Trying to get old OpenGL games to work

[dimensionaldude]

I’m struggling to get VorpX to work on some old games in OpenGL mode. The games are Need for Speed 2 and Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed. These games are so old they can’t be run on modern systems without special patches, and it happens that an OpenGL 1.1 wrapper has been made for both of them:

https://verokster.blogspot.com/2019/11/need-for-speed-ii-second-edition-patch.html
https://verokster.blogspot.com/2019/11/need-for-speed-porsche-unleashed-patch.html

The problem is, I can’t get VorpX to work on them based on any profile. Profiles I’ve tried:

Quake
Quake 2
Quake 3
Half-Life
Hexen II
Doom 3

They’ve usually hooked, but there’s no 3D depth whatsoever in them. Does anyone have advice on what I can try? I’ve read how VorpX has great older OpenGL support, but it seems like nothing can hook.

[RJK_]

Some games simply dont work, dont ask me why. Descent 3 is one of them. I would try the DX7 renderer with DGVoodoo2, either Version 2.6 oder 2.71 with different (cloud rjkole) DGVoodoo2 profiles. If nothing helps Glide3x with DGVoodoo2 2.6 and some of my Glide Profiles (eg Summoner) should provide at least Z3D. I may have a look later on today on those games.

[RJK_]

oops, RJK fool, i dont even own them. Sorry.

[dimensionaldude]

That’s a bummer about Descent 3, that’s another one I was hoping to get working. Thanks for the bluntness at least. I admit it’s frustrating when I try DX7 + dgvoodoo2, nGlide, and OpenGL 1.1 and none of them work with VorpX. I guess I can try and run these with Superdepth3D, though that’s obviously a downgrade from Geometry rendering.

[RJK_]

Converting a Glide game to DX7/8 will probably result in plain 2D. If youre lucky youll get Z3D to run. The programmers also mentioned that the code not complete. So there is not much to expect. I would do the following: Fist make shure you get DGVoodoo2 running with the game, then try DX7 and DX8 with DGVoodoo2 2,6 and my Shadwoman or other of my DGVoodoo profiles from the cloud, Note most of them are different ! (Z3D) Next try Glide3x with DGVoodoo2 (Glide) v2,6 and my summoner profile from the cloud. (Z3D) Another Hack is using DGVoodoo2 2,71 backdwards to 2,52 and the DGVoodoo2 VorpX factory profile. Open the shader editor menu and step through the shaders (hide). Some rare games can be fixed for G3D by disabling the DGVoodoo2 logo shader. (disabling the logo is híghly recommended anyhow) Thats what i would do in this case.If that doesnt work youre out of luck.

[dimensionaldude]

Only Need For Speed 2 was Glide only, 3, 4, and Porsche Unleashed also supported Direct3D, but getting those running natively without the patch might not be possible, and if the patch is translating from Glide protocols, that might explain the problem.

I’ll look into the other options including disabling the logo, thanks for the advice.

[dimensionaldude]

Sorry, one more question in reference to this:

“Another Hack is using DGVoodoo2 2,71 backdwards to 2,52 and the DGVoodoo2 VorpX factory profile”

I know you said going past 2.60 can cause issues, for compatibility purposes is 2.52 overall better or does it depend a lot on the game?

[RJK_]

Issues with profiles made for 2,6.
For the vorpx factory preset i would always use 2.52, IIRC thats what Ralf made it for.Above that some games require the Logo Hack. Unfortunately some games with 2,52 also require the logo hack, others dont. Thats why i always mention the wrapper version in the profile name. Its even confusing to me, some games can be used with 2,52 only other with 2,6 only and so on. Remember VorpX Dgvoodoo2 support is very experimental.

What i havent tried yet, me smartie, disabling the DGVoodoo2 logo in the DGVoodoo2 app may have the same effect as disabling the logo shader in vorpX.

[Author]

Posts