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Last year at this time Iīve started this page with the title RIVA Erazor Page. Many thibgs happened in this year - my very own domain and my own hardware reviews - I hope itīs going on that way next year.........

.......I wish you a happy and succesfull new year 1999!

• TNT 20-40% faster in D3D, ~50% faster in OpenGL (when using the wrapper).
• G200 has better 3D quality, but itīs almost unnoticable in stills, totally unapparent in animation
• G200 has slightly better signal quality at very high resolutions, but that only becomes relevant on 21" screens with 106KHz horiz. frequency or
  greater.
• certain G200 cards are cheaper, but the price-difference stays in no relation to the performance difference, so itīs negligible.

So given the above, the G200 is not recommended for a modern all-purpose system. Solutions like the Marvel might be cost-effective, but the G200 is still crippled by fatal flaws.

You can find the full article here.

Arne Gabriel released a new version of his D3D Tester / Trails Demo. The demo offers features like bump mapping. You can download the new version here: Trails4.zip - 1,09MB

I got a confirmation from ELSA that there will be a Erazor II that is equiped with SDRAM. But you wonīt find it in normal stores - Itīs only for OEMīs. The Bulk and Retail Version is still shiped with SGRAM.

You can find new Erazor II product photos on the ELSA foto page. Besides the missing fan (you canīt see a cable) the board is using SDRAM and has another Boardlayout than older Erazor II cards. ELSA announced that they do no longer use a cooling fan on the card, but the use of SDRAM is absolutly new. The Erazor II used SGRAM until now. (Thanks to Zeller for the Info)

Voodooextreme posted some Unreal-Screenshots using CLīs volumetric shadow patch. At the moment it does only work with Creative Labs Graphics Blaster TNT card:

I wish you Merry Christmas!

These drivers are no offical releases! (see URL) So you wonīt find them on my drivers page. (Source: Rivazone)

Currently thereīs only some word in the drivers readme about the Video out function. You can difference the TV-out version from the other through a sticker on the packing.

TNT reviews at Hardware Central: A review of the Hercules Dynamite TNT and a review of the Velocity 4400. (Source Riva Extreme)
A review of the STB Velocity 4400 is cooming soon at RIVA Station!

GLDXXM: You can find the newest version 0.94d here. In addition thereīs a tool available that alows easy settings for tweaks, resolution and startlevel: APKGLDXXM

The german language page hartware also has moved to a won domain: http://www.hartware.de.

VRMAN released a new Christmas 3D screensaver. Features: Features: Support for all major 3D accelerator cards, Support for 32bit color, Support for resolutions up to 1600x1200, Colored lighting FX, Multiple camera views, Beautiful holiday music and tons more!
Requires: DirectX5/6, a 3D Accelerator card (NVIDIA TNT, Voodoo2, G200, Rendition, etc.) Windows95/98, Holiday Cheer! Download:

ftp://ftp.saix.net/pub/3dfiles/screensavers/vrxmas20.exe
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/screensavers/vrxmas20.exe

• new driver structure
• Bugfix for NTSC and TV-Out
• ERAZOR PCI useable together with ERAZOR II AGP as "secondary
  board" with VIDEO-I/O functionality.
• newer versions of "3D Settings", "ELSA Settings", "WINman Suite"
  and "ELSA Info" are included
• It is strongly necessary that the mainboard BIOS supports the "VGA boot on" feature. Please select VGA boot on: AGP for starting the ERAZOR II as secondary board.
• use the ERAZOR II Driver 0200-0016 or newer for dual with Erazor II
• please use the newest Video-I/O driver delivered with this package (Vers. 3.0.0.6 or higher)

ELSA is one of the first manufactorers who enables DirectX functions on the scondary graphics device. I didīnt test that configuration yet.
Download: ELSA VICTORY Erazor drivers

(2.4 MB) Unreal Volumetric Shadows Patch @ Planet RIVA
(2.4 MB) Unreal Volumetric Shadows Patch @ Unreality.org
(2.4 MB) Unreal Volumetric Shadows Patch @ AGN3D

The german site GNN reports about plans of Wicked 3D to enable the 3D glasses eyeSREAM for other cards than 3Dfx. The TNT is the major player here: (free Translation)

"Weīve planed to announce the support of our strereo glasses eyeSCREAM with other cards for a later time, but in the actual situation I can reveal the following: Weīve recognized a longer time ago that, besides of supporting all actual games, we need a system independent solution to have success with stereo-glasses" explained Steve Gleitsmann, Director of Worldwide Sales of Wicked3D-Division of Metabyte."A new version of the glasses-drivers that works with almost all current graphic chipsets like NVIDIA RIVA TNT or even Voodoo3 is currently in a testing phase..."

