Bill's Workshop -- Banshee General Troubleshooting Guide

3Dfx Voodoo Banshee Tip of the Day! Archives

Have a HOT Tip or a Question? Let Bill know!

Saturday, January 2, 1999 CROC

Today's Tip comes from the Creative Banshee newsgroup from contributor, Fogline. He writes:

"After reading the past threads about croc not working (and having my 9&10 year old sons looking over my shoulder) I finally got Croc working. All I did was take all 3 of the 3D dll's (Glide2x.dll, Glide2x.rsh and Glide2x.voo) out of the installed directory and the darn thing fired up and works like a champ. Past posts had said to take out only the glide2x.dll and this did not work for me and copying the dll that shipped on the banshee disc also did not work, so out of frustration my sons and I found the answer. Hope this helps someone.

Fogline"

OK, I know real gameheads do not play Croc, at least not when anyone is looking, but many have kids who do. After installing the Banshee in the home system to do a little Quake fragging, you may find, like Fogline, that you have some angry kids next time they fire up Croc to do whatever they do in Croc. Also, this is another example of a common type of solution when you find older Glide files in the game folder. So, thanks, Fogline, for the second HOT Tip of the New Year!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Friday, January 1, 1999 F1 BY PSYGNOSIS

Today's Tip comes via email from reader, Andy Ask. He writes:

"Bill
What a truly excellent website for the banshee. I have a fix for F1 by Psygnosis. Sure, you can run the D3D version of the game. But the 3dfx version hangs on startup.

All I did was to delete (or move) the file glide2x.dll in the F1 folder. This tip was given to me after I posted it in a 3dfx newsgroup. The game now runs a treat with excellent graphics and you still see the 3dfx logo when you launch. Hope this helps.

Andy

My system:
amd 200mmx, CL PCI Banshee, Drivers 13/11/98 , 64 Megs Ram"

I missed the solution over in the 3Dfx newsgroup, so I appreciate you alerting me and other Banshee owners. This a common type of solution when you find older Glide files in the game folder. VROOM! Thanks, Andy, for the first HOT Tip of the New Year!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Thursday, December 31, 1998 TNN PRO HUNTER

Today's Tip comes via email from reader, Allan, AKA, Kabs. He writes:

"The company finally replied to my email, and said

'TNN Pro Hunter does not (yet) support some 3D cards. This is largely related to the fact that the Unreal engine does not officially support them. If you visit the Unreal homepage, you will see that while they do have support for OpenGL and Direct 3D, it is still in the beta stage. If you check your Pro Hunter CD, you will find an OpenGL "patch" in the \OPENGL directory. Please understand that this patch is still in the beta stage, so we can't officially support it yet. Direct 3D should be available on our website within the next 2 weeks.'

I tried the patch on the CD and it worked.

I just wanted to let you know incase someone else had the same problem. My sound works too.

Allan"

Sounds good to me! Thanks, Allan, for this real HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Wednesday, December 30, 1998 NEW GTA FIX

Today's Tip comes via email from Mok, our code jockey resource. He writes:

"I have added code to allow other resolutions (320x200, 320x240, 400x300, 513x384, 640x400, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 & 1280x768). I tested it with GTA which now runs fine here with all resolutions (512x384, 640x480, 800x600), although I have to use F11 to go out of 512x384 which has wrong refresh rate in DOS for my old crappy monitor. It's based on latest 3dfx reference drivers version, and tested on my CL banshee PCI only. I can't be sure it will work on all cards, but it should as long as hw vendor did not modify video mode numbers for VESA modes. Cya, - Mok"

New GTA Fix File

Mok adds that the hexedit fix is no longer needed, if you use this file. 3Dfx informs me that new drivers, due out mid-January, will address the GTA problem. In the meantime, thanks, Mok, for this real HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Tuesday, December 29, 1998 RAINBOW SIX

Today's Tip comes via email from regular reader and contributor, Patrick Merjo. He writes:

"Although Rainbow Six has no known problems with Banshee- I just can't get it to work on my PC. Looking in the registry, I can conclude that the game won't load do to driver misconfiguration.

Anywhoo.. I called Redstorm and they sent me the attached file. It allows you to easily choose your video and audio drivers before loading the game. (I hope, I still have to test it out) It seems to work like the NHL99 3D Setup file.

I hope this helps someone.

