Display options for the 3DFX Voodoo on DOSBox-x (DGVoodoo in action)

Описание: DOSBox-x has a couple of display approaches to 3DFX games. By default, DOSBox-x switches to a window running in OpenGL mode at a resolution of 640 by 480. Now, on a desktop that is running at 1080, this window is quite small. When it comes to 3DFX games running in DOSBox-x's OpenGL mode, the other display settings in the DOSBox conf file are ignored, only going by the settings in the [voodoo] section of the file, which looks something like this:

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=opengl
voodoo_maxmem=true
glide=false
lfb=full_noaux
splash=true

DOSBox-x also has a software mode. This mode conforms to the various display settings of the DOSBox-x conf file. However, the main trade-off here is that texture resolutions are much lower, and games in general run much slower. In the conf file, the [voodoo] section looks like the following:

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software
voodoo_maxmem=true
glide=false
lfb=full_noaux
splash=true

Now, in either OpenGL or Software rendering, the game window can be maximized. However, the maximized window conforms to the resolution of the monitor, which if it's like the vast majority of users, is at 1920 by 1080. Thus, for Glide games that conform to the 4:3 aspect ratio, they look distorted.

So DOSBox-x can also do 3D passthrough, similar to the passthrough like in PC virtualizers like VMware Player/Workstation and VirtualBox. However, in order to do DOSBox-x passthrough, the settings in the DOSBox-x conf file need to be defined as the following:

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=auto
voodoo_maxmem=true
glide=true
lfb=full_noaux
splash=true

After that, a specialized Glide passthrough driver (utilizing modified 3DFX drivers) needs to be installed on the Windows 95 guest that works in conjunction with DOSBox-x so that 3DFX games can run full-screen. Then the DGVoodoo wrapper and its support files need to be installed in the DOSBox folder as well. At least in my experience, when it came to the wrapper approach, I only had luck with DGVoodoo and the May 5, 2025 SDL1 32-build of DOSBox-x. Since DGVoodoo is a DirectX Wrapper, the "output" variable in the [sdl] section of the DOSBox-x conf file needs to be set to the following:

output=direct3d

Also, when it comes to compatibility, games are either a hit-or-miss.

However, all is not well. Even though it's a 3DFX game, Turok 2 still ran in a 640 by 480 window. Any game that makes use of the Direct3D API will run in the 640 by 480 window as well, like Sega Rally 2 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 98. NFS2SE and 3 crashes as well. Also, other 3DFX game exhibited weird behavior.

Descent is suffering from sound stuttering issues. There are also noticeable frameskipping issues as well. The game is quite jerky.

In Driver's Ed, the game is suffering from noticeable frame stuttering issues as well, resulting in a very jerky display and gameplay.

As such, when utilizing the Glide wrapper solution, compatibility is going to be either a hit-or-miss. When it hits, it hits great, but when it fails, you are quick to notice. However, this pigeon never stays asleep. DOSBox-x is a very awesome project indeed, and as such, I want to get the most out of it, and I think I might have found some middle ground. While not full-screen, I think things are much better with some quick-and-dirty solution that this old bird has quickly cooked up.

Let's see how Descent performs.
Songs Used:
Aura
Discmasters
https://discmaster.textfiles.com/view...
(70% of Playback Speed)

Software Used:
Recorded With OBS Studio
Composed In Kdenlive

Hardware Used:
PC equipped with a
AMD Ryzen 5 5500 CPU
6 Cores Running At 4.2GHz
AMD Radeon RX570 GPU
Windows 11