A long while ago, we had a
big repository of Glide Wrappers here. Over the course of
several moves, it got out of date. Many were destroyed in
3dfx's original legal attack as well, though most of those
are now unusable (they were coded in ways that make them
completely incompatible with Windows 2000/XP).
There's also a few new names
on the scene, to deal with. I've also left off a few wrapper
projects that started but never got anywhere significant. Many of those
which are not Windows 2000/XP compatible are DirectX-based
wrappers; as the DirectX API has evolved through the years,
the calls that they used were broken. Links to some former websites are kept for posterity's sake, since a few have gone on/offline several times in the past years. As always, these are usable at your own risk.
In the old days, UltraHLE
and Glide-only titles (Tomb Raider, Unreal) were what people
were trying to run with these, on Windows 98. Things have
changed since then; now the focus is more and more on people
using them to get older Glide-only titles to run, sometimes
in WinXP and sometimes in environments like
Dosbox. They almost uniformly require tweaking to work on a given system and a given game title.
Here's the Glide Wrappers.
If you're wondering what makes a wrapper tick, you want
this article by our founder.
Wrapper |
Website |
Files |
Comments |
Compatibility |
Boost Wrapper |
Yes |
Version 166 |
Hasn't been updated
since 2000. |
Win9x/? |
Clide |
No |
Version 2.4 |
Last updated in 1999,
sad to say; while it had some small graphical
glitches, it was immensely speedy for UltraHLE
players. Obsolete today. |
Win9x/? |
dgVoodoo |
Yes |
Version
1.31 |
Last updated in 2004,
continuing; seems to be very stable and helps
people using Dosbox immensely.
dgVoodoo works for
Dos-based games, unlike Zeckensack's wrapper. |
Win98/Win2k/WinXP |
eVoodoo |
Yes |
Version 3.2 |
Last updated in 2002,
this was one of the better wrappers for
compatibility for a long while. |
Win9x/Win2k/WinXP |
gl2ideal |
Yes |
Version 1.6 |
Last updated in 2001,
a branch off of the defunct gl2ide source. |
Win9x/? |
MGlide |
No |
Version 1.246h |
Another old fan
favorite dead in September 1999, unfortunately.
|
Win9x/? |
OpenGlide |
Yes |
Version
0.09rc7 Alpha |
OpenGlide was one of
the more ambitious Glide Wrapper projects, which
went open source to get completed. Didn't get
tremendously far, though; last update was in
2002. |
Win9x/Win2k/? |
UltraHLE Voodoo3/5 Fix |
No |
Fix |
Not a wrapper as such,
this is was a patch to fix some texture
alignment errors that UltraHLE could have with
certain Voodoo cards. I've included it for
posterity. |
Win9x/? |
xgl200 |
No |
Version 0.04a |
This was Scott
Cutler's (former GU staffer) wrapper, one of
those whose original (pre-.03) versions brought
down the wrath of 3dfx before their demise.
Works well on UltraHLE, but hasn't been
maintained in a LONG time otherwise. |
Win9x/Win2k/WinXP |
Zeckensack |
Yes |
Version 0.84 |
Last updated in 2005, development long abandoned.
Zeckensack goes a lot farther than some other classic wrapper
programmers, actually trying to emulate the
whole Glide 2.4 interface and some of the Voodoo
hardware, which gives him some great
compatibility gains. |
Win9x/Win2k/XP |
nGlide |
Yes |
Version 1.04 |
Zeus Software's entry into the list offers support for the Win7 environment. Requires being set to Win95 compatibility mode for a sizable number of games. It strives for compatibility first. The designers have also done a pretty extensive job of compatibility testing it, with a long list of possible games and playable/not playable listing results. Supports all three Glide APIs, and can run for DOS games in Dosbox using Gulikoza's patch.
NGlide is the only known Glide wrapper still in continuing development we are aware of. |
WinXP/Win7/Win8 |
There's also
GliDos, for DosBox
users or people trying to run Dos/Win9x titles under
2000/XP. GliDos redirects the old-style dos-based Glide
interface to a Windows Glide interface, allowing certain
old-style Dos games like Tomb Raider and Descent II to
take advantage of modern hardware. The bad news is that
GliDos isn't free; they've included an annoying spinning
logo that pops up to nag users to buy it, in the middle
of playing games.
Got
Comments? Send 'em to Michael (at) Glideunderground.com! Alternatively, post
'em
right here for everyone to see! |