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    13.03 - TNT-2 cards
Not offical yet, but here is a short preview about upcoming TNT-2 cards:
 

upcoming graphicscards with nVIDIA TNT-2

ASUS AGP-V3800
  • 16MB and 32MB versions
  • TV-In/Out versions available, TV-Out: Chrontel 7004
    (Macrovision capable)
  • 3D Shutter Glasses available (also for V3400)
  • External TV-Tuner Box available
  • LCD Connector possibly
ELSA Erazor III
  • 16MB and 32MB versions
  • TV-In/Out versions available, TV Out Macrovision capable
  • ELSA 3D Revelator 3D Shutter Glasses einsetzbar
  • LCD Connector possibly
ELSA Synergy II
  • 16MB and 32MB versions
  • special application drivers (3DS Max, LightWave...)
  • LCD Connector possibly
Diamond Viper V770
  • 16MB and 32MB versions
  • TV-Out version possible
  • LCD Connector possibly

Otther cards will come from creative. The clocksettings for the cards are unknown yet. More are not known yet. Information is without guarantee!

    13.03 - Daikatana

Daikatana Deathmatch Demo

click to enlarge!!! click to enlarge!!!
click to enlarge!!! click to enlarge!!!
Ion Storm´s Daikatana is coming. You can install it on a german system when you set the country settings to English USA. After the installation you can switch it back. ThanX Djamigo and Guido for the hint.
The demo is playable at
Mplayer.com. But you run through two empty demo levels.
The OpenGL screenshot were made at 800x600 in 32Bit color Depth!

Homepage - Download (36MB): 3DFiles Download Page

    13.03 - Daikatana Demo - WARNING
A Demo to the game Daikatana has been released. But you can´t install it on a german Win98 version!!!

Zensur !?!

So you shouldn´t download these 36MB with a german (only german version!?!) Win9X version. (Playable only at Mplayer.com) Nevertheless, if you want to try it: 3DFiles Download Page

Update: see above

    12.03 - TNT-2 Details
You can find first information aboout TNT-2 at Tomshardware and SharkyExtreme..... A NDA until 15/03 is great! (seems some are more even than others :-))
This will be a hot summer for 3Dfx...
    12.03 - ELSA 3D REVELATOR - Update
The Pressrelease spoke of 19.03.99 of release date for the ELSA REVELATOR. This is not correct at all. You can order them from that date on.
(The cable version for a special price of 69,00 DM until 30.04.99 !!! - after that date for 99,00 DM).
The delivering starts in the beginning of mai. This Information is without guarantee!
ELSA Revelator
    12.03 - ASUS Capture Util - BETA
Capture Beta ASUS released a new capture utility (BETA) for the V3400 TNT/TV that allows a realtime compression of the videostream. The max resolution you can run depends on the CPU and harddisk performance you have.
You must choose the compression to use it:
- Options -> Videoformat: choose UYVY
- Capture -> Select Compressor: ASUS Video....
  Select strength in the configure menu

I recommend you to disable Audio capturing to get a better performance
- Capture -> Setup: Audio

You can find the software in the BETA area of the ASUS FTP-Sever: Cap34_v13
    12.03 - ELSA 3D REVELATOR
ELSA offically announced their new 3D LCD Shutter glasses. The pressrelease is only available in german language yet, but you can use this Link to get the ALTAVISTA translation.
    12.03 - TV Out with Macrovision
ELSA and ASUS will use Macrovision capable PC-to-TV encoder Chips for their upcoming TNT-2 boards with TV-Out. Macrovision is an analog signal that prevents VHS recording. This is important for a fullscreen DVD on your TV. (see ELSAmovie review (currently German language only) ALTAVISTA Translation Service).I can´t post any details yet.
    11.03 - Sharky at Metabyte
Sharkyextreme has new details about Metabyte´s PGP (SLI) solution. Besides the impression of a 180 degrees 3 Monitor solution they could see a PGP solution in action: On-Site Visit: Metabyte SLI
    10.03 - 3DMark99 MAX Results - UPDATED
First results of 3DMark99 MAX. I ran the tests on a intel Pentium II 450MHz CPU on a ASUS P2B mainboard with 128MB SDRAM and a AMD K6-2 350MHz CPU on a Tekram P5MVP-A4 SS7 Mainboard with 64MB SDRAM. Graphics card was a STB Velocity 4400 with NVIDIA Detonator reference drivers (no tweaks/overclock)

