems - 3Dfx mode init:
"
Hi Mike,
I am still waiting for my Game Wizard 12Mb (3 months since I ordered!)
but I couldn't resist borrowing a Best Data ArcadeFxII 12Mb and trying
out these generic drivers with Myth, Tomb Raider II and Future Cop
preview.
All these games work but there is a catch; I'm surprised I am the only
one reporting it for now but it explains, I think, why some people are
reporting failures on resolution switching or sudden quits in Myth
TFL...
In Myth TFL, I've noticed the video switches to Voodoo only when you
begin a game (multiplayer or solo). When the game ends, voodoo is turned
off and the normal video takes over. Any attempt to start a new game
will then make Myth quit suddenly as soon as the voodoo tries to switch
on again (right when the map starts loading).
FutureCop does the exact same thing. It works fine the first time but if
you ever pause the game, voodoo is turned off. If you resume the game,
the game quits again when trying to reactivate Voodoo. TRII will also
quit suddenly when trying to switch resolutions in-game. If you quit any
of these games and restart, the first try still works. But any kind of
in-program vodoo "turn off-turn on" makes the game quit. Weird eh ?
Sounds to me like a bug in initialization/deactivation routines in the
driver. Or maybe it's specific to the ArcadeFX card. It would be
interesting to know if others have experienced the same problems.
Patrick Debaumarche
"
I've gotten a similar report of problems loading levels in Myth and other games as well. Here's another report just in (same card - but since it's a PC reference design I doubt the card is the issue - these drivers are early versions with problems as noted before)
"
Hi, I just bought an Arcade FXII Voodoo2 12mb, and I've been having some
problems. In Myth (both multiplayer and singleplayer), when I play a map,
and then try to load another, Myth crashes on me.
Same problem with FutureCop Demo. I play a map, go back to the title
screen, then load the next map... and my computer crashes. I was wondering
if anyone else who has the same card I have has had the same problems, if
not... could you give me some advice? My current setup is: UMAX C600/240mhz
603e, 88 RAM. Thanks in advance.
"
If anyone has a solution (doubtful) please contact me. [11/15/98]
Quake 1.09 Trick?: A reader sent a tip that he says allows v1.09 to work with the generic drivers.
"
MIKE!
I have been running Quake version 1.09 RAVE for some time now wit hno
probs. I have a Best Data 12mb Voodoo2 card on a g3 266 with 190mb RAM,
rev1. What users need to do is take out the voodoo2 extensions installed
and run from their built-in video in RAVE mode. Then, they edit their
prefs, in RAVE mode, mind you, then switch back to the voodoo2 drivers
and all is done. Mine works great.
-Eli
"
Update: I assumed he meant that 3Dfx Quake was running - however a later mail indicates that it is Rave Quake that is working in 1.09. Here's his latest comments:
"
Sure, man!
Ok, so you take out the installed extensions that install with the generic
drivers. Yuo then proceed to enable RAVE drivers and edit your options;
meaning everything under the heading of options in your Quake 1.09 menu. Then,
you disable the other RAVe drivers and enable the voodoo2 drivers and you're
ready to play Quake RAVe 1.09. I can send you my config.cfg and stuff if you
want. Or a screenshot.
-Eli
"
Thomas Perrier sends a pretty complete list of game compatibility notes:
"
Hi !
I tested a STB BlackMagic 3D (12 MB) with the generic Voodoo 2 drivers. At
last we get the famed rotating 3Dfx logo when the card activates. I tried
all the games I had access to which worked fine with a Voodoo 1 :
Unreal : perfect ! On my PowerCenter Pro 240, I can play in 800x600 at the
speed of 640x480 with my Voodoo 1 board. In 640x480, the framerate increase
is not significant, so it's much better to play in 800x600. As explained
before, modify the config file manually for 800x600.
Myth : perfect ! Be sure to use a recent version, the original 1.0
application doesn't work (I used 1.3b1).
Quake : as stated before, the 3Dfx version doesn't work ; the RAVE version
launches, but the image appears to be 320x200 pixel doubled, located in the
top left corner of the screen. It's ugly : I'd rather use software
rendering...
I tried versions 1.08 (the original) and 1.09 (the last one).
Carmageddon : just a black screen after the 3Dfx logo...
F/A-18 Korea : runs fine in 800x600 with the latest 1.0.1 beta. I had to
check 800x600 in the preferences, then quit and relaunch the game for it to
work. These drivers really don't like resolution switching.
Tomb Raider II : perfect ! It runs fine in 800x600 (rock steady 30 fps).
Shadow Warrior : perfect in 800x600 !
Weekend Warrior (RAVE game) : crashes just after the Bungie logo.
Flying Circus Demo (0.93) (RAVE) : runs okay, but with strange colours (a
yellowish tint).
Nanosaur (RAVE) : doesn't work.
MechWarrior II (RAVE) : doesn't work.
Oh, and the 3Dfx demos shipped with the TechWorks Power 3D don't work, too.
Except for VR Soccer, Carts and the Future Cop demo (which runs well
according to previous reports), I think I've tested every game which
supports 3Dfx cards on the Mac. And the results are very interesting indeed
: except for RAVE games, Quake and Carmageddon, they all work flawlessly !
By the way, the page seems to have disappeared again.
Thomas Perrier
"
"
Frank and Mike,
I've gotten ahold of the mystery voodoo2 drivers. They appear to be genuine, and not a trojan horse or virus. As advertised, Quake does not work (this REALLY sucks), but Unreal and Myth do.
