Errrr I don't get it  ???

He said they are "out" but the newest link on 3dfxzone is for the new glide3x :S

If the surprise has something to do with Voodoo Banshee, a dream would come true ;)

Could be, cause isn't Daniel Boroca working on those drivers? I think I read a thread here about Banshee. But in actual fact, I hope the surprise is a new ICD, us 3dfx users could use one...

Quote:

ok guys, the driver will be online in bout 1.5 hour. Enjoy . Bye Amigamerlin 3DFXZONE MODERATOR Powerd By Voodoo5 6000

Source: 3dfxzone.it English Board
:D

And here it is at last:

Quote:

After a long step and wait due to testing and code optimizations the new Amigamerlin v. 3.0 Final Release, for 3dfx Voodoo4/5 configuration with Windows 2000/XP based systems, is finally on line. Driver is shipped in two version, lite and full: the first does not include control panel (3dfx Tools) while the second is the complete package. This solution allows users with slow web connections (analog or digital ISDN modems) to shorten download time. Please note that lite versione requires manual 3dfx tools add-on after archive unzipping on hard disk. Clicking on Download button at the bottom of a page you may also read Release note while on line help for both driver setup and setting is available in Amigamerlin 3.0 XP installing procedure and Amigamerlin 3.0 XP Best Settings sections of this site respectively.

You can download Am 3.0 for Windows 2000/XP here:
http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/news/3dfx/amigamerlin3.0.htm

Darn, I can't reach their Server/Website right now...

No response, seems dead  :-/
---- edit ----
Works now, downloading in progress :)

---- edit2 ----
Upload in progress ;D

---- final edition ----
Driver online : http://www.falconfly.de/vsa100.htm :D

what about amigasport? the v3 drivers?

Quote:

the only thing that i know : they will support all the Voodoo 3 (the 3500 TV also ? even if this is already the case)

Voodoo3 here :P, the D3D games are completely textureless.

Did they have the time to test throughly the drivers: 3DMark, Quake3, new games as: Vice City, Unreal Tournament 2003?

Anyway, as each and every new driver appears on the web, there seems to be a problem. All try to recompile the source codes, or change them, but there is always the question: what is the thing for which they are worth, what's the difference between their release and the reference drivers?

This thing seem to slip away every time: noone puts seriously the problem of what they can do better with the new drivers. Sometimes I really question if they are releasing a driver just to attract some attention...

First, Xpentor did the "drivers" to attract attention, and they bring nothing else. Voodoolizer is doing a slightly similar thing. On an average, there are more people involved or like to be, in a field that releases drivers and sustain that they bring something new (especially support for Dx81), rather than working anything more out. So, my conclusion "more for the attention, less true work", is based upon truth.

I do understand that Amigamelin might be solving some of the Voodoo's problems with newer games, but still they seem to lack, at least for this moment, the power or the will to solve the more consistent part of the problem: texture compression. Although it is known about the ability of Voodoo2's until V5 that they can use a native texture compression format YAB, or PAL8.

Still, there is no solution to put it on or off when neccesary, and to remain activated by default for any new Dx8 or 9 game, especially when the texture memory is low. If texture compression would be used, in some cases, it would be 10fps more in games!

This is an aspect that Beyond Dreams will address to Amigamerlin.

However, solving the problem of texture compression, might be in 7 cases of 10, much more important than any aspect. Keeping, and forcing the compatibilty with newer games is, of course, the thing that mostly appeal to the new users, or the average users of 3dfx.

But, if 3dfx is to be still said to exist in 2003, it might be a heavy plus for the future, at least in the terms of reliability and survival for the voodoo's, if YAB would be implemented. At a time that is closing faster and faster, there will be a moment in which the much "beloved compatibility" will get to a stall...

How much would then appreciate that they can run a game, if they see nearly no textures on it. And this moment is getting ever closer, as game development exploded in the field of huge texture space usage. And when this will happen, it will get a far longer way, much more difficult, than it would be if the compression problem would be solved NOW...

@ Patience

The Creative MiniGL should work on a Voodoo3 with my patch : search HEX 0211 and replace all found strings with HEX 1A12. The patch is on FalconFly  ;)

Regards

D3d is very different from Glide. It's maybe a dreams if we wonder how the bigger textures would look on d3d, since we didn't even solve the limited memory space.

I see no use in 512x512 textures if I have to play as an user at around 5fps-12fps, half the normal speed (Banshee running Quake3 in 800x600 with the miniGL), and in certain places it goes even down to 1fps...

Nevertheless it is worth a try ! With 3DNow! and KNI optimizations ;D

KNI (Pentium3 optimization), and even 3DNow!, can mostly solve a problem related to geometry, but in the case of Banshee and Quake3 with 512 textures, the problem is not geometry, but fill-rate.

Technically, if we put the card to go from 256x256 to 512x512, we basically make an overload of the texture unit by 4 times, and in the best case we can expect a rendering droput of at least half, not to mention that in 16Mb of video RAM, the game is already nearly out of texture memory, even before we use 512 textures...

512 textures in d3d or OpenGL, or anywhere else, might be good only for screenshots, otherwise the framerate would be around 12fps-15fps at it's best, and slowing down to 2-3fps when the workload gets bigger.

So, 512 textures is nearly useless, if the card can't handle as much fillrate... Rather consider YAB texture compression (PAL-8, or maybe a newer PAL-16) a good thing to implement in the future (would solve already big problems with limited space for textures in 16MB)...