(c) Copyright 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. 2003. All rights reserved worldwide.
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The material in this document is the intellectual property of 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this document, 3Dlabs accepts no liability for any consequences of its use. Our products are under continual improvement and we reserve the right to change their specification without notice.
3Dlabs, and Wildcat are registered trademarks of 3Dlabs Ltd., 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd., or 3Dlabs Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Direct3D are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. AMD, K6 and Athlon are registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. All other trademarks are acknowledged and recognized.
Contents
========
1.......Introduction
2.......Prerequisites
3.......Downloading And Installing The Drivers
3.1.............Downloading The Drivers
3.2.............Installing The Card
3.3.............Installing The Drivers
4.......Uninstalling The Drivers
5.......The 3Dlabs Control Panel
5.1.............The Information Tab
5.2.............The Setup Tab
5.3.............The OpenGL Tab
5.4.............The Direct3D Tab
5.5.............The Advanced Tab
5.6.............The Monitor Tab
5.7.............Supported Languages
6.......The Taskbar Utility
7.......Acuity Window Manager ("WinMan")
8.......Driver Release History
9.......Known Anomalies
10......Application specific notes
11......Trouble Shooting
11.1............Monitor Fails to Synchronize Following Boot
11.2............Windows Only Boots Into VGA mode
11.3............I Can't Set My Monitor to a High Resolution
12......Customer Support
1. Introduction
===============
IMPORTANT
The 3Dlabs Wildcat VP drivers DO NOT SUPPORT the Wildcat4000, 4110, 4210, Wildcat II range(5000, 5110), Wildcat III range(6110, 6210) or Wildcat 4 range (7110, 7210) of adapters. Please refer to 3Dlabs website www.3dlabs.com for drivers for the above products.
This Readme describes the Wildcat VP drivers for the 3Dlabs Wildcat VP range of graphics adapters. Supported adapters are:
ò Wildcat VP560
ò Wildcat VP760
ò Wildcat VP870
ò Wildcat VP970
ò Wildcat VP880 Pro
ò Wildcat VP990 Pro
Once the driver has been installed the display driver release number can be determined by starting the Display Applet in the Control Panel folder. Press the "Advanced..." button, then Select the "3Dlabs" tab. The Driver version number can be found at the bottom of the Hardware Information section. The x.yy-zzzz code uniquely identifies the driver build.
2. Prerequisites
================
ò Windows XP or Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or later.
ò Supported CPUs: Intel Pentium II, III, 4 processors or later, INtel Xeon processors, AMD K6 and Athlon processors or later.
3. Downloading And Installing The Drivers
=========================================
3.1. Downloading The Drivers
============================
To download the drivers from the 3Dlabs website, go to the Drivers section of http://www.3dlabs.com and select the appropriate drivers for your card, then download the file into an appropriate scratch directory (e.g. C:\3dlabs).
3.2. Installing The Card
========================
To install your 3Dlabs graphics adapter:-
1.) Shutdown the computer and power-off.
2.) Insert the adapter, power-on and boot-up into Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
After logging-in the Hardware Wizard will appear. These drivers are provided with their own installer so you should hit the cancel button for any "Found New Hardware" dialogs that appear.
3.3. Installing The Drivers
===========================
Go to the directory where you downloaded the drivers and run the self installing .exe file that you downloaded. This launches the '3Dlabs Graphics Driver Setup' program, which will guide you through the process of installing your driver. The setup program will ask you for confirmation before installing any drivers. You should hit the "Yes" button each time.
Once setup has completed, you will need to reboot your system in order for the drivers to load.
4. Uninstalling The Drivers
===========================
You must have administrator privileges to uninstall these drivers:-
1.) Open the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel.
2.) Highlight the "3Dlabs Acuity Driver" in the list and click "Change/Remove".
3.) Follow the instructions to complete the removal of the display driver and OpenGL driver. You will be required to reboot your system in order to complete the uninstall process.
