http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aalchemy_door.sized.jpg

Coming soon.

woa :o
pls pics!

No way!!!  ;D ;D ;D
The Borg King strikes again!!!  :o :o :o
Please give us more infos sooner...  ::) ::) ::)

I'm assembling now, would have been running last night but there was technical issues.


Today is the day, my 8164 will finally come to life.

<not!>

Card installed, machine rebooting!

<farther then I got last night!>

Incredible Gary, good te see you have found the missing parts for the AALchemy system :D, does it have Dual Pentium!!! 550Mhz ?

man it must be imensively powerfull, 8x VSA-100 and 8x 64MB   8)

so maybe FSAA x12 & x16 would be possible, that must look very neat en preciese.

what is going to be it's Operating System, Windows NT 4.0 + SP6 or Windows 2000 Professional + SP4+ ?

wrote on 16.07.05 at 17:12:43:

Incredible Gary, good te see you have found the missing parts for the AALchemy system :D, does it have Dual Pentium!!! 550Mhz ?

Dual 850's with Win2000pro.

Be nice if it worked, the 2.9 volt rail from the power supply isn't putting out.

No core volts, no operation.

a new PSU maybe the sollution? an Enermax Redundant 550Watt PSU maybe an idea, if one falls out you still got the other to take over.

Anyways, will Quake3 Arena be possible?
hmm I see you have posted pics of it's inner structure, very nuce Dual Pentium!!! 850Mhz SLot 1 :) 4GB PC-100/133 max that 4x 1GB right :), hmm could it be that the motherboard is from Super-Micro of Tyan or maybe iWill?

wrote on 16.07.05 at 17:29:52:

a new PSU maybe the sollution? an Enermax Redundant 550Watt PSU maybe an idea, if one falls out you still got the other to take over.

Not possible, the AA5 boards require a custom power supply that can support 75 AMPS on the 2.9 volt rail.

hmmm okay, then the motherboard is from Quantum3D it's self, the Iwill, Tyan and Super-Micro board can have the Redundant PSU, oh well got mixxed up there :)

getting a new PSU for the AA5 mainboardf is gonna be trcky right? Hope you'll get her up 'n' runn'n very soon, that would be so cool.

I see that the AALchemy 8164 goes in the streched PCI slot, looks like a 64Bit PCI slot, but then with another layout partern. it still refers to PCI 3#6.

The motherboard is a Intel GX (hence an AAlchemy-GX system) the same motherboard as Mercury. Quantum3D was running an upgrade program for Mercury owners with a single AA5 board swapping out a merc brick.

The AA5 card works in any PCI 33/66 mhz slot.

troubleshooting the PS now, might be something that can be fixed here.

Is the power problem with the power distribution board with the "Do Not Lick" sticker on it?

wrote on 17.07.05 at 02:59:47:

Is the power problem with the power distribution board with the "Do Not Lick" sticker on it?

Nope, no 2.9v juice coming out of the PS.

good luck with the new project gary

Any news on it's PSU Gary, got the 2.9volt rail working?

I really hope you can fix it, meditate on this I will :)

The supply has to be sent out for repair, will be some weeks before I see it again.

Bugg3ry bugg3r b0llox in a big b0llocking bugg3ry box! >:(

That's all I can say to curse the broken PSU! >:(

...but if it's a 'special' PSU, what can be done except to wait for a repair! ::) :P

you mean those are not available online to purchase and needs to be repaired instead?

wow, complicated stuff.
It shouldn't take too long I hope

Gary will find a way I sense, he always did most of the time :)

I have my fingers crossed for you Gary, the AALchemy 8164 must have ton's of rendering power.

wrote on 18.07.05 at 17:43:01:

The supply has to be sent out for repair, will be some weeks before I see it again.

Any news (good ones)?
I hope we will soon get some info's about that beast's power (AAlchemy's).

just imagine a quad AALchemy 8464 setup [ 4x 8164 cards ;) ]
That must  give an overwhelming amount of rendering power! 32VSA-100 in SLI with 24 x64MB SDRAM @ 166Mhz.. auw.  :-X

wrote on 06.08.05 at 05:34:41:

Any news (good ones)? I hope we will soon get some info's about that beast's power (AAlchemy's).

I was chatting with gary last night. He received the price quote for the repair. He will with out a doubt have the AA 5 machine running in the near future.

