Wed 11/15/2000 3DLABS WINDOWS 2000 DRIVER. =========================== 2D Driver Build 2.16.0454 (c) Copyright 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. 2000. All rights reserved worldwide. ** TO VIEW THIS FILE CORRECTLY IN NOTEPAD, ENABLE "WORD WRAP" FROM THE FORMAT MENU ** 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, GLINT, GLINT Gamma, Oxygen and Permedia are registered trademarks of 3Dlabs Ltd., 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd., or 3Dlabs Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Direct3D are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. AMD, K6 and Athlon are registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. All other trademarks are acknowledged and recognized. Contents ======== 1.......Introduction 2.......Prerequisites 3.......Downloading And Installing The Drivers 3.1.............Downloading The Drivers 3.2.............Installing The Card 3.3.............Installing The Drivers 4.......Uninstalling The Drivers 5.......The 3Dlabs Control Panel 5.1.............The Information Page 5.2.............The Setup Page 5.3.............The OpenGL Page 5.4.............The Monitor Page 5.5.............Supported Languages 6.......The Taskbar Utility 7.......Driver Release History 8.......Known Anomalies 9.......Trouble Shooting 9.1.............Monitor Fails to Synchronize Following Boot 9.2.............Windows 2000 Only Boots Into VGA mode 9.3.............I Can't Set My Monitor to a High Resolution 9.4.............The 'Hide Modes That This Monitor Cannot Display' Check Box is Grayed Out 10......Customer Support 1. Introduction =============== This Readme describes the above driver for the 3Dlabs Oxygen and Permedia adapters. Supported adapters are: - Permedia3 Create! - Oxygen VX1-16 - Oxygen VX1 - Oxygen GVX1 - Oxygen GVX210 - Oxygen GVX1 Pro - Oxygen GVX420 - Formac ProFormance 3 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 x.yy.zzzz code following the "-" uniquely identifies the driver build. 2. Prerequisites ================ • Windows 2000 Final Release (Build 2195) or later with Service Pack 1. • Supported CPUs: Intel Pentium processor or later, AMD K6 and Athlon processors. 3. Downloading And Installing The Drivers ========================================= 3.1. Downloading The Drivers ============================ To download the drivers from the 3Dlabs website, go to the Drivers section of http://www.3dlabs.com and select the appropriate drivers for your card, then:- 1.) Download the zip file into an appropriate scratch directory (e.g. C:\3dlabs). 2.) Change into the scratch directory. > c: > cd \3dlabs 3.) Use pkUnzip or Winzip to decompress the .ZIP file. If using Pkunzip, use the -d option to preserve the directory structure... > pkUnzip -d xxxxxxxx.ZIP 3.2. Installing The Card ======================== To install your 3Dlabs graphics adapter:- 1.) Shutdown the computer and power-off. 2.) Insert the adapter, power-on and boot-up into Windows 2000. After logging-in the Hardware Wizard will appear. These drivers are provided with their own installer so you should hit the cancel button for any "Found New Hardware" dialogs that appear. 3.3. Installing The Drivers =========================== If you are upgrading from a 2.15 driver you must first make sure that the 2.15 driver was installed via InstallShield (i.e. installed using setup.exe). You must uninstall the 2.15 driver via the Add/Remove Programs icon in the control panel. This is to ensure that there are no problems upgrading from 2.15 to 2.16. If you are upgrading from 2.15 but don't have an InstallSheild version of 2.15 please upgrade your 2.15 driver first (you can download drivers from the 3Dlabs website). Go to the directory where you unzipped the drivers and run setup.exe. This launches the '3Dlabs Graphics Driver Setup' program, which will guide you through the process of installing your driver. The setup program will ask you for confirmation before installing any drivers. You should hit the "Yes" button each time. Once setup has completed, you will need to reboot your system in order for the drivers to load. NB. You may be asked to install more than one driver for some boards. This is because Windows 2000 requires a driver for each rendering device on the adapter. For example, Oxygen GVX210 adapters require three drivers: one for the GLINT Gamma geometry accelerator, and one for each of the two GLINT R3 graphics accelerators. 4. Uninstalling The Drivers =========================== You must have administrator privileges to uninstall these drivers:- 1.) Open the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel. 2.) Highlight the "3Dlabs Graphics driver" in the list and click "Change/Remove". 3.) Follow the instructions to complete the removal of the display driver and OpenGL driver. You will be required to reboot your system in order to complete the uninstall process. 