SoftFireGL on HD 3870 / Success, apparently

for rhino cursor issues you have to close hardware acceleration for cursors under troubleshoot tab

 

Can somebody check my mod? I think there's something wrong...

Hi, I'm not sure if I did my mod correctly. I have a VisionTek HD 3870 OC edition and followed the directions on how to softmod this card.

Here are the steps that I did for the mod:

1. I downloaded firegl_8_453_1_3_xp32_064071 FireGL V7700 driver from AutoDesk.

2. Extracted the file and changed the ID in CX_4071.inf in XP_INF folder to "ATI FireGL V7700" = ati2mtag_RV630GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9501

3. Installed RivaTuner 2.11

4. Run patchscript with ID changed to 01 95 where the Dst1_12 line is:

# ATI FireGL/FirePRO XP32 mod by gellmaR (gellmaR@yahoo.com)
# for FireGL drivers version 8.44 and higher (incl. 8.532.1)
# Thanks to schoko and YaoZ for general patchscript for 2x00 and 3850

[Common]
SrcFile = ati2mtag.sys
BakFile = ati2mtag.old
MakeCRC = 1
Packed = 1

;common script for 669x+
DstVar0 = force ATI FireGL V8650 capabilities
DstVar1 = force ATI FireGL V8600 capabilities
DstVar2 = force ATI FireGL V7600 capabilities
DstVar3 = force ATI FireGL V5600 capabilities
DstVar4 = force ATI FireGL V3600 capabilities
DstVar5 = force AMD FirePro V3700 capabilities
DstVar6 = force AMD FirePro V3750 capabilities
DstVar7 = force AMD FirePro V5700 capabilities
DstVar8 = force AMD FirePro V7770 capabilities
DstVar9 = force AMD FirePro V7760 capabilities
DstVar10 = force AMD FirePro V8700 Duo capabilities
DstVar11 = force AMD FirePro V8750 capabilities
DstVar12 = force AMD FireGL V7700 capabilities

Src0 = FF 75 08 E8 79 60 00 00 85 C0 74 2E 33 C0 EB 3B
SCM0 = FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
Dst0 = FF 75 08 E8 79 60 00 00 85 C0 74 2E 33 C0 EB 38
DCM0 = 00 00 00 00 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Src1 = 83 F8 40 75 1D 66 81 BD 00 00 FF FF 02 10 75 00 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF
SCM1 = FF FF FF FF 00 FF FF FF 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
Dst1_0 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 0A 95 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_1 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 0B 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_2 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 0F 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_3 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 8C 95 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_4 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 8D 95 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_5 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D CC 95 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_6 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 9F 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_7 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 9E 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_8 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 46 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_9 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 56 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_10 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 47 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_11 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 44 94 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90
Dst1_12 = 0F B7 85 FE FE FF FF 66 25 00 00 66 0D 01 95 66 89 85 FE FE FF FF 90


5. Pointed to ati2mtag.sy_ and did a successful patch, and a new file ati2mtag.sys was created.

6. Deleted ati2mtag.sy_

7. Installed the driver using Update Driver in Device Manager.

All went smoothly.

So, can somebody please check if I messed up on something? Because here is what I got on SpecViewPerf 8.1 and I think the Maya result is way off than the other results posted in this thread. My results using SpecViewPerf 8.1:

Run All Summary
---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 82.27

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 51.21

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 93.41

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 38.02

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 86.14

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 102.2

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 104.6

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 70.83

Also I still have these two(2) "New Hardware Found" which is "Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus."

And when I installed CCC, this pops up everytime my computer starts or when I run CCC: "Could not load file or assembly 'CLI.Implementation, Version=2.0.3041.37392, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified."

Any solutions on these?

Thanks in advance.

 

You did it correctly.

Since we use SPECviewperf 10, the variation in results is normal.

1 ) "Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus driver is located under Driver folder, HD Audio or something. It is the device for "Audio-over-HDMI", since HD 3870 has HDMI output, it is normal that it ask for this device. The driver should be present on the FireGL driver installation folder.