I suggest you visit his web page for updates ;)

I shall do that ofcourse, I come there like 4 times per day, though I have the feeling that's I'm a Gary Donovan Fan  ;)

thanx for the idea though, how's your AA 5 machine BTW?

wrote on 13.08.05 at 17:06:50:

thanx for the idea though, how's your AA 5 machine BTW?

Right now I'm busy with the Mercury System. I really loved that machine. Regreted selling it so I'm happy to have another one.

I really imagine that hehe, it even has the Motion BLur effects, rather amazing  ;)

Almost have the cash, should be going out this week.

very nice :) that's for the new ofsay fixed Power Supply Unit right? I did remember that because it's +12 volt rail wans't coping right?

VSA-100 core 2.9 volt 75 amp feed.

Package with power supply & check on it's way to California via UPS, expected ETA there on the 9th.

Lets see how long it takes for them to get the bugger repaired.

Yee-Haw.

yee haa Grandpa :) well that possitive news for now, the AALchemy 8164, hmm must be a beast to see in action, 8 x VSA-100 and 8x 64MB SDRAM cores/mem @ 166Mhz, woei, must have a great bandwith @ about 20.4GB per sec at least for a single AALchemy 8164!

YEEEEEEHAW! ;D ;D

Can't wait to see some screenies/benches/videos... 8)

...if Gary has time (too busy playing Doom 3 DM on an AAlchemy GX - WOOT!) ::) ;D 8)

wrote on 02.09.05 at 12:58:27:

Can't wait to see some screenies/benches/videos... 8)

Well don't get too excited- Hank tells me the applications that will run on 8164 are somewhat limted (I have some mil-sim demos in OpenGVS format that should do just fine)

Hmmm. I wonder if I can get someone to write a wrapper to get Quake 3 running... =)

Actually I have had very little spare time to play anything, need to take some time off and get outside. All work and no play makes one a dull boy.

Well any test would be fine to see on the AALchemy 8164 system :)

Hmm...

I wonder if this stuff would work on it?  :o


http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7527/p42900366kk.th.jpg

wrote on 02.09.05 at 15:24:02:

Well any test would be fine to see on the AALchemy 8164 system :)

Actually I was told a way to get Quake 3 running, have to wait and see.

I'd like to get my hands on some mil-sim games. The tech demos are cools but wouldn't it be nice to see these image generators running the software they were designed for ;D

Sure would be nice if Gary, Patience & I could get together with our three Mercury Systems to create a SwapLock/SyncLock ring to run these demos.


http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6899/sp32200509031459319zi.gif

wrote on 02.09.05 at 23:37:56:

Actually I was told a way to get Quake 3 running, have to wait and see.

ahh those words fullfill me :) nice go'n Gary, the Power of an 8 chiped VSA-100 based Graphics card, man that must be awesome! 8 x VSA-100 @ 166Mhz & with 8x 64MB SDRAM @ 166Mhz, FSAA x8 the same speed as FSAA x2 on a V5 5000.5500 or FSAA x4 on a V5 6000 :| man amazing!

I wonder what the max FSAA factor is of the AALchemy 8164, wasn't that FSAA x16?

I think the 8164 runs at a higher clock then 166 mhz.

maybe 200Mhz ? or would that be too painfull for the VSA-100's them selves?

wrote on 06.09.05 at 20:35:00:

maybe 200Mhz ? or would that be too painfull for the VSA-100's them selves?

Not from what I have been told.

Find out in a few weeks.

hmm this is very interesting, then 183 for cores & mem would of been more approciate :)

I am really curiously aroused, this experiment will be another great 3dfx adventure like all others have been, I must say that Year 2005 has been a BIG BANG for all of us 3dfx people, we have really scored our milestones this year with 3dfx cards and info, really incredible.

We are talking about things we always have dreamed of about 3 or even 4 years ago, yeah it feels good over here.

The 8164 is equipped with 5.4 ns ram.

hmm so maybe 183Mhz cores/mem is verywell possible, like The 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 Rev.A3 3400 :) that cards also has 5.4ns SDRAM from Toshiba and the Rev.A3 3400 runs a default speed of cores/mem 183Mhz :P

Anyways, I am very interested in the real specs of the AALchemy 8164 cards and what they are really capable of :)

Gary,

Any screenies of the Display Properties?

No power supply yet.

Won't be at TK till tomorrow.

Power supply being worked on even as I post this message and will be on it's way back in a few days.

