What does 'VDD Mode' do?

[canerata7]

I'm talking about the mode that ATI users can not use. What do ATI users sacrifice, I wonder? 'Cause, you know, I have an ATI Radeon 9600 and I keep running Tomb Raider 1 USING VDD mode! I don't even choose disable Vdd mode in Tomb Raider Advanced Installer, and it works. What do I gain, I wonder? http://www.tombraiderforums.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[dbhankins]

What you gain is not having to run a separate program before running TR and killing it afterwards.

I have an ATI X850 XT and VDD mode doesn't work for me; when I ran that way I would get all the environment graphics but Lara herself would be missing. Invisible Lara!

BTW I made this easier on myself by writing a little BAT file to start DGVoodoo before TR and kill it afterwards:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">start /min dgvoodoo
dosdrv
tomb
tskill &quot;dgvoodoo&quot;</pre>[/QUOTE]This will work on most systems without a hitch, as the default setup for all the tools used in the BAT put them where they need to be. If it doesn't, check the following:
</font> Is VDMSound in your path (i.e. dosdrv.exe)?</font> Is DGVoodoo in the BAT's path?</font> Is the Terminal Services system service running (needed for tskill)?</font>

[Zebius]

Invisible Lara is caused by a known problem with W-buffering. To correct it run dgvoodoosetup, switch Platform to DOS, click on Glide tab and check 'Emulate W-buffering'.

ATI cards had problems with VDD mode while using Catalyst drivers 4.7 and newer, so Dege - creator of dgvoodoo suggested to switch VDD mode off and play games using server mode (by running dgvoodoo.exe program before starting the game).
I'm curious what Catalyst version are you using now? Maybe in newest versions problem is solved, because you said you could play in VDD mode?

[canerata7]

I use Catalyst 5.6 now, but it used to work in VDD even I was using 5.5. Don't know why.