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Is it possible to run Blitz3D games or Blitz3D (itself) in Windows 95 or Windows 98 in here?

Open pricellium opened this issue 7 months ago • 14 comments

Is this possible since Blitz3D supports Windows 95 and Windows 98, even if it works slowly would it work?

pricellium avatar May 03 '25 10:05 pricellium

Tested on custom Windows 95 RTM, Blitz3D cannot work with DirectX' (version 7.0) software rendering. Most likely, this error can be fixed with SoftGPU or SwiftShader, haven't tested it yet.

blitz3d

SuperMaxusa avatar May 04 '25 22:05 SuperMaxusa

How do i put the folder in the image like your image? Do you have a guide?

pricellium avatar May 05 '25 11:05 pricellium

Create an ISO image: https://github.com/copy/v86/blob/a3840e32b30d7005f2e7533a557b769333127425/docs/windows-9x.md?plain=1#L28-L29 ..and mount it into VM (add -cdrom /path/to/iso to QEMU command or https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Change_cdrom).

Also you can use WinImage or OSFMount to open/mount a hard disk image.

SuperMaxusa avatar May 05 '25 11:05 SuperMaxusa

When I install softgpu, how do I increase the storage of the Windows 98 image?

pricellium avatar May 05 '25 12:05 pricellium

Run qemu-img resize -f raw path/to/hdd.img +<added size in megabytes>M and use GParted Live/PartitionMagic inside VM to resize the partition and write a new MBR (don't forget about backup).

SuperMaxusa avatar May 05 '25 12:05 SuperMaxusa

Is 3D acceleration possible? The error will always just be unable to create 3D scene or no graphics mode found

pricellium avatar May 08 '25 16:05 pricellium

What preset did you use in SoftGPU installer? There is a "QEMU Software" preset that should be compatible with v86. About SwiftShader, it only supports DX8-9 and Windows 98, and IIRC there is no Blitz3D for DirectX 8+ (or I'm not searching well).

SuperMaxusa avatar May 09 '25 00:05 SuperMaxusa

If I used the QEMU Software preset, would the 3D acceleration button be enabled in the softgpu installer?

pricellium avatar May 09 '25 03:05 pricellium

Is it even possible to run 3D games?

pricellium avatar May 09 '25 12:05 pricellium

The error will always just be unable to create 3D scene or no graphics mode found

Did you test it on QEMU after installing SoftGPU or only on v86?

Is it even possible to run 3D games?

Yes, if your game/app supports software rendering or you have a <graphics API> -> software wrapper.

SuperMaxusa avatar May 09 '25 13:05 SuperMaxusa

Yes, I tested it on both but I saw this error message ISA VGA or PCI VGA without PCI bus detected, this can't work! Please check device manager before continue! even after I installed it softgpu would just say failed to copy files

I am still trying it with Blitz3D on Windows 98, I got the code editor running but when I start it it will just say unable to create 3D scene. If any 3D games work, can you give me some examples? I'm still trying to run Blitz3D on here. If you could try running Blitz3D and it's games on v86 that would be great

pricellium avatar May 10 '25 09:05 pricellium

I saw this error message ISA VGA or PCI VGA without PCI bus detected, this can't work! Please check device manager before continue! even after I installed it softgpu would just say failed to copy files

Try this: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu?tab=readme-ov-file#pci-bus-detection-fix

If you could try running Blitz3D and it's games on v86 that would be great

I'll try in my free time. Anyways SoftGPU uses WineD3D (DirectX/3D -> OpenGL) and Mesa3D (OpenGL -> software) and there is a chance that Blitz3D will not be able to work with it.

SuperMaxusa avatar May 10 '25 10:05 SuperMaxusa

Got it working, is there any ways to optimize so it can be playable?

pricellium avatar May 18 '25 07:05 pricellium

is there any ways to optimize so it can be playable?

Maybe decreasing screen resolution/color depth and tweaking the Wine/Mesa3D registry keys might help.

SuperMaxusa avatar May 27 '25 13:05 SuperMaxusa