They are going to fix the 2.9 core voltage issue and update some other pieces known to be problems like aging caps.

WooT.

now this is gonna be cool :) seeing an 8 way VSA-100 card with a total of 512megs of SDRAM inaction! :P

Splendid news about the PSU Gary, and that they even are gonna moddify t, wouldn't expect that :)

wrote on 13.09.05 at 02:37:52:

Splendid news about the PSU Gary, and that they even are gonna moddify it, wouldn't expect that :)

Neither did I, nice to have problems headed off before they can arrive.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album52/aa5_messy.sized.jpg

IT"S ALIVE!!!!! 512 MB of 8164!

Sorry for the mess but the repaired power supply JUST returned today and I did not wish to install and clean up everything if it did not function correct.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album52/aa5_properties.sized.jpg

Only 8x AA- Perhaps two boards are required for anything higher?

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album52/aa5_screenshot.jpg

Testing!!!

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album52/aa5_quake3.jpg

AND QUAKE 3 works!!

wrote on 21.09.05 at 21:16:45:

Are you going to add 3 other boards as well ?  :o

Obtaining one 8164 board is more then enough!

nice man!

i wanna see some benchmarks!

try 3dmark2001!

or does it only run unter win nt ?

wrote on 21.09.05 at 21:34:51:

or does it only run unter win nt ?

Win2000Pro.

The Quake3 benches are locked to vertical sync even when it is disable in the driver control panel.

I will be running some OpenGVS demos shortly.

very nice  :o

http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/eek2.gif
W00t! The power supply can provide more than 200 watts exclusively for the AAlchemy... Simply jaw-dropping...
Do you have a device for measuring the power consumption of the whole PC at full load?

hehe I always had an idea that Quake3 would run ;) any VSA-100 can run that game, Calll of Duty and Return To Castle Wolfenstein should be able to run also, cause they are all Quake 3 enigine based games ;)

now playing Quake 3 with 8x FSAA shouldn't be a prob hehe.

But Very nice work Gary!!!! 8) 8) It's good to see the fastest 3dfx card work.

here a nice SMP tip :

to enable Dual Processor in QuakeIIArena, simply just type this in the console:

r_SMP 1  after that enter and restart the game, be sure you have Quake3 Arena Ver 1.0 to do this. then you'll have Dual Pentium!!! 550Mhz CPU's runn'n Q3A along with the AAchemy 8164 Octa -VSA-100:)

wrote on 22.09.05 at 01:33:41:

hehe I always had an idea that Quake3 would run ;) any VSA-100 can run that game, Calll of Duty and Return To Castle Wolfenstein should be able to run also, cause they are all Quake 3 enigine based games ;)

8164 is very unique, the glide3 driver has to initalize the board on fire up.

There isn't even a glide2.dll for 8164.


Quote:

now playing Quake 3 with 8x FSAA shouldn't be a prob hehe.

Isn't for V5-6000, The bottleneck in the AAlchemy system is the  CPU's though.


Quote:

then you'll have Dual Pentium!!! 550Mhz CPU's runn'n Q3A along with the AAchemy 8164 Octa -VSA-100:)

I have dual 850's  ;D

How rediculous- GLQuake and Quake II run.

You have to use the 3dfxOGL.dll file including with the 8164 and rename it but it works fine.

Testing with 8164- Very much like Mercury! The AA is free and has no impact on FPS. I get the impression that some of the VSA-100 chips are idle till AA is called for. You can turn AA on with a keystroke, see the image change and it has no impact on FPS counter in corner.

So in theory the 8164 is as fast as V5-6000 running 0 AA, but as 4/8 AA is piled it has no impact on FPS.

I have to do some checking of course, perhaps with a 5500 PCI and review the results.

hey gary, please try that Quake 3 Timedemo (demo001) with 1024x768 all max quality with 0xAA, 2xAA,4xAA,8xAA

wrote on 22.09.05 at 04:50:31:

So in theory the 8164 is as fast as V5-6000 running 0 AA, but as 4/8 AA is piled it has no impact on FPS.

I think it's not that way that some of the chips are idle but rather that they have so much raw power for the game engine that even 8xAA doesn't have so much impact that the fps drop below the refresh rate of the monitor.

