***Time to Upgrade to DirectX 8***
 

For anyone who is just tuning in, it looks like a future version (possibly .99H) of Sachs Aquarium will require DirectX 8 to be installed on your computer. I figure now is a good time to get DirectX 8 going, rather than scrambling to get your system ready whenever a version launches.

Installing a new version of DirectX *SHOULD* be easy if you have been keeping up with the latest video card and sound card drivers. If you haven't then you may be doing some digging around to get this all working.

To get the latest DirectX 8 for your Win95/98/Me/2000 box, head to Microsoft's website here:

www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp


Why upgrade to DirectX 8?

Well, not only will future versions of the Sachs Aquarium use and require it, but also the new features will require it. Features such as multiple monitors, switching automatically to 16-bit on all systems, and running natively in 24 and 32 bit will all require DirectX 8 code. In addition, I've been told that the Windows 2000 "bubbles sound that keeps going for 3+ minutes" bug will be fixed in the Direct X 8 version of the Aquarium.

There are always risks in changing your system configuration. Someone in another post here said they had problems going to DirectX 8 and actually had to remove it and regress back to DirectX 7. But overall, it should be a painless upgrade for most people.

I'm getting some new games soon and I know they require DirectX 8, so I guess I will be finding out soon enough!

Regards,

Direct X 8
 

No problems here with V0.99F,Win2k and Matrox G400 dual head.

A helpful site for a DirectX remover program is

www.ebrink.com/dxun/Direct.htm

But please read the Help,FAQ,etc and be careful!!

rdgs

D.

Re: ***Time to Upgrade to DirectX 8***
 

Any hints to when the new version 99G version will come out? Becuase i want that Percula Clown Bad :)

Re: ***Time to Upgrade to DirectX 8***
 

As I mentioned in another thread somewhere, v.99G will be almost identical with v.99F, except for the addition of a Percula Clown and a Clown Triggerfish. It will not require DX 8, but the version after that probably will.

--- Jim Sachs

I don't realy got problems with DX8
 

But it seems that some older games and/or games that are pushed in the "forgoten" corner, don't work under DX8.0

Re: I don't realy got problems with DX8
 

I upped to 8 quite a while ago , my V3 2000 runs everything no problem.

Re: I don't realy got problems with DX8
 

I've been using DX8 for about a month now.Haven't had any problems since updating all drivers.Win98SE,PIII 500,Leadtek Geforce 256 and 256 Megs of Sdram.Stopped using nVMAX and opted to use Detonator 6.31 control panel.I am getting 85-95 FPS @1280X1024 (all 7 fish).I am quite satisfied with how the aquarium is running.

Re: ***Time to Upgrade to DirectX 8***
 

I upgraded a long time ago as well. But im always looking for the latest drivers and stuff. 113 fps on PIII 800, 128 ram, Elsa Razor X Geforce 256 SDR at 1024x768 using Detonator 6.47. It really is the same with any Detonator drivers in my experience anyway. DirectX 8 should work fine with all games that require direct X...Well Mircrosoft says it backwards compatible, so it must be true :) Now if i could just get dsl or cable i would be happy. :)

How to run at 113 fps?
 

Hi Dragon,

May I know how can you run the screensaver at 113fps? Is it due to your CPU (800Mhz) or anything else?

My Matrox G400 runs at around 80fps.

I am thinking that your PC supports more than 7 fishes at a time. :-)

Re: How to run at 113 fps?
 

Hi! I'm the guy, or one of the guys, who has the, and I quote, "I've been told that the Windows 2000 "bubbles sound that keeps going for 3+ minutes" bug will be fixed in the Direct X 8 version of the Aquarium." I'm also using Win2k and already have DirectX 8 installed; so glad to here it'll get fixed. Now might be the time for me to register, before the deadline, so I don't miss out on all those free goodies.

geforce thing?
 

Maybe it is a geforce thing. I have a p2-400, geforce(original) ddr and at 1024x768 I get 99-100fps constantly with all 7 fish. Upgrading to dx 8 had no effect on speed for me.