3DMark99 MAX Results

More results:
Table 800x600-16Bit and 1024x768-16Bit - DATABASE File for 3DMark99 MAX
Table 800x600-32Bit and 1024x768-32Bit - DATABASE File for 3DMark99 MAX

In the following a comparsion of Pentium II vs Pentium III (ThanX Wolle!). The TNT cards run at 105/115 (overclocked). The Pentium II 450MHz is running at normal 100MHz Busspeed.

Pentium II vs Pentium III

Besides of the very high CPU 3D Performance of the Pentium III there is no major step in the framerates compared to a Pentium II: DATABASE File for 3DMark99 MAX.

Additional results: Viper3D made some runs with a Viper V550 comparing 0.48 drivers and Detonators on a Celeron 300A (OC auf 450MHz).

    09.03 - 3DMARK99 MAX
3DMark99 MAX Futuremark released the new Version 3DMark 99 MAX. 3DMark99 MAX is a complex benchmark software that gives you detailed information about your gaming machine performance. The new features are:
  • 3D Technology Optimizations for AMD 3DNow! and Intel Pentium III Streaming SIMD
    Extensions - Makes it easy to compare the 3D performance of the new generation
    processors!
  • Powerful Batch Run - Adds automation to 3DMark, and makes the testing even easier! (Only
    available in Pro version)
  • More Complex Game Benchmarks - To better test future gaming performance! 3DMark 99
    MAX adds more polygons, lighting, curved surfaces and many other details!
    Bump Mapping Tests - To showcase future 3D accelerated techniques
  • Bump Mapping Tests - To showcase future 3D accelerated techniques
  • Improved Result Browser - Makes result comparison even easier!
  • Hardware Upgrade Wizard – An Internet tool that estimates the performance of the best five graphics cards as if they had been installed in YOUR PC.

3DMark99 is Shareware and limited in functions. The PRO version offers additional tests and other features. You can purchase it on the 3DMark99 Homepage.

Download bei 3DFiles: 3DMark99 MAX Download page

    08.03 - GMB about 16 vs 32Bit Rendering

Grandmaster B. (Brian Hook) answered a question to 16Bit vs 32 Bit Rendering:

Question: I must admit, as a 3dfx owner I am getting tired of all this 16 bits just doesn't cut it crap. Which tends to be portrayed like 16bit rendering sucks. I have seen web pages where they find some worse case scenario, take a freeze frame and blow it up and say: "Look at these pixels, they are all wrong!"
My challenge. Fire up a deathmatch with the Voodoo3. Can anyone even tell in an in game situation that they are only using a crappy 16bit rendering card. I know I probably can't. Do you think that the majority of people would notice if you switched them to 16 bit rendering in a game without telling them?
Bottom line: In game do you think anyone really notices? Does 32bit rendering produce anything other than slightly prettier screen stills?
Please let me know what the best demo is where I can experience Crappy 16bit rendering in game on my Crappy Banshee?