If the vertical sync could be disabled there would be an impact I think.

oh man Gary this is Hels ! I mean no change op speed with or with out FSAA and the same speed as a 6K with out, omfg  :o :o :o :o :o

Well I do believe you are right that some chips do go idle, that is a very good explanation whileEye-Q's also could  have a point, I really have never seen a Graphics card of any sort even including the professional ones hav'n Idle chips onboard which only be'n needed when the call comes, but hey it's indeed a speculation what could be , That I do understand ;)

Very interesting that 8 chipped VSA-100 based AALchemt 8164 hehehe no wonder that it has no change in speed hahah is't got like 64MB per VSA-100 and it has 8 of them  :o rather a very sick design, I wonder how a Spectre 3000 would of performed maybe that the AALchemy 8164 is a very good example of how a Spectre 3000 would of performed.

Hope to hear more soon Gary, and Dual Pentium!!!/E 850's in Slot 1 very L33T mate! 8)

SMP + 3dfx 4-Ever!

wrote on 22.09.05 at 08:46:39:

hey gary, please try that Quake 3 Timedemo (demo001) with 1024x768 all max quality with 0xAA, 2xAA,4xAA,8xAA

No point- THe CPU's are too slow (see benchmark page with the 1.0 ghz machine)

2xAA isn't an option and AA is "free" so the benchmarks will be the same.

It's like Mercury being no faster then a Voodoo II SLI rig, the other boards are handling an alternate image for AA blending.

wrote on 22.09.05 at 12:12:49:

I think it's not that way that some of the chips are idle but rather that they have so much raw power for the game engine that even 8xAA doesn't have so much impact that the fps drop below the refresh rate of the monitor.

Nope, there has been several times I can drive the FPS below the refresh of the monitor and toggling AA has zero impact on FPS.

well a celeron 1000 is slower than a Dual Pentium!!!/E 850 when SMP is in use. 1 Celeron 1Ghz can be compared to a 866Mhz Pentium!!! EB .

I had Dual Pentium!!!/EB 1Ghz CPU's once and a friend of mine had a Celeron 1Ghz and even with 1 CPU i crushed his Celeron with ease. So I underclocked my P3 til i reached a speed of 866 and then the scores were comparable.

in otherwords maybe you should of used a real Pentium!!!/EB 1Ghz or 1Ghz Athlon Thunderbird for a better comparance, cause a Celeron is a decranked Pentium!!!., so even then the comparance isn't worthy, 2 totally different CPU's.

wrote on 22.09.05 at 12:48:58:

oh man Gary this is Hels ! I mean no change op speed with or with out FSAA and the same speed as a 6K with out, omfg  :o :o :o :o :o

I'm just using that as an example, it might not be any faster then a 5500 PCI.

I would have to swap cards about on the same platform and test the results.


Quote:

I really have never seen a Graphics card of any sort even including the professional ones hav'n Idle chips onboard which only be'n needed

Mercury does just that if you disable the AA via command line, it's no faster then an SLI VII rig.


Quote:

I wonder how a Spectre 3000 would of performed maybe that the AALchemy 8164 is a very good example of how a Spectre 3000 would of performed.

Afraid not- 8164 was built for pure image quality, outright speed wasn't a consideration.

wrote on 22.09.05 at 14:23:13:

in otherwords maybe you should of used a real Pentium!!!/EB 1Ghz or 1Ghz Athlon Thunderbird for a better comparance, cause a Celeron is a decranked Pentium!!!., so even then the comparance isn't worthy, 2 totally different CPU's.

A V5-6000 Still scales with a Barton 3000+.. so bump from Celeron to P3 a P3-1000 (which would require me to buy another motherboard, PC-133 ram and of course a P3 1.0 ghz) isn't going happen.

Perhaps I should make something clear- Performance wise the card isn't spectacular, just based off a running timedemo I think a 6000 would have no problem beating it.

Where 8164 shines is Image Quality with minimal impact on framerate as AA is applied. That is what the card was made for and what it excels at.

oh okay norries there :) if you mobo has the Intel BX440 it is possible to run P# EB 1Ghz cpu's with a 133MHz FSB, though I'm not sure what mobo you have.

Mine is the MSI-MS 6119 BX2 ver.1.1 , Isuppose that every iBX440 board must have thier differenties. My board can make use of PowerLeap Slot1 to Socket1 aka Socket 370 convertors for later P3/Celeron CPU's. the board has Bios 2.9 latest bios for Coppermine 100/133fsb CPU's, dunno about Tualatins though, it should be possible still.


