YuppieScum

W2K + LiveWare is a hack. W2K + LiveWare + SMP does not work. There is no official LiveWare for W2K. For the other stuff, ask Creative.

w2k gold ships with working drivers for tnt and sblive out of the box. If want want extra functionality that may compromise system stability, like 4 speaker support (sblive not tnt) then talk to your IHV. W2K going gold now gives them 2 months with a stable, fixed platform to get their **** together. If they can't, then maybe we should be getting our h/w somewhere else.

MPS is "Multi Processor Support", and refers to the level of BIOS support given to SMP machines. As a general rule, higher is better - however, some ABit BIOS revisions stopped supporting USB under W2K when MPS 1.4 was selected. You should be able to get more info from www.intel.com

I expect the reson to be two-fold: 1. The drivers are comparatively immature - IHVs use the walk-before-you-run development model - get them working, then make them fast. 2. The OS only came out of beta yesterday! This means that the articles were based on pre-release code, probably RC2. Even in terms of boot speed, I've found that 2195 out-performs RC2 and RC3. In short, don't sweat it. This situation won't last, and may even be irrelevant now anyway. Also remember, Win9x doesn't know about the second CPU under your hood

Do a search for s/w called "MTUSpeed". Then hit the web site, and read the FAQ. All the info is there (sorry, but I can't be arsed to find the URL at the moment)

Only the Diamond GL1000 appears in the HCL for 2195 or in the hardware install dialog. Looks like "No".

This directory is now on the beta FTP site, but inaccessable. Looks like this is the gold code.

Where are you hearing about 2195.3? This is news to me... I've just taken a look on the NTBeta FTP site, and there's no such directory. However, it may be the designation of the un-time-crippled version of 2195...maybe?

The 3.65 driver works fine under 2195 - I've just played Q3A and it's great. Even better, SMP works.

JimmyK - Good luck with the finals, man. And remember - don't get stressed out, you've got the *whole* weekend to install 2195...

WARNING! The beta site download of W2K is a 120-day eval copy.

The 2195 build is now available via FTP. GO FOR IT! (got mine already

Current Voodoo 1 and 2 "support" under W2K is a (very good) hack based on the NT4 drivers. The NT4 drivers do not support D3D. You'll find this in several places in the message base - in fact I wrote the same answer as this a couple of days ago. Update: I actually wrote the answer to you. Why did you feel the need to start off a new thread - especially as the question had been answered already. [This message has been edited by YuppieScum (edited 15 December 1999).]

DrSchmoe - don't forget that an OS core convergance has been the MS plan for then last 5+ years - pretty much since the first version of NT. Don't regard the recent change of management as a change of core direction.

I'm glad that other members are posting things like this. FWIW, the following should be noted: Fact: W2K is still beta. Fact: Many IHV's will not release ANY drivers until after W2K goes GOLD. Fact: The product codenamed "NETPTUNE" will be a convergence product - a consumer OS based on the common NT kernel. This was going to be "Millenium" but MS decided not, mainly due to a lack of WDM drivers. Fact: MS want IHVs to write WDM drivers. Fact: WDM drivers (possibly with simple recompile) will run under both Win9x and W2K. maybe i'll add more later

What build of W2K are you using? The latest TNT drivers (3.64 and beyond) appear to be RC3 and later only.

The G400 drivers are for RC3 only, and suck. Q3A is a great slide show. You'll have to wait for better drivers, and get a later version of W2K...

Nope, 2194 is not GOLD. MS is currently releasing stuff to their FTP servers, so we'll soon know, and post it.

If you scan the rest of the message base, you'll find any number of references to SB Live.

I use 3.64 drivers under 2183 to play Q3A under OpenGL and FreeSpace2 under D3D - plus using DirectDraw for MediaPlayer and QuickTime. I just have to remember to shut down the Distributed.Net client first . . .

IIRC, Darkstone is a D3D game, and the current VooDoo2 support under W2K is based on hacked NT4 drivers - hence no D3D.

MS have put a "build2194" directory (currently inaccessible) on their beta program FTP server. Is this going to be another incremental, or GOLD?

Matrox has released a beta driver set for the G200 and G400 under W2K. They have some 3D h/w acceleration, both D3D and OpenGL. However, use them with care, as they're very flakey.

It should be something line "GamePort for Creative" but if you've installed Liveware, then YMMV.

The new 3.65 drivers fscked up under RC3 and an original TNT. 3.64 works fine.