Patrick Merjo"

Rainbow Six Device Picker

We have a number of games that seem to work for most people and present a real frustration for the few for whom they don't work, so this is very much appreciated. Redtsorm needs to make this available on their website for the general public. In the meantime, we will provide the file for download here. Thanks, Patrick, for this real HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Monday, December 28, 1998 CARMAGEDDON

Today's Tip comes via email from reader Marco Wesssel. He writes:

"I think you should state in your games solutions list that if you run carmageddon 3DFX with the -vrush switch the menu flickering (which I had) will disappear.

Regards, Marco"

Sure enough, Marco is right, as verified by yours truly. Be aware that if you just ran the game in 3Dfx mode and then add the -vrush switch and try to run it again, it may not start. You may need to reboot. After that it should run just fine from then on, as it did for me. Thanks, Marco, for this real HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Sunday, December 27, 1998 NCAA FOOTBALL 99

Today's Tip comes via email from reader Jeffrey Hollon. He writes:

"i just went into my shortcut's properties and added the letter v to cut out the movies at the beginning and it worked fine for me with my Quantum3D Raven

"C:\Program Files\EA Sports\NCAA Football 99\Program\NCAA Football 99.exe"

change it to:

"C:\Program Files\EA Sports\NCAA Football 99\Program\NCAA Football 99.exe" v

I hope this helps others with the problem. By the way, the site is GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!!

thanks for everything so far,

Jeffrey B. Hollon"

Another fix similar to yesterday's Urban Assault fix and the one for Shadows of the Empire. I don't understand why the video cutscenes in some games are causing problems, but I would guess it is a DirectX-related problem. Thanks, Jeffrey, for this real HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Saturday, December 26, 1998 URBAN ASSAULT RUNS!

Today's Tip comes via email from reader Simon. He writes:

"I managed to get Urban Assault working by turning off the movies.

Edit the file Nucleus.ini and change the line:

gfx.movie_player = on

to:

gfx.movie_player= off

this should fix the problem"

Short and sweet, and it worked for me. Once you get to the main menu, which used to black out, change the renderer in options from software to primary 3D, the boost the resolution to at least 800x600. Click OK. When it comes back from a brief (hopefully) blackout, go back in and check the resolution again. I had to set it twice, but it took the second time. Then launch a mission. It worked for me with none of the flickering menus. The image does not look quite right, especially in the dithered sky. I don't have my V2 installed now so I can't compare the image, but it does not look very good. However, the game does run without crashing. Thanks, Simon, for this real HOT Tip of the Day! I'd thank you personally, but your email spam block stopped me.

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Friday, December 25, 1998 OUTLAWS AGAIN!

Today's Tip comes via email from reader Mark L�tkefend. He writes:

"The Outlaws-tip is great, but I was unsatisfied with the max resolution of 640x480 in the setup. Here is my little utility to change resolution of Outlaws up to 800x600
with your Voodoo-Banshee/Voodoo2-card! (It works fine with my Diamond Monster Fusion and the Diamond Monster2...)

The glide-files on your page must be installed! They really work properly!

If you think my program is useful then put it on your page.

I hope you'll test this utility and send me an answer ASAP.

Mark"

I turned to Paleface, my source for Outlaws information, and he has tested your tool and declares it a real Christmas present! Your new version 1.1, which adds direct launch capability, looks to be just the thing for Outlaws fans with Banshee cards. Thanks for this real HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Thursday, December 24, 1998 AGP OR PCI?

Today's Tip comes via email and the Creative labs Banshee newsgroup. Regular contributor AR Allen recommended Ed Crisler's review of the issue of AGP versus PCI Banshee performance-wise. Ed wrote:

" Subject: Banshee PCI and AGP Comparison

There has been a silent question that has been begging for a response. Is there ANY real advantage to using a AGP card over a PCI where the Banshee is concerned. This question has been begging for some real attention so I took it upon myself to check it out.

First I went to the source and called tech support for Banshee card makers. I spoke with techs at Diamond, Quantum 3D and Creative Labs. The Guys at CL and Diamond told me that I could see a 5% - 10% performance boost by going with the AGP card. The tech at Quantum said that he did not think there would be any boost, if there was it would only be about 1%.