5. The 3Dlabs Control Panel
===========================
To access the 3Dlabs Control Panel, launch the Display Properties Control Panel, select the "Settings" tab, click the "Advanced..." button and select the "3Dlabs" tab. This tab shows basic information for your adapter and its drivers including the chipset type, board name, amount of physical memory on the board, the RAMDAC type, BIOS version, and Driver version.
The driver version number is in the form x.yy-zzzz and uniquely identifies the driver build.
Hitting the "Advanced..." button on this page loads the 3Dlabs control panel. The 3Dlabs control panel is split into a number of pages as listed below. The pages are selected by clicking on one of the configuration tabs at the top right of the window.
NB. It is necessary to have administrator privileges to change any settings in the 3Dlabs control panel. If you do not have administrator privileges the options will be greyed out and cannot be changed.
The 3Dlabs tabs support Tool Tips help. To find out more about a particular option, hover your mouse over the relevant item and a help bubble will appear.
5.1. The Information Tab
========================
This page gives more detailed information on the OpenGL and DirectX drivers.
5.2 The Color Control Tab
=========================
This tab allows you to adjust the brightness, contrast and gamma correction of your display to compensate for different monitors and ambient lighting conditions.
5.3 The OpenGL Tab
==================
This tab allows you to tune the following parameters of your OpenGL driver setup:
ò Full Scene Antialiasing
ò Buffer Swap Mode
ò Z Buffer Depth
ò Texture Color Depth
ò Overlay/Alpha
ò Texture Filtering
ò Wait for Vertical Synch
ò Enable Stereo OpenGL
Hover the mouse over each item to learn more about the settings using the Tool Tips Help.
Optimized Applications
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Allows you to choose which OpenGL application the driver is presently optimized to run. Use the pull down menu to optimize the driver configuration for a different application, or select "OpenGL(tm)Default" for a good all round setting.
You can create your own optimized setting. To do this:
1.) Choose a setting for an application which is similar to the one you want.
2.) Click the "Create Copy" button to create a copy and rename it in the pull down menu window.
3.) Change the settings as appropriate.
4.) Click the "Save" button.
You can also delete your own customized settings (but not those that come preset in the driver).
Dual Monitor OpenGL Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have two monitors attached to your 3Dlabs card, then by default OpenGL will only be accelerated on the first monitor. Clicking on the "Dual Monitor OpenGL Options" button will bring up an additional page which enables you to accelerate OpenGl applications seamlessly across both monitors. To do this:
1.) Check the "Enable Dual Monitor OpenGL" box.
2.) Select a monitor resolution and color depth from the box at the bottom right.
3.) Check the Genlocked box if you wish to have both monitors refresh at the same rate and time.
4.) Finally choose a refresh rate for each monitor (one will be greyed out if you choose to genlock the displays.
5.) Hit Apply
Wait for Vertical Synch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smooth animation of 3D applications can be achieved by rendering to an off-screen color buffer and copying or swapping the contents to the displayable front buffer at the completion of each frame. Enabling this option prevents tearing of the display (often visible as flickering horizontal lines), by synchronizing the swap of the back and front buffers to the vertical blank retrace interval of the monitor display.
5.4 The Direct3D Tab
====================
This tab allows you to tune the following parameters of your Direct3D driver setup:
ò Full Scene Antialiasing
ò Force Z Buffer Depth
ò Wait for Vertical Synch
Hover the mouse over each item to learn more about the settings using the Tool Tips Help.
Optimized Applications
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Allows you to choose which Direct3D application the driver is presently optimized to run. Use the pull down menu to optimize the driver configuration for a different application, or select "Direct3D Default" for a good all round setting.
You can create your own optimized setting. To do this:
1.) Choose a setting for an application which is similar to the one you want.
2.) Click the "Create Copy" button to create a copy and rename it in the pull down menu window.
3.) Change the settings as appropriate.
4.) Click the "Save" button.
You can also delete your own customized settings (but not those that come preset in the driver).
