There's some instruction to make nGlide work with NFS 3, but i don't know if it works or not:
http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide/compatibility

scroll down to NFS3 HP.

Ok thanks. Did you get the Glide mode to work with NGlide?

I'm using Sven's Diablo 2 Glide Wrapper.

I've tried using nGlide with Diablo 2 but it doesn't seem to work - when I launch the game it doesn't start up in full-screen, and a small letter appears in the top left corner of the screen and cycles through a set of different ASCII characters. If I alt-tab to the desktop and back to the game the rest of the screen goes black, but the cycling characters remain. Pressing any key results in the game crashing completely.

Ok, so it wasn't just my computer. :) Thanks for the clarification, I had exactly the same experience, all the way with the small ASCII characters cycling in the top left corner.

Hmm, but the nGLide compatibility list said this for Diablo 2:

"To play in Windows 7 you must check 'Disable desktop composition' option in application compatibility tab."

Maybe I'll still try that.

(heck, and I thought I'd do some proper gaming today on Baldur's Gate, but I've been testing out several old games' 3D support, just for the sake of it)

Yep, 'Disable desktop composition' fixed it, now Diablo 2 runs in 3Dfx mode too with nGlide.

But for me the Direct3D seems to run much smoother, the nGlide 3Dfx mode was somewhat jerky for some reason. I don't know if it is because I'm running nGlide 0.97 (the newest is 0.98 I think).

And since I couldn't tell outright any visual difference between the Direct3D and 3Dfx modes, and in 3Dfx mode starting the game itself seems to take longer due to the screen resetting itself many times or something, I think I'll stay with the D3D mode for this game.

Ah, that got it working - for some reason I thought I had that checked already.

The game seems to be running *slightly* more smoothly with nGlide [edit: actually, it seems to perform just as well regardless of the renderer or wrapper I use], but the graphics seem to suffer from the same blurriness as the Direct3D mode. nGlide breaks the in-game gamma and contrast settings, meaning that you need to configure the colours through other means in order to avoid the game being a bit too dark and grey. The screen also seems to switch resolution several times while starting the game, which I didn't experience with D3D mode or Sven's Wrapper.

I definitely prefer Sven's Wrapper so far.

You can adjust gamma under gamma correction located at your nGlide configurator. Some game react differently with different wrapper. Sven's wrapper is written explicitly for Diablo 2 alone, so it might be the best for that game.

I just found this:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=122469
tried it - works like a charm
:-)

After I did a quick research here:
http://www.zeckensack.de/glide/nfsfix/index.html
it looks like I was running NFS3 on Voodoo3 but in D3D mode. And the second (worse looking) I mentioned was software renderer. SILLY ME.

That's true. But there is a patch that solve this on wcnews.

In general I don't think there are many games where Glide has a significant advantage in performance or quality over hardware generated D3D. Glide has advantage for games where it's the only way to enable hardware accelerated gfx - so mostly for DOS based games.

Thanks for the links. I need to try the 32bit installer and patch, since the normal "install on 32bit Windows, and move the installation files to 64bit Win7"-workaround didn't fully work in this case, as it lets me play only in software mode: the 3D hardware selection is apparently saved somewhere in the registery, and the NFS3 video test utility fails to run due to the missing registery key.

I noticed though that my NFS3 is apparently some "OEM version", ie. it originally came with some piece of hardware I've bought at some point (which would explain why I don't have a clear recollection of buying the game). At least the installation CD has "OEM" in the disc title. I hope the patch works the same on it.

Also for retrogaming purposes, if the Direct3D-acceleration on an ancient Win9x game fails on new hardware and D3D versions/drivers, the emulated Glide-support might be the only feasible way to get any 3D acceleration on that game. Carmageddon 2 is one such a case, albeit I am not sure if it had that "Direct3D mode does not work if you have an USB controller connected to machine"-problem already before.

Now that I remember, have people here used any of the Glide-enabled DOSBox versions? The nGlide has links to apparently three different sites, but I think at least two of them are cross-linked (pointing to the same Gulikoza's DOSBox variant), and one of them (Gulikoza's page) gets blocked by my virus scanner (Trend Micro OfficeScan), claiming it is a known trojan site or some such sh*t. Probably false positive, but there you go.

http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide

Too bad at least one of the sites says the 3D accelerated version of Whiplash/Fatal Racing is still not working with the modified DOSBox, because for now that was my main motivation to try it out. :(

And on a similar note: how the heck do you uninstall DOSBox? I have DOSBox 0.74 installed (can be found in Programs), but I don't find any uninstallation option. Not under Programs, nor in Control Panel. I googled "DOSBox" "uninstall", and at least for earlier versions they claimed it should be possible to uninstall from Control Panel, but then I saw also some links to some utilities and manual instructions how to get rid of DOSBox completely.

EDIT: Whoopsie, it is apparently under "Extras...". I have no idea why I can't find it in Control Panel though?

" Now that I remember, have people here used any of the Glide-enabled DOSBox versions? "


I'm currently playing Archimedean Dynasty with one of these Glide-enabled builds, namely Ykhwong's/Taewoong's one. I followed tips given on their forum and the game works flawlessly with this build in Glide mode (as long as you don't force it to go fullscreen or windowed - just let it go).
Gulikoza's build seems a bit old now, and according to the DosBox SVN WiKi, Ykhwong's is the current "leading", non-obsolete one. His page is a bit slow to load for me, but it's really worth trying it. It recognizes nGlide from start. Achimedean Dynasty was known to work oddly with Gulikola's, but if you follow the advice given in the link below (final post), you may find some ideas to get Whiplash run in Glide mode with Ykhwong's build.

http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=183&start=10

Thanks a lot, I'll have to give that a try. I was getting confused if these different Glide DOSBox releases were really different, or the same build (because some page was linking to the other build's homepage).

Glad to hear Archimedean Dynasty works that well now, I'll need to replay it at some point.

Essentially a bump.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this still feels like a big deal (more release options due to new compatibility and what not.), and GOG nor any Blue Texts have said anything about this. Anybody know what's going on, or is this just not something that needs to be announced, or did I miss something altogether? If TETris could say something here, that would be ... nice. :P

At the moment there is no game using nGlide (as far as I know), so there is nothing new to say. I guess they are waiting and for the moment testing some new releases and maybe (hopefully) some updated oldies. Zeus is already added to the thank you page, so it's not hidden from GOGs side.

Btw, it would be really nice gesture if they would add some banners on the gamepage if tools likes nGlide, DosBox, ScummVM are used.

I hope so. :) Even updating oldies would be pretty neat. Oh, I didn't know that. (If the page is not the main forum, a game forum, or my account, I don't pay much attention.) Yes, like a little icon, and when you hover over it says, "This game uses a DosBox to run" (or something like that), and the icon could link to an explanation page of how the emulators are used.