4/14/98 Sory about the lack of updates, but there really wasn't much in the way of news.

Hercules has some new drivers at their FTP site. Remember, if you re-install your drivers, you have to also re-install DirectX.

From the readme file:

- Freeze when scrolling in Netscape Navigator 4.0, 4.01, and 4.04. To avoid this problem, use the arrows to scroll the document instead of the scroll bar, or reduce graphics acceleration to "Basic Accelerator Functions" in Control Panel, System Properties, Performance tab, Graphics.

As far as I can tell, this is just a packaged version of the 2070d drivers, without the fix for crashing. The modification dates on the files are not the same as the 2070d build.

Also note that the vendor-specific rush card newsgroups will be moved over to 3dfx.products.voodoorush.

3/29/98 One Maniak has posted a nice patch to your BIOS TSR that will eliminate the animated banner. It's not officially supported, only works on the dual-planar cards with the TSR, and could screw up your computer, but it's there if you want it. If you feel like risking your system's stability, just download BiosPat.zip. Unzip it to the same directory as your BIOS TSR and run it with the name of the TSR as your paramater. Do it at your own risk. Neither I, nor your card manufacturer will be responsible for any damage to your system.

3/27/98 Hercules has posted a new bios build on their FTP site. I haven't seen it on their front page, nor is it up on their driver page, but it's up there.

3/25/98 I tried out the Buils 27 BIOS. It turns out that Jazz Multimedia gives you a TSR and the update utility. There's no difference in performance between the two builds, but the skipping is noticeably reduced. More info on how to use the Jazz TSR is on the drivers page.

3/23/98 Not too much news happening. Hercules has officially announced that the Stingray 128/3D 8 meg version is $199 ESP and the 6 meg version is $185 ESP. Also, the new cards will be shipping with Heavy Gear and the OEM version of Incoming.

3/20/98 In the "We smoked too much pot and want to look cool" section, some people have posted a 3dfx emulator for Quake II. I'm not entirely sure what they mean by a 3dfx emulator, but it's suposedly a piece of software that will let you run 3dfx Quake on a cheap video card or something.

Anyway, it's just a bunch of currently existing driver files hacked up. It's not worth bothering with. If you want to get a good laugh, try visiting their webpage and maybe even viewing their guestbook.

3/19/98 Some news updates: From Voodoo Extreme comes news that the Banshee might be the new generation of 2D/3D Voodoo technology that 3dfx announces at the Computer Games Developer Conference.

Intergraph has posted some new drivers. It's a "beta" 2072 build, but it seems to have 3D support.

California Graphics has released some new drivers. This is the 2071 build, which still has the Netscape crashing problem, unless they have done something about it. Will be checking that situation shortly.

Jazz has posted the 2072 Build of the drivers.

DenZoner's Voodoo Rush Drivers has been updated. He's got the latest, most stable hybrid build.

There's a bug in the 2072 build that doesn't entirely fix the stuttering problem. The 2070d build seems to have the best non-stuttering performance, according to most of the people I've heard. Chris P. from Alliance said that the 2070d and the build 27 BIOS will result in a stutter-less system. Of course, Hercules still needs to post the build 27 TSR. The URL for a build 27 BIOS that I posted before is erroneous. That's the build 27 flash upgrade. My appoligies.

Oh yeah, and as I was going to bed, I found on Voodoo Extreme that the prices on the Stingray had dropped.

3/16/98 Sory about the lack of updates -- My computer was being used for a demo of a GL game. We used the Mesa GL-clone on it, and it was cool. About as good of performance as a FireGL, subjectively.

Anyway, Here's the URL for the build 27 TSR, which apparently works better with the latest driver builds. I still need to test it.

My current build is the 2071/2072 hybrid build. I installed the 2071 build, which got to be a slightly scarry instilation, as my computer had to be rebooted twice before it would work. I then re-installed DirectX 5. Then, I finally installed the 2072 build, verified that the DirectX/glide drivers were still there, and reinstalled DirectX 5 a second time. It seems to work and perform well. Nobody's reported any Netscape crashing yet. I'll know in a day or two.

I've benchmarked the latest driver builds on the Driver Info page.

Still no news on anybody officially releasing any of the driver builds.

3/11/98 Okay, the driver situation is even nuttier than before. Alliance Semiconductor has released the 2072 reference build. The problem? It doesn't include any Direct3D drivers. The 2071 build, from 3dfx doesn't seem to have the patches from the recent builds that make the system more stable. More news on the Driver Info page.

Note that Hercules doesn't have to release any of these builds. So there's no way of knowing when the new builds will be out. If I were working at Hercules, I don't think I necessarily would have released any of these driver builds yet.

Also, I've noted that somebody who works at Alliance Semiconductor has been posting messages on the 3dfx.oem.products.hercules.stingray128-3d newsgroup, posting clarifications and help. Like Harvey Fong, he's probably not getting paid to do it, either.

3/9/98 I've got DenZoner's set of drivers downloaded and I should be trying them soon.

Also, Operation 3.D.F.X. posted a link to an article on the latest D3D drivers for the Voodoo and Voodoo Rush. It seems that they have a cheat that enables the Voodoo and Voodoo rush to get a little higher quality by faking tri-linear filtering. Sneaky, but probably not any less unethical than optimizing for the benchmarks.

Note that I deleted the news for 3/6/98. I'm taking most of that content and putting it on seperate pages, as soon as I clean it up a little bit. All of the applicable driver information is on my Driver Info page.

Some people on the Stingray newsgroup have purchased the Voodoo 2 card, and it apparently the two of them can cooperate. I don't have one, so I can't comment myself. Boot magazine had a Millenium, a PowerVR, and a VooDoo Graphics card working, so I assume that it's not too big of a problem.

3/7/98 DenZoner's Voodoo Rush Drivers seems to be a mix-and-match set of all the latest drivers. I, personally, have been sticking with the Jazz 2066 drivers.

Also note that any problems you have with running anything other than Hercules drivers are your own problem and they aren't going to want to help you if you screw up your computer.

Also note, for you Rush fans, the new card to get will likely be the Voodoo Banshee. It'll be a 100% 3dfx chipset and it should beat most 2D/3D combo cards out there.