Wait for Vertical Synch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smooth animation of 3D applications can be achieved by rendering to an off-screen color buffer and copying or swapping the contents to the displayable front buffer at the completion of each frame. Enabling this option prevents tearing of the display (often visible as flickering horizontal lines), by synchronizing the swap of the back and front buffers to the vertical blank retrace interval of the monitor display.
5.5 The Advanced Tab
====================
Enable Taskbar Shortcut
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Allows you to enable and disable the taskbar application which provides quick access to main features of the control panel. When the taskbar application is enabled it will be placed on the taskbar (system tray) each time the system is booted. Disabling the taskbar application from the setup page means that the application will not appear each time you reboot.
Pipeline Optimizations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Enables you to optimize your graphics adapter for maximum geoemetry throughput (ideal for CAD/CAM applications), or texture fill rate (ideal for games and texture intensive modelling applications). This setting affects applications using either the OpenGL or DirectX APIs.
5.6 The Monitor Tab
===================
This page allows you to specify your monitor type and display the available settings but does not permit actual selection of different monitor modes. To do that you should click on the "Settings" tab at the top of the Display panel. Windows 2000 has good monitor support, so the 3Dlabs Monitor tab should only be used for trouble-shooting monitor problems.
Clone this monitor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This option allows you to display a single desktop on two separate monitors.
Redetect
~~~~~~~~
When the display panel is started it automatically looks to see if a DDC type monitor is connected; in which case it will display the available modes. However, it is possible for the panel to get out of `sync` E.g. if the monitor is hot swapped. This option allows you to manually specify that the panel should look for a DDC monitor again.
Type
~~~~
This pull down menu allows you to specify the monitor type, overriding the detected type if required. VESA should be selected if the monitor type is non-DDC and is not a "Specific Type" shown in the list that is displayed bottom left with you select "Specific Type".
If you wish to change the monitor to a higher resolution than allowed when it is configured for DDC, select VESA then reboot. When the system restarts you will be able to select much higher monitor resolutions. Beware though that doing this could cause damage to your monitor - 3Dlabs does not recommend this practice nor accept responsibility for the consequences of using this option.
Extra Modes
~~~~~~~~~~~
Some older monitors do not report all the modes they support when DDC is selected. This menu item allows the driver to interpolate additional modes for these monitors.
5.7 Supported Languages
=======================
The 3Dlabs control panel supports the following languages: -
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
6. The Taskbar Utility
======================
The task bar utility provides quick access to some of the facilities on the control panel. To access the application right click on the 3Dlabs icon in the taskbar. Full documentation is provided through the "Help" item on the pop-up menu.
7. Acuity Window Manager ("WinMan")
===================================
The Acuity Window Manager, WinMan for short, is a tool that provides extra windowing and desktop features that are of particular use in multi-monitor configurations.
For example, WinMan can control the positioning of dialog boxes : a useful feature because their default positions are generally inconsistent, which can become annoying on multi-monitor systems.
Another example : WinMan will also let you partition your desktop into any number of 'virtual' desktops; useful for users who keep a large number of applications open at once.
WinMan may be configured and enabled from either the wizard that appears after driver installation, or from the popup menu of the Taskbar Utility described above.
