Diamond Monster 3D Drivers

1998 · operating-system · driver · development · Windows · MS-DOS · Diamond Multimedia Systems

These are the setup files for Diamond Monster 3D series display driver (Version 1.10) for Windows 95. From readme.txt: Known Limitations ----------------- The known limitations follows: Gamma Test in 800x600 --------------------- In 800x600 mode the gamma test tool only displays the two spheres. The cylinder and torus do not get displayed. This is not a bug. It is a feature of the test tool. 800x600 cannot support a Z Buffer due to limitations in the amount of memory on the Monster 3D card. Since the gamma tool does not perform software hidden surface removal it cannot display the cylinder, torus and spheres properly in the same frame without a Z Buffer. Thus the cylinder and torus are displayed only when the Z Buffer is available, i.e., in 512x384, 640x400 and 640x480. Refresh Rate in GLIDE Games --------------------------- Refresh rate is completely under the control of the GLIDE games. However, the refresh selection in the panel sets an MSDOS environment variable that modifies the refresh rate according to the user selection at 640x480 only. Click the Apply to DOS... check button to reboot the system and apply the refresh rate to GLIDE games. Gamma Correction in GLIDE Games ------------------------------ Gamma correction is completely under the control of the GLIDE games. However, the gamma selection in the panel sets an MSDOS environment variable that modifies the red, green, and blue gamma values according to the user selection at 640x480 only. Click the Apply to DOS... check button to reboot the system and apply the gamma selection to GLIDE games. Monster 3D Settings Panel ------------------------- The "Test" button in the gamma area of the Monster 3D Settings panel purposely uses 640x480 at 60 Hz. This way the user can test gamma with a consistent resolution and refresh rate that works correctly on any VGA monitor. The "Test" button in the resolution/refresh area brings the display up in the selected resolution/refresh using the current selected gamma. The "Test" buttons effectively change the settings before running the test application. Therefore the meaning of Cancel changes to be the last time any "Test" button was used. NOTE: Glide games have control over resolution/refresh and gamma. Thus, resolution/refresh and gamma selections in the Monster 3D panel may not apply to Glide games. NOTE: Gamma correction does not apply to the following resolutions: 512x384 at 85 Hz and greater 640x400 at 85 Hz and greater 640x480 at 85 Hz and greater 800x600 at 60 Hz and greater Stealth 64 Video GT Drivers --------------------------- The S3 968/868 chip contains a bug. The bug in the chip may cause problems with the Monster 3D card when running the GT drivers. The bug is that the 968/868 states that it requires 32 Meg of frame buffer memory when it actually decodes 64 Meg of frame buffer memory on PCI. Sometimes the Monster 3D card gets mapped by Windows 95 into the 968 upper 32 Meg of decode address. This problem causes a system hang. To duplicate the problem or figure out if you have the problem you can run the test application MOJO.EXE and if it hangs then you have the problem. The fix for this problem is to remap the Monster 3D card. To do this follow these directions: 1. Download the drivers from the BBS or the WEB. The drivers contain two files that can be used to remap the memory addresses of the Monster 3D card. These files are DOS4GW.EXE and FXREMAP.EXE. Place these two files into your windows directory, e. g., C:\WINDOWS. 2. Edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and place FXREMAP.EXE in it. For example the following line added to AUTOEXEC.BAT works for most systems: C:\WINDOWS\FXREMAP.EXE Direct3D -------- Some games do not find the dd3dfx drivers. They only run on the software version of Direct3D or the Direct3D HAL associated with the Primary DirectDraw device. When running the DirectX SDK applications, you cannot get to the menus because the 3DFX Direct3D does not turn off pass-thru mode for a menu command. Technology Demos and the Joystick --------------------------------- The 3DFX Flip/Rotate demos will not work properly if your system has a joystick port configured without a joystick connected. To remedy the problem, either connect a joystick to the port or disable and/or remove the port from your system configuration.