> Welcome!

Welcome to the official D2_3DFX FAQ. This page is provided to answer the most commonly asked questions and provide the latest news and information about the 3DFX-enhanced version of Descent II.

The most recent version of D2_3DFX is v1.06b. To download it, visit the Descent Network's Patches Page, where it is listed as Release 10. Note: You will also need DOS4GW.EXE in your Descent2 directory, which you can download here.

PLEASE NOTE: I no longer support this FAQ or the D2_3DFX project. The FAQ will continue to be hosted on my site, but I am no longer able to answer questions about the game, as I do not have any compatible hardware anymore and have moved on to bigger and better things. It has been an honor to serve the Descent community over the years. May this fine game find its rightful place in video game history. :)

> News

(02/21/01) Thanks to several people who have corrected me on my response to the question about running D2_3DFX in WinME. I've updated this entry in the FAQ page.

(01/01/01) Well hello again! And Happy New Year, Decade, Century and Millenium to all of you!

It's odd that I'd be updating the FAQ again after such a long time, but there's new news in the world of Descent and a couple of rumors that may eventually become reality and affect all of us. =) Specifically, when I received the recent news that nVidia had bought out 3DFX and 3DFX was halting production of their video cards, I immediately realized that this may be the answer to the problems current-generation computer owners have been having with D2_3DFX.

The rumor goes like this: Because nVidia has bought 3DFX, they've also bought all the rights to 3DFX's proprietary API: Glide. This means they can legally incorporate Glide support into future versions of their drivers! Perhaps nVidia-based card owners will be able to play Glide-based games, including D2_3DFX, on their systems soon!

Now, keep in mind that this rumor is not based on any official information. I have no connection whatsoever with anyone at nVidia or 3DFX, and I have officially fallen out of touch with Andy Hanson as well.

That brings me to another piece of news: Some of you have known this already, but Andy no longer works for 3DFX - hasn't for quite some time. I don't know what he's currently doing, but he does not support D2_3DFX anymore. It's safe to say that we will not see another release of this game again - if the Descent 2 line is to be continued, it will need to be through a different project, and at this time I don't know of any in the works.

My final piece of news is that, at least until some new information comes along, I cannot support D2_3DFX any longer. I don't have a compatible system, nor do I have access to a compatible system that would provide me with any information I don't know already know. I've decided after literally more than a year of fielding your questions about running D2_3DFX on the Voodoo3 and anything more recent that I'm going to declare that D2_3DFX is fundamentally incompatible with anything more recent than the Voodoo2 chipset. You may be able to get this program to run on the V3, V4 or V5, but I'm going to have to say that you all are on your own in this realm.

If nVidia releases a new version of their Detonator drivers that provide Glide compatibility, I'll be happy to check them out and provide additional information in the FAQ. This update adds a few new items to the FAQ and modifies existing ones, so check out the new stuff! I hope it all helps.

(03/26/00) It's been a while, and I realize I should probably have posted a notice about this sooner, but I've just been so extraordinarily busy with my new so-called life that I literally have not had time to respond to all of your e-mails regarding D2_3DFX. My apologies for those of you who have e-mailed and haven't received responses.

I have officially left the sphere of Descent 2 to pursue other things - my job at Ask Jeeves is taking up most of my time, and I'm now taking part in a lot of activities not related to Descent in my spare time. In addition, I sold my Voodoo3 card only about a month after getting it, having upgraded again to a Matrox G400 - a card I'm much happier with overall. My Voodoo3 had some problems that, while not catastrophic, were annoying enough to prompt me to seek another upgrade. Because of the upgrade, however, I can no longer play D2_3DFX, and at this point I'm unwilling to go back and play the non-accelerated version. Unfortunately, this means I'm no longer able to research new problems.

This does NOT mean, however, that I've stopped supporting D2_3DFX. This FAQ will remain here, and as I get more information on the outstanding problems mainly with Voodoo3 owners, I'll be happy to post the solutions. But I'm going to depend largely on your feedback and support for this from here on out.

The current questions that need answers are:

• Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run with my Voodoo3 in a DOS Box while running Windows?
• Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run at all with my Voodoo3?
• Why can't I get D2_3DFX to run at all with my two Voodoo2's in SLI?
• Why do the textures get all messed up after using the Automap, while using my Voodoo3?

If you know how to resolve any of these problems, please E-mail me (remove 'nospam' from the address), and I'll be more than happy to post your solution in the FAQ as time allows. Thanks again for all your support, everyone! It's been a wonderful three years.

(01/09/00) The D2_3DFX site has been restructured! Now the Questions & Answers are on a separate page, better organized, and should be considerably easier to navigate through. The page you are reading right now is a jump point for the rest of the FAQ site, and is also the central point for the latest D2_3DFX news.

Also, you'll be pleased to know that I recently installed a Voodoo3 card - specifically the Voodoo3 3500 TV/AGP - and have managed to get D2_3DFX working! To be perfectly honest, I don't know why it works just fine for me and it's not working for other people. I've received a lot of questions about why D2_3DFX crashes for Voodoo3 and Banshee owners, particularly after the first run in a Windows session. I'm now researching some solutions, and will keep you posted.