Since I already had a Fusion PCI in my system I borrowed a Fusion AGP and put the AGP version to the test. I did each test on a clean install system with the latest drivers. The system used for testing is a K6-2 300 clocked
at 112x3 with 96 MEG of SDRAM. Quake has been tweaked the same way I play the game. The Banshees are both running at a Core of 110 and Memory of 115 with vsync off. I am using the 3DFX reference drivers to insure that the bus is what is actually tested. The Banshee speeds where set using the Banshee Control Panel V2.02

Quake 2	AGP	PCI
640x480	45.3	45.3
800x600	41.2	41.4
1024x768	30.1	29.8

Forsaken	AGP	PCI
640x480	133.5	133.3
800x600	101.7	101.6

Unreal	AGP	PCI
640x480	31.2	31.6

Wintune 98	AGP	PCI
1024x768x16 bit	77.2	78.1

As you can see from these tests there is no real difference between the AGP and the PCI versions of the Fusion. However to be sure I did similar tests on the Quantum 3D. Under the same conditions the same results where found. Only a point 1 or 2 FPS speed difference between PCI and AGP and sometimes the PCI was actually faster.

This does prove that there is NO reason to wait for an AGP card if you can get a PCI now, if speed is the consideration. The only reason I can see to get AGP would be that you need the PCI slot free.

Ed"

This is consistent with my experience and expectations. There may be some conditions under which the AGP card, running at a higher transfer rate over the AGP bus, may outperform PCI, but it is not seen in practice. This is not unusual to the Banshee. Also, since the Banshee is an AGP 1x chip and does not perform any advanced AGP functions, such as Direct Memory Execution (texture application from system RAM), the sole advantage of AGP is that it occupies an otherwise unused AGP slot. Thanks to AR and Ed Crisler for today's HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Wednesday, December 23, 1998 HALF-LIFE RESOURCES!

HOT Tip of the Day is back from a forced hiatus due to a HD crash (wiped out my email messages). Today's Tip comes via the Creative Labs Banshee newsgroup from Banshee devotee, AR Allen. It's more than a "Tip". It's a veritable book of resources for Half-Life fans. Have a look.

"Since many people will be finding Half-Life under the X-mas tree to go with their new Banshee card, I thought I'd review some of the older posts (from both the CL and 3Dfx newsgroups) and put together a some general Half-Life help info:

Publisher: http://www.sierra.com/
Developers: http://www.valvesoftware.com/
Half-Life FAQs: http://www.planethalflife.com/half-life/faq.shtm
http://www.pcgame.com/randy/faq.htm
Official Site: http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/half-life/index.html
Latest Patch: Version 1.0.0.6
http://www.3dfiles.com/patches/halflife.shtml
Sierra patch site
3D Now! Patch: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/patches/hl-3dnow.zip
Tweaks for Multiplayer: http://pcgame.svwh.net/randy/multi.htm
Half-Life Console Help: http://www.pcgame.com/randy/console.htm
Half-Life Walkthru: http://www.pcgame.com/super/halflife/walk.htm
Half-Life Cheats: http://www.cheatland.com/pages/ch_dmg.htm
Half-Life Demos: http://www.voodooextreme.com/3Fingers/
(for benchmarking)
Half-Life Autoexec
Creator: http://www.digitalsea.net/tweak3d/autoexec/halflife/
Half-Life Maps: http://www.halflife.net/maps/
Half-Life Mondo Sites: http://www.contaminated.net/
http://www.planethalflife.com/
Unofficial Bug List: http://www.halflife.org/bugs/
Half-Life Benchmarks: http://www.billsworkshop.com/benchmark.html

Recommendations
==============
1. Use the OpenGL versus Direct3D as OGL is faster.
2. Use the MiniGL drivers ver 1.46 from 3Dfx or Brett's modified 1.46 MiniGL.
3. Set sound quality to low if having problems with fps.
4. Although it will run on 32Mb, get at least 64Mb.
5. Many people seem to have the most success with the 3Dfx Ref Drivers ver 1.0. If in doubt, see
Bill's Which Driver? page
6. Benchmarking - When you get the same results in all video modes, it means your CPU is the limiting factor (from Brett "3Fingers").
7. If having problems running Half-Life on a 16 bit desktop, try 24 bit.
8. Mouse problems, use the 3Dfx Banshee Ref Driver or change the Mouse IRQ.
9. If Half-Life runs in 320*240 in software mode after selecting 3Dfx mode, make sure your desktop is set to 16 bit or 24 bit color.
10. If you get the message "Video mode not supported by your card", click the information tab on your Banshee Control Panel to make sure that OpenGL and Glide is present. If not, remove old drivers and re-install drivers.
11. For multi-play, turn the res down to 800x600 for speed

General Half-Life Issues
=================
Missing Decals (i.e. bullet holes) Half-Life uses a feature of OpenGL and Direct3D that some video card drivers do not support correctly. To override the default settings for this feature, put this line in your opengl32.cfg or d3d.cfg file:

gl_polyoffset 0.1

If this doesn't work, try -0.1, 1 or 20. This tells the driver how far to offset the decal from the surface of the polygon that the decal is being applied to.

