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Installing the Graphics Drivers

Adapted from guides by Dominus

 

Though Windows 3x can now be installed in DOSBox, To be useful for gaming, you will need to install at least graphics and sound card drivers, or you will have no sound and only 640x480, 16 colors. Many Windows 3x drivers also relied on DOS drivers, such as the SoundBlaster drivers, which can be incompatible with DOSBox. Downloads for these drivers can also be be found here.

There are a number of options to choose for your display.

S3 Graphics Card - In regular builds, use the S3 Drivers. With the S3 you can run Windows at 800x600 with 256 colors (large or small fonts). More on this and interesting discussions in this VOGONS thread. Use these drivers - S3DRIVERS.ZIP

Tseng Graphics Cards - DOSBox builds with the Vasyl SVGA patch allow you to select the Tseng graphics card. With the Tseng ET40001 drivers, you can run Windows 3x at 1024x768 at 256 colors. Use these drivers - ET40001.ZIP

Paradise Graphics Card - With a build that has the Vasyl SVGA Patch, you can also choose a Paradise card. Use these drivers - PARADISE.ZIP

Generic SVGA - You can also choose the generic SVGA drivers that come with Windows 3x. Those work fine with the Tseng Patch.
Use the drivers found on the Windows installation diskettes.

Driver Installation Step by Step

Specific Display Driver Installation

General Graphics Driver Installation:
Step by Step

Unzip the desired driver archive into a subfolder inside your "C:" drive folder (the one that you installed Windows 3x into) and start Windows in DOSBox. Install the graphics card drivers through the 3x Control Panel's "Windows Setup" applet:

In the Windows 3x Program Manager,
open the Main Group.

Start the "Windows Setup" applet

Click Options.

Select "Change System Settings..."

Click the drop down list for Display.

Scroll to the bottom and select "Other display (Requires
disk from OEM)..."

You will get a popup to enter the path to the driver files.

Just type in the path to the driver files and click OK.

Select the desired driver and click the OK button.

Click "OK" to finish.

Windows will prompt you to restart.

Once Windows has restarted, you will have your increased
resolution and/or color depth

Specific Display Driver Installation

S3 Graphics
To install the S3 graphics drivers:

  1. extract S3DRIVERS.ZIP to "C:\DOSBOXC\S3".
  2. Start Windows 3x in DOSBox.
  3. In the Main group, open Windows Setup.
  4. Go to "Options" > "Change System Settings..."
  5. In the "Display" drop down, select "Other display (Requires disk from OEM)..."
  6. In the popup window, type the path to the driver files ie "c:\s3" and click the "OK" button.
  7. Select desired display driver, such as "
    S3 864 1.41B5 640X480 256 COLORS" and click the "OK" button. Restart Windows when prompted.

Tseng Graphics
First install one of the generic SVGA drivers in the Windows setup before installing the Tseng drivers. The mouse may become unresponding when setting up the Tseng drivers first. To install the Tseng graphics drivers:

  1. Extract ET40001.ZIP to "C:\DOSBOXC\TSENG"
  2. Set the graphics to Tseng in your dosbox.conf (see the example DOSBox.conf that should come with the build or you can generate it yourself.)
  3. Start Windows 3x in DOSBox.
  4. In the Main group, open Windows Setup.
  5. Go to "Options" > "Change System Settings..."
  6. In the "Display" drop down, select "Other display (Requires disk from OEM)..."
  7. In the popup window, type the path to the driver files ie "c:\tseng" and click the "OK" button.
  8. Select desired display driver and click the "OK" button. Restart Windows when prompted.


Note: When you choose the Tseng drivers when you install Windows, the mouse pointer might not be visible. To fix this go back to the DOSBox prompt, change dir to the Windows directory ("cd windows") , run setup again and then choose the VGA or SVGA drivers that come with Windows 3.1x. Start Windows again (your mouse pointer should be visible now) and then run setup from inside Windows to choose the Tseng drivers.

Paradise Graphics
To install the Paradise graphics drivers:

  1. Extract PARADISE.ZIP to "C:\DOSBOXC\PARADISE"
  2. Set the graphics to Paradise in your dosbox.conf (see the example DOSBox.conf that should come with the build or you can generate it yourself.)
  3. Start Windows 3x in DOSBox.
  4. In the Main group, open Windows Setup.
  5. Go to "Options" > "Change System Settings..."
  6. In the "Display" drop down, select "Other display (Requires disk from OEM)..."
  7. In the popup window, type the path to the driver files ie "c:\tseng" and click the "OK" button.
  8. Select desired display driver and click the "OK" button. Restart Windows when prompted.

Generic SVGA Graphics
To install the Tseng graphics drivers:

  1. In the Main group, open Windows Setup.
  2. Go to "Options" > "Change System Settings..."
  3. In the "Display" drop down, select the desired Super VGA display driver and click the "OK" button. Restart Windows when prompted.

 

 

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