Oh and a DX8 tip...I heard that after you install any new version of direct X it is best to re-install both sound and vidcard drivers. I haven't needed to do so, but heard it helps some of those who have problems after the upgrade. :)

Re: geforce thing?
 

I am using a Leadtek GeForce 256 w/32 Megs of memory,Win 98SE,Soundblaster Awe32,PIII 500,256 Megs SDRAM ,running the Aquarium @ 1280X1024 w/7 fish @ 85-95 FPS.
I installed DX8 about a month ago along with updated video,sound and motherboard drivers.
I am experiencing no problems whatsoever.

DX8
 

I am running a Gateway PIII 600 w/ 256mb Ram, Nvidia TNT2 Ultra with latest drivers, Creative Soundblaster Live Value. I'm set at 1600 x 1200 x 32bit, which drops to 16 on the Aquarium. I get about 40fps. If I install DX 8 will I get faster fps, and are there any problems I should know about before I click install?? Thanks......

Re: DX8
 

Just make sure you have the latest nVidia Detonator drivers (as you say you have), and go for it. You won't get a faster framerate I don't think. You're running at a really high resolution! :)

The reason to go DirectX 8 is for the new DirectX 8 version of the Aquarium which will fix some things and add other things.

DirectX~8 question
 

HI~ I was wondering what exactly is the improvement from 7 to 8 i havent noticed anything and have had it since it came out- there r many other boards that ask the same question and no-one seems to know seeing most people dont notice anything iether -hoping Jim or Feldon can answer this one seeing there working with it thnx _also on a small note for people experiencing problem with sound run off are u using DirectX8 final version just a thought because there was a version 8 before they released the final version . Thnx again have a nice day .

Re: DirectX~8 question
 

hooters,

Upgrading from one version of DirectX to another is rarely about features. DirectX is a 2D, 3D, and audio framework for writing software with good performance without writing directly to the hardware (as developers used to do in the PC days). The developers used to have to write their program and then come out with their own drivers for each and every video card, sound card, etc. on the market. It got to be impossible to write for every card because each card manufacturer was doing it differently, and there were so many cards.

The only reason one switches to a newer version of DirectX is when a favorite game or piece of software has used the new library elements introduced in a newer version of DirectX and thus requires its installation.

It just so happens that the next version of the Aquarium beyond the next 2 fish will probably require DirectX 8. Jim wants to take advantage of many of the things added in DirectX 7 and 8 to improve the Aquarium and fix a few bugs.

I don't want to jump the gun, but one of the most popular requests on the Forum is for the Aquarium to natively run in 24 bit and 32 bit. And as a fallback from this, for the Aquarium to always switch the hardware to 16-bit, especially on those systems that don't automatically do it themselves. (probably 80% of people's setups out there, most nVidia cards, most 3dfx cards switch automatically)

A few of the other features people are requesting, such as multiple monitor support probably require DirectX 7 or 8.

I hope this has cleared up some things and helped others decide one way or another to switch to DirectX 8 or not. It should be a relatively painless operation provided you have the most updated drivers for your video/3d card and sound card. :)

DirectX8 - thnx for ur detailed explanation , -
 

it makes more sense now - i looked at all my games and stuff doesnt look like anything i have calls for it yet - but I'm sure like the Aquarium - other things will son nead it - thnx again Feldon

How to Increase FPS
 

First I'll post my specs. PIII 825(550@150MHz FSB), Abit BE6-2,256M PC133 SDRAM, CL Annihilator 2 MX, Win98 SE, DirectX 8.By the way MX is the way to go til NV20 gets here. Price vs. Preformance is unbeatable. That is about all that should matter. Running THE AQUARIUM @ 1024x768 I get 119 FPS all 7 Fish set to random. Running 1152x864 I get 100 FPS all 7 fish again set to random. The secret is to turn off vsync when I turn it on I only get about 80 FPS no matter what screen resolution. So to answer your question turn off vsync. This must be done in your Video cards drivers or through a third party utility like nVmax. If you are using Nvidia reference drivers you must have coolbits enabled in order to get the disable vsync option. On matrox cards I'm not much help. But there are other video card utilities out there. Try looking at tweakfiles.com they have most of the recent video card tweaking utilities.

lockup
 

Hi
I'm running a similar system to you - PIII/550, Hercules Gforce 2/mx, BE62-raid. Normally I run my system bus @ 116mhz, no problems with games, 3dmark etc. but Aquarium locks up as soon as it is run. If I reduce my bus speed to default or 105mhz max it runs fine. I've tried a fresh install of WinMe/Dx8 with only my graphics card in the system & it still locks. Also tried a Matrox G400max with exactly the same results, thus eliminating the graphics card.

