Fri 12/04/1998
3DLABS WINDOWS 2000 DRIVER
==========================
2D Driver Build 2.13.0602
ICD Build 4.10.01.2105-2.12.0767
© Copyright 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. 1999. All rights reserved worldwide.
The material in this document is the intellectual property of
3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. While every care has been taken in the
preparation of this document, 3Dlabs accepts no liability
for any consequences of its use. Our products are under
continual improvement and we reserve the right to change
their specification without notice.
3Dlabs is the worldwide trading name of 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd.
3Dlabs and GLINT are registered trademarks of 3Dlabs.
OpenGL is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Windows NT, Windows 2000 and DirectDraw are trademarks of
Microsoft Corp. All other trademarks are acknowledged.
Introduction
============
This Readme describes the above driver for the 3Dlabs Oxygen
GMX board (based on the GMX2000 chipset).
Once the driver has been installed the display driver release
number can be determined by starting the Display Applet in the
Control Panel folder. Press the "Advanced..." button, then
Select the "3Dlabs" tab and click on the "Information" button.
The Display Driver and OpenGL version numbers can be found in
the Software section. The last four digits following the
"-" uniquely identify your driver build.
Prerequisites
=============
• Windows 2000 (Beta 3 RC1 build 2000 and later).
• Intel Pentium processor or later.
Floppy Disk Contents
====================
This section lists the files that appear on the driver installation
floppy. The driver fits onto a single floppy disk, the disk contains
the following files:-
Disk Filename File Description
==== ======== ================
1 readme.txt This file
1 3DLabs.inf The installation file for the GMX2000
1 multifun.inf The installation file for coprocessors*
1 x86\glintDD.dll The display driver for GMX2000
1 x86\glintMP.sys The miniport driver for GMX2000
1 x86\3DCtrl.dll The Control Panel
1 x86\3DLabMon.inf The monitor timings information file
1 x86\3DLabsMZ.scr The 3DLabs maze screen saver
1 x86\3DUninst.exe The GMX2000 uninstall program
1 x86\multifun.sys The device driver for coprocessors*
1 x86\3DOGLDrv.dll The OpenGL driver for GMX2000
* Windows 2000 requires a device driver for each PCI device on the
adapter. The GMX2000 contains four such devices: a VGA chip (the P2VGA),
a Gamma geometry accelerator chip and two GLiNT MX rasterizer chips. The
GMX2000 driver is installed for the P2VGA device, the other three devices
are each installed as coprocessors and use the multifun driver. The
multifun driver does no work it simply acts as a placeholder for its
device.
Driver Update from Floppy Disk
==============================
1. Click Start Button->Programs->Administrative Tools->Computer
Management.
2. Open "System Tools".
3. Open "Device Manager".
4. Open "Display Adapter".
5. Open "3Dlabs Graphics Processor".
6. Select the Driver Tab
7. Click <Update Driver>
8. Click <Next>
9. Select the Floppy disk as the location to search and follow
the remaining instructions to update your driver.
NB. Windows 2000 may detect your GMX2000 as a "PERMEDIA2 (MS)",
this is because the GMX uses the PERMEDIA2 as a VGA device.
When this occurs you must select this driver (i.e. 3DLabs.inf),
not the Microsoft PERMEDIA2 driver (Perm2.inf).
3D Studio Max 2.x
-----------------
Oxygen GMX boards should be used with OpenGL acceleration under
3D Studio Max 2.x.
Start 3DStudio Max and go to the "File/Preferences" dialog box.
Click the "Viewports" tab and the select "Choose Driver". Ensure
that the "OpenGL" option is selected. Shutdown 3DStudio Max.
Before restarting, delete the 3DStudio Max OpenGL configuration
file that stores information about your OpenGL driver. Doing
this will cause 3DStudio Max to reset some of its options to
get best performance from these drivers. The file is called
oglgfx.ini and is located in your /3dsmax2/ directory (or
wherever you installed 3DStudio Max). If the file does not
exist then simply restart 3DStudio Max.
When running through OpenGL, 3D Studio Max 2 defaults to not
backface culling wireframe objects. This may result in
less than optimal performance when manipulating wireframe
objects. This behaviour can be changed from within the
application. Go to the "File/Preferences" dialog box. Click
on the "Viewports" tab and then select "Configure Driver".