But anyways it's nice to see the AALchemy 8164 alive and well, now to obtain it's smaller brother the AALchemy 4116  8) The only Quad Chip Voodoo3 3000 :)

wrote on 22.09.05 at 14:36:56:

oh okay norries there :) if you mobo has the Intel BX440 it is possible to run P# EB 1Ghz cpu's with a 133MHz FSB, though I'm not sure what mobo you have.

No NOT possible as that badly overclocks the AGP slot and a excellent way to blow the V6K Hint chip to hell and back.

The BX chip will run at 133 mhz but Intel did not design it to do so nor does it have the correct divider for proper AGP speed under those conditions.

oh okay, didn't know it would be that deadly afterall oh dear.
Dos the AALchemy 8164 also have a sort of HiNT chip?

wrote on 22.09.05 at 15:12:54:

Dos the AALchemy 8164 also have a sort of HiNT chip?

Sure does.

wrote on 22.09.05 at 14:23:13:

well a celeron 1000 is slower than a Dual Pentium!!!/E 850 when SMP is in use. 1 Celeron 1Ghz can be compared to a 866Mhz Pentium!!! EB . I had Dual Pentium!!!/EB 1Ghz CPU's once and a friend of mine had a Celeron 1Ghz and even with 1 CPU i crushed his Celeron with ease. So I underclocked my P3 til i reached a speed of 866 and then the scores were comparable. in otherwords maybe you should of used a real Pentium!!!/EB 1Ghz or 1Ghz Athlon Thunderbird for a better comparance, cause a Celeron is a decranked Pentium!!!., so even then the comparance isn't worthy, 2 totally different CPU's.

Slightly offtopic :
You cannot underclock your 1GHz CPU to a real 866. You've underclocked the FSB because all the multipliers we're locked.

Your 1GHz @ 866MHz is slower than a real 866. The 866 has an 133MHz FSB and we all know that the FSB matters  :P .
I think an Intel Celeron 1GHz will be comparable with an Intel Pentium !!! 800EB in your case  ;D .
All with all it's difficult to say which CPU will be faster, applications differ a lot so it's possible that the lower clocked P!!! can crush the higher clocked Celeron. But of course, it could be otherwise  ;)

wrote on 22.09.05 at 15:28:00:

Sure does.

Ah cool, is it the same one on the V56K or is it from another vendor?

Ookay, rather obvious that I've been a.w.o.l. this week and missed all the fun... ::)

...only because I'm a Final Fantasy fan and FF:Advent Children was released this week (GO AND BUY IT NOW PEOPLE!) 8)

Anyhow, will you be doing a screenshots section for the AAlchemy on your web page @Gary, since performance will not alter due to the CPU bottleneck... ???

wrote on 22.09.05 at 17:53:59:

Ah cool, is it the same one on the V56K or is it from another vendor?

HiNT, same as V6K.

wrote on 22.09.05 at 21:27:09:

Anyhow, will you be doing a screenshots section for the AAlchemy on your web page @Gary, since performance will not alter due to the CPU bottleneck... ???

I can do a few screenshots, I had plans to show properties and such of course but can do some game stuff too.

That would be great Gary :) hey Paul well if you start reading from page 4 of this topic you haven't missed a thing mate ;)

That AALchemy 8164 really packs a punch hay :P

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_case_large.sized.jpg

Case front view.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_powerboard.sized.jpg

8164 with power board and shroud.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_pb_decal.jpg

Someone at Quantum3D has a sense of humor eh?

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_motherboard.jpg

Case overview before installing card, much re-routing of cables has been done!

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_scsi_cable.jpg

One problem was the shroud would not fit with SCSI drive cable installed! The original AAlchemy GX systems did not have the shroud now used to duct air.  As luck would have it I have a spare shroud so headed out to the garage to do some machining.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_cable_installed.jpg

As installed in machine, perfect!

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_fans.jpg

The two massive 120 mm fans used to keep things cool.

There is also a shroud that is suppose to be in this area for airflow control, I'll have it in the near future.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_side_view.sized.jpg

Card finally installed!

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_rear_view.jpg

Rear view of installed card.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_card_foam.sized.jpg

With top cover on you can see the foam attached to the lid that keeps the graphics board firmly in place.

