3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000:
Very very fast. Damn shame about that 16-bit thing. I fear the 3500.

NVidia Riva TNT2:
This was on an Elsa Erazor III, so I think it's just a regular TNT2, not an Ultra. Um, it's real fast, I think that's about all I can really say.*

NVidia Riva TNT:
Still a very fast accelerator, even if it's being phased out by newer chips like the TNT2. For < $100, it can't be beat. Seriously, if you have < $100 and you need to upgrade, there is NO reason you shouldn't get a TNT board from Creative (I hear that on pricewatch etc. that you can find them for $75).

NVidia Riva128:
Fairly fast, but damn is it ugly. We tested with a 4MB one, so that may be a factor in its performance. I wish we had a Riva128ZX, but we're all out here and CompUSA didn't have any. Oh well.

And when I say "is it ugly", I am not talking about a subtle thing. It is really, REALLY ugly, and the drivers we were running were causing all kinds of grotesque things to happen. However, we've run with a ZX before with nary a hitch, so that may have been a side effect of using a non-ZX Riva128.

* Comment:The last information I have is that the ELSA E3 drivers are based on Detonator v1.28. These drivers do not perform accurate on TNT2 cards. More about these things at Tomshardware. His ViperV770 and Creative TNT2 card was also equiped with those old drivers which do not show the real performance of TNT2. I canīt understand why manufacturers equip their testcards with such drivers which letīs their cards perform rather bad....

I was browsing through the posts on the Creative Unified Driver newsgroup, when I came across a post from somebody named Drew Fear. I found this very funny:

Man you guys really are desperate aren't you? You know the Voodoo3 is better, you know it supports more titles, and you now have to go and pull something like this? I hope 3dfx sues you for copyright infringement and all your TNT2's melt in the fab.

To which a Creative Labs employee replied:

I should point out that the NNTP posting host for this was h-129.3dfx.com.  3dfx employees are welcome on this server, *if* they behave in a professional manner.

...

During our test period, we managed to stabilize the Dynamite TNT2 Ultra at a core speed of 190MHz (15MHz over stock, and 40MHz faster than the Diamond Viper770's default speed) while boosting the SDRAM clock speed up to 236MHz.

At that speed the card was stable, and ran through limitless Quake2 crusher.dm2 cycles in a closed ATX case.

We also managed to get through benchmarks of the Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra at a top speed of 195MHz core speed/240MHz SDRAM speed. This configuration was stable for the most part, but we found that it would experience random lockups after running within a closed case for periods longer than one hour.

Speed, speed, speed. Damn we love speed.

Read the full story here.

We are pleased to announce an opportunity for our Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT customers to try out a beta version of our Unified Driver. the Unified Driver allows Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT owners to run many of the games which support 3D acceleration only via the GlideŪ API.

If you have any questions, please see the FAQ. For game compatibility information, please see the game information page. We've also created a newsgroup which beta testers may use to compare notes, submit bug reports, or ask questions.

Download the driver here.

The drivers v1.73 did not have any 3DNow! support. It can only be found with v1.76 or higher. The better values at 3DNow! with drivers v1.73 are normal! You can see what real 3DNow Support can do with the drivers v1.76 and v1.81!
  

Incoming does not have 3Dnow! support. You could see better results with v1.76 and v1.81 in Quake2 even with no 3Dnow! drivers. You could think that you get better values with 3DNow! drivers even when a game does not support it. But you canīt see this effect in Incoming. The drivers v1.73 and v1.81 perform on the same level. It seems that something is wrong in Direct 3D with the v1.76 drivers.
One explanation could be that only the OpenGL part of the driver has 3DNow! support yet, or that you wonīt see any increase at all in games that do not support 3Dnow!