5. The 3Dlabs Control Panel =========================== To access the 3Dlabs Control Panel, launch the Display Properties Control Panel, select the "Settings" tab, click the "Advanced..." button and select the "3Dlabs" tab. This tab shows basic information for your adapter and its drivers:- Software ~~~~~~~~ • 2D Driver Build - this is the display driver version number*. ICD Build: this is the OpenGL Installable Client Driver (ICD) version number*.0424 86enGL Release - this is the OpenGL version number that can also be queried by an OpenGL application at run-time. Hardware ~~~~~~~~ • Chip Name - reports the name of the 3Dlabs chipset on the board.0454Depth/Stencil - reports the total amount of memory used by auxiliary buffers for use in hardware hidden surface removal (z-buffering) and masking/clipping (stencil and GID planes). • Texture Memory - reports the total amount of memory address space available for storing texture maps. This figure is influenced by the amount of host memory on the system. This figure is not the same as the amount of memory on the graphics card available for textures (this figure is not directly reported). Lower screen resolutions will free up more graphics card memory for texture use. * The version number is in the form a.bb.cccc.d-x.yy.zzzz. The x.yy.zzzz code following the "-" uniquely identifies the driver build. Hitting the "Advanced..." button on this page loads the 3Dlabs control panel. The 3Dlabs control panel is split into a number of pages as listed below. The pages are selected by clicking on one of the configuration tabs at the top right of the window. NB. It is necessary to have administrator privileges to change any settings in the 3Dlabs control panel. If you do not have administrator privileges the options will be greyed out and cannot be changed. 5.1. The Information Page ========================= This page is similar to the basic information page described above, but gives much more detailed information on the driver, the hardware, OpenGL and DirectX. 5.2 The Setup Page ================== Taskbar Based Configuration Manager ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • Allows you to enable and disable the taskbar application which provides quick access to main features of the control panel. When the taskbar application is enabled it will be placed on the taskbar (system tray) each time the system is booted. Disabling the taskbar application from the setup page means that the application will not appear each time you reboot. Gamma Adjustment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • The gamma 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. 5.3 The OpenGL Page =================== Driver Is Optimized For Application ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • Shows which application the driver is presently optimized to run. Use the pull down menu to optimize the driver configuration for a different application, or select "Default Set-up" for a good all round setting. The "Advanced..." button gives access to the details of the parameters that are set by choosing to optimize for a specific application. These parameters are explained below. Defaults / New / Remove buttons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • Allows customization of the application specific settings. Advanced Options:- Number Of DMA Buffers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • One DMA buffer is assigned to each OpenGL rendering context. When all DMA buffers are exhausted, the driver falls back to a lower performance hardware communication mechanism. Size Of Each DMA Buffer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • Specifies the size in bytes of each of the DMA buffers. 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. Overlay / Alpha Mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • This provides additional control of the overlay plane capabilities exported in the pixelformats. It should only be needed for two specific applications. The "Dynamic" setting should be chosen for all other cases. The "Alpha Only" 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 "Overlay Only" case is for the Parametric Technology application Pro/3DPAINT. 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**. Stereo View support ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • This provides control over the export of stereo capable pixelformats. This should only be enabled when there is a requirement to run applications that need stereo support, since additional graphics memory resources are consumed when stereo is enabled. The stereo support provided is quad buffered and frame interleaved. A reboot is required for a change to this setting to take effect. Enable3D Textures ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • This option disables hardware geometry acceleration and so should only be ticked if your application is currently using 3D textures. High Quality Aalines ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • This option ensures the production of the highest quality anti-aliased lines. ** IMPORTANT PERFORMANCE INFORMATION: unchecking the 'Wait for Vblank' box gives the highest rendering frame rates for double buffered applications. You should uncheck the box for instance when running the Viewperf benchmark. 