2 ) ATI Catalyst requires ".Net FX 2.0" framework to run. Uninstall the CCC, then install dotnetfx.exe, then re-install ATI CCC.

Have fun.

 

I just did the softmod to my 3870 and I'm not sure I see the real world advantage. I got a higher score in the SPEC viewperf 10 benchmark after applying the softmod (mean of 38.6) but it doesn't appear to be any quicker in Max 2009 itself. Infact, I think it felt snappier with the regular 3870 drivers and under Vista Ultimate 64.

Now with the softmod I'm running under XP Professional 64, and I'm experiencing crashes while dealing with max scenes. Ironic as I read that XP64 is much more stable than Vista 64...

Any other thoughts from people working in CAD programs and not just watching their benchmark scores?

 

I get massively improved performance in maya

maybe you're using 3dsmax in directX mode...

 

I've tried it in both OpenGL and D3D. Don't really notice any performance boosts from 3870 drivers to the v7700 ones.
I'm not terribly surprised as Max has been slowly shifting focus to D3D performance, to aid game development. (viewing shaders in realtime, etc)

Just for reference to anyone considering the softmod for Max, here are my results for viewport manipulation of a 2 million polygon scene containing of 10 objects.
OpenGL : 2fps with no lighting
D3D : 80fps with lit shadows

I'll probably revert to standard 3870 drivers as being more update and optimized for D3D will most likely increase the performance.

 

prototyp3, can you do us a favor please?

Can you just download the following benchmark and report your results for both Radeon and FireGL drivers please ?

http://www.spec.org/gwpg/apc.static/max9info.html

According to results page, 3dsmax results are DirectX 9.0c based, this benchmark is not supposed to run on OpenGL.

http://www.spec.org/gwpg/apc.data/specapc_3dsm9_summary.html

The point is, I had the same suspicion as you do, and tried to justify my curiosity by running SPEC apc benchmarks.

So far, I have seen that

* On a softmodded 3870 ,SPEC APC UG NX 4 benchmark shows nearly 2 times performance than Quadro FX 3500.

* In Maya, there is a 3 times performance increase between Radeon driver and FireGL soft mod driver for a HD 3650. I used Maya 2008.

However, I could not get a score on 3dsmax, neither in version 9 or version 2008. since I do not know maxscript, I could not understand what the problem was. Maybe you can solve and kindly report it.

Furthermore I have done these tests on two harddrives which had two separate installations of XP, one with fresh installed Radeon driver; the other with a fresh installed FireGL softmod.

Because I have seen that, after I installed softmod driver on a hard disk and then installed Radeon driver on top it, the performance was better for some applications. However, with a fresh installed Radeon driver, the performance was not there.

 

I'm running 3ds Max 2009 (ver.11) so I'm not sure this SPECapc will work. I'm downloading it anyways to check it out.

I guess I'm not a believer of synthetic test beds, as those aren't what we're working in each day. Even if OpenGL performance was increased it's not to the level of what Max provides with it's D3D. (which is recommended anyways)

Thank goodness I didn't buy the FirePro v5700 or the GL v7700.

 

Is this a good buy? It's 130 after 60 dollar rebate. I can't seem to find a 1gb card with dd4. Is there really much of a difference with ddr3 / 4?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103057

 

For SPEC SolidEdge benchmark there is a difference.

Configuration : HIS HD 3650 VGA+2 GB DDR2 RAM + Core2 Duo E7200 stock CPU, Intel DQ965GF motherboard, XP SP2, solidworks v19, benchmark SPEC apc SolidEdge.

Latest Radeon Driver FireGL 8.453.1.6 Driver
Composite Score 2,17 2.90

Graphics Total Score 1,14 2.37
Smooth Shading Score 1,02 2.41
Wireframe Score 1,36 2.29
Smooth Shading with Textures/Reflections Score 1,08 2.41

CPU Score 3,94 3.97

File I/O Score 2,39 2.34
Open All Files Score 2,53 2.77
Save All Files Score 2,26 1.97

It looks like the softmod helps 3650.

