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Metabyte Wicked3D Software
Windows95/98/ME/2K Version WGL3B02 DEMO
Readme File
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Last Modified: 7/06/01
This version contains accelerated MiniGL support for
boards based on 3dfx Voodoo2/3/4/5, and Voodoo Banshee
chipsets.
New in This Version
===================
7/06/01
* Added support for Gore
6/26/01:
* Fixed "forced" 16-bit color on Voodoo5 problem
* Fixed slowdown bug on Voodoo5 introduced in v3.00
6/20/01:
* Fixed large resolutions problem in Tribes2
* No more beta warning
5/11/01 2.99 BETA version:
* Fixed Tribes "white screen" bug
* Added support for
- 3d Helicopter Coyote Hunter
- American McGee's Alice
- Counter Strike Retail Version
- Escape from Monkey Island
- Gunman
- Hired Team
- Laser Arena
- M&M's The Lost Formulas
- Mind Riot Arena
- Oni
- Opposing Force: Stand Alone Version
- Quake 3: Team Arena
- Space Gnats
- StarTrek Voyager: Elite Force Holomatch
- Tribes II, see readme.txt
- Unrealty
- Verge tech demo
- Virtual Skipper (see readme for details)
- Virtual Stratton
11/07/00:
* Added support for 4x4 Evolution, Axis, Rune,
Screamer 4x4
* Fixed "diagonal lines" bug
* Fixed BGII flashing screen (disable triple buffering),
see readme.txt
* Fixed Half-Life 1.1.0.4 "mode not supported" bug,
Some file editing required, see readme.txt
* Enabling "compress all" texture compression mode now
helps Q3 performance too
Supported Games
===============
This MiniGL driver contains an OpenGL subset for Quake,
Quake 2, Quake 3, Hexen 2, Sin, Half-Life, Heretic 2,
Daikatana, Kingpin, Soldier of Fortune, Unreal, Unreal
Tournament, Unrealty, Rune, Starsiege, Tribes, Serious
Sam, 4x4 Evolution, Axis, BGII, Crime Cities, DeusEx,
MDK2, KO, MindRover, Hitman, Heavy Metal FAKK2, StarTrek
DS9, Parsec, Screamer 4x4, Snok, StarTrek Voyager, Team
Fortress, TreadMarks.
Deus Ex issues
==============
Deus Ex shows some minor bugs in OpenGL support that are
not related to WickedGL. Grey square surrounds mouse
cursor during menu navigation. This is a bug in
DeusEx's multitexturing support. You can either disable
multitexturing or ignore this bug. To disable
multitexturing go to the DeusEx\System directory and
open OpenGlDrv.ini file. Set "UseMultitexture" to 0 in
"[Default]" section of the file.
During the gameplay some icons may show pink background.
To fix this disable texture precaching by setting
"DoPrecache" to 0 in OpenGlDrv.ini file. Also disable
DoPrecache if you are going to use texture compression.
Otherwize it will take a very long time to start the
game.
Gore issues
===========
There is a known problem with Gore test version being
unable to work in resolutions other than 640x480. If you
accidentally changed resolution in game's menu, you can
change it back by editing Settings\autoclient.cfg file.
Half-Life and Team Fortress issues
==================================
After installing WickedGL into Half-Life or Team
Fortress make sure that in the configuration -> video ->
video modes menu of the game you have selected "3Dfx
Mini Driver".
When alt-tabing during the game, the very first alt-tab
may not work. If you see dirty screen after you just
pressed alt-tab, press ESC 2 or 3 times or click on
Resume Game menu option until you get back in the game.
Then alt-tab again. All alt-tabs after that should work
fine.
If you upgraded to 1.1.0.4 version of Half-Life and see
"The selected OpenGL mode is not supported by your video
card" message, there are three ways to fix the problem.
1. You can try not to upgrade to 1.1.0.4 right away, but
rather upgrade to 1.1.0.1 and then to 1.1.0.4.
2. You can edit drvmap.txt file in GLDRV subdirectory of
Half-Life and make sure it has "gldrv/3dfxgl.dll 3Dfx
Mini Driver" line, not "3dfxgl.dll 3Dfx Mini Driver".
3. You can manually copy WickedGL dll (opengl32.dll or
ogl_hres.dll file) from the WickedGL directory to the
root Half-Life directory and rename it to opengl32.dll.
Then in video options select Default OpenGL instead of
3Dfx Mini Driver.
Hitman issues
=============
Disable "PaletteComp" in Graphics Options of the game.
Hitman uses palettized texture format for both lightmaps
and base textures, and 3dfx boards do not support
simultanious multitexturing of 2 palettized textures.
