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| ARCHIVED NEWS - 6/30/99 to 7/3/99 |
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7/3/99 Saturday's News [See the updated fix for Quake2 brightness with Mesa3Dfx-Mike]
Voodoo2 Speed Tweaks!! I feel stupid for not trying these before, as I noted some PC 3dfx settings in the 1997 Power3d (voodoo1) review, but a thread yesterday in my 3Dfx Forums from Sergiusz notes that the PC voodoo2 Quake tweaks apparently work on the Mac as well. Not sure if these work with Mesa (ie Q3test and Quake2) and they are reported to not work with Unreal but DO with Klingon Honor Guard (odd - same engine). Here's a summary of the post: " Just put a file named "voodoo2.ini" into the game application's folder. You can create it with SimpleText and it should contain only the following text:
" I couldn't notice any visual change in 24 bit, but before the tweaks I got 55FPS in timedemo 1 (even with VIS, 640x480, etc), now I get 68FPS! I wouldnt be surprised if it goes even higher when I reboot (I have a router and other stuff running as well, which slows down Quake)... Some of these settings are explained in my original Power3d review. Looks like there might be a use for that Tennmax Stealth Voodoo2 cooler after all ;-). Remember if you're overclocking the card it may overheat and cause texture/image quality problems or lockups. One reader reported 110mhz only boosted framerates in timedemo a few FPS, but that might be due to system CPU speed, etc. The following URL has more info on Voodoo2 INI file commands:
http://www.bahnhof.se/~engstrom/e_3dfxvars.htm#v2 (thanks to Johan Liljeblad for the post of the URL in the forums)
Note to Mesa3Dfx GL users: If you're trying to configure controls in Quake 2 with a 3dfx voodoo2 or voodoo1 card the screen will show up on the 2D video (you can't see it in the game screen since the Voodoo1/2 uses its own video buffer). To see the desktop 2d video and config screen manually switch to it using COMMAND+OPTION+S and the InputSprocket dialog will be visible. Quake2 Too Dark Fix With 3Dfx cards: [UPDATE: - A reader sent the following fix for Mesa3Dfx users:
" Mike, thanks for your help. I fixed the problem. I used SimpleText to open the MesaSettings in the Quake II folder and changed the gamma setting to 4. After saving, I launched the game and it's now beautiful. Thanks for your assistance. Too bad the tweaker only allows for adjustments up to 2 in the application. [this may be fixed in the next revision-Mike] I've added this Tip to my FAQ's 3Dfx card and Game topic areas for future reference. [my original comments] Brightness in 3dfx games is a common complaint. I'm still looking to find the console/config command to change this in Quake 2. I used it last year on the PC with a FireGL4000 card but can't remember the syntax. Here are some settings to try (config file settings):
set gl_ext_gamma "2.5" Let me know if these help. The MesaTweaker comes with the latest Mesa3DfxEngine download - it has gamma settings that should help (see post below on update to Mesa plugin). It modifies the mesasettings file that resides in the baseq2 folder.
Speed Tips for Q3Test Internet Play: Byron Franek posted the following tip that helps boost speeds during lan play (at the cost of image quality). He starts off explaining that the smoke mods noted here the other day are for the MesaQuake lib only (not the new Mesa3dfxEngine plugin):
" My original intension was to improve the appearance of the smoketrails with Mesa 3.1b11 With the new version of Mesa, the smoke file is not needed anymore, because the smoke is now greatly improved on the voodoo cards. My version of the flare.tga is better than the one in the test though (IMHO) Legally, you must wait for permission from ID software before adding my files to the test. (Known as the EULA)
Quake 2 Performance: 3Dfx Banshee vs Rage128 Quake 2 arrived today thanks to Mac-o-Rama. I've installed and ran some quick timedemo's on both B&W G3/400's - one with a Game Rocket (IXmicro 3fdx Banshee with today's Mesa3DfxEngine extension) and one with a rev B Rage128. Both systems had the video cards in the 66MHz PCI slot and were run at the same game settings (16 bit color, no 8-Bit textures setting). The table below shows the results:
Note: That's no mistake - the 3dfx card was slower at lower resolutions but a bit faster at 1024x768. Increasing default appl. memory from 50MB to 90MB made no difference on the scores. The Rage128 in my opinion looked as good or better and I need to adjust the gamma settings on the 3Dfx card as it was very dark. If I had to give the edge in appearance from the first exposure to the game, I'd have to say the Rage128 looked better, but I'll reserve that final judgement until later. Stay tuned for screenshots and more - I also had copies delivered to Randall and Ruffin today and they will be providing their comments and reviews as well. Quake2 Rage128 Screenshots: Since the Game Rocket screenshots in Quake 2 (and Q3test) come out with a severe blue tint (I even tried the RGB swap setting - no help), I've only included Rage128 pictures for now. Clicking on the thumbnails will load a 800x600 full size version (about 70KB JPEG files).
  
Quake 2: Well it seems that Quake 2 has finally shown up at stores, which is very surprising considering that it just went GM last week. I should be getting my copy today and I am sure that sometime next week there will be a review from Mike, Ruffin and I after we have done some extensive testing of the networking code over a few deathmatches. :-) Purely for the sake of writing a good review of course. So expect some extensive coverage next week. Plus Quake 2 has the unreleased ATI drivers for Rage cards (as noted by Mike last week). And I think that we will be trying out PC Quake 2 mods and extra maps to see how they work in ac Quake 2. Thanks to Logicware for getting this game ported over for us!
