Some questions about Win2k/drivers

[Indiana]

Hi,
I'm finally installed Win2k on a spare HD. I have a Asus K7M with an Athlon 600 and a G400/16MB DH. Other installed cards are a SBLive, a Hauppauge WinTV and an Initio UW-SCSI.
Which drivers (especially AGP miniport,VIA IRQ-Routing, ...) have to be installed? Or are these only needed for Win98?

Until now I installed Win2k, then the latest Matrox Win2k Beta drivers 5.10, then the latest SBLive drivers (not the full LiveWare). No other drivers were installed up to now.
The system runs very stable and the gaming-performance is nearly the same as with Win98SE.

But while all the D3D demos I tested - Matrox' G400 Techdemo, the bumpearth and bumpwater demos, 3DMark2k (I consider this to be more a demo than a serious benchmark...), Haujobbs Strange Feelings and some other D3D demos - worked without problems I had only very limited luck with actual games, especially D3D-ones.
For OpenGL I tested Q3 and it seemed to work OK, although the picture was too dark. For D3D most games I tested failed, like Driver, Expendable, NFS5, Fifa2000, Vampire - the Masquerade.

Since I don't have any experience with Win2k: Is this normal or is there something wrong? Should these games work, do I have to download patches for Win2k, or don't they work at all?

Another question: How do I turn VSync on/off in Win2K? Can I use the Registry Hacks as well?

And a last one (at least for now): Hibernation mode didn't work when I tried it. The computer shutted down normally, after restarting it loaded the memory image but the monitor stayed black... Any suggestions?

[Brian R.]

I have had quite good luck with the games I've tried so far (UT, Q3, Nocturne). The darkness in Q3 is normal. You can fix it by calling the console and typing:
r_ignorehwgamma 1
r_gamma 1.8
r_intensity 1.2

The gamma and intensity settings can be varied according to your system.

[dZeus]

NO! DON'T!

set the following options:

r_ignorehwgamma "0"
r_overBrightBits "0"

r_gamma

and

r_intensity

to the settings you prefer on your monitor. I use r_gamma 1.5 myself on a monitor set to 20% brigtness level, and to 2.0 when playing a important match where I should be able to see into the darkness ;-)

[Brian R.]

The above settings worked for me.

(DZeus - if you are going to make someone look like an idiot, at least explain why you disagree)

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 26 July 2000).]

[dZeus]

r_ignorehwgamma does make the image look brighter, but the colours look nowhere as good as it used to in Win98 with r_ignorehwgamma 0.

And as I've said before (mentioned in at least 2 other threads in Matrox Gaming), r_overBrightBits "0" corrects the gamma problem, and q3a looks just as good as it used to in win98.

Sorry if I made you feel that way, I did not intend to, I just wanted to make sure Indiana would use the right settings... ;-)

Give r_overBrightBits "0" and r_ignorehwgamma "0" a try... you'll be surprised!

[Brian R.]

No problem - what is the difference in appearance between what I am using and what you recommend?

[dZeus]

well, I am not sure, but I think that with r_ignorehwgamma "1" it will use some kind of software gamma which makes the game look have washed-out-colours. I guess with r_overbrightbits 0 and r_ignorehwgamma 0 it uses hardware gamma again, which looks tons better!

If your not convinced, what is stopping you from trying out yourself?

otherwise read other's experiences with my suggestions: http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003933.html
and http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003964.html

[Indiana]

Thanks for the replys, but I already read this fix for the Q3 gamma problem on your (DZeus) Matrox Win2k driver bugs page.

Some questions remain: Are those AGP miniport / IRQ routing /... drivers needed for Win2K as well or not?

And the most important question: Can it really be that while OGL seems to run acceptable on Win2K nearly no Direct3D game is working? Considered that Win2K is from Microsoft and D3D/DirectX is from ... Microsoft!
But then this isn't really that surprising from Giga-Mega-Macro-Soft.... :-(

Anyone with Win2K installed: Is it true that Fifa2000, NFS5, Driver, Vampire, Expendable,... don't run on Win2K? Is there something configured wrong? Or is it the fault of Matrox' Win2k driver?

[fds]

D3D works pretty well for me under W2k, although in most games the slowdown as compared to 98SE is too noticeable.

Dungeon Keeper 2 v1.70 with EMBM works well, as is Diablo 2. In fact I've been playing D2 for the past ..uh.. 5-6 hours in W2k - the only problem is some sound glitches).
The cool thing is you can run D2 in a window and keep an eye over your favorite IRC channel plus watch TV in another window while playing just fine.
People say UT works too. I don't care.

NFS5 also runs here but too slow to be playable under W2k.

On the OpenGL front Q3A runs fine and is bright enough for me on the defaults so all is nice. It's even only about an fps slower than in 98SE. Half-Life TFC works so-so, I'm playing that one in 98SE with TGL, works better.

Have you installed the latest w2k compatibility upgrade from Microsoft?

[Brian R.]

dZeus - I'm not claiming your settings don't work. I'm saying I am not getting washed out colors with mine. As a matter of fact, I don't see much difference. Both look very good. Have you tried my recommendation, including the gamma and intensity settings? If they look washed out on your system, perhaps you have a problem.