The grill that is missing from the rear of the case should be here in the near future, with the grill out I was able to take the picture above. There was also a module that fit in this location that was an optional sensor unit.

wrote on 21.09.05 at 22:18:56:

Do you have a device for measuring the power consumption of the whole PC at full load?

No, but the power supply will handle 2-3 8164 boards.

great shots gary, never thought we would see some 3dfx fan with one of these units in operation, just amazing, thanks for sharring it.

nice pics!

gary, youre the king  8)

Gary is a Jedi Master !!! hehe this is very unique in a cartain way, the AAlchemy 8164 does look somewhat odd in it's box like casing, I wonder why Q3D used a casing like that, why not just install the card in stead that would create a better airflow ,not?

so if you waould build an 8464 set aka 4x 8164 you would need a second PSU, cause 1 PSU could only handle 2 to 3 of them lol ;D

so if I'm correct the layouts would be as the following:

1x AALchemy 8164 =  AALchemy 8164
2x AALchemy 8164 =  AALchemy 8264
3x AALchemy 8164 =  AALchemy 8364
4x AALchemy 8164 =  AALchemy 8464

hmm an 8464 set must be grewsome in power hehe.

BTW this sticker :
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_pb_decal.jpg

could of been placed by a Rolling Stones Fan ;)
look the Rolling Stones use it for one of thier latest Albums also!
http://www.iorr.org/tour02/40licks.jpg

here also:
http://www.irocknroll.com/images/Rolling_Stones_Signed_Tongue_Poster_2.jpg

here more info about the Rolling Stones album 40 licks.!
http://www.iorr.org/tour02/40licks.htm

wrote on 23.09.05 at 10:29:27:

so if you waould build an 8464 set aka 4x 8164 you would need a second PSU, cause 1 PSU could only handle 2 to 3 of them lol ;D

The problem of such a combination is that the power boards take away 2 or 3 PCI-slots so you aren't able to put more than 2 AAlchemy 8164 (squeezed maybe 3 but that's the absolute maximum) in one case/on one mainboard because there is no mainboard which has more than 6 PCI-slots. I think the "network connectors" are for that field of application to hook up multiple cards in different systems to synchronize.

wrote on 23.09.05 at 10:29:27:

I wonder why Q3D used a casing like that, why not just install the card in stead that would create a better airflow ,not?

The VSA-100 chips run cooler with the ducting.


Quote:

so if you waould build an 8464 set aka 4x 8164 you would need a second PSU, cause 1 PSU could only handle 2 to 3 of them

1) It's possible in theory but I'm told none have been built.

2) If you wanted to display more then 3 channels you can just sync-lock another AAlchemy into the first system.


http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album52/iron_plane_another_view.sized.jpg

Three channels are cool.

wrote on 23.09.05 at 10:47:21:

I think the "network connectors" are for that field of application to hook up multiple cards in different systems to synchronize.

Yes, that is it exactly.

wrote on 23.09.05 at 10:29:27:

could of been placed by a Rolling Stones Fan ;) look the Rolling Stones use it for one of thier latest Albums also! http://www.iorr.org/tour02/40licks.jpg here more info about the Rolling Stones album 40 licks.! http://www.iorr.org/tour02/40licks.htm

[offtopic]
40 Licks is not their newest album, it's Rolling Stones - A bigger bang  ;D
[/offtopic]

@ Thandor I didn't say newest >:( i said one of thier latest   so it doesn't mean it's thier latest. ::)

@ Gary that's a Boeing 747-412 from Singapore Airlines, only every image has a different coloured background  :-/ I suppose that the AAlchemy 8164 was still in development then , or is there another reason for this?

wrote on 23.09.05 at 14:13:30:

@ Gary that's a Boeing 747-412 from Singapore Airlines, only every image has a different coloured background  :-/

That's just differences in the three monitors I was using.

One's a beat up old Dell, the center is an old LCD, and the one on the right is a decent HP.


Quote:

I suppose that the AAlchemy 8164 was still in development then , or is there another reason for this?

The images are not generated by the 8164 system but another project I'm working on  ;D

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album52/iron_landing.sized.jpg

It's time we should fly togeather Gary in FS 2004 ;)

The Australian GAF N22B Nomad and Boeing 747-412 of Lufthansa are my favourites :)

but it surely looks demanding on those screens hehe FS 2000 I must recall ;)

wrote on 23.09.05 at 15:13:24:

but it surely looks demanding on those screens hehe FS 2000 I must recall ;)

Three channel OpenGVS demo from Quantum3D.

woei nice :) so it isnt interactive? wuld be cool if it was hehe.