8. Driver Release History
=========================
Current Release
===============
Improved support for the nForce2 chipset
Fix for Windows Manager window sizing issue with SmartPlant Review
Improved support for Pentium 3 dual CPU systems
Improved line quality in Studio Tools
Fix for display issues in Allplan
Fix for Z-buffer problem in Solidworks
Improved line quality in Unigraphics
Fix for refresh problems seen in Studio Tools
Enabled monitor cloning on non-English operating systems
Fix for system crash in Solidworks when zoomed in on an extruded line
Improved performance in Studio Tools when hidden line removal is enabled
Improved Windows Manager support for MS Project
Added optimised application setting for Rhinoceros
Improved visual quality in SolidEdge
Added Optimised application setting for Femap
Fix for missing polygons seen in Motionbuilder and Filmbox
Fix for problems seen when using glDrawPixels and glPixelZoom functions
Fix for upside down images seen in Combustion 2.x
Fix for a problem with glPopAttrib function not restoring the depth range
Fix for screen corruption problem when recovering from Standby mode with second DVI port on Wildcat VP560
Fix for crash seen in Counter-Strike when alt-tabbing
Improved S3/S4 power saving modes
Fix for stereo mode not working correctly in SmartPlant Review
Fix for crash seen in Pro Engineer
Fix for problem seen when using glGetTexImage function
Fix for problem seen when using glDrawPixels function in stereo mode with a non-stereo pixel format
Fix for problem seen when using glReadPixels function in stereo mode with a single buffered pixel format
Fix for OpenGL acceleration not working in the Fluent application
Fix for lockup seen when using S1 power saving mode on a VP990
Improved support for the i815 chipset
Fix for Solidworks 2004 crashing on exit
Fix for problems seen when using Spread Spectrum on an nForce2 chipset
Improved line quality in Maya
Fix for problem seen when using GL_RGB5_A1 textures
Fix for Houdini 6 crashing on startup
Fix for crashes seen with Unigraphics 18/NX
Improved Windows Manager functionality - secondary taskbar now supported
3.01-0392
=========
ò Support for Wildcat VP880 Pro product
ò Support for ViewPerf 7.1
ò Improved support for East Asian language texts
ò Support for Intels Springdale and Canterwood chipsets
ò Improved support for S1 power saving mode
ò Fix for application crash seen with Maya
ò Fix for power saving problems seen with Intels AGP8X chipsets
ò Fix for lag seen in the Softimage XSI animation editor
ò Fix for text corruption seen with Maya
ò Fix for crash seen with Splinter Cell game
ò Fix for overlay issues seen with Studio Tools
ò Fix for crashing problems with SmartPlant Review
ò Fix for crashing problems seen with the David Information Centre
3.01-0330
=========
ò Support for Wildcat VP990 Pro product
ò Support for Intel i845PE chipset
ò Support for Serverworks GC-WS 8X chipset
ò Support for SiS 645 & 648 chipsets
ò Support for Via KT133 chipset
ò Support for Nvidia nForce2 chipset
ò Fix for display problem when moving a window in SolidEdge
ò Fix for texture problem with D3D viewer in Softimage XSI 3
ò Fix for rendering problem with PRO/Desktop
ò Fix for hidden line display problem with Studio Tools 10
ò Fix for window corruption problem with Studio Tools 10
ò Fix for missing lines problem with Solidworks
ò Fix for rendering problem with Solidworks
ò Fix for performance problem while selecting in Solidworks
ò Fix for incorrect rendering problem with Lightwave 7.5
ò Fix for Particle FX crashing problem with Lightwave 7.5
ò Fix for flickering triangles problem with Review Reality
ò Fix for flickering triangles problem with Opticore Realizer
ò Fix for shadow rendering problem in Opticore Realizer
ò Fix for slow performance in Pro/Engineer Wildfire sketcher tool
ò Fix for cursor problem with Wildcat VP560 and Pro/Engineer Wildfire
ò Fix for problems with Alibre Design
ò Added optimised application setting for Cadceus V6.2
ò Fix for crash with Inventor R6 when downloading very large textures
ò Fix for rendering errors with Socet Set
ò Fix for memory leak in Inventor R6
ò Fix for hardware shadow problem with Maya 4.5
ò Fix for Standby and Hibernate problems with Wildcat VP560
ò Work around for problem with Pinnacle video capture boards
ò Fix for problems with the 3D Pipes screensaver with Wildcat VP560
ò Fix for black screen seen in WinDVD at high resolutions
