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Incidentally this is the same driver that someone else used with an RTX 5060 Ti: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/enthusiast-installs-win-3-1x-on-b

Incidentally this is the same driver that someone else used with an RTX 5060 Ti: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/enthusiast-installs-win-3-1x-on-bare-metal-ryzen-9-9900x-and-rtx-5060-ti-system-asus-motherboards-classic-bios-functionality-was-instrumental-to-the-feat https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/enthusiast-ins... It's good to see that the latest GPUs can still be used in "dumb framebuffer" mode, are mostly VGA-compatible, and have VESA VBE support. I suspect AMD / NVIDIA might still have some sort of DOS-based factory tooling when bringing up new GPUs for the first time. In sadder news, I've read that the latest Intel integrated GPUs no longer have a VBIOS and are UEFI-only; although it might only be a matter of time before someone vibe-codes (vibe-ports?) one based on those from an older model.

rwmj 7mo ago
BIOS support has indeed been dropped from modern video cards. I was hoping something like https://github.com/CSMWrap/CSMWrap https://github.com/CSMWrap/CSMWrap might work, but the README says that MS-DOS games don't work under that.
- userbinator 7mo ago
  That has a very generic VBIOS which would probably work on an original IBM VGA, but the problem is that each GPU needs a specific VBIOS to switch it between VGA and hi-res modes by writing vendor-specific registers. VBIOS is effectively a driver, so given the necessary documentation or existing OSS driver source it should be possible to write a suitable one even for GPUs that are UEFI-only.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
pavlov 7mo ago
Now I’m wondering if someone could write a 3dfx Glide driver for hardware acceleration of late-period DOS games on RTX 5060 Ti.
- rasz 7mo ago
  you can already play all Glide games accelerated in emulators.
  - pavlov 7mo ago
    Just like you can run Windows 3.1 in emulation. But the OP and this comment thread are about running old software directly on modern hardware.

rwmj 7mo ago

BIOS support has indeed been dropped from modern video cards. I was hoping something like https://github.com/CSMWrap/CSMWrap https://github.com/CSMWrap/CSMWrap might work, but the README says that MS-DOS games don't work under that.

userbinator 7mo ago
That has a very generic VBIOS which would probably work on an original IBM VGA, but the problem is that each GPU needs a specific VBIOS to switch it between VGA and hi-res modes by writing vendor-specific registers. VBIOS is effectively a driver, so given the necessary documentation or existing OSS driver source it should be possible to write a suitable one even for GPUs that are UEFI-only.

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

pavlov 7mo ago

Now I’m wondering if someone could write a 3dfx Glide driver for hardware acceleration of late-period DOS games on RTX 5060 Ti.

rasz 7mo ago
you can already play all Glide games accelerated in emulators.
- pavlov 7mo ago
  Just like you can run Windows 3.1 in emulation. But the OP and this comment thread are about running old software directly on modern hardware.