Rendition®* MiniGL Drivers - 5/23/98 GOLD
This ZIP file contains unsupported "Mini" OpenGL drivers for boards
based upon the V1000 and V2x00 chips from Rendition.
These drivers allow you to play Quake and Quake descended games,
as well as other OpenGL games that do not require a full OpenGL
ICD.
Major new features in this release of the MiniGL include H3D
stereo glasses support, triple buffering, line doubled stereo support,
vertex array optimizations, gamma table support, and point parameter
extension support.
This release should be considered "gold" - all major issues have
been resolved and to-do items completed. If any new serious bugs
are discovered however, this MiniGL may once again be updated.
There are four files:
| readme.txt: |
This file. |
| opengl32.dll: |
The OpenGL "mini" driver. |
| v2000gl.uc: |
The MiniGL microcode file for the V2x00. |
| v1000gl.uc: |
The MiniGL microcode file for the V1x00. |
To install this driver:
Copy the v2000gl.uc or v1000gl.uc file to your windows\system
directory, depending upon which chip you have.
Copy the opengl32.dll
to your OpenGL game's directory. It is not recommended that you
put this file in your windows\system directory, because it does
not support the entire OpenGL API. Applications that require unsupported
functions may crash if you copy this file to windows\system.
Configuration Instructions
This miniGL uses registry entries to modify behavior.
Two new features that are affected by registry entries are:
(1) Triple buffering (when you are a full screen app, and ask
for double buffering you actually have 3 buffers allocated - 6
if stereo - in a transparent fashion to the user). Triple buffering
drastically reduces the time the graphics chip spends waiting for
the vertical sync between frames. An offshoot of this is that it
is no longer necessary to have the highest refresh rate to see
maximum performance. On the other hand we can run at the lowest
comfortable refresh rate, having the CRT controller access the
framebuffer much less frequently and thereby freeing up memory
bandwidth for rendering. So setting the lowest refresh rate gives
best results when triple buffering is enabled. When it is not,
then highest refresh enabled. When it is not, then highest refresh
rate gives you the fastest results.
(2) Line doubled stereo. When viewing stereo, if the vertical
resolution is halved the eye gets fooled into believing that there
is almost as much resolution as in a non-stereo buffer with twice
the vertical resolution. Halving the vertical resolution, halves
the memory/rendering bandwidths required. So we are able to run
almost as fast as the non-stereo case (not quite true if the geometry
is the bottleneck).
Triple buffering is on by default. Stereo line doubling is off
by default. There is no need to edit your registry if you do not
wish to change this default behavior.
To change these settings, use regedit to add to following to
the local machine registry under "Software\Rendition\OpenGL":
| TripleBuffering |
0 or 1 |
disable/enable triple buffering |
| StereoLineDouble |
0 or 1 |
disable/enable line doubling in stereo |
Note: The registry entries should be entered exactly as shown,
and the data values should be DWORD's. 0 = Off. 1 = On.
Notes
Triple buffering uses 50% more frame buffer memory
than double buffering. On a 4MB card, memory may be scarce in some
applications. If you notice any performance problems with triple
buffering enabled, you may wish to disable it or run at a lower
resolution. 4MB card, memory may be scarce in some applications.
If you notice any performance problems with triple buffering enabled,
you may wish to disable it or run at a lower resolution.
Quake 1 assumes a double-buffered screen, and when run with triple
buffering may exhibit flashing. At the console "set gl_triplebuffer
1" to
fix this.
To turn on stereo in Quake 2, type "set cl_stereo 1", "set gl_ztrick
0", followed by a "vidrestart".
With line-doubling enabled, the default console font in Quake
2 is very difficult to read. You may wish to experiment with different
fonts, or to turn off stereo mode temporarily while working with
the console.
The V1000 is not as powerful nor as well suited to running OpenGL
apps as the V2K. Even so, at low resolutions and with the gun hidden
(set cl_gun 0), we have experienced quite acceptable death match
performance.
Again, these drivers are unsupported by Rendition*.
End-users are recommended to use drivers provided by their board
manufacturer to ensure that they can obtain full support.
* Note: Rendition is now part of the Integrated Products Group of Micron Technology, Inc.