ò Fix for problems with InstallShield 6
ò Fix for corruption seen with Windows Media Player
ò Fix for problems with 3DMark 2003
ò Fix for system lockup seen when copying large files
ò Fixes for following games:
Age of Mythology
Alien v Predator 1
Battelefield 1942
Blair Witch
Dark Age of Camelot
Dark age of Camelot Shrouded Isle
Descent 3
Dungeon Siege
Earth and Beyond
Everquest
Flight Simulator 2002
Ghost Recon
Gun Metal
Half-Life
Hitman 2
IceWind Dale
IL2
Jedi Knight 2
Madden 2003
Max Payne
Medieval Total War
Morrowind
NHL 2002
No One Lives Forever 2
Serious Sam
Serious Sam 2
Serious Sam 2nd Encounter
Sims - Livin' Large
Splinter Cell
Tribes 2
Warcraft 3
3.01-0181
=========
ò Fix for incorrect menu text with Softimage 3D
ò Fix for viewport resizing problem with Softimage 3D
ò Fix for object selection problem with Softimage XSI 2.x
ò Fix for OpenGL stress test problem with VP560
ò Fix for clipping problem with Microstation V8 in dual head mode
ò Fix for model color problem with Softimage XSI 2.x and 3.x
ò Fix for desktop corruption problem with OpenGL applications
ò Fix for problem with Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds game
ò Support for Intel E7505 chipset
ò Support for Serverworks chipsets
ò Fix for dynamic clipping and Caps problem with I-DEAS
ò Monitor cloning is now supported in the 3Dlabs control panel
ò Fix for problems with 1 analog monitor + 1 digital monitor
ò Fix for problem with Korean text
ò Fix for menu shadow problem with AutoCAD 2002
ò Fix forcubemapping problem with 3ds max 5
ò Fix for problem with No-one Lives Forever 2 game
3.01-0138
=========
ò Fix for memory leak in OpenGL driver
3.01-0136
=========
ò Added support for Acuity Window Manager
ò Added support for Wildcat VP560
3.00-0423
=========
ò Fix for problems in 3D Studio MAX when the "Use Wireframe Faces" setting is enabled.
ò Fix for alpha blending problems in 3D Studio MAX with the Direct3D driver
ò Fix for problem in Half Life with OpenGL driver when exiting to the main menu
ò Fixes for FSAA in OpenGL driver
ò Fix for system crash seen when exiting CDRS and Vtree applications
ò Fix for lockup seen with Serious Sam and Vitrea application
ò Fix for "grey screen" problem when installing on a system with a non-DDC monitor
ò Powersaving is now supported
ò Fix for crash seen with Softimage, Maya and Creator applications
ò Fix for flickering seen when the OpenGL "Wait for Vertical Sync" setting is enabled
3.00-0392
=========
ò The driver now boots correctly when only a digital panel or monitor is connected
3.00-0385
=========
ò This is the first release of the 3Dlabs Wildcat VP Drivers
9. Application specific notes
=============================
3ds max
~~~~~~~
We recommend that for best results you select the OpenGL renderer for the 3ds max 4.x versions, and the Direct3D renderer for 3ds max 5.x and later.
Aliens vs. Predator2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is a problem with the grenade launcher target when out of ammunition. To workaround this problem
please run the game at 16bpp.
Half-Life
~~~~~~~~~
You will need to download the patch for at least version 1.0.0.8 from www.sierra.com to use hardware
accelerated OpenGL. Without this patch some elements are rendered without textures.
1. Trouble Shooting
===================
10.1. Monitor Fails to Synchronize Following Boot
================================================
Your display mode is probably too high a resolution. Reboot the system and at the DOS "OS loader screen" hit <F8> and select the "Safe Mode" boot option. Using the display properties applet set the display to 640x480x8bpp and the monitor to 60Hz refresh. Reboot again and set the monitor to the desired mode (obviously, lower than the mode causing the problems!)
10.2. Windows Only Boots Into VGA mode
======================================
You may have incorrectly installed the drivers. Try reinstalling the drivers, if the problem persists, look on the 3dlabs website for a driver upgrade.
10.3. I Can't Set My Monitor to a High Resolution
================================================
You may be using an older monitor which supports DDC but doesn't report all the modes that the monitor is capable of. You need to force the drivers to use the VESA monitor modes (see section 5.4 The Monitor Page).
11. Customer Support
====================
You can contact 3Dlab's technical support via http://www.3dlabs.com/support/contact/