Any suggestions or advice greatly appreciated..

Re: lockup
 

The only thing I can think of right off with what you've provided is you are using the Highpoint controller and I am not and won't for the simple reason that it affects my overclocked stability. So I am stuck using the old DMA 33 IDE channels. I won't swear that this is your problem, but I suspect that it maybe as I have a similar problem with my SCSI card preventing me from going above 150MHz FSB. If I remove the card I can go up to 155MHz stable. But oh well, I'm not about to give up my SCSI CD-Rom or CD-RW just yet.
One other thing what type of memory are you running and what do you have your memory timings set to in the BIOS?

lockup
 

Hi
Cheers for the reply. I did wonder about the HTP controller so disabled it in bios & run off standard IDE, but still locked. Have Mosel cas 2 memory, have tried setting to cas 3, still locks! Looks like I'm stuffed as far as overclocking & running Aquarium99 goes. Never mind, hoping to upgrade in the future to an Athlon TBird 1ghz+ just waiting to see what develops on the DDR chipset motherboard front before I take the plunge. Probably have a whole new set of problems to deal with then - Oh well..

Re: lockup
 

Sorry that wasn't the problem. One last thing though I have two other friends running virtually the same machine all overclocked the same. Only difference is the video cards. So you've got me wondering about your situation. Is your chip a slot 1 550E? If so when did you buy it? I purchased mine right after they came out (03-04/00 I think.) I know people have not had much success overclocking the latest batches or the FCPGA variety. That is the only other thing I can think of. I'll do some more looking around but I tell you a P!!! 550E is almost guaranteed to over clock to 733MHz. Weird!!!

Re: lockup
 

MegaHertz,

It wouldn't hurt to examine your chip and compare the batch number and country of manufacture against the database here...

www.overclockers.com

lockup
 

Hello again,

I've had the PIII/550e for some time now (I'll whip it out later & check the nos.) One thought, I am using an Abit SlotketIII & the only way I could get it to boot was to set it's jumpers to the chip spec. It would not work on auto detect. There's not much in the way of instructions with these things, so once it worked I didn't experiment further..

Patrick Fillary

Re: lockup
 

Patrick,

I believe I can say with some degree of certainty that your problem is your chip. It is a flip chip (Socket 370) and to the best of my knowledge they have never overclocked well. Lots of guys got burned buying them when the slot 1's were hard to come by thinking that they would overclock as well as the Slot 1 versions. I know when I bought mine it was the last one in town. I'll have to pull it out to get the numbers as my box is in storage til spring. You can also check your info using the link posted by Morgan to see how many other people are having success or failure with chips from around the time that yours was made. Hope you find some good news. Best of Luck.

Re: ***Time to Upgrade to DirectX 8***
 

I notice that there is an 8.0a version of DirectX available here:

www.microsoft.com/downloa...seid=27398

Anyone tried it? Is this a release version?

Re: ***Time to Upgrade to DirectX 8***
 

It's more of an international version with a lot of "bloat". I did not see any difference than ver 8. I don't think it's worth the time,etc(~20+M)

Re: ***Time to Upgrade to DirectX 8***
 

Thanks.

I downloaded it this morning already and have it sitting in a place I save stuff like this.

I'm still running whatever comes with Win2k Pro and haven't updated anything yet. Still running the Creative (5.22 I think) drivers on my Geforce2 GTS as well.

I'm thinking of updating the video drivers to the Nvidia reference set v6.34 as I've heard they're pretty stable.

I've also heard it's advisable to do the video driver update after DirectX updates.

Is that true?

