Re: Best games for rush

Posted on Today, 01:36

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Rush was a bit of an odd duck. The performance was well below the original Voodoo so even something like a Rage Pro is roughly comparable (if lacking in features/image quality). You can't really expect 30 fps at 640x480 in many titles. Dropping to 512x384 brought nice gains on a Voodoo, it might …

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Re: Speed sensitive games suggestions to test throttling methods?

Posted on 2024-05-08, 00:28

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Although not seen as a speed-sensitive game, Ken's Labyrinth on faster computers has some rendering issues at 360x240 and then there is the situation with opening/closing doors at a fast rate. I was just going to mention this one. I ran into back in the 90's where the game can be unplayable even on …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-05-04, 13:52

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I don't see how HW T&L could be seen as a gimmick when everything relies on it now, unless you specifically mean the fixed function variants of D3D7 cards That's exactly what I said though, fixed function T&L was more useful for marketing than an actual feature, but evolved into a cornerstone piece …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-05-03, 23:43

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I can't speak for everyone but my point is that fixed function T&L was more valuable as a marketing tool than as a hardware feature. You could say that for any big featured graphic advancement years ahead of the games that use them. It only got more gimmicky after DirectX 10, because how are you …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-05-02, 19:22

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

is there a 'hwtnl is a lie' going on here because please do tell that to the v5/intel/tnt2/savage/kyro gamers in late 2002 who can't play bf1942 I can't speak for everyone but my point is that fixed function T&L was more valuable as a marketing tool than as a hardware feature. That said, it …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-05-01, 02:44

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Did some more digging and found a repost of an article I remembered from 2000. https://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/50/ Pretty well written and explained the limitations of the testing but further validates the "hardware T&L didn't outperform widely available CPUs of the time and many of us …

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Re: Doubts about ATI rage, SiS and others with 8MB

Posted on 2024-04-29, 21:29

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Neat! I think it's also really important to keep in mind just how different Neon 250 was from the hardware in the Dreamcast (CLX2? I'm awful with codenames that far back).

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Re: Voodoo 2 12MB SLI V-sync on or off?

Posted on 2024-04-28, 14:12

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I think it's a case by case basis, or at least it has been in my experience. I typically would always leave v-sync off both when these were new and displaying on a CRT as well on a retro build in the mid 2000's on an LCD. I know horizontal artifacts akin to tearing have been reported running without …

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Re: Artifacting Voodoo5, Need Help

Posted on 2024-04-27, 13:39

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Here's to hoping you found your solution!

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-04-23, 23:25

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I don't think it's entirely fair to say that Glide was just an attempt at gaining/maintaining a monopoly. At the release of the original Voodoo (and to a somewhat lesser degree the Voodoo II) the vendor agnostic APIs were a hot mess. Glide was a revelation in comparison and really served a …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-04-22, 12:26

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The aim is to figure out the effectiveness of HW T&L alone. You cannot achieve that by comparing different cards that have different specs. Using the same card and testing in both HW and SW T&L modes is the proper objective way of doing it. You could test multiple cards, but you still need to test …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-04-21, 18:31

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

A full suite is not needed; just a single card with fixed-function HW T&L and period CPU. For real use case results the test software should be games (with an option to switch between SW and HW T&L) so that the CPU is processing more than just T&L calculations. I only had a TNT2 and then a GF4 Ti. …

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Re: Matrox Mystique and Millennium plus successors

Posted on 2024-04-21, 17:51

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The information I found so far is that the first Millennium is less 3d capable than the Mystique, while the Millennium II is 3d capable as the Mystique\220. I know that in dos the compatibility of matrox card is inferior compared to s3 cards, but the 2d quality is much better. Keep in mind that the …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-04-21, 16:45

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Sorry to drag this back up but I had to rack my old brain a bit to remember where I saw this benchmark but this really clearly shows why hardware T&L was a nothinbuger. https://www.anandtech.com/show/742/11 You can see the software fallback on the Kyro II kept up with the GeForce 2 without any sort …

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Re: Why do the voodoo 4 and 5 not have hardware support for T&L?

Posted on 2024-04-20, 20:36

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Sorry to drag this back up but I had to rack my old brain a bit to remember where I saw this benchmark but this really clearly shows why hardware T&L was a nothinbuger. https://www.anandtech.com/show/742/11 You can see the software fallback on the Kyro II kept up with the GeForce 2 without any sort …

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Re: Weird cards found inside Dell Dimension M233a

Posted on 2024-04-20, 01:54

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

GPIB was commonly used in science until shockingly recently. That, combined with it being a Dell (super common vendor in labs) make me lean towards this possibly being the data system for a Beckman Coulter Capillary Electrophoresis instrument, any vendor GC (and some purge and trap concentrats that …

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Re: Worst fastest early 3D cards

Posted on 2024-04-14, 22:20

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Fantastic work! I would have never expected that one could coax that thing into (almost) respectable rendering output.

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Re: why did the voodoo 4 and 5 dont have hardware support for T&L

Posted on 2024-04-14, 00:12

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Note: ARTX did also succeed with a custom HW TnL + raster engine design (for Nintendo), so ATI brought them just before it shipped (why Gamecube has a made with ATI sticker on). This has a massive influence on the next big step, NVIDIA evolved the GF design up to and including the GFFX. Whereas ATI …

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Re: why did the voodoo 4 and 5 dont have hardware support for T&L

Posted on 2024-04-14, 00:06

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Many HW TnL engine before the consumer revolution were actually embedded CPU(s) dedicated to the task to offload the main CPU It was common for i960, DSP or the Sony design (PS2 Vector Units). (In the Dx5/6 I remember at least one of the smaller vendor talked to us about a prototype card they were …

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Re: why did the voodoo 4 and 5 dont have hardware support for T&L

Posted on 2024-04-12, 00:45

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by DrAnthony

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Mostly true there. The Spectre line was setup with a separate geometry chip (I vaguely remember Sage as the codename) with everything else on a separate chip (Rampage). The entry level line was 1 Sage and 1 Rampage and the high end was 1 Sage and 2 Rampage chips. From the benchmarks that have come …

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