Direct3D or OpenGL are running very slow. On some cards that don't fully support Direct3D or OpenGL, Half-Life will fall back to a software emulation mode. These modes are very slow. If your Direct3D support is slow, try selecting OpenGL, and vice versa. If neither work, change your settings to use Half-Life's software video mode instead and the speed will improve.

Direct3D input seems lagged. If your input seems to lag behind the visual display on occasion, add this line to your d3d.cfg file:

gl_d3dflip 1

Note: The latest release of DirectX, version 6.0, is included on the Half-Life CD. It should be automatically installed as part of the Half-Life installation process. If you need to reinstall at a later time, open the DirectX folder on your Half-Life installation CD and run dxsetup.exe.

Known Issues List for Banshee (3Dfx)
===========================
Banshee, Voodoo1&2, Voodoo2 SLI:
Half-Life ships with the current, tested GL mini-driver. Make sure that you have Glide version 2.54 or above. Half-Life does not support Direct3D on Voodoo cards.

The Voodoo 2 running in SLI mode on Windows/NT is prone to crashing. The solution to this instability is to either get an updated driver from 3DFX, disable SLI mode, or run under Windows 95/98.

3Dfx Rush:
With the current drivers, Half-Life supports the Voodoo rush in software mode only. Check with 3DFX for an updated driver that offers support for Half-Life."

This definitely scores a big bullseye for a HOT Tip of the Day win! Thanks a bunch, AR!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Friday, December 18, 1998 INCUBATION HACK

Today's Tip comes via email from our friendly code-jockey, Mok, who previously contributed a GTA hack to our Game Guide.

"INCUBATION / BlueByte

Replace original file with the one from this archive and start the game
with 3DFX option. Now your Voodoo Banshee card will work properly.

WARNING: Due to uncertain reasons, when you try to exit the game (with Banshee
card), the game will crash most possibly taking down the whole system.
So do not play the game while making some important work... :)
The same thing might happen if you try to switch tasks while playing.

---

Tech info:

The original ENG3DFX.DLL file tried to access no longer supported GLIDE2X.DLL
exports so it simply refused to load. Funny, coz these functions weren't used
at all :) I simply cleared the entries in the import table.

Tested with *european* english release, updated to v1.03c

Have fun, - Mok"

Get Mok's customized eng3dfx.dll file here. Mok has uncovered a bundle of issues with games and Voodoo Banshee video functions, and the industry would be wise to put him on retainer. Mok, for now, all we can do is reward you with a HOT Tip of the Day win! If this works for you Incubation fans, let me know, and I will pass the news on to Mok. This worked with the demo version for me!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Thursday, December 17, 1998 GLIDE DOESN'T RUN?

Today's Tip comes via email from Thomas Hagenloch who adds another tip to troubleshooting errors in Glide-based games.

" Very old Voodoo1 drivers copy their "glide2x.dll" into the Windows-folder. Banshee drivers copy it into Windows\System. Because files in the Windows-folder are preferred over those in Win\System the application tries to initialize a (not-existing) Voodoo1-card.

I hope this helps and excuse my bad English.

Bye,
Thomas"

This is an important reminder for those with Voodoo cards installed prior to their Banshee. If the old Glide files are in the path, they can be used prior to the new ones, causing black screens and other Glide errors. The Voodoo2 came with a clean-up utility that hunted down and offered to eliminate older Glide files. Thomas, you win HOT Tip of the Day! BTW, your English is better than mine.

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Wednesday, December 16, 1998 DRIVER INSTALLATION

Today's Tip comes via a question from a reader who was having trouble installing Banshee drivers:

"I installed drivers from another vendor and now my Banshee won't let me install the right drivers. It keeps insisting that the drivers I am installing are not correct and refuses to install them. When I use the Change adapter button in display properties and direct it to search to proper driver folder, it insists on reverting to the old drivers. What do I do?"

When you install the new drivers from the Change adapter button, pick the other choice, "display a list of all drivers in a specific location, so you can select the driver you want." Then select "Have disk" and direct it to the proper drivers folder.

