lost 3d

[jmolinejr]

I downloaded a game and when I tried to run it, it said it did not detect 3d. I have windows 95. It comes with some kind of 3d, right? What can I do?

[faster]

Hi,

2 questions...

What video card do you have ?

What game did you download ?

All the new games you 3d acceleration - which to be run needs a 3D accelerator video card - Voodoo , TNT2 , GeForce to name but a few video cards which can run 3D games.

Some games used to give the option of using software rendering but this always ran poorly compared to 3D acceleration.

So please answer the questions above because if your video card does support 3D acceleration then maybe the drivers have gone south.

Thanks

[jmolinejr]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by jmolinejr:
I downloaded a game and when I tried to run it, it said it did not detect 3d. I have windows 95. It comes with some kind of 3d, right? What can I do?</font>

I guess I have whatever video card that comes with w95. The game I downloaded was trixoid.

[faster]

A huge number of computers with various configurations of hardware were shipped with windows 95.

We need to know the make and model of your video card if we are going to be able to help you.

You should find it in your computer manual if you bought the computer new.

[Junky]

Here is a web site to download Sandra, a program that will analyze your computer system and give you all kinds of good info. The page loads slow, so hang in there. Click on "Download SiSoft Sandra Standard" Onces downloaded, install it and run it to see what kind of video card you have. http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/

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Moderator of Hardware & Overclocking

[jmolinejr]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by jmolinejr:
I downloaded a game and when I tried to run it, it said it did not detect 3d. I have windows 95. It comes with some kind of 3d, right? What can I do?</font>

I can't find what kind of video card I have, or maybe I don't know what to look for. I looked in Sandra, but saw nothing that said video card. Would it be called something else? Thanks, John

[smurfy]

OK, lets start again.
You have Windows 95 operating system installed on your computer.
What we need to find out is what hardware you have in the computer.

What you need to do is follow these steps:

Right-click on "My Computer" and left-click on "Properties".
On the window that appears next, click on "Device Manager" tab.
Next, click on the plus symbol next to "Display Adapter" and tell us what is listed there.
Next, click on "Sound,Video and Game Controllers" and tell us what is listed there.

How old is your computer?
What make is it?
There is a very real possibility that there is no 3D hardware in your computer, particularly if it is more than 4 years old.

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Smurfy
CyberTech Help (http://www.cybertechhelp.com) Applications & Windows95 Forum moderator.

[Junky]

In Sandra double click on Video System Information, that will give lots of info on the video card and the like.

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Moderator of Hardware & Overclocking

[jmolinejr]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Junky:
In Sandra double click on Video System Information, that will give lots of info on the video card and the like.

</font>

Under display adapter is S3 Inc Trio 64V2.
Under Sound video & game controller is ES1887 Plug&Play Audio drive and Game port joy stick. Pc is Compaq presario 4504. Purchased 1997. Window 95 OS. Is this enough info? I also installed DirectX 8.0
Thanks, John

[smurfy]

OK, now we're getting somewhere.
You do not appear to have a 3d graphics accelerator in your computer. The s3 is your on-board video adapter. it is not a bad one but it is not a 3d accelerator either.

Some 3d games may have run on your system (as mentioned previously) in software rendered mode which means your CPU was doing all the work to draw the 3d graphics.
To see how well your S3 chip handles software rendered 3d, go Start &gt; run.
Type DXDIAG
and OK
On the dirctX diagnostic utility that appears next, go directly to the display tab and run the tests there.
Trixoid requires at least a 4MB 3d accelerated card, preferably an 8Mb card.
Unfortunately, unless you go and buy a 3d card, you will not be able to play this game.
I'm pretty sure that Compaq will only have PCI or ISA (no AGP) slots so you will probably be limited in what sort of card you can find for it.
I'd recommend a Voodoo2 PCI (they go well in tandem with s3 on board chips) and you should be able to find one cheap. Anything more than that and your P200mmx will not keep up anyway. I am currently running P180mmx with 8mb Voodoo2 and Diamond Stealth 3d cards but my on-board chip is S3Trio 64v+ and it goes fine with the voodoo without the Stealth card.

[jmolinejr]

Thanks a lot for the help. Sorry you had to walk me through this thing. Duh, I get it now. Once again, thank you very much.
John