GMB: Since Quake3 leverages 32-bit rendering, you will be able to tell when 16-bit rendering is falling apart completely. You will notice this the most with the multipass clouds in the skies. The difference between 16-bit and 32-bit is not exactly subtle. It gets REAL nasty when people start using alpha -- then you get 4 bits per channel (that's sixteen shades) because on 16-bit adapters you're stuck with 4444 RGBA, but on a 32-bit accelerator you'll get 8 bits per channel (256 shades) since they can still use 8888 RGBA.
Whether it affects gameplay is debatable. A lot of hardcore players crank MIP levels so that everything turns to soup, scale down the viewport, and run at 320x240 fullscreen in order to get that last ounce of performance, so obviously visual quality isn't going to be crucial to that class of player. However to the vast majority of players that are mostly casual, the difference in visual quality is obvious.
As I've said repeatedly, in order for the differences to be noticeable, games must start using 32-bit art, which is a relatively recent occurrence. Quake2 used 8-bit paletted art, and Unreal I believe used 16-bit. With games like this, the move to 32-bit doesn't really offer a huge benefit.
But with native 32-bit color applications, the difference is mind boggling.

    08.03 - 3D Chiptable

3DConcept made a new 3D-Chip Comparsion-Tabel. The statements to TNT-2 seem not very real. The clockspeeds you see in the table are to low. Rumors speak of TNT-2 clockspeed in areas of Voodoo3!

    08.03 - 3DMark99 Max Review

FullOn3D made a first review of the new version of 3DMark99. The new Version is called 3DMark99 MAX and offers support for intel´s KNI and AMD´s 3DNow!, Bump Mapping Tests, more complex scenes and a Hardware Upgrade Test, that allows the user to see how new hardware would perform in the own system: 3DMark99 MAX bei FullOn3D
The new version should be released today.

    06.03 - NVIDIA and 3DNow!

Ace´s Hardware made an article about TNT and 3DNow! optimiced drivers, looking at the reasons why AMD users are still waiting for it. Wanted: NVIDIA 3DNow! Drivers

    05.03 - ASUS V3400 SGRAM

v3400 SGRAM Version

Here´s a photo of the new 16MB SGRAM version of the ASUS V3400 TNT. My statement from yesterday was wrong. All 8 SGRAM memory chips are placed on the frontside of the card. You can find the words '16MB SGRAM' in the upper right corner. So you can Identify the card (besides of the different look of the memorychips compared to SDRAM)

    05.03 - ELSAmovie Review

RIVA Station reviewed the new ELSAmovie Software DVD Player. Currently only the English version is available. I´m working on the english translation. But if you want to take a fist look you can use ALTAVISTA Translation Service (German to English) for a first translation. You can find the review here.

    04.03 - TNT-2 where?

The NVIDIA TNT-2 will be officially announced at 15/03. Many manufacturers, like ELSA and ASUS, speak about a presentation of rocking TNT-2 cards at CeBit99 in Hannover, Germany. NVIDIA won´t be present at CeBit because they are present at the Game Developer Conference in San Jose. NVIDIA speaks that the TNT-2 will be announced there.

    04.03 - ASUS Bios

ASUS released a new Bios for the new 16MB >>SGRAM<< version of the V3400 TNT. ASUS ships these cards because of a lack of SDRAM: 2.04.19 16MB >>SGRAM<< Bios
It´s not confirmed yet if there´s an option for AGP Sidebanding included. If you´re not sure what version you have or you have a slow Monitor so that you can´t see the startup message of the card you can identify on the 4 Memory Chips on the front of the card and 4 on the back. The SDRAM Version has all 8 Memory chips on the frontside.

    04.03 - New Hercules drivers

Hercules released new drivers for the Dynamite TNT based on the NVIDIA Detonator drivers: Hercules Dynamite TNT Treiber

    04.03 - Metabyte with its own poll

Metabyte started its own poll for the Graphics Chipsets that should be used with the upcoming Stepsister technology: Wicked3D Homepage

    04.03 - News about Diamond

VoodooExtreme posted some news about future Diamond products yesterday. The news that are allready removed by a wich of Diamond spoke of the Viper V770 with NVIDIA TNT-2 and AGP 4X with a 16MB modell and a 32MB modell (also with TV-Out). Another card is the Stealth S540 with S3´s Savage4. These information is not offical yet.