GeForce2 v6.34 drivers
 

I been hearing about the GeForce2 v6.34 drivers. Where do they come from? The ones on the NVidia web site are v6.31 which is what mine are too.

Re: GeForce2 v6.34 drivers
 

I stuffed a copy here if you're interested:

www.pompano.net/~mward2k/

NVmax
 

oOMegaHertzOo,
I downloaded NVmax, to see what would happen like you said, and I have a few questions. This is the first time I have tried to use something like this, so allot of the options I have no idea what they do.
1st - I am running a Gateway PIII 600 / 256 MB RAM / TNT2 Ultra Video card / DX8. I went to Nvidia about 1 week ago and got the latest drivers available and installed them.
Coolbits IS NOT checked, but I checked no Vsync and it seemed to help -- I run 1600 x 1200 32 bit -- on the aquarium I get about 45 fps now as opposed to 35 - 37 before so it helped some.
The overclocking feature is grayed out and will not let me change it.
Anti-Aliasing is set at 2x2 med.
Mip-Map is set to 12
Texel Alignment is set to 03
PCI Texture is set at 50MB
I guess my question is ( not knowing what allot of this means ) is there anything that is obvious to you that I should change, or anything that I should leave alone, before I get to poking around to see what all these options will do?

Re: NVmax
 

I also just downloaded and tried NVmax today. I have an almost brand new Dell Dimension 4100 with 866MGhz processor, 256MB Ram, and a GeForce2. A 19" Trinitron monitor running at 1024x768. Before NVmax I was getting 120FPS, after installing and using the NVmax preset called "Nice Mix" my FPS went up to 192..! Using the nice mix preset also changes the VSync to off. So maybe you should just try the presets and see what kind of results you get.

Re: NVmax
 

Jav400,

There are many features in nvmax that may or may not work depending on bugs. NVMax is like the aquarium a work in progress. My best suggestion is to go to the authors web page as he will have a list of what does and doesn't work in the version you have. As well as a description of what each tweak does.

www.charnleys.co.uk/nvmax/

I will tell you however that the overclocking feature has never really worked. Also where you are using a TNT2 that the FSAA won't matter either. Make sure to check coolbits as this will enable additional features such as overclocking core and memory speeds. Which will also improve your performance.

Another helpful site for anyone using a GeForce card.

www.geforcefaq.com

Let me know if there is anything else you need.

P.S. Overclocking the memory on your videocard will prove more beneficial than the core speed, and it doesn't affect stability either

lockup
 

oOMegaHertzOo...I also faced the same problem as pjfil.
You asked in one of your posts about what type of memory is used and also about the memory timings. Can you please tell me your setting? I think mine is set on 8s and it's a 100MHz 64MB SDRAM

RGB emulation
 

I downloaded the ss when i had XP RC1 as my OS and was getting about 50 fps. I have taken XP off and now have Win 2000. When I run the ss I get about 1fps and 'RGB Emulation 99L' when I press 's'.

My system is a 800 Celeron, NVidia TNT 16MB.

I installed DX8a, no effect,
I installed the latest drivers from Nvidia (12.41 wk2), no effect,
I re-installed DX8a, no effect!

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

Win2k 1fps
 

When I have obscure problems under Win2k that seem intractable, I run 'SFC /scannow' from a shell window. It will repair any damaged drivers. Plan on OS and SP CD swapping for about 1.5 hours unless you have two CD drives or have streamed the SP with the OS.

kirby

Re: Win2k 1fps
 

I have sp1 installed and will now install sp2. I still cannot fathom why it worked great in XP 3D HAL, yet RGB Emulation in Win 2000.

Anyone any ideas?

Re: Win2k 1fps
 

Please don't cross-post.

pub41.ezboard.com/fsachsa...72&stop=75

Re: Win2k 1fps
 

Thank you! However I wasn't sure it was a graphics driver problem or a directX Problem. And clearly it is both, install the right driver and then re-install DirectX8a.

Again thanks for your help. I hope it works!

Window off-set
 

Thanks, that sorted it out. Now going at 50fps. However when it is off set to the right and down. When I change from destop resolution to the window size it makes no difference.