I can take the plane off autopilot and fly around if I wish.

Updated-

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/q3d_aalchemy.htm

PLEASE, Please, please - more game screenies! ;D

That Q3A screenie looks WAY smoother than ANYTHING I have seen EVER (maybe even in the history of time, the universe and everything!) :o

...LOL! ;)

well if you look carefully the Quake3 Arena pic has no AA enabled hehe, it's as clear as a shot on a 6000 or even 5500 would be, 3dfx VSA-100 = 3dfx VSA-100 , if you have 1, 2 4 or even 8 chips the 3D image quallity is always the same, when FSAA x2. x4 or x 8 is applied, the image quallity does increase, though the Voodoo5 6000 and AALchemy 8164 are the only 2 that can do FSAA x8, FSAA x4 on the 5500, 600 & 8164 the image would still look the same.

FSAA x2 can only be done on the 4500,5500 and 6000 out of the 4, rather odd that the 8164 can't do FSAA x2.

Wow :o

I had no idea the AA5 had this feature;

Enable AAnisotropic Texture Filtering: Enabling AAnisotropic Filtering will give applications the ability to
perform the advanced feature of anisotropic texture filtering. Anisotropic filtering can greatly improve the
image quality of textures applied to long thin objects. When viewing these objects from an angle (like
looking down a road), the blurring effect caused by traditional texture filtering techniques is very noticeably
reduced with anisotropic texture filtering turned on.


That is too cool 8)

Quote:

FSAA x2 can only be done on the 4500,5500 and 6000 out of the 4, rather odd that the 8164 can't do FSAA x2.

Dont forget the V5-5000, it can do FSAA2x as well...

yeah I know that the Voodoo5 5000 AGP can do FSAA x2, but it was just an example I mentioned,

because the Voodoo4-2 4200 PCI 16MB DDR, Voodoo4-2 4200 PCI 32MB DDR, Voodoo4-2 4800 AGP 32MB DDR, Voodoo4 4800 AGP 64MB SDR, Voodoo5 5000 PCI, Voodoo5 5500 AGP x4, Voodoo5 5500 AGP x4 +DVI, Voodoo MAC 4500 and 5000 can also do FSAA x2, but then the list wil be so long hehe, that is why I took the common models instead as an example.  

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap001.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap004.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap005.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap006.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap007.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap010.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap008.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap012.jpg

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/album268

OMG That looks great especially that Mikoyan Gurivich  Mig 29 A Fulcrum!!!! Whoo Hoo Hoo!!! :o :o Would be nice to see a kill made with it Lt. Gdonovan ;)

That Fairchild A10-A Thunderbolt II aka Warthog looks cool also ;)

The Q3D AALchemy 8164 voaps like hell ;) Islandish dutch for it accelerates like hell ;)

Isuppose that the last pic in Q3A with the 50% Body amour is with FSAA x8?






:o :o

wrote on 25.09.05 at 04:47:33:

OMG That looks great especially that Mikoyan Gurivich  Mig 29 A Fulcrum!!!! Whoo Hoo Hoo!!! :o :o Would be nice to see a kill made with it Lt. Gdonovan ;)

Well being a demo program I can fly around if I like but there isn't much to shoot at.


Quote:

Isuppose that the last pic in Q3A with the 50% Body amour is with FSAA x8?

Yes- With all the graphics details cranked to max in Q3 including 32 bit textures & 32 bit color.

There is a few more Q3 shots on the AAlchemy page at 3dfx.ch utilizing the link above.

I may fire up a game later and get some model shots.

well it's defintly faster than a 6K with FSAA x8 @ 32Bit colour & Textures, 57 fps is amazing :) did you use SMP also?

wrote on 25.09.05 at 13:35:32:

did you use SMP also?

Nope.

I'll have to compare the two cards someday, but depending on the application the 8164 might be CPU bottlenecked.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/jno.jpg

Jedi Knight Outcast

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/motion_blur_q3.jpg

Motion blur Quake III (default settings!)

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/quake_guy.jpg

Quake III

wrote on 26.09.05 at 04:49:12:

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/jno.jpg Jedi Knight Outcast ....