    04.03 - RIVA Station goes DE

RIVA Station goes DE

jetzt auch mit DE: WWW.RIVASTATION.DE

RIVA Station is now also available at www.rivastation.de ! RIVA Station is based in Germany and has a german languaged part, so a DE ending was important to complete the Site and secure the name. There´s no need to change bookmarks or anything else. There are no changes at the COM adress.

    03.03 - ELSA rumors
New rumors about upcoming ELSA products. ELSA will release 3D Glasses that will run with many ELSA cards. There is word that they are more advanced compared to Metabyte´s eyeSCREAM solution. The availability should be mid 1999.
    03.03 - Q3 Arena Benchmarks
The german page Hartware gives a first impression about the TNT performance in Quake3 Arena. They made runs with the IHV Test version (They REMOVED it. This is not a offical playable demo, but a Test version for hardware manufacturers to check their drivers before anything is released. If you want to know more about that version you should take a look at Dimension 128.
    03.03 - VBEHz
Gerhard Strangar made a small programm for people who still use DOS and like higher refreshrates with thier RIVA 128, 128ZX, TNT or other VBE 3.0 capable cards:
VBEHz is a small TSR (800-1300 Bytes) which allows you to set user defined refresh rates for VESA modes with a resolution of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 320x240 and 512x384 pixels. You can change the sync polarity and fine-tune the refresh rates to make fixed frequency monitors work with cards that do not support them under DOS. You can even use it to force the user defined refresh rate if a program requests another one. What this program cannot do: use another refresh rate for the standard text mode (03h), 320x200, 256 colors (mode 13h) or 640x480, 16 colours (mode 12h).

Download: Server1 - Server2

    02.03 - ELSA Erazor II drivers
ELSA finished the final version of the Detonator based drivers for the Erazor II. The new version is v4.10.01.0301-0020. Download: ELSA Erazor II drivers
ThanX Dschunk for the info!
    02.03 - Problems
RIVA Station was currently not available today. I´m working on it! Traffic is very expensive in Germany and this site makes a bit traffic (I´m wondering what happens if E-commerce begins to work in Germany....!?!). I hope that I can fix this very soon!
    02.03 - Unreal 2.21 Info
PlanetUnreal has news about Unreal:

'Where we stand right now is that we've got a little more testing and cleanup to do on our OpenGL code. It is working well on TNT and now that the ATI Rage 128 is shipping we think it's important to try to attack a few Rage 128 OpenGL issues before we release.

We're not sure what this version will be called. It will likely not be called 221 to avoid confusion with a previously untested 221 version that got accidentally released.

I want people to understand that because there is so much new functionality (Unicode, new OpenGL driver, many fixes and minor changes) that unforeseen issues might arise when tested on a wide variety of systems. We’re aware of this and we are prepared for a reasonably quick turnaround on another update based on user feedback and bug reporting.

One other thing. I know we've talked a lot of about OpenGL lately because that's something we've particularly been optimizing in-house. But work also continues on improving our Direct3D support which we expect to have in really good shape in time for the release of Unreal Tournament. Our goal for the release of UT is to have very robust and reliable support for all the suitable and significant 3D chipsets. Today this list would include: ATI Rage 128, 3DFX Voodoo1/2/3/Rush/Banshee, Permedia3, Savage3d/Savage 4, Riva TNT and generally any chipsets that deliver performance and features comparable to these and have reliable, robust drivers for either Direct3D or OpenGL. Of course Unreal Tournament will also support our great software renderer so anyone with a suitable machine (minimum: P200MMX, 32Mb of RAM, Windows 95/85/NT4) will be able to play it whether they have a 3D card with one of these chipsets or not'

More info at PlanetUnreal. It seems that RIVA 128 have lost now....!?

    02.03 - Screensaver
gravitysmall.jpg (6690 bytes) Gravity ist a OpenGL screensaver, that animates small particles acting on each other with gravitational force.

The download is pretty small with 30KB: Gravity

logo2_wr.gif (5212 bytes)
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