7:10 PM
GL QuakeWorld client released
This is QuakeWorld V1.64, with GL support! Download now!
Full install - ftp://ftp.stomped.com/pub/idstuff/quakeworld/qw0613.exe
Full install - ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quakeworld/qw0613.exe
Full install - http://hardware.3dreview.com/3dfx/files/games/patches/glquake/qw0613.exe
Client only - ftp://ftp.stomped.com/pub/idstuff/quakeworld/qwcl0613.exe
Updated Descent II 3Dfx patch
Not as interesting as GL QuakeWorld by a long shot, but still, it's there.
http://www.3dfx.com/software/d2_3dfx3.zip
6:40 PM
How I solved my computer problem
You would not even believe the trouble I had setting this thing up. Several problems all at once
came together to make putting together my computer a nightmare. However, I now have a dual
processor Pentium Pro system which pretty much whips ass. Here is what was wrong.
My original graphics card, the Graphics Blaster 3D, based on Cirrus
Logic's CL-GD5464 Laguna chipset, caused crashes in NT. This was especially evident
when playing back movies/MPEG's. I don't recall exactly how it behaved on my first motherboard,
but on the second the problem did not manifest itself unless I put in both processors.
The second card I tried, a Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM (or Stealth Graphics 2000, I believe
it's called now) is incompatible with the 440FX Natoma chipset. This is rather evident because
anything involving the refreshing or highlighting of icons created video noise. Crashes occurred
almost immediately.
The third video card I tried, my old Hercules Stingray 64/Video, seemed to crash too,
although not as frequently. Turns out that may have been a problem with the motherboard and/or
RAM now, as I'll describe below. I'm using the card right now.
The Tyan Titan Pro autodetected my CD-ROM incorrectly as a Mode 4 drive. Apparently it's not,
although I never really noticed on my old Pentium. Fixed that one rather early. I set it to Mode 2,
I don't know, it could be Mode 3 capable, though. I'll take my chances with that later.
The motherboard was faulty. I had no idea what was wrong so I happened to take the motherboard
back. The store returned the motherboard to their distributor, where they found out that
that whole "batch" of boards was having lockup problems. I got my exchange. From a different batch.
I really couldn't have been sure it was the motherboard with all the crap that was happening to me,
but I was having extremely severe COM port overruns and CRC errors which are now gone.
I had to slow down some RAM optimizations in the BIOS to prevent crashing.
I still only have 64 MB in right now because I'm afraid to put in the extra 16MB I have.
Remaining Problems: Icons seem to get corrupted occasionally. I have yet to see
if this is just an annoying bug or a symptom of something more serious that has yet to appear.
I still need to put in my ethernet card, my Righteous 3D, and possibly my video capture card.
I need to buy yet ANOTHER graphics card to replace the 2MB Stingray doing time in my computer
right now. I need to put in the other 16MB of RAM that I have.
I have a feeling that Tyan Titan Pro motherboards are a bit flaky, but I have never heard of
people having such severe problems with them. Still, they are supposed to be cheap and fast.
You know what they say: "You want cheap, fast, and reliable? Pick two out of three."
Are other people with this board just stupid or am I just severely unlucky?
12:09 AM
My problems and some interesting info
I'm going to put here a post of mine and a reply that I received from Ray at
RC Systems. I actually bought my monitor from
them about 2-3 years ago...it took me a while to get it but that was because the lady
kept sending the monitor back because the image didn't look good enough. I don't know
if that was just a line they were feeding me, but, I have to admit,
the image is the best I've ever seen in a 17" monitor (MAG Innovision DX17F, if you're
curious). They do have excellent support.
On Fri, 13 Jun 1997 02:11:16 GMT, rkuo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Richard
Kuo) wrote:
> Man my problems setting up a system with this motherboard have
>been unbelievable. I got dual PPro 166's and I have had nothing but
>trouble in NT 4.0. My video card was a Graphics Blaster 3D and it
>crashes the computer consistenly if I play back videos. BUT, only
>with 2 processors. Of course, it took me a while to figure out the
>video card was the problem since it was working just dandy in my old
>system. I tried an S3 card and I got video noise and corruption when
>highlighting icons and stuff. I could watch the noise increase
>dramatically if CPU activity was taking place and of course, whatever
>was going on would crash the system hard. I tried my old trusty
>Hercules Stingray 64/Video (ARK2000PV based) and crashes occurred less
>often, but still happened. I took back the motherboard and got a new
>one. Still problems with MPEG's and still problems with the S3. I am
>trying the ARK2000 Stingray right now and everything seems ok, but you
>know, it could crash any second right now for all I know.
>
> Has anybody else had any freaky problems like this with the
>Titan Pro? Especially the video card weirdness. What the hell is
>going on?
>
>============================================
>Visit the Game A/V Page at:
> http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~rkuo
>
>All the latest in games, computers and the Internet!
This seems to be a problem with the 440FX chipset. We've seen
incompatibilities with Tseng Labs and S3 vid cards on any board using
this chipset. Hopefully, the next level will eliminate this. Hope this
helps.
Ray
RCSi Tech Support
908-251-5403 (2pm to midnight EST)
support@rcsystems.com
http://www.rcsystems.com
10:40 PM
Other RC5 cracking efforts
A good effort with lots of participants is taking place at http://rc5.distributed.net
Also check at Redwood's for an effort using the
rc5 clients by Rogue Entertainment. Ah, join 'em,
why not!?
6:27 PM
GLQuake very close to release; Verite, not
It's coming (or not, if you own a Rendition-based card)... Jack
Mathews' .plan has details.
Serious Netscape security bug found
The guys who found it have a little attitude too...hahaha! CNNfn has the
full story.
6:11 PM
Sorry...
Sorry about the lack of updates, but I'm having serious problems with my new upgrade.
I don't have much time to work on it as I need because of work and because it's damn hard
to narrow down the problem. As soon as my computer gets back up to speed, updates will
come as often as usual.
6:11 PM
Netscape Communicator 4.0 official release
Yep, the official one is out. I don't understand how because in NT this is
pretty much one of the only applications that crashes on my computer. I'm skeptical
that they fixed any of those crashing problems, but hey, I guess I'll find out, right?
ftp://ftp2.netscape.com/pub/communicator/4.0/shipping/english/windows/windows95_or_nt/complete_install/cc32e40.exe
32-bit base version (my choice): - ftp://ftp4.netscape.com/pub/communicator/4.0/shipping/english/windows/windows95_or_nt/base_install/cb32e40.exe
11:06 PM
Winstone 97
I bought PC Magazine CD today so I could run Winstone 97 on my new PC.
It has four issues of PC Mag
plus a 1 year database and some other stuff too. Technically it's a good deal at
$17.95 but I still feel kind of ripped off. I don't even really read PC Mag anymore
since all their articles are on the web anyhow.
6:24 PM
3D in a window for full-screen Voodoo owners
Sounds almost paradoxical, doesn't it? Well, I was just flipping through
Zanshin's GLQuake Dojo and I caught this little
gem on his updates page. This is basically the same method that PowerVR uses to do its
3D acceleration, although I don't know if PowerVR has a better or faster way of doing things,
since this probably isn't how the full-screen Voodoo cards were meant to be used. It should,
in any case, be far far better than software anything.
4/7/97 Surprise! Thanks to the guy who came up with the frame buffer hack that
Ed3d uses, I have rolled in window-based rendering for the standard Voodoo
chipset! Don't expect any outstanding performance; it takes time to grab from the
frame buffer and blit to a window. Most windowed OpenGL applications don't
require too much framerate though, so it should be cool.
|
