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http://www.falconfly.de/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl 3dfx Section >> 3dfx Drivers >> All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)? http://www.falconfly.de/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1051561379 Message started by nudgegoonies on 28.04.03 at 22:22:59

Title: All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)?
Post by nudgegoonies on 28.04.03 at 22:22:59

I tried the latest x3dfx V3 driver and compared the default 3dfx-tools d3d setting with the fastest setting as written in OPTIMAL SETTINGS.TXT in 3dmark99max race-benchmark and there was nearly no difference. If these third party drivers increase compatibility than OK. But on my K6-2-500 these options lack the performance increase i expected from hsr, guardband and co.

Regards,
Andreas

Title: Re: All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)?
Post by FalconFly on 28.04.03 at 23:18:04

Hm, commonly, on lower performance CPU's like the K6-2, only Guardband Clipping will have a reasonable effect on performance.

This is also only true, if the rendered scenes contain enough Geometry to Clip, so the setting shows a noteable (e.g. Benchmark scores) effect.

HSR should only work under OpenGL, with Quake3 based Engines (but is reported to have significant Visual Artifacts).

Anyway, regardless of Driver used, most settings do not have massive effect, they're just small tweaks.
And if the Card is already waiting for the CPU all the time, tweaking the Card won't have a big effect...

The biggest difference is probably Visual Quality (e.g. Edge Antialiasing, 22bit Post Filter etc.)

Title: Re: All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)?
Post by DenisF on 01.05.03 at 01:30:38

Afaik edge aliasing doesn't do anything..
I heard the only time it was used was in tomb rider 2... ???

Title: Re: All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)?
Post by FalconFly on 01.05.03 at 01:34:30

I admit the last Time I used it, was with a Voodoo2.
(that's where it originated, as the very first step towards Antialiasing 3dfx ever made)

But there, this indeed worked very well.

If it does not work in a 3rd party Driver, that means that the Direct3D Core Driver is incompatible with the Tweak, and the Driver Author didn't notice or care.

But it does work, I've seen it myself :)

Title: Re: All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)?
Post by DenisF on 01.05.03 at 01:37:33

Care to point me at a game that supports edge aliasing ?
wanna check it out

Title: Re: All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)?
Post by FalconFly on 01.05.03 at 10:03:57

It should work in any Direct3D application, but the Driver needs to be 'correct' about it.

It's probably best to spot in low Detail Games, where each polygon is still a bit distinguished from the other, and has a high contrast.

Back in time, I tested it in 3D Winbench, which did a good job of giving still images for comparison (Image Quality)

Title: Re: All those options in 3dfx tools (V3)?
Post by nudgegoonies on 01.05.03 at 10:22:37

I can't say anything about edge-antialias but the fullscreen antialias which the x3dfx voodoo³ drivers supports (according to the helpfile very slow because in software) has nearly no effect. I checked this with the forsaken-demo wich has some extreme stairs effects in the mainmenu-cube, independent from the fsaa settings in 3dfx-tools.

Regards,
Andreas