Software - Revision history

Starfrost at 00:09, 31 July 2025

2025-07-31T00:09:57Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:09, 31 July 2025
Line 108:		Line 108:
	\|-		\|-
	\| 17 July 1997 \|\| Unnumbered pre-release \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Accidentally released by STB Systems. Has NV1 support in display driver (even though NT was never officially supported on NV1), and only supports revision A of NV3.		\| 17 July 1997 \|\| Unnumbered pre-release \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Accidentally released by STB Systems. Has NV1 support in display driver (even though NT was never officially supported on NV1), and only supports revision A of NV3.
			\|-
			\| 8 August 1997 \|\| 0.73b \|\| Windows NT 3.51, 4.0 \|\| Pre-release
	\|-		\|-
	\| 15 August 1997 \|\| 0.75 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Possible launch drivers		\| 15 August 1997 \|\| 0.75 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Possible launch drivers

Starfrost at 19:06, 23 July 2025

2025-07-23T19:06:39Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:06, 23 July 2025
Line 72:		Line 72:
	== Known driver versions ==		== Known driver versions ==

	Each component of Nvidia's drivers has an official description (it used to be used in their control panel extension to list each driver file); for example "Resource Manager" or "OpenGL ICD". Initially, these were simply described as being for "Nvidia" (e.g. "NVidia Resource Manager, Version 2.00 Beta"), later on the file ~~descrip[tions~~ were changed to be named after the specific GPU supported, e.g. "RIVA 128 Direct Draw/Direct 3D Driver, Version x.xx" or "Riva TNT Display Driver, Version x.xx", however later when Nvidia refactored their GPU drivers to support multiple models of graphics hardware, they changed the description to simply read "NVIDIA Compatible". This is still the case as of April 2025.		Each component of Nvidia's drivers has an official description (it used to be used in their control panel extension to list each driver file); for example "Resource Manager" or "OpenGL ICD". Initially, these were simply described as being for "Nvidia" (e.g. "NVidia Resource Manager, Version 2.00 Beta"), later on the file descriptions were changed to be named after the specific GPU supported, e.g. "RIVA 128 Direct Draw/Direct 3D Driver, Version x.xx" or "Riva TNT Display Driver, Version x.xx", however later when Nvidia refactored their GPU drivers to support multiple models of graphics hardware, they changed the description to simply read "NVIDIA Compatible". This is still the case as of April 2025.

	There were certainly many other versions, if you have any other version, please contact me: you can check by checking the file properties of any file in the driver set.		There were certainly many other versions, if you have any other version, please contact me: you can check by checking the file properties of any file in the driver set.

Starfrost at 17:44, 23 July 2025

2025-07-23T17:44:38Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:44, 23 July 2025
Line 11:		Line 11:

	=== NV1 to NV3 ===		=== NV1 to NV3 ===
	From [[NV1]] to [[NV3]] the Resource Manager is unique for each graphics card - it is a different branch in Nvidia's source control system. This is not shared for all parts of the drivers; the GDI drivers definitely are not set up like this, leading to NV3 resource managers with GDI drivers that support NV4 (starting around February 1998, several months before the release of the Riva TNT). It is unclear if this fact was realised at the time; it seems that it may have been ~~realised~~ by the era of the [[NV15]] architecture.		From [[NV1]] to [[NV3]] the Resource Manager is unique for each graphics card - it is a different branch in Nvidia's source control system. This is not shared for all parts of the drivers; the GDI drivers definitely are not set up like this, leading to NV3 resource managers with GDI drivers that support NV4 (starting around February 1998, several months before the release of the Riva TNT). It is unclear if this fact was realised at the time; it seems that it may have been discovered by the era of the [[NV15]] architecture.

	=== NV4 ===		=== NV4 ===

Starfrost at 17:44, 23 July 2025

2025-07-23T17:44:18Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:44, 23 July 2025
Line 8:		Line 8:
	While Nvidia has changed their drivers' design over time, at least for early models there are two pretty basic setups for the "full fat" Nvidia Resource Manager-based drivers, one which was used for [[NV1]] through [[NV3]] and a new design which was used starting with [[NV4]] (although there are obviously variations of both).		While Nvidia has changed their drivers' design over time, at least for early models there are two pretty basic setups for the "full fat" Nvidia Resource Manager-based drivers, one which was used for [[NV1]] through [[NV3]] and a new design which was used starting with [[NV4]] (although there are obviously variations of both).

