TDVFB(4)

📦 version 11.0, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 tdvfb(4) — 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics / Voodoo 2 framebuffer driver 💖

Straight from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, bestie — this is tdvfb(4), and it’s here to explain the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics / Voodoo 2 framebuffer driver. 💅

🎀 NAME 🎀

tdvfb — 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics / Voodoo 2 framebuffer driver. That’s the name, that’s the vibe, and yes it’s giving “legacy GPU but make it NetBSD.” 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

tdvfb* at pci?
wsdisplay* at tdvfb?
options TDVFB_CONSOLE

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Okay so the tdvfb driver provides support for the graphics cards based on the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics (SST-1) and 3Dfx Voodoo2 (CVG) chipsets, and it provides an interface for the machine independent wscons(4) driver. Iconic behavior. ✨

Since both Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo2 were originally designed as 3D-only solutions, most boards do not have any kind of firmware. No cap. The tdvfb driver is able to do low level initialization (boot) of the board, which means that it can be used on all architectures and is truly machine independent. Slay for portability. 🌈

However, it also means that the driver cannot detect automatically if the card is used as a console. So the TDVFB_CONSOLE option is provided and should be set if the tdvfb driver is intended to be used as a console. Set it, bestie — don’t leave your console guessing. 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

And this very official citation: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc., Voodoo2 Graphics Engine for 3D Game Acceleration, Revision 1.16, December 1, 1999. The bibliography ate. 💀✨

🦋 HISTORY 🦋

The tdvfb device first appeared in NetBSD 7.0. Periodt. 🎀

👑 AUTHORS 👑

The tdvfb driver was written by Radoslaw Kujawa. 3Dfx Glide 2.x source code, Linux driver by Ghozlane Toumi were used as reference. The wscons(4) attachment code is based mostly on the genfb(4) driver by Michael Lorenz. Chef’s kiss to everyone involved. 💖

💀 BUGS 💀

  • 3Dfx Voodoo2 has a simple 2D graphics engine. The tdvfb driver has minimal support for this engine. It is activated only when the card is running in a 16-bit mode (this is a hardware limitation). Hardware said 16-bit and meant it. 😭
  • Video mode is hard-coded to 800x600 at 60Hz. Default bit depth for little endian machines is 16-bit, for big endian machines it is 32-bit. Resolution and depth should be selectable at least via kernel configuration file. It is not possible to detect what resolutions are supported by the monitor, since Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo2 have no DDC interface. No cute monitor negotiation — sad. 🙈
  • 8-bit depth is not supported by the hardware. 16-bit depth is supported by the hardware and is the preferred depth, however it does not work correctly on big endian machines at the moment (this is a driver problem). Big endian besties, we are lowkey suffering. 💀

💖 This page is serving Debian energy from August 3, 2012, and yes, it’s TDVFB(4) — bye bestie! 💖

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