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Tuesday, December 15, 1998 RED BARRON II

Today's Tip comes via a question from Greg Reed. about Red Barron II answered by a quick email from Greg Matthews.:

"I was indeed able to get Red Baron II (patched to 3d) to work in glide mode. The following must steps must be undertaken.

Set Glide setting in Banshee Control Panel to triple buffering (CL Banshee, probably same in other cards). Change Win95/98 desktop resolution to 640x480 (you can run RB in another resolution once in the game; I've had good success at 1024x768). Run RB!

Sounds simple, but it took awhile to figure out. There will be some strange graphic effects with the mouse pointer and with the selection buttons once the mission is over, but that's it-- not a big deal. If you have questions, email me.

Greg Matthews

PS. The idiots at Sierra said it doesn't work with banshee cards either but obviously it does... :)"

Not much you can add to that! The speed of the Internet wins again. Greg Matthews, you win HOT Tip of the Day!

Addendum: Reader Dan Reames, AKA the "Mechanic", says the Sierra "Super patch" provides Banshee support.

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Monday, December 14, 1998 OUTLAWS

Today's Tip comes via a question from "Paleface" who hangs out over at Paleface's Opinionated Outlaws Site. Seems his face have been a little paler than usual since he got himself a Banshee. Paleface wrote:

"I have a Quantum Raven AGP SDRAM. The only drivers I have found to run Outlaws perfectly are the old 3dbbw95.zip drivers. All other drivers including the latest 3dfx reference and Quantum release drivers (this is in Win95) have the following problems:
-- Multiplayer deathmatch frag table names blacked out
-- Dynamite and knives appear pitch black
-- Screen tinting from taking damage is black rather than red"

My suggestion back to Paleface apparently killed that varmint bug with one shot. Put the Glide files from the old driver that ran Outlaws into the Outlaws folder. That way the game will find them first and use them rather than the newer ones in the Windows and system folder. All other games will not be affected. Creative Labs Banshee owners, look on your installation CD for the original driver pack and copy Glide2x.dll and Glide2x.ovl to the Outlaws folder. For the full story and a copy of the needed files, visit ole' Paleface over at his website. He's gettin' 50-100 FPS - now that's some fast cowboys!

Paleface, ole' partner, You win HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Sunday, December 13, 1998 POD

Today's Tip comes from "Pharout"", AKA Dave B., via email.

"regarding POD, the VER. of POD that was OEM for MMX machines WORKS with BANSHEE..if you upgrade from POD1/POD2.0(36megs)then using the correct patch (3DFX)
http://www.ubisoft.com/pod/ENGLISH/usa.html the catch is the (3DFX patch) almost always must be run 2 times to work! Look for pod3DFX.EXE file when done patching ..why? I don't know, other flavors of this game (nonMMX) I never tested but(can be made to work) but POD 2.1 MMX works great
Here's a good link for more info:
http://home.clara.net/redline/pod/HFAQ.HTM
hope this helps
Pharout"

POD was one of the first real eye-candy games for the Voodoo cards. With all the car and track upgrades, it's still fun to run. Glad to hear the 3Dfx patch (ARGH - 24MB), needed for the Voodoo2, also supports the Banshee. You win HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Saturday, December 12, 1998 TOMB RAIDER 1

Today's Tip comes from "blutaro", AKA markb, via email.

"i got tombraider to work very well using the tombraider rush patch most games you can fool the banshee into working using a rush driver i,ve found like archemedian dynasty etc :)
hope this helps
markb"

I don't mind fooling the Banshee a little...it's fooled me enough already! Time to get even. You win HOT Tip of the Day! Links to the patches are here. Somebody try this with Archimedian Dynasty, please.

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Friday, December 11, 1998 RESIDENT EVIL

Today's Tip comes from "The Grimp" via email.

"Having trouble with Resident Evil? Works for me if I select Rendition setup."

Hey, it works, Grimp! You win HOT Tip of the Day!

Bill
Bill's Workshop

Related Topics

Banshee Game Guide

Back to 3Dfx Banshee Guide main page

Tip of the Day!

Croc
F1 by Psygnosis
TNN Pro Hunter
New GTA Fix
Rainbow Six
Carmageddon
NCAA Football 99
Urban Assault runs!
Outlaws again!
AGP or PCI?
Half-Life Resources!
Incubation hack
Glide doesn't run?
Driver Install
Red Barron II
Outlaws
POD
Tomb Raider
Resident Evil