	In all cases, the [[Resource Manager]] implements the actual interaction with the hardware. The RM initialises, controls and shuts down (if required) the graphics hardware; multiple types of APIs are provided in order to interact with the RM. The first model is the OS-provided IOCTL interface can be used (this model is used ~~byt~~). A second model is calling into APIs exposed by the Resource Manager through the NVAPI interface ~~(basically~~ a function, a la Quake-based game engine, that takes a single parameter, which is a very large C struct with many function pointers for different functions), typically implemented via the mechanism of a stub DLL that forwards each function to the Resource Manager. The implementation varies by driver version and intended operating system. For instance, in the case of NV3 drivers for Windows 9x, the 32-bit API <code>NV3API.DLL</code> thunks into a 16-bit dll <code>NV3SYS.DLL</code> by passing a large array of function pointers (which also exports, via traditional DLL exporting, the same API but for 16-bit apps) which then ''calls back into the 32-bit Resource Manager VxD'' to perform API calls. The interface to the GPU is implemented via a pseudo-C++ class system classes are indicated by object IDs, with a large array of class structures providing "methods"; methods are assigned an ID, corresponding to the offset within a DMA channel that ~~you have~~ to ~~write~~ to execute the method on hardware). There is no requirement for ~~an offset~~ to have a unique ID. Some classes are [[PFIFO#Object submission\|implemented in hardware]] using the <code>grHWMthd</code> function: if a class is implemented in hardware, it is simply stubbed out in software, ~~raising~~ an interrupt (~~even though~~ the ~~GPU doesn't need it~~).		In all cases, the [[Resource Manager]] implements the actual interaction with the hardware and is intended to abstract away the differences between different generations of Nvidia architecture and to provide a consistent interface for functionality implemented in both hardware and software. The RM initialises, controls and shuts down (if required) the graphics hardware; multiple types of APIs are provided in order to interact with the RM. The first model is the OS-provided IOCTL interface, which can be used for basic functionality (this model is used by Nvidia's GDI drivers). A second model is calling into APIs exposed by the Resource Manager through the NVAPI interface. In order to achieve this, a single function is exported a la Quake-based game engine, that takes a single parameter, which is a very large C struct with many function pointers for different functions, typically implemented via the mechanism of a stub DLL that forwards each function to the Resource Manager. This implementation makes the application a "client" of the Resource Manager. The implementation varies by driver version and intended operating system. For instance, in the case of NV3 drivers for Windows 9x, the 32-bit API <code>NV3API.DLL</code> thunks into a 16-bit dll <code>NV3SYS.DLL</code> by passing a large array of function pointers (which also exports, via traditional DLL exporting, the same API but for 16-bit apps) which then ''calls back into the 32-bit Resource Manager VxD'' to perform API calls. The interface to the GPU is implemented via a pseudo-C++ class system; classes are indicated by object IDs, with a large array of class structures providing "methods" - methods are assigned an ID, corresponding to the offset within a DMA channel that is written to in order to execute the method on hardware. There is no requirement for a method to have a unique offset. Some classes are [[PFIFO#Object submission\|implemented in hardware]] using the <code>grHWMthd</code> function, while others are implemented in software; if a class is implemented in hardware, it is simply stubbed out in software. Software methods are implemented by setting bit 23 of an object's [[NV3 RAMIN#Object context\|context]] to 1 during submission. If this is set, the GPU will raise an interrupt and the graphical operation will be performed by sotware. This approach provided, and presumably continues to provide (since it is still used!) a range of benefits that other companies did not enjoy at the time. It allows rapid iteration (since support for new GPUs can be implemented without breaking software, especially as most Resource Manager clients), allows features that do not work or are not available in hardware to be easily emulated in software at a performance cost, allows easy support of any new graphical APIs that may appear (just write another RM client), and additionally allows hardware resources to be abstracted away from clients: for instance, there are only 8 channels in both NV1 and NV3 hardware, but this is virtualised away by RM to allow opening up to 128 channels.

