Tweek
Tweek for 3dfx

Contents

What does Tweek do?

What do I need to change in autoexec.bat?

What precautions should I take?

What has been changed since the last version?

Hey the program X wont start.

How to contact the author?

What does Tweek do?

Tweek allows you, the user, to enable and disable some of the hidden facilities within the 3dfx chipset. These include disabling the startup logo, turning performance options on and a few others. You can also disable/enable the Direct3d ability of the 3dfx chipset.

You can alter the gamma (brightness) and the refresh rate.

What do I need to change in autoexec.bat?

Remove all references to set GLIDE_ or set SST_ or set FX_. Then put in a line that says: call c:\twk3dfx.bat

Im not happy with programs playing around with autoexec.bat so tweek doesnt.

What Precautions should I take?

Some of the options are potentially dangerous. Overclocking the 3dfx chipset beyond 58 IS NOT RECOMMENDED. If you fiddle with the overclock setting look out for:

Texture corruption, image corruption, flat shaded polygons. If these start to appear you should reduce the clock speed.

What is Gamma?

Gamma is brightness. The numbers in the gamma boxes can go from 0.0 to 2.5

What has been changed since the last version?

Lots. The programs been extended by a large degree and now no longer has any reliance on batch files for launching other programs. You can store lists of 3dfx programs that you can run and the program now uses a safe method of disabling the direct 3d driver.

Hey Program X wont start.

Glide evidently isnt too happy with certain settings or combinations of settings - what can happen is that the program will pause just after being run and return you to the desktop. If this happens click on the appropriate icon in the taskbar.

How to contact the Author?

Send email to:

Bwalmisley@wolf.demon.co.uk

This program may be freely distributed.


Standard Settings

Dont show spinning logo on program start.

Ticking this will prevent the 3dfx logo from appearing when you launch a Glide program. If you find that you are suddenly not seeing the logo for no apparent reason then check your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Mechwarrior 2 installation will put a line into your autoexec.bat file. Remove this line when you finish playing MW2.

Disable Texture Mapping

See your favourite program without textures. Uses? None I can think of. This could make a game completely unplayable so be aware.

Weird Lighting Effect

This duplicates bright pixels in the top few lines down the screen - giving a odd sort of lens flaring effect. Not everyones cup of tea but does look nice - especially in Wizards Tower.

Fast Memory Option

Supposedly tells the Voodoo to access the RAM on your board faster. This may or may not have any perceptable difference.

Fast PCI read.

Again, this may not have any perceptable effect.

Blurring

This blurs the entire screen - this is not anti aliasing but it can get rid of jaggies. Unfortunately it can also get rid of half the detail.

Dont Use Vsync

Normally your Voodoo will wait for the electron gun to finish sweeping the screen before switching between the visible data and the in work data. Ticking this means that the voodoo will not waste any time waiting - it will switch immediately. This means that it is of most use when performing benchmarks.

If you do use this in normal use you will find that it results in tearing across the screen. On a game with a constant colour background (e.g. a space game) this will not be noticeable. On a Quake or Tomb Raider style game the tearing will be quite pronounced. My recommendation is to only use this on benchmarks.

Overclock the Voodoo.

The voodoo defaults to 50. (Presumably Mhz but there is no way to tell). You can gain aproximately a 10% speed increase by overclocking to 55. Do not go beyond 60. In any event keep an eye out for corruption artefacts - flat shaded polygons, texture map corruption etc. This setting will almost certainly make the Voodoo run hotter so beware! Also note that the Monster 3ds performance setting is 57 so that can be taken as a safe setting.

Some of the settings on this page affect Direct3d. Some do, some dont. The direct 3d drivers supplied with the Righteous 3d appear to filter out certain settings so mileage may vary.


Gamma

This page only affects GLIDE applications. If you want to alter Direct3ds gamma you can do that via your video cards own Gamma utility.

The normal for all the gamma settings is 1.7. If you find that your adjusting doesnt seem to make any difference then you probally need to turn the 24bpp setting on.


Direct 3d

This page allows you to turn Direct3d support for the Voodoo on or off. Why would you want ot do that? Say you have both a Verite card *and* a Voodoo. The Voodoo will tend to hog the Direct3d limelight. This is ok for games but you might want to use the Verite for windowed 3d. So you need to Disable Voodoo Card. Note that this will not disable support for Glide applications. So if you never play Direct3d games but do use windowed Direct3d programs you can turn this off and leave it off.

If you suddenly find yourself unable to run Direct3d games fullscreen on the Voodoo it may be worth clicking Enable Voodoo just in case you disabled it by mistake or forgot that you disabled it.

At the present time it is not possible to tell whether the Voodoo Direct3d support is enabled or disabled.


Internet Sites

You want help on this? Click on a button man!


Run Program

On this page you can:

Save the current settings as a batch file.

This is useful if you want to run a dos glide program from outside Windows. (e.g. Fatal Racing).

Run these settings with a program

The program will ask you for a program name (via a file selector dialog). That program will then be launched using the current settings. But that isnt too useful - what is though.....

Add Program to the list

This allows you to keep a list of programs that you can quickly run with the current settings. Add program adds a program to the list.

Use these settings with the above program....

Once you have selected a program, click this button and it will be run. You can also double click on the program which is what most people will do anyway.