The german site reports about articles to the STB merger and has a interview with Steve Gleitsmann of Wicked3D. You can find it here.
VoodooNation will publish an interview with 3dfx' Brian Bruning later today. It revolves around customer expectations, the future of 3dfx technology, buyer advvice and the competitive landscape.

Owners of a Creative Labs Graphics Blaster TNT should take a look at this site: CL GB RIVA TNT Site
Another german site that cares about 2D/3D cards is 3D-Forum.

800x600 TNT screenshots of the new state of the art flightsim Falcon 4.0.

Falcon 4.0
Falcon 4.0 supports Direct 3D and Glide. Resolutions higher than 800x600 are not fully implemented yet beacause 2D Cockpit screens are not finished at all.

You can find the following statement of NVIDIA at Rivazone

Q: How does this impact NVIDIA's business?
A: We do not believe that this will affect our business, because OEMs choose our technology and then the board supplier. We are fortunate to have a number of board vendors working with NVIDIA that have the ability to sell to our OEM customers.

Q: What does this merger mean to NVIDIA's business in the short-term?
A: NVIDIA's OEMs will demand that their business needs for the RIVA TNT graphic cards are met through this transition. We don't expect a lot of near term change.

Q: How does this affect your relationship with STB?
A: Our relationship has always been centered around our OEM customers. NVIDIA will continue to do business with STB for as long as our OEMs needs are met too.

Q: What are 3Dfx's motives behind the merger
A: 3Dfx wants to get into the OEM market. We can only speculate that they believe that purchasing STB will help them. As we said, OEMs choose technology first, then supplier, so we don't understand this move. Abandoning their two biggest customers seems like a harsh way to start the process, given that they haven't yet created any significant OEM design win base.

Q: Is NVIDIA next to enter the graphic accelerator market?
A: Unlike 3Dfx, we don't have to change our business model in order to have success in this market. Right now we see absolutely no reason to enter the board market. NVIDIA is the last viable, independent 3D processor supplier. We're excited to service the markets that 3Dfx just vacated.

Q: Do you think this will impact Glide?
A: Yes, we think it will impact Glide. The broad industry base for the API is gone. What developer is going to do a special part for a single supplier?

Sharky Extreme also posted an interview with Diamond Multimedia with questions to the merger. You can find it here.

3Dfx Interactive to Acquire, that surprising announcement was made by 3Dfx yesterday i a pressrelease. The key benefits of the transaction will be:

• To provide PC-OEM and retail customers with a single source for 3Dfx branded add-in-boards for greater price stability and smoother product transitions.
• To provide high-capacity, high-quality and reliable manufacturing capabilities as a pre-qualified supplier to the topten PC-OEM manufacturers.
• To allow for a more tightly integrated chip, software, and board-level layout and design for faster time to market and the most cost-effective graphics solutions.
• To drive a more controlled and focused brand investment for an even stronger retail presence.

"With the acquisition of STB and their outstanding track record of world wide manufacturing, distribution, and customer support, we will deliver directly to our PC OEM and retail customers 3Dfx branded add-in-board products," said Greg Ballard, president and chief executive officer of 3Dfx Interactive. "This shift in our business model allows 3Dfx to control our own destiny and positions 3Dfx as one of the top suppliers of graphics technology in the world."

Commentary: 3Dfx corroborates a tendency on the market you can see for a longer time period now: stronger persence of graphics-chip manufacturers on the market itself. Many board vendors use the referencedesign that comes from the chip manufacturers for their boards and make only small modifications on drivers.
As a chip producer you have costs to develop a reference design and driver development. A logical step is to stop sharing the returns with board vendors.
The Chip manfs do not give any internal technical information about their products to the board vendors in order to keep their intellectual property. So vendors donīt have many possibilities to develop a own card design or driver. Is it the beginning of the end of board-vendors...?
3Dfx customerīs wonīt have the drudgery anymore to choose between vendors.
But this is not an advantage for customers. It means that prices wonīt fall down as fast as in the past because there is no internal competition between board vendors anymore.

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