In multitexturing mode only one of 2 currently active
textures can use palette.
MDK2 and BGII issues
====================
MDK2 and BGII can load OpenGL DLLs only from
windows\system directory. To use WickedGL with MDK2 or
BGII, install/replace 3dfxvgl.dll in windows\system
directory. To do so run WickedGL switching utility,
select "Standalone 3dfxvgl.dll" from the game list,
select windows\system as a folder for searching, and hit
"Install WickedGL" button. When running MDK2 or BGII
select "3dfx Standalone OpenGL Driver" in Video
Settings. Do not enable Hardware T&L option. Do not
enable OpenGL Display Lists option.
Note that if you install 3dfxvgl on non-Voodoo2 board,
this file gets deleted if you reinstall 3dfx's video
drivers. And 3dfx's Voodoo2 drivers replace 3dfxvgl with
the original 3dfxvgl. Just run WickedGL switching
utility again and repeat installation.
IF YOU SEE SCREEN FLASHING IN BGII:
Disable triple buffering from the WickedGL control
panel.
Serious Sam issues
==================
Serious Sam may recognize WickedGL as Voodoo1 driver and
disable bump mapping as a result. To enable bump mapping
open Serious Sam's console and enter 'mdl_bRenderBump=1'
command.
Starsiege and Tribes support
============================
If you want to try WickedGL with Starsiege or Tribes,
open wglgames.cfg file in WickedGL directory and add the
following 2 lines:
"Starsiege",starsiege.exe,opengl32.dll
"Tribes",tribes.exe,opengl32.dll
Then run WickedGL switching utility and install WickedGL
for these games. Then run the game and in the Display
Settings select OpenGL for the Full Screen Mode. It is
unknown at the moment if WickedGL provides a better
performance for these games compared to the glide mode,
so judge for yourself.
Tribes II support
=================
Disable Palletized texture format in Settings->Textures.
If you want to use compressed textures (on Voodoo4/5),
enable "Compress all" texture comression mode on the
WickedGL control panel. Expect brief slowdowns during
the game loading process. After all the textures are
loaded the game should again run smooth. Also, set
compressed textures cache to the maximum (32 MB).
Unreal and Unreal Tournament support
====================================
Unreal and Unreal Tournament are supported by WickedGL
but WickedGL switching utility will not let you install
WickedGL for these games. To make switching utility
recognize these 2 games open wglgames.cfg file in
WickedGL directory and add the following 2 lines:
"Unreal",unreal.exe,opengl32.dll
"Unreal Tournament",UnrealTournament.exe,opengl32.dll
Make sure you select OpenGL driver in Unreal video
options. Normally you use Glide driver with Unreal,
The benefit WickedGL provides compared to Unreal's glide
support is better texture management. If you have Unreal
engine based game that uses lots of textures or you just
use high resolutions where little memory is left for
textures, WickedGL may be faster.
Virtual Skipper
===============
Virtual Skipper installs its own glide2x and glide3x
DLLs in the game directory. These DLLs may not be
compatible with your video board. The correct glide DLLs
are always installed in the windows system directory
when you install your video board drivers, so the glide
DLLs installed by Virtual Skipper are not required. In
fact they may prevent the correct operation of both
WickedGL and default OpenGL. To correct the problem open
Virtual Skipper's directory and delete glide2x and
glide3x DLL files.
Installation
============
Installation of WickedGL is a two step process.
First, the drivers and OpenGL switching utility are
unpacked and installed in their own directory. You have
to specify the name of the directory and select which
board you are using. There are 2 different versions of
the driver, one for Voodoo2/Voodoo3 with multitexturing
support and a non-multitexturing version for Banshee.
Banshee version would not run on Voodoo2/3 boards and
Voodoo2/3 version would not run on Banshee. At this step
you can also ask the setup program to put a shortcut to
the OpenGL switching utility on the desktop.
Second, you install the driver to the games directories
either manually or using provided OpenGL switching
utility. In the OpenGL switching utility you select
games you want to use with WickedGL and drives where to
look for them. When you hit either install or uninstall
button the OpenGL switching utility starts searching for
the selected games. Once a game found opengl driver file
in that game is replaced with WickedGL driver if install
button was hit or previously saved driver is restored if
uninstall button was hit.
WickedGL driver files are actually available in two
flavors. One is the regular version and the second is
the version with acceleration for high resolution modes.
You can select between the two when copying files to the
games directories. The OpenGL switching utility has two
different install buttons to install either regular
version or version with high resolution acceleration.
