Graphics troubles! Please help! Leave it to a game...

[MidiGuy]

I just got Descent 3, and I've been having trouble with it. I have an AthlonXP 1600+, 256MB RAM, and plenty of hard drive space, so those things shouldn't be problems. My graphics card is a Gainward CARDEXpert GeForce2 MX Twin View/VIVO Golden Sample (although I have no confirmation of the Golden Sample part). The game can use OpenGL, DirectX, or 3dfx Glide. They HIGHLY recommend 3dfx. When I use OpenGL, the game has a tendancy to freeze occasionally when I switch to setup options, and it always freezes between levels. It's one of the very few things that has ever made me use the reset button on this system (I'm running WinXP Pro). When I use DirectX, it works better, but it skips and jolts alot (which I can't figure out since my system is so capable). I'm using the latest drivers from the Gainward Web site. When I use the WinXP drivers, D3 won't even detect OpenGL capability, so I went back to the Gainward drivers.

What can I do about all this? Is it possible for me to use 3dfx Glide with my video card? And by the way, since I installed D3, I can't get Red Alert 2 to work. I've even reinstalled it. I don't know that it has anything to do with D3, but considering RA2 uses DirectX, it seems like more than a coinsidence.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Midi

 

[Rand]

I've never played around with Dexcent 3 so I'm afraid I can't be of much assistance but you could try a GLide wrapper to emulate the GLide API calls....
Glide Wrappers

Many of the older games that supported Glide in addition to DirectX/OpenGL had a pretty shoddy DX/OpenGL implementation so you may just fine that emulating GLide solves your issues.
It won't be nearly as fast as it would on true 3dfx hardware and might hurt image quality slightly but at least it'll run.

 

[rogue1979]

I am not familiar with Decent 3, but any Nvidia card cannot render a 3dfx glide engine. It should be able to handle Open GL without problems. I would switch to a different version of the Detonator drivers. Remember, if this is a graphics intensive game you might have to lower the resolution/details as the Geforce 2 MX is on the low end for video power.

 

[MidiGuy]

My GeForce2 MX (MX-400? I can't remember anymore!) is supposed to be faster than the others, in part because it's certified to be overclockable and comes with a utility to overclock it. If I use the latest Detonator drivers from the nVidia Web site, will that interfere with my overclocking utility that came with the card and cause it not to interface correctly or something?

 

[jema]

Have you patched the game? Dont know if there is a patch but that could be it.