Shadow Warrior 3dfx Shareware in Windows [Howto]

[MrFlibble]

In 1997 3D Realms released a version of Shadow Warrior that would take advantage of 3dfx graphics cards. This version was distributed in the form of an upgrade for both shareware and registered versions of the game.

The 3dfx version features various enhancements such as 16-bit graphics, bilinear filtering, and transparency effects. Some screenshots of this version can be found here.

Shadow Warrior 3dfx can be played in DOSBox. However, you will need a DOSBox build that supports Glide emulation, and a Glide wrapper.

What you will need:
o DOBox SVN Daum (DOSBox /w Glide support)
o nGlide (Glide API wrapper)
o Shadow Warrior shareware v1.2 (official site)
o Shadow Warrior shareware 3dfx patch v1.1 (also available at the official site)

Step 1. Download the latest version of DOBox SVN Daum from Taewoong's page. You can get an installer or a files-only package. In the latter case, simply unpack the archive into any directory of your choice (preferably not on the system drive), e.g. D:\DOSBox.

Step 2. Download and install nGlide.

Step 3. Open the directory where DOSBox SVN Daum is installed, and delete the file called glide2x.dll (or rename it into something else, e.g. glide2x.dl_).

Step 4. Open the file dosbox.conf, which is also found in the DOSBox SVN Daum directory, with Notepad or any other text editing programme. Find and change the following values (only values that need to be changed are shown):

Code: Select all

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fullresolution=original
output=opengl

[dosbox]
vmemsize=4
memsize=63

[cpu]
core=dynamic
cycles=max

[glide]
glide=true

Step 5. If you haven't already, download and install Shadow Warrior shareware. Make sure that this is the latest version (v1.2).

NOTE: Shadow Warrior shareware uses a DOS-based installer. Please refer to this guide for details on how to install the game.

Step 6. Get the shareware 3dfx patch (swsw3d11.zip). Unzip the executable file (swsw3d11.exe) and place it in the same directory where Shadow Warrior shareware is installed.

Step 7. Start DOSBox SVN Daum and run swsw3d11.exe. When the patch will ask you if you want to upgrade your version of the game, type "y" (without quote marks) and hit Enter. The 3dfx version files will be added to the game.

Step 8. Once the patching process is complete, run the setup programme for the 3dfx version (set3dfx.exe):
o Set the sound FX card to Sound Blaster (the programme should correctly auto-detect DOSBox settings).
o Set the music card to General MIDI, port 330h (default).
o Set the screen resolution to 640x480 or 800x600.
o Configure the controls to your liking.

Step 9. Save your changes and run the game. When the 3dfx version is started for the first time, it will convert game textures for future use. This process may take some time.

NOTE: When the 3dfx version is installed, you have the option to play either the regular version or the 3dfx version. Run sw.exe fro the regular version and sw3dfx.exe for the 3dfx version. Both versions have independent configuration files, and save games are not interchangeable.

[Quadko]

Sweet, nice guide! I've wanted to play with 3d-enhanced dosbox, but haven't taken the time to figure it out, this is a big help.

And what does step 3 "delete glide2x.dll" do? Maybe makes dosbox Daum use nGlide instead of the default dll it ships with? The other steps make sense, but I'm unclear on this one.

Cheers, mate! Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I look forward to giving it a go.

[MrFlibble]

You're welcome

And what does step 3 "delete glide2x.dll" do? Maybe makes dosbox Daum use nGlide instead of the default dll it ships with? The other steps make sense, but I'm unclear on this one.

Yes, DOSBox SVN Daum comes with its own glide2x.dll (as do other Glide-supporting DOSBox builds IIRC), which it will use by default, but for the nGlide wrapper to work it needs to use the nGlide one.

On a side note, I think if you set output= to overlay or direct3d it should also work, and maybe get a better performance on some configurations. But most modern graphics cards should be OpenGL compliant anyway.

[Edit] I also added a link in the first post to a post in another forum with some screenshots from the 3dfx version.