To change the version of WickedGL you are using with a
particular game/games just run OpenGL switching utility
again and repeat search/install process using a
different install button.
High Resolution Modes Acceleration
==================================
Regular version of WickedGL is the most compatible and
most intensively tested version. It does all the
rendering in hardware. WickedGL with high resolution
modes acceleration utilizes the excess of CPU power to
help video card to render faster in high resolutions at
the cost of little performance loss in low resolutions
and some compatibility issues. These two versions of
WickedGL are two different driver DLL files and you can
use any one of them depending on your personal
preferences. WickedGL with high resolution modes
acceleration has been tested with Quake3 only and should
be considered a technology demonstration. Regular
version has been extensively tested and optimized and we
recommend it to use on a regular basis with other games.
From the performance point of view Quake3 can definitely
benefit from high resolution modes acceleration in modes
1024x768 and higher. For 640x480 it is the best in most
cases to use regular version. In all other modes we
recommend you to test both versions on your particular
system and select the one that gives you better fps.
In some cases high resolution modes acceleration may
actually cause slowdowns. If you suspect that happening
on your system, switch to regular version of WickedGL
and compare performance.
Voodoo5 issues
==============
WickedGL allows applications control the bit depth of
the textures. If application does not specify the
desired bit depth for textures, then 16 bits are used.
The only exception is when the current display video
mode is 32 bit and RGBA texture is being loaded. In this
case 32 bits are used. You can change that default
behavior by using WickedGL control panel.
TEXTURE COMPRESSION:
WickedGL supports texture compression extensions on a
hardware that has that ability (Voodoo5). Due to the
high quality of the compression algorithms used in
WickedGL, games may take some time to load the first
time you start them. All compressed textures will be
cached on your hard disk (WickedGL.swp file) so that the
next time you start the game WickedGL will not be
compressing them again. You can control the maximum size
of compressed textures cache from the WickedGL control
panel. Be carefull not to make the cache size less than
the total size of comressed textures in the game.
For the games that do not support texture compression
you can force texture compression from WickedGL
control panel. Using compressed textures may add 10-15%
to your frame rates. Even if a game supports texture
compression, enabling automatic texture compression may
increase performance, since many games (like Quake3) do
not compress all their textures.
If you see some unwanted compression artifacts you can
enable compression quality control. When enabled,
textures with too much compression errors will not be
compressed at all. Keep an eye on quality control
accept/reject ratio. You still need the majority of
textures to be compressed if you want to get any
benefits from texture compression. Average compression
error reported by WickedGL control panel is a good
indicator of what compression quality control should be
set to.
Brightness/Gamma Controls
=========================
WickedGL provides gamma control extensions. Quake3 uses
these extensions and enables brightness slider if these
extensions are available. It is recommended to set this
slider to values not higher than 1.8. If you want to
disable driver level gamma extensions in Quake3 use
"r_ignorehwgamma 1" command in Quake3 console("~"). Set
brightness slider to 1.0 before entering r_ignorehwgamma
command.
WickedGL's gamma/brightness extensions may be not
available on your system. By default gamma/brightness
extensions are supported only if it is possible to
execute an accurate implementation of these extensions.
If you want WickedGL to support the extensions anyway
you need to enable them manually with the registry
setting. In the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Metabyte key
of the registry enter WickedGL_gamma_control DWORD
value. Set it to 1 to force the extensions. Set it to 2
to disable the extensions. If you forced the extensions
and an accurate implementation cannot be executed an
approximation will be used.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR QUAKE3 USERS: This miniGL supports
runtime gamma/brightness controls to the best of the
board and its driver abilities. Some board and driver
combinations limit the extent of brightness control to
the simple adjustment of the gamma correction value. In
that case instead of just refusing to support
gamma/brightness extensions this miniGL gives the best
possible approximation so you can still have runtime
brightness control in the game. As a result of
approximation the colors may look different. In fact the
approximation eliminates the saturation effect and gives
a smoother image with more shades in the middle of the
color ramp. It is a matter of personal preference
which color scheme you like and with WickedGL you
actually have a choice. If you want to get to your old
color scheme just prevent Quake3 from using hardware
gamma extensions as described in the first paragraph of
this section.
If You See Dithering Artifacts (Voodoo3 only)
=============================================
If you are using latest 3dfx's drivers that have a fix
for dithering artifacts but still see those artifacts
with WickedGL go to the 3dfx Tweaks property page and
set Alpha-blending option to Smoother. You can also set
Video Display option to High to get the best image
quality.
For the latest information please check our web site at:
http://www.wicked3d.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.