5.4 The 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. Windows 2000 has good monitor support, so this tab should only be used for trouble-shooting monitor problems. 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. 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. • Some older monitors do not report all the modes they support when DDC is selected. If you wish to change the monitor to a higher resolution than allowed when it is configured for DDC, select VESA then reboot. When the system restarts you will be able to select much higher monitor resolutions. Monitor Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • 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). 5.5 Supported Languages ======================= The 3Dlabs control panel supports the following languages: - Chinese (Traditional) Dutch English French German Italian Japanese Korean Spanish 6. The Taskbar Utility ====================== This driver release includes a new task bar utility which provides quick access to some of the facilities on the control panel. To access the application left click on the 3Dlabs icon in the taskbar. Full documentation is provided through the "Help" item on the pop-up menu. 7. Driver Release History ========================= 2.16-0368 • Increased performance of AGP cards • Fixed Unigraphics polygon coloring bug • Softimage vertex tagging bug fixed • Fixed memory leak in the taskbar manager • Various cursor fixes • Fix for the optimized application list • Added support for Formac Proformance 3 • Fixed Unigraphics display list bug • Fixed GVX210 / GVX420 textures at 8bpp • Fixed Maya 'X-Ray' bug shown by VX1 • Added support for InstallShield driver releases • Fixed stencil planes bug • Fixed some lighting bugs shown by decal.exe and csg.exe • Fixed application crashes in Mathematica and Microstation95 2.16-0228 • First Windows 2000 release 8. Known Anomalies ================== Here is the current list of known problems with the driver: • When running Maya 3.0 with an Oxygen VX1 there may be problems selecting polygons. The problem may be worked around by setting the environment variable MAYA_NO_VERTEX_ARRAY_SELECT. • When running Lightwave3D v6 don't try to use the DirectDraw preview; use the DIB one instead as DD previews are not supported. • 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. • The Find tab on the 3Dlabs help page doesn't work. • Software pointers aren't rendered correctly in some OpenGL applications. If you see any problems, go back to the default pointer scheme. If you still see problems, turn off pointer shadows. For optimal performance choose a hardware accelerated pointer scheme (any monochome scheme with shadows disabled should be hardware accelerated). • OpenGL applications in multi-monitor configurations do no work properly. • Due to limitations in Microsoft's support for multi-monitor OpenGL applications, this driver disables some of the user interface's special effects (e.g. menu fades). If you are not running your system in multi-monitor mode you may turn these settings on once more from the 'Effects' page of the 'Display Properties' dialog. 9. Trouble Shooting =================== 9.1. Monitor Fails to Synchronize Following Boot ================================================ Your display mode is probably too high a resolution. Reboot the system and at the DOS "OS loader screen" hit <F8> and select the "Safe Mode" boot option. Using the display properties applet set the display to 640x480x8bpp and the monitor to 60Hz refresh. Reboot again and set the monitor to the desired mode (obviously, lower than the mode causing the problems!) 9.2. Windows 2000 Only Boots Into VGA mode ========================================== You may have incorrectly installed the drivers. Try reinstalling the drivers, if the problem persists, look on the 3dlabs website for a driver upgrade. 9.3. I Can't Set My Monitor to a High Resolution ================================================ You may be using an older monitor which supports DDC but doesn't report all the modes that the monitor is capable of. You need to force the drivers to use the VESA monitor modes (see section 5.4 The Monitor Page). 9.4 The 'Hide Modes That This Monitor Cannot Display' Check Box is Grayed Out ============================================================================= This check box appears under the Monitor tab in the advanced 'Display Properties' dialog. The check box should be grayed out for monitors supporting DDC as the driver will report only modes that the monitor specifies it supports. You can enable this check box (and get access to a wider range of modes) by selecting 'VESA' from the monitor tab in the 3Dlabs control panel (see section 5.4 The Monitor Page). A reboot is required for the settings to take effect. For most users the default 'DDC' setting in the monitor tab of the 3Dlabs control panel should be the preferred choice. 10. 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.