Enable the option "Display Wireframe Objects Using Triangle
Strips". This causes wireframe objects to be backfaced
culled and can significantly improve performance. The setting
also causes shared edges within polygons to be drawn which may
not appear as desired.
Uninstall
=========
1. Open the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel.
2. Highlight the "3Dlabs display driver" in the list and click
"Add/Remove".
3. Follow the instructions to complete the removal of the
display driver and OpenGL driver.
Resolutions and Refresh Rates
=============================
A full list of all modes is available via the Display Control
Panel applet once the 3Dlabs driver has been installed and the
system rebooted. Press the "Advanced..." button, select the
"3Dlabs" tab, then choose "Monitor" configuration. See section
4 for more information.
3Dlabs Display Control Panel Tab
================================
To access the 3Dlans Control Panel, launch the Display Properties
Control Panel, select the "Settings" tab, click the "Advanced..."
button and select the "3Dlabs" tab.
The 3Dlabs tab in the Display Control Panel allows control over
the configuration of OpenGL and other applications using the
3Dlabs display driver. The control panel is split into a number
of pages as listed below. The pages are selected by clicking on
one of the configuration buttons at the top right of the
window.
Note: It is necessary to have administrator privileges to change
any settings in the control panel applet. If you do not have
administrator privileges the options will be greyed out and
cannot be changed.
1.INFORMATION PAGE
1.1 Information Page - 2D Driver Build
The last four digits are the build number that uniquely
identifies the display driver binary.
1.2 Information Page - ICD Build
The last four digits are the build number that uniquely
identifies the OpenGL Installable Client Driver (ICD) binary.
1.3 Information Page - OpenGL Release
This is the OpenGL version number that can also be queried
by an OpenGL application at run-time.
1.4 Information Page - Chip Name
Reports the name of the 3Dlabs chipset on the board: GMX2000.
1.6 Information Page - Depth/Stencil
Reports the total amount of memory used by auxillary buffers
for use in hardware hidden surface removal (z-buffering) and
masking/clipping (stencil and GID planes).
1.7 Information Page - Texture Memory
Reports the total amount of graphics card memory available
for storing texture maps - after allowing for full screen
front, back and depth buffers. Lower screen resolutions
will free up more graphics card memory for texture use.
2.SETUP PAGE
2.1 Setup Page - Gamma Correction Adjustment
The gamma correction adjustment affects the entire screen
display. The default gamma value is 1.0 and the allowable
range of floating point values is 0.3 to 4.0.
3.OPENGL PAGE
3.1 OpenGL Page - Number of DMA Sub Buffers
Each DMA buffer is sub-divided into sub buffers which are
used in conjunction with a queued DMA mechanism to
reduce latency in the system. The number of sub buffers
can be set here. Setting it to 2 will disable the queued
DMA mechanism.
3.2 OpenGL - Wait for VBlank
Smooth animation of 3D applications can be achieved by
rendering to an off-screen window/desktop sized color
buffer and copying or swapping the contents to the
displayable front buffer at the completion of each frame.
Enabling this option prevents tearing of the display by
synchronizing the swap of the back and front buffers to the
vertical blank retrace interval of the monitor display.
* =================================
* IMPORTANT PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
* =================================
* By default the box is checked - i.e. no visible tearing.
*
* Unchecking the box gives the highest rendering frame
* rates of double buffered applications. You should uncheck
* the box for instance when running the viewperf benchmark.
3.3 OpenGL Page - SoftImage Version 3.51/3.7 Application support
Version 3.51/3.7 of SoftImage requires this to be set to
ensure the correct operation on the Oxygen GMX boards.
Changing this option requires a re-boot of the system.
3.4 OpenGL Page - Pro/DESIGNER application support
Version 19.0 of Pro/DESIGNER requires this to be set to
ensure the correct operation on the Oxygen GMX boards.
Changing this option does not require a re-boot of the system
3.5 OpenGL Page - Pro/ENGINEER application support
Versions 18 and 19.0 of Pro/DESIGNER requires this to be set
to ensure the correct operation on the Oxygen GMX boards,
it also changes the DMA buffer size to 16 buffers
each one being 128K large, unchecking this box sets these
values back to their defaults of 8 buffers of 64K each.
