Lego Creator Freezes when using S3 virge/DX acceleration

[RetroGIG94]

So I was testing out Lego Creator on Windows 95 on the newer version of PCem I had a S3 virge/DX installed on my VM and it had 3D aceleration (But not as great as 3Dfx voodoo in emulation.) and I was like "Hey maybe this might not be a bad emulator for my Windows 95 games after all." So I got my ISO of Lego creator, mounted it on the emulator's ISO drive, it went into autoplay (That's the quickest way to install the game.) and I chose typical (That I usually choose.) ,it installs and shows me screenshots of the game, when the install is done I choose "Yes" to restart my VM, then it resets, I told the emulator to empty the ISO, (You can play the game with out the CD but the only difference you will not be able to do the wizard tutorial.) and I went into the start menu found the "Lego media" directory and I clicked on "Lego Creator" the logo FMV plays, after that I was in the loading title screen the game loads, and I went into options, and I choose "Hardware" to use the accelerator, I chose that and it goes pretty medium fast, after a few seconds of testing it freezes and it makes my VM hangs. I don't know why it did, maybe it's the emulation, maybe I need to install from the real CD or I need to change it to my Voodoo card?

If you have the best solution to fix this please leave a post here.

[omarsis81]

I wish I had the game's image to try in my computer, but it seems difficult to find...
See your private messages RetroGIG94

[omarsis81]

It works for me! I ran it on a 430VX and the ViRGE DX, Win 98 SE

[RetroGIG94]

Well I tried it on my Windows 95 but it keeps freezing, do you know what the problem is?

[omarsis81]

Do you have the latest drivers for the ViRGE? Also, the game asked to install some codecs or plugins. Did they install correctly? Do you have the DirectX required to run it?
Are you running Win 95 on the 430 VX chipset?

[RetroGIG94]

Well I am running it on the 430VX chipset and I have directx 8 installed and I am I don't know if I am using the latest version of S3 virge/DX (86c375_1.bin), is it the 8-21-1997 version that your referring too?

[omarsis81]

Yeah, that's the latest driver.
I played LEGO Creator again, and, yes... running it in Harware mode crashes the game, I must have played in Software before.
You can play using the ViRGE DX in soft mode, or another video card (I tested the Mach 64) plus the Voodoo in Hardware mode and works fine.
But, honestly, I don't see any difference using software or hardware with this game...

Regarding the DX and hardware mode, I don't think it could be an emulator bug, the ViRGE DX is a pretty lousy card in 3D, most probably it wouldn't work on read hardware either.

[RetroGIG94]

Ok but the gameplay speed is slow on software and how did you got Lego Creator to work on Voodoo in Hardware mode?

[omarsis81]

I selected the Mach 64 as the 2D video card and you have you check Voodoo Graphics in the Configuration Box, once in Windows you need to install the drivers for both cards. You can choose any other 2D card you may like, as long as it has the working driver (Voodoo won't work with standard windows drivers that won't let you rise to more than 16 colors)

[RetroGIG94]

Where do I check the "Voodoo graphics" card? In Windows 95 configuration box?

[omarsis81]

No, that's a PCem setting. It's on the same tab where you choose the CPU you want to emulate, at the very bottom

[RetroGIG94]

Oh, Ok I have that already on, also how did you change the video card option on Lego Creator from the primary display (Mach 64) to voodoo? Can you show me by video?

[omarsis81]

lego.jpg (95.2 KiB) Viewed 11797 times

It's quite easy. Clicking on the lego with the wrench you'll access the video options. Once there, make sure it says "Hardware"

[RetroGIG94]

Ok but how did you got Lego Creator to recognize the Voodoo cards? I mean Lego Creator only recognizes the primary display.

[RetroGIG94]

Well I tried but it keeps switching me back to software with the poor performance.

[RetroGIG94]

I don't know why it is still keeping me on my primary display, I had the voodoo drivers installed. How did you got the Voodoo drivers to work on Lego creator with out clicking on Hardware?