Macsoft has shipped Ages of Empires and it should be arriving in stores in the next week or so. This game was a huge success on the PC side and it sounds like a must have game. It has a scenario editor so that you can set up your own scenarios to complete. One down side to the game is that it uses MS‰s proprietary networking code, DirectPlay, that will prevent games between Macs and PC‰s since there is not a Mac equivalent. Besides that, it sounds great.
Blizzard has announced that Brood Wars expansion pack will be out this month for Starcraft fans to enjoy.
You have go to love the fact that Mesa has been updated regularly. For the 3rd time this week, we have an update. Go get it so you can be ready to frag away on Quake 2! [Ruffin Bailey sent the following news:] For what it's worth, Nate Trost of Logicware has posted at least four times to the USENET regarding Quake 2 in the last 12 hours... Here are some excerpts:
"[on the issue of bots -- there's a spark of a response from the Eraser bot people that I won't quote, but there seems to have been some sort of mix-up regarding getting the Eraser bot ported to the Mac further in this thread] Bots are server-side, so they do need to be recompiled for the Mac. It isn't that hard. I built almost all of the Eraser bot code. Unfortunately, the Eraser downloadable codebase doesn't include the source for one file, object code only. I tried emailing the author to get the missing file but never got a reply. I'm sure some enterprising Mac coder with more time will get a hold of him and port it. :-) BTW, that's no reason to mailbomb/hatemail PC mod authors and tell them they suck, PCs are crap, their mother was a hamster, etc, that will definitely NOT help mods get ported to the Mac. More game news later in the day... 7/1/99 Thursday's News [I removed the original post here on the aATIdrivers/apple/nnVidiarumors until I get some confirmation this is more than smoke. Otherwise I don't think it's worth posting and may do more harm than good.]
The interview of which he speaks in his .plan can be found at Macgamer, and is really pretty interesting. Andrew speaks of his days working on a 'next-generation terrain engine for a defense contractor', 'playtesting' Mac Quake 2 for Nathan Trost, the possibility of Mac Half-Life having Team Fortress Classic (looks like it won't come on the disk), and whether or not Andrew is a nerd. Half-Life is a game from Valve produced by Sierra that rose the first person shooter bar on the PC after Quake 2's release. Much of Half-Life's success comes from it's amazing recreation of the Quake freeware modification Team Fortress, but with the much improved graphics and engine of Half-Life.
6/30/99 Wednesday's News [4:30 PM Update] Randall sent a couple of news updates:
Mesa 3Dfx Engine updated to 3.1b2: Mesa has updated their Mesa 3DfxEngine extension to 3.1b2. The Mesa web site lists the changes as being bug fixes for the Mesa Tweaker program. The Mesa 3DfxEngine supports OpenGL for Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2 cards under Apple’s OpenGL implementation. However, as noted at the web site, Mesa is not an OpenGL plugin, and it is not supported by Apple nor is it a "real" OpenGL. Since they have the 3Dfx story on Voodoo 3 drivers coming to the Mac, we can only hope that they are already set to get the most out of Apple’s OpenGL and Voodoo 3 with future updates to the Mesa 3DfxEngine. Stay tuned. [Note - the latest Mesa3DfxEngine download was much more complete than the one yesterday - here's a pix of the folder contents of 3.1b2-Mike]
Half Life: Andrew Meggs of Logicware has posted an update to his .plan file. This post gives some insight into what it is like to port over a game to the Mac and a little about the structure of the game itself. And Andrew, I am glad you have the…uh…confidence to do the port, because I am sure all of us out here know you do. ;-) Sorry it is a short news post today, but it was crazy around the office today. I have a review for the upcoming game SkyFighters 2000 that should be up later tonight and as always keep the e-mail coming. Randall [My 8AM news follows-Mike] 3Dfx Q3Test Tips and Tricks: Byron Franek posted some tips in my Forum and I wrote to ask for the files mentioned and more information. Here is his reply [Note: these tips apply to MesaQuake only - not the new Mesa3DfxEngine plugin]: " Hi Mike, Thanks Byron! I've asked him to do a Q3Test Tweaking page here.
Beyond 3D has an in-depth look at the pros and cons of the 3Dfx Voodoo3 that might be of interest to readers now that 3Dfx has promised drivers. If you missed it in the past news, the local Sam's Club here has Voodoo3 2000 PCI Cards for $119.28. (I just bought the last one they had here, there seems to have been a real run on them lately ;-) Also note that some months ago there were stories that the Voodoo3 3500 (183/183mhz version with Digital LCD output) would be available in PCI and AGP formats. Apparently yields of the 3500 are what may be holding back supplies (the 2000 is a 143/143 clock speed, 3000 is 166/166 clock speed). I've seen PC Voodoo3 3000's that could be overclocked to 180+ mhz if cooled (it runs very warm). www.tennmax.com has a cooler for the Voodoo3 that is popular. They made the Stealth V2 Cooler I reviewed last year.
For older news, check the Previous News Archive Page For info on the recent 3DFx Mac Voodoo2/Voodoo3 driver announcment from our Forums - See this June 22nd News page.
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