(11/03/99) Sorry, no news regarding the Voodoo3 issues I listed below, yet. Actually, I wanted to post a public apology to all of you who have e-mailed me recently and haven't received responses. I've been so busy lately that I literally have not had time to answer all of the questions you've been asking me. I didn't want to give you all the impression that I no longer support D2_3DFX, or that I'm ignoring ya - I just can't keep up at the moment.

By all means, keep the questions coming. Just please don't feel too put out if I'm unable to respond. Typically, if a problem is easily solved, I'll send back a quick response, but the more complex issues (of which there are many) will probably take me a bit of time to get to, what with my current work and school schedule. I wish you all the best of luck!

(10/17/99) I have gotten an absolutely HUGE flood of e-mails recently from Voodoo3 owners complaining that they are unable to get D2_3DFX to run at all, or if they do, it doesn't run properly. Unfortunately, most of the problems being reported don't seem to respond well to the solutions I've suggested, so I'm now asking for your help, folks. If you own a Voodoo3 and know the solutions to any of these problems, PLEASE let me know!

(06/30/99) The layout for this page has changed slightly - those of you who have been linking to d2_3dfx_m.htm (or have arrived at this page from any of the main frame-enabled pages on my site) will notice that there is a new navigation bar up at the top of the page. This should make it much easier to get around in this FAQ page.

Many people are still e-mailing me about hangs, lockups and crashes when trying to start D2_3DFX. Most of the time, these lockups seem to disappear when you supply the -nosound parameter to the D2_3DFX command-line.

I'm being informed now that Voodoo3 owners are unable to run D2_3DFX in "Pure DOS" (eg. DOS 6.22 or Win95/98 in "Command-Prompt Only" mode). Could you guys try this out and confirm this tidbit of information for me? It would be much appreciated. E-mail me with your results, and also let me know if there's a solution or if you have an explanation as to why this is. My current guess is that the Voodoo3 has to be initialized or something with a set of drivers, and such drivers don't exist for DOS.

(06/18/99) Just a little more information on the new driver set I posted up a week ago: I've been informed that the driver files are actually Voodoo3 distribution drivers. Apparently Banshee owners can use the Voodoo3-based GLIDE2X.OVL file for proper performance in D2_3DFX. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

(06/16/99) More good news! The initial feedback coming in from the recent Banshee/Voodoo3 driver release on this page has been VERY positive and VERY encouraging. I've received over twenty emails in the last few days since the drivers were posted, and only two people are still having trouble with it. Everyone else has reported dramatic success!

If you haven't downloaded this update, see the following news item:

(06/12/99) Good news for Banshee owners! Pixelman has recently provided me with a set of GLide files that appear to work properly with the 3DFX Banshee chipset and allow you to play D2_3DFX in its full glory, save for a couple of longer-than-usual delays right when you start up the program. Since I don't have a Banshee myself, I'm unable to confirm this information, so if people could download these drivers and try them out, I'd appreciate some extra feedback on this. Click Here to download this driver set. Be sure to unzip the drivers into your Descent2 directory!

(03/05/98) D2_3DFX v1.06b released. Bug fixes and improvements thus far:

• v1.06b now supports the Voodoo2 and Voodoo Rush chipsets. Previous releases didn't work well on Voodoo Rush and not at all on Voodoo2.
• Most of the stability and graphics bugs are fixed, and the "Assertion Failures" seen in previous releases are now gone.
• Overall performance is much improved over previous releases. You must have the latest GLide version (2.43 or newer) installed.

• (v1.02b) You can now take screenshots from within the game, without requiring an external program. Hit Printscreen to save your screenshot to a .TGA file in your Descent2 directory. You will need a graphics viewer such as LView Pro to view your screenshots.
• The words "Experimental Version" no longer appear during the game.
• Framerates both in and out of battles have improved significantly.
• DOS error messages (such as "You must have the Descent 2 CD in the drive") now display correctly. Previous releases displayed garbage.
• Between-level movies now play correctly in single-player mode.
• Picking up a large number of items at once no longer slows your game down. Previous releases saw some severe slowdowns while doing this.

Known Issues:

• Occasional graphics glitches while using Plasma and/or Gauss cannons.
• Curves in automap appear broken.
• Gameplay becomes sluggish while recording a demo.
• Mouse sensitivity disappears when framerate rises above about 40 FPS. See the Troubleshooting section for more information.
• The game will occasionally crash in odd places and leave your screen in an unusable state. This is partially due to DOS4GW crashes and bugs that also appeared in the non-accelerated version of D2, but since your 3DFX card is involved, the GLide drivers don't always pick up on the fact that D2_3DFX is no longer running.
• Saving a game in single-player mode causes garbage to appear where the screenshot of your saved state should be.
• May not work properly with all 3DFX chipsets.

(03/03/98) D2_3DFX v1.05b released.

(08/23/97) Screenshots comparing the non-accelerated version of Descent2 to D2_3DFX are available.