quake/articles/1997/art-1040
Path: mantis!not-for-mail
From: "Mr. Engo"
Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.quake.announce
Subject: A Dummy's guide to GL-Quake 30 fps on a Pentium 133Mhz (Version 1.3)
Date: 3 Feb 1997 16:16:08 -0000
Organization: Engo
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Message-ID: <01bc0cc3$ce759660$1ebda8c6@mengo.mcgill.ca>
[Newsgroups: trimmed -- moderator]
A Dummy's guide to GL-Quake 30 fps on a Pentium 133Mhz (Version 1.3)
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I have the following: Dell P133, 32 MB EDO, SB 16, Matrox Mystique, Diamond
Monster 3dfx,
Win95 OSR1, Turtle Beach 8X EIDE CD-Rom Player. Retail version of Quake.
The first time I installed and ran GLQuake in default mode, I was very
disappointed:
13 fps on timedemo, poor mouse response, stuttering sound, etc.
Ever wonder why some people claim in newsgroups to have >28 fps on their
133 Mhz systems while others got lousy performance on seemingly identical
hardware ? Me to.
I felt frustrated to have fallen into the latter category especially with
the long list of smug people with P100 to 200 claiming 28-36 fps, "Oh my
god it looks so good", etc.
without a list of comprehensive and constructive suggestions on how to help
out the poor saps left in the dust.
Well, enough about this diatribe. So how about those "constructive"
suggestions ?
After some experimentation, I made the following changes to my setup and
within 1 hr was enjoying GL-Quake at 28-32 fps, with ultra smooth mouse
response and perfect sound.
Now that is a sight for sore eyes !
1) Upgraded to Direct X 3.0 (from my Diablo CD)
2) Updated my SB 16 drivers to the most recent (Dec 96)
3) Increased my Win95 Swap file size to the 80 min - 80 max MB range. My
hardrive is already defragmented
4) Installed TWEEK (version Jan 20, 1997): Fast Memory, Fast PCI read,
Overclock 57, Disable Vsync, Gamma 1, Refresh 85, made sure I followed the
help file instructions on modifying my autoexec.bat and rebooted
5) Changed my Win95 default colors to 16bit
6) Made sure the Quake CD was not in: this is strange but with the CD
playing Quake music and hard drive constantly being accessed: the fps drops
to 20. My guess is that people with SCSI CD-players or with the Win95 OSR2
improved EIDE drivers will not be affected that much by the CD/hardrive
dance. Does anyone know how to get quake to control the CD music without
having to stream via the hard drive ?
7) Disabled the Dial-Up Networking autodial
BTW, turning on mirror reflection and shadows slows the fps to 27
The biggest hit is with transparent water (12 fps) or with the Quake CD in
the drive (20 fps)
Also, the 30 fps does not start right away. The hard drive goes crazy
during the first few minutes loading demo1. I can shut it up by starting a
new game - then from then on the frame rate shoots to 30-32 fps.
The following do not work and is a waste of time:
1) Running quake > 640x480: we all know this is not possible with the
existing 3dfx cards. People who are "successfully" launching Glquake with
the -width 800 command actually think they are running at 800x600 but in
fact it remains at 640x480.
2) Running quake at <16 bit
3) Adding -noudp or -nonet to the command line: it still tries to run the
stupid dialer
4) Running quake from a full screen Dos session
5) Playing quake with a joystick, gamepad, or 3 button mouse (will work
like a 2 button mouse)
If I forgot something in the above list please forgive my blitzed memory -
I am still in awe at the rediscovered beauty of this game !
Many of the programs mentioned above can be found at:
http://www.crunge.com/voodoo/
Note that the above program TWEEK (customizes 3dfx) is not the same as
TWEAK (customizes win95). People always confuse the 2.