Myth seems a little buggy, although I'm not noticing any of the video
artifacts that other people have mentioned. It crashed once when I tried to
load a multiplayer map.
Unreal is spectacular in 800x600 mode. Seems to work fine. It totally
locked-up once and I had to re-boot my computer. I don't believe that this
is related to the voodoo2 drivers as I've had this happen before w/ my
voodoo1 card.
My current setup is a Diamond Monster 3D II (8MEG) in a Power Macintosh 7300
w/ a Powerlogix G3 running 310/310 (1MEG L2). I've got about 101 megs of
RAM allocated to Unreal, and using the timedemo utility I'm avaraging around
26-27fps in 800x600 mode, and 35-36 in 600x800. I'm very pleased with the
gameplay, and like I said, it looks amazing.
It's really a shame about Quake, but I suppose with a situation as
illegitamate as this, you can't have it all...
All the Best,
Don C. Tyler
"
A reader reports Quake can be made to work in RAVE mode:
"
More on Quake... I was able to get it running using Quake RAVE and the
RAVE driver. I had to raise the memory partition of Quake RAVE to 50MB
to get it to run reliably. It's not as "nice" or as fast as the
Glide-only version but at least it works. 38.6fps, timedemo demo2.
-M
"
Confimation on the 3dfx Quake problem noted above:
"
It doesn't run at all. The problem is that the driver doesn't implement
some of the internal Voodoo1 compatibility functions and it appears that
Quake tries to call these directly. So when you launch Quake, the code
fragment manager cannot resolve the calls and you get a dialog with a
message like "can't find sst1InitMapBoard". SST1 was the codename for
the original Voodoo graphics chip. Basically, Mac Quake breaks the rules
by using "undocumented" API calls. MicroConversions actually implemented
the functions in their version of the driver (presumably so that Quake
would run).
"
Diamond Monster 3D II owner feedback:
"
Hi Mike,
The drivers appear to work as advertised with a Diamond Monster 3D II
(12MB) in my PowerMac 9600/400. If you try and switch Unreal from
640x480 to 800x600 the application quits... however if you just edit the
.ini file and set ViewportX=800 and ViewportY=600 then it will startup
and run in 800x600 just fine (22.83 fps ;-) Very nice. Tomb Raider II
works well but I had problems with F/A-18 Korea and Future Cop @ 800x600
(it ran OK in 640x480).
The Creative and Diamond Voodoo2 cards are readily available for less
than $150 and with their $50 rebates the net cost is under $100.
-anon
"
Here's the quote (from the readme I assume) that Frank Bernier sent in with the original post:
"
Happy Halloween!
Just in time for the holiday, here are a couple of BooBerry flavored
Voodoo2 drivers for your Mac. You should find this read me, an extension
called 3DfxGlideLib2.x (version 2.5.3) and 3Dfx RAVE (version 1.0d15). You
may want to back up your Voodoo1 drivers before dumping these into your
extensions folder. Also, if you have a RagePRO you won't need the 3Dfx
RAVE extension.
Technical Issues
I have tested these drivers with 4 different vendors (Diamond, Arcade
FXII, etc) and they all worked. You will have to buy a Mac -> VGA and VGA
-> Mac video adapter if you are using an Apple Monitor (those of you using
a VGA monitor only need a VGA -> Mac). Each adapter should cost under $5.
I have not tried the Griffin Technologies NE3D adapter, but I would surely
like to (http://www.griffintechnology.com/ne3d/index.html). Curiously, I
have not been able to get an Apple 1710AV to work with the cards. Again, I
wonder if the NE3D would help.
Quake does not run with these drivers. Nor do any of the add-on packs
(X-Men, etc). Major bummer, I know...
I have never played Myth, so I cannot say if it works with these drivers.
I'm sure someone will test it and post the results on
comp.sys.mac.games.action.
Unreal works just fine, but you may find that you need to edit the
Unreal.ini file to change the resolution and possibly the refresh rate. If
you change the resolution w/in the application, it will quit.
Tomb Raider II works fine.
FutureCop appears to work fine, but, as with Unreal, changing resolutions
may quit the application.
I have not been able to make SLI work :(
You may read this and decide it's not worth it. I strongly believe it is.
You can buy a 12MB BestData ArcadefxII for around $100 -- much cheaper
than the $350 for a Game Wizard from Micro Conversion. If you're not
happy, just return it. If Quake is really that important to you, then
plunk down $300 -350 for a Game Wizard or $99 for a Voodoo1.
Credits
I would like to thank the chain of people that brought these drivers to my
hard drive. I would also like to thank my partner in crime. Silicon
Valley is such a small place...
Disclaimer
These drivers have NOT been officially released by 3Dfx. It's quite
possible they weren't written by 3Dfx, actually. Do not call 3Dfx looking
for support for these drivers or any "issues" that may arise from their
use. If you wack your monitor with these drivers, it's your fault. If
you have problems, post a polite question to comp.sys.mac.games.action and
someone will try to help you.
"
If you have comments or compatibility info to share, please contact me. Please don't ask me for the drivers - I do not have or use them personally.
And remember - if you do buy a PC Voodoo card of any kind make sure
you note that you're buying it for a Mac when you register it, but consider a $199 Game Wizard for better drivers, less game bugs and better future game support.
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