The drivers v1.73, v1.76 and v1.81 are not an official release by NVIDIA. So I wonīt offer them for download! 3DNow performance may still change in final drivers. Testsystem: Tekram P5MVP-A4, ASUS V3800TVR TNT2 (125/150), K6-2 350, 64MB SDRAM

Update: I got the information that there IS 3DNow! support in the NVIDIA v1.73 drivers. You can find it with a HEX editor. So the state that there is no 3DNow! in v1.73 is wrong! They are not as good as v1.76 or v1.81 but itīs here. You can see the difference here: Freak! made a comparsion between K6 300 (without 3Dnow!) and K6-2 300 (with 3DNow!). ThanX to FullOn3D

Timedemo: The Timedemo works:
- timedemo 0
- demo q3test1
The trick here is: wait a while... it will start!

A way to record your own timedemos can be found below. To play them you have to rename the folder DemoQ3 in BaseQ3. Then you can play them with: demo <demoname>

More settings in Quake3:
- cg_drawfps 1 = Framecounter
- team s = spectator mode!
- cg_drawfps = show your framerate
- r_railcorewidth , r_railsegmentlength , cg_railtrailtime = all visible railgun graphic adjusments.
- cg_gibs = turn on or off gibs
- cg_footsteps = turn off your own footsteps, people still hear you though.
- cg_bobroll , cg_bobup = client view (not player) bouncing and rolling adjustments
- cg_gun = turn the weapon model on or off
- crosshairhealth = crosshair changes color to reflect your health (on or off)
- r_dynamiclighting = dynamic lights. turn them off for a nice framerate improvement

Also nice: cg_thirdperson 1 = camera behind player

Stencil Shadows: Stencil shadows are not activated by default: You can get them with ATi Rage 128 and TNT cards by doing the following:

1. Öpen q3config.cfg in the demoq3 folder
2. search for r_stencilbits. Default is 0, set to 8.
3. search cg_shadows. Default is 1, set to 3 (not 2!)
4. Ic you canīt found these values - just add them.

Another way in the console:

r_stencilbits 8
cg_shadows 3

using cg_shadows 2 results in some more shadows of weapons etc. But this does also work with the setting r_stencilbits 0! So... shadows not olnly for TNT and Rage?!

Q3 Update: Official or not... download an Update at Computingpros for the Q3 Win32 Test: Two new level and weapons: BFG and Grenade Launcher

Tomshardware Quake3 Win32 Test-Ergebnisse

You can watch some Multiplayer-Action with the following commands:

- open console: press key "^" (use backspace to delete the ^ letter)
- demo q3test1 (or q3test2)

Itīs too bad that this doesīnt work in timedemo 1 mode....

You can record your own demo with the following commands:

- open console (press key "^")
- map q3test1 (Loads level)
- open console again
- set g_syncronousClients 1
- record mydemo (records demo)
- stopdemo (stops recording)

I didīnt manage to run the recorded demo yet. The path-settings in the game seem to be OK (path)... but Q3 always states that it canīt find the file!

Thatīs what Iīve found out yet. Recommendations are welcome!

id released a first Win32 testversion of Quake3 Arena veröffentlicht. The Demo is available here:

(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Hardwareguru.de

(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - CDROM.COM
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - 3DGAMERS.COM
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - 209.1.115.11
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Blue's News
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Planet Quake
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - IGN
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Stomped
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - HEAT.NET
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - GOLSYD.NET
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Barry's World (1)
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Barry's World (2)
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Barry's World (3)
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - 216.81.151.27
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Quake 3 Planet
(22 MB) Q3Test for Win32 platforms - Q3ARENA.COM

First TNT screenshots were send to me by Ulf:

Other 32Bit TNT2 screenshots are available from RIVA3D:

More shots at RIVA 3D.

RIVA 3D lets you download some new NVIDIA TNT2 reference drivers v1.76. There are comments that they support 3DNow! now but I was not able to test it yet (Had to buy a new helmet :-))

These drivers are not official released. Use them on your own risk!

Iīve finished an article about RIVA TNT2. Currently it is only available in german language. Iīm working on the translation right now... so stay tuned!!

If you want to take a look try this:  What can TNT2 do for ya? You can use Altavista Translation Service for a simple translation.

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