	=== NV1 to NV3 ===		=== NV1 to NV3 ===

Starfrost: Undo revision 177 by Starfrost (talk)

2025-05-16T20:45:58Z

Undo revision 177 by Starfrost (talk)

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:45, 16 May 2025
Line 175:		Line 175:
	\| 3 March 1999 \|\| Unknown version \|\| OS/2 (Warp 3 Fixpak35+ & 4 Fixpak5+) \|\| Very sloppily done. Batch file (well, Rexx script) setup. Unclear what GPU is even supported: it was posted on Nvidia's RIVA 128 download pages, but the readme file calls it "GRADD Driver for Nvidia NV4" (not even using a product name), despite being last modified on 25 February 1999.		\| 3 March 1999 \|\| Unknown version \|\| OS/2 (Warp 3 Fixpak35+ & 4 Fixpak5+) \|\| Very sloppily done. Batch file (well, Rexx script) setup. Unclear what GPU is even supported: it was posted on Nvidia's RIVA 128 download pages, but the readme file calls it "GRADD Driver for Nvidia NV4" (not even using a product name), despite being last modified on 25 February 1999.
	\|-		\|-
	\| 21 March 1999 \|\| 3.37 \|\| Windows 9x, NT 4.0, 2000 (beta) \|\| Final driver for Windows 9x, only Win2000 driver with OpenGL support. Even though the driver was compiled against Windows 2000 build 1996, it works fine on the final Windows 2000, including Service Pack 4~~. The Windows 2000 beta drivers seem to have instability issues, even crashing a Windows 2000 system to the point of preventing it from continuing to boot by corrupting the registry.~~		\| 21 March 1999 \|\| 3.37 \|\| Windows 9x, NT 4.0, 2000 (beta) \|\| Final driver for Windows 9x, only Win2000 driver with OpenGL support. Even though the driver was compiled against Windows 2000 build 1996, it works fine on the final Windows 2000, including Service Pack 4
	\|-		\|-
	\| 11 May 1999 \|\| 3.41b \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Final NT 4.0 driver		\| 11 May 1999 \|\| 3.41b \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Final NT 4.0 driver

Starfrost at 20:45, 16 May 2025

2025-05-16T20:45:26Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:45, 16 May 2025
Line 175:		Line 175:
	\| 3 March 1999 \|\| Unknown version \|\| OS/2 (Warp 3 Fixpak35+ & 4 Fixpak5+) \|\| Very sloppily done. Batch file (well, Rexx script) setup. Unclear what GPU is even supported: it was posted on Nvidia's RIVA 128 download pages, but the readme file calls it "GRADD Driver for Nvidia NV4" (not even using a product name), despite being last modified on 25 February 1999.		\| 3 March 1999 \|\| Unknown version \|\| OS/2 (Warp 3 Fixpak35+ & 4 Fixpak5+) \|\| Very sloppily done. Batch file (well, Rexx script) setup. Unclear what GPU is even supported: it was posted on Nvidia's RIVA 128 download pages, but the readme file calls it "GRADD Driver for Nvidia NV4" (not even using a product name), despite being last modified on 25 February 1999.
	\|-		\|-
	\| 21 March 1999 \|\| 3.37 \|\| Windows 9x, NT 4.0, 2000 (beta) \|\| Final driver for Windows 9x, only Win2000 driver with OpenGL support. Even though the driver was compiled against Windows 2000 build 1996, it works fine on the final Windows 2000, including Service Pack 4		\| 21 March 1999 \|\| 3.37 \|\| Windows 9x, NT 4.0, 2000 (beta) \|\| Final driver for Windows 9x, only Win2000 driver with OpenGL support. Even though the driver was compiled against Windows 2000 build 1996, it works fine on the final Windows 2000, including Service Pack 4. The Windows 2000 beta drivers seem to have instability issues, even crashing a Windows 2000 system to the point of preventing it from continuing to boot by corrupting the registry.
	\|-		\|-
	\| 11 May 1999 \|\| 3.41b \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Final NT 4.0 driver		\| 11 May 1999 \|\| 3.41b \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Final NT 4.0 driver