Comparing with this :
http://www.spec.org/gwpg/apc.data/specapc_sev19_summary.html

It seems that SolidEdge is not so dependent on VGA, but it depends on CPU.

I have to note that even with E8500+3850 SolidEdge is too slow. Actually it is the slowest running application that I have ever seen in my 25+ years of computer use.

 

Have you tried OGL in Max? I find it to be more stable, especially with very large models.

 

links to the newest moddable drivers?

does anyone have a direct link to the newest moddable drivers for windows xp x64? would really appreciate it!

is there already an approved softmod for the HD 4xxx series out there?

thanks for the hint, i'll try it out!

my experience is that nvidia quadro cards (at least the old generation i used) run very well and boost performance a lot. but it is difficult to say if it is worth to softmod into fireGL... the performance on any program is much higher with the fireGL cards... you feel it especially in scenes with high polygon count... but there are so many bugs, especially selection bugs, that make working painful, not only in maya, in many programs... i didn't find any program yet which didn't have an issue with my softmodded card, except for 3dmax which i run in Direct 3D...

 

it's not an issue of modding or not modding: if you've got an AMD card, mod it, it will work faster

the issue is whether to get yourself a radeon (in order to softmod it into a firegl) or a real quadro (geforces can't be modded); and the difference between them is that the radeon/firegl will be much faster but will also have some annoying bugs

 

yeah right.. that's the question... i have a quadro on my laptop... no bugs and compatibility problems so far... but my softmodded ati card really has some issues... not only with 3d programs also with CCC and working on two displays.. if you work on sketchup, 3dmax and maya, no need for a softmod in my opinion...

 

Hi,

I have ati radeon 3870, i've succesfully patched drivers. After I install it and reboot, windows (xp32) crashes (during startup, after logo of windows).

Any idea why? I had geforce 8400 before I install r3870 - maybe I have to reinstall system?

 

Confused

BTW, from what I know 8.7 Catalyst fix both selection lag, miss-selection bug.
So, Which equal FireGL/FirePro driver that has fix this, some said 8.3 other said 8.4 some even said none has fix the problem.

Currently I'm use much on Maya, SketchUp, and Rhino (Sometime) for Arch-Viz

Now, I got direct link for patched driver 8.391. Is it worthy?
http://www.madeinsoftware.it/openlab/drivers/schedevideo/ati/2600_mod_firegl_v3600_8.391.rar
Sorry if I miss something...

 

Yes there is a differences, its a plugins anyway so won't hurt maya data at much (Maya will just complaining)
the HLSL, ASHLI, NvCG if I may recall.
even Maya (mac) doesnt have Ravix Vector right?

in I maya used to
MAYA_NO_VERTEX_ARRAY_SELECT = 1 and disable viewCube (this semi-transparent object make it worse of rotating complex object)

Sorry for my bad english

 

mod FireGL

Hi ALL...

not easy to mod ur card...
but u can make to FireGL very very easy..

just with driver by some one spesialist programmer from AMD

he can make ur card to FireGL,
u only email at alex9999_iwan@yahoo.com
1st ur email for free driver but old.
2nd ur email need to update isn't free.

just send :
1. say problem with ur card to mod FireGL
2. name ur card
3. Device ID primary and secondary ur card
4. Branch ur card (etc: HIS, Gecube or Power CoLor)
5. say thanks for replay

this is not scam...
my card can mod to FireGL ( X3850 to V7700 )
with driver for 3DMax

GoodLuck....

 

Hi,

i have a 3850 agp, and i want to mod to 7700 firegl.

How it's possible? Can you help me, it's difficult for me, i am french and i don't speak very well in english.

Thanks all.

 

I found patched driver but i think its for 1X00 and 2X00, for 3xx0 read first part of this thread, you must download Rivatuner and FireGL Driver <8.5 (for this time) and manually patch it.