Changing this option requires a re-boot of the system.
3.6 OpenGL Page - Unigraphics application support
Unigraphics requires this to be set to ensure the
correct operation on Oxygen GMX boards.
Changing this option does not require a re-boot of the system
3.7 OpenGL Page - Catia application support
Catia requires this to be set to ensure the
correct operation on Oxygen GMX boards.
Changing this option does not require a re-boot of the system
3.8 OpenGL Page - Overlay Support
This provides additional control of the overlay plane
capabilities exported in the pixelformats. It should only be
needed for the two specific applications listed. The default
setting should be chosen for all other cases. The first case
is for the Alias|Wavefront application Maya in the specific case
where retained alpha planes are required (e.g. the particle
system package). The second case is the Parametric Technology
application Pro/3DPAINT.
4.MONITOR PAGE
This page allows you to specify your monitor type and display
the available settings but does not permit actual selection of
different monitor modes. To do that you should click on the
"Settings" tab at the top of the Display panel.
4.1 Monitor - Detect DDC Monitor
When the display panel is started it automatically looks to
see if a DDC type monitor is connected in which case it will
display the available modes. However, it is possible for
the panel to get out of `sync` E.g if the monitor is hot
swapped. This option allows you to manually specify that
the panel should look for a DDC monitor again.
4.2 Monitor - Monitor Type
Reports on the type of monitor detected and allows you to
specify the basic type, overriding the detected type if
required. VESA should be selected if the monitor type is
non DDC and is not a specific type shown in the "Details"
list. Select "Specific Type" if your monitor is listed.
4.3 Monitor - Details
Displays a list of supported monitors and the modes
available for each monitor but does not permit selection
of the different monitor modes shown. (see above)
Supported Languages
===================
The Control Panel Tab supports the following languages:-
Chinese (Traditional)
English
French
German
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
New Features and Bug Fixes
==========================
Current Release
---------------
• The OpenGL ICD now opens the registry with read-only permission.
Previous releases requested read/write permission which could
fail depending upon user permissions.
• An OpenGL bug when switching between use of 1D and 2D texturing
has been fixed. This was causing a problem for the Catia application.
• An OpenGL bug when enabling/disabling texgen functionality has
been fixed. This was causing a problem for the Catia application.
• An OpenGL problem for the material editor in the ProDesigner
application has been fixed.
• An OpenGL performance improvement specific to the Unigraphics
application when large numbers of display lists are present has
been applied.
• The 3Dlabs Control Panel now allows only users with administrative
privileges to change any settings.
• PCI disconnect removed from 2D functions to improve system
responsiveness.
• Fixes for video adapter / monitor power saving features.
• Shared interrupt bug fixed.
• DDC bugs fixed.
Known Anomalies
===============
• When a constantly updating OpenGL application is running (such
as the X29 or rollercoaster demos) screensavers run very
slowly. This appears to be a problem with the priority
allocated to the screensaver process.
• Microsoft Maze screen saver is never hardware accelerated
due to a bug in the screen saver library code. An alternative
customised 3Dlabs version is provided.
Trouble Shooting
================
Monitor Fails to Synchronize Following Boot
-------------------------------------------
Reboot the system and at the DOS "OS loader screen" hit
<F8> and select the "Safe Mode" boot option. You will now
be able to select higher resolutions and refresh rates.
Ensure that you test the mode before applying it to ensure
that your monitor can support it. When you click on "Apply"
or "OK" you will be asked if you want to reboot - click "Yes".
If you are unable to boot into VGA and your system uses the
standard "FAT" file system then boot into DOS, and delete
the file:
$SystemRoot%\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\GLINT.SYS
When you reboot into Windows NT you will be able to reinstall
the 3Dlabs driver.
If you have an "NTFS" file system you will need to reinstall
Windows NT, but should choose not reformat your system disk
during the reinstall so that your applications and data are
preserved.
Customer Support
================
You can contact 3Dlab's technical support via the World Wide Web
at www.3dlabs.com, or via email to support@3dlabs.com.
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.