Starfrost at 21:52, 13 May 2025

2025-05-13T21:52:48Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:52, 13 May 2025
Line 115:		Line 115:
	\| 1 September 1997 \|\| 0.77 \|\| Windows 9x \|\| Possible launch drivers		\| 1 September 1997 \|\| 0.77 \|\| Windows 9x \|\| Possible launch drivers
	\|-		\|-
	\| 23 September 1997 (STB Systems) \|\| 1.16 \|\| Windows 9x \|\| D3D drivers compiled with debug messages left on. PDB file names refer to STB products proving STB Systems had driver source code access. STB was later bought by 3dfx, so they may have been able to obtain access to Nvidia's driver sources?		\| 23 September 1997 (STB Systems) \|\| 1.16 \|\| Windows 9x \|\| D3D drivers compiled with debug messages left on. PDB file names refer to STB products proving STB Systems had driver source code access (they were the first to license the Riva 128) and most likely from Nvidia's unstable branch. STB was later bought by 3dfx in 1998, so they may have been able to obtain access to Nvidia's driver sources?
	\|-		\|-
	\| 29 September 1997 \|\| 1.04 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\|		\| 29 September 1997 \|\| 1.04 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\|

Starfrost at 21:52, 13 May 2025

2025-05-13T21:52:14Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:52, 13 May 2025
Line 114:		Line 114:
	\|-		\|-
	\| 1 September 1997 \|\| 0.77 \|\| Windows 9x \|\| Possible launch drivers		\| 1 September 1997 \|\| 0.77 \|\| Windows 9x \|\| Possible launch drivers
			\|-
			\| 23 September 1997 (STB Systems) \|\| 1.16 \|\| Windows 9x \|\| D3D drivers compiled with debug messages left on. PDB file names refer to STB products proving STB Systems had driver source code access. STB was later bought by 3dfx, so they may have been able to obtain access to Nvidia's driver sources?
	\|-		\|-
	\| 29 September 1997 \|\| 1.04 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\|		\| 29 September 1997 \|\| 1.04 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\|

Starfrost: remove some informal language

2025-04-24T20:46:27Z

remove some informal language

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:46, 24 April 2025
Line 107:		Line 107:
	! Date of driver files !! Version !! Known platforms !! Notes		! Date of driver files !! Version !! Known platforms !! Notes
	\|-		\|-
	\| 17 July 1997 \|\| Unnumbered pre-release \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Accidentally released by STB Systems. Has NV1 support in display driver (even though NT was never officially supported on NV1??), and only supports revision A of NV3.		\| 17 July 1997 \|\| Unnumbered pre-release \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Accidentally released by STB Systems. Has NV1 support in display driver (even though NT was never officially supported on NV1), and only supports revision A of NV3.
	\|-		\|-
	\| 15 August 1997 \|\| 0.75 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Possible launch drivers		\| 15 August 1997 \|\| 0.75 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\| Possible launch drivers

Starfrost at 22:02, 23 April 2025

2025-04-23T22:02:15Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:02, 23 April 2025
Line 171:		Line 171:
	\| 18 February 1999 \|\| 3.27 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\|		\| 18 February 1999 \|\| 3.27 \|\| Windows NT 4.0 \|\|
	\|-		\|-
	\| 3 March 1999 \|\| Unknown version \|\| OS/2 \|\| Very sloppily done. Batch file (well, Rexx script) setup. Unclear what GPU is even supported: it was posted on Nvidia's RIVA 128 download pages, but the readme file calls it "GRADD Driver for Nvidia NV4" (not even using a product name), despite being last modified on 25 February 1999.		\| 3 March 1999 \|\| Unknown version \|\| OS/2 (Warp 3 Fixpak35+ & 4 Fixpak5+) \|\| Very sloppily done. Batch file (well, Rexx script) setup. Unclear what GPU is even supported: it was posted on Nvidia's RIVA 128 download pages, but the readme file calls it "GRADD Driver for Nvidia NV4" (not even using a product name), despite being last modified on 25 February 1999.
	\|-		\|-
	\| 21 March 1999 \|\| 3.37 \|\| Windows 9x, NT 4.0, 2000 (beta) \|\| Final driver for Windows 9x, only Win2000 driver with OpenGL support. Even though the driver was compiled against Windows 2000 build 1996, it works fine on the final Windows 2000, including Service Pack 4		\| 21 March 1999 \|\| 3.37 \|\| Windows 9x, NT 4.0, 2000 (beta) \|\| Final driver for Windows 9x, only Win2000 driver with OpenGL support. Even though the driver was compiled against Windows 2000 build 1996, it works fine on the final Windows 2000, including Service Pack 4