Let The Force Flow Through You! 8)

man that looks nice Gary :P, Jedi Knight Jedi Outcast is one of the best FPS games in the StarWars universe, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy might also be worth a go, it uses the same engine , only it's has better details and nice Light Saber modes, I have Dual Light Sabers Blue and Green ;D

Would be nice to have a Saber match Gary ;)

wrote on 25.09.05 at 13:35:32:

well it's defintly faster than a 6K with FSAA x8 @ 32Bit colour & Textures, 57 fps is amazing

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/v6k_q3_max_detail.jpg

The 8164 while darker (which might be nothing more then gamma adjustment in display properties I have not set yet) has nicer Image Quality compared to a V5-6000.

Clearly there is a better level of filtering going on with the 8164, just look close at the armour edges.

And in this case it does look to be faster then a V5-6000.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_serious_sam.jpg

Serious Sam runs.

Found out something funny this morning- The Wicked3d mini driver works with 8164.

Unreal does not run, neither does Doom3.

It's difficult to see the exact difference.
The first Q3 picture with the AAlchemy was :
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album52/aa5_quake3.jpg

The second :
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/snap008.jpg

Those images are not of the same quality. Look at the HUD : The second picture shows lower quality digits (16Bit color ?) and the first picture shows smooth and clean digits (32bits color ?).

Probably a faulty setting I guess. It's best to use exact the same settings and picture to compare.

Compare the two shots of the armor and wall with shotgun.

One is from 8164, the other is from V5-6000 and were taken under identical conditions and settings.

Those images are not the same. 3DMark has such a function to take a screenshot at frame xxxx.  What about Quake 3?

But again, the V5 6000 delivers a better HUD and more colors. I don't know which colors are better since I'm not a Quake 3 gamer  ::)

(It's like the V5 6K has some sunlight and the AAlchemy plays in the middle of the night  :P )

VERY NICE SHOTS!!! 8)

...more please guvnor! ;)

I'm just wondering...since there is GLiDE support...how about some emulator shots like... :P

...ePSXe with Lewpy's GLiDE plugin :D

...project 64 with GLiDE 64 plugin :D

just thinkin' that's all! ::)

wrote on 26.09.05 at 21:23:00:

But again, the V5 6000 delivers a better HUD and more colors. I don't know which colors are better since I'm not a Quake 3 gamer  ::) (It's like the V5 6K has some sunlight and the AAlchemy plays in the middle of the night  :P )

As noted already I have not adjusted the gamma in the AA5 graphics properties before taking the screenshots.

3DMark does not work, it is Direct X.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/aa5_new_quake3.jpg

8164 gamma corrected (maybe too much, I might have washed it out a bit)

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album268/v6k_q3_max_detail.jpg

V5-6000, same settings.

Notice the performance difference, whew.

Yeah, your right gdonovan the top pic (8164) is a bit washed out now while the 6000 is nigh on perfect.

Keep the screens coming as both cards are really showing fantastic anti-aliasing  8)

[glb]Those images are not the same[/glb]

the 6000 image looks fantastic, really nice, but it just cant keep up with the q3d card, take a look at crispness of armour, or even top left of wall, the jagies are almost gone with 6000 just not as well as q3d, both nice cards.

Time permitting I'll try to figure a way to take a screenshot in the same location so everything is in the same spot.

damn, I missed out so much ever since getting a new job

wow... so many pics lol,
I really need time to read every thread
either way good job gary

and again, congrats for your hardwork

wrote on 27.09.05 at 03:14:26:

Time permitting I'll try to figure a way to take a screenshot in the same location so everything is in the same spot.

If you can record a game, stand still for a long time at a certain point.

Play the recorded game on one card and take a screenshot at the point where you stand still and then play the game on the other card to take a screenshot at the same place.

Seems easy enough ;)

Offtopic.. wow so you got employed after all, You'll get to buy some voodoos now huh. :D

well I don't know why all of you are look'n so precise, the fact ae proven the AALchemy 8164 beats a 6K with ease, in image quallity as speed, rather funny don't you think 8x VSA-100 with 8x 64MB 5.4ns Toshiba V.S. 4x VSA-100 with 4x 32MB 6.ns Hynx / 5.4ns Toshiba ;)

the AAlchemy 8164 has overall way more rendering power than a 6K , otherwise it wouldn't make sence since the 6 K has about 62% less rendering power.

wrote on 27.09.05 at 14:22:04:

the AAlchemy 8164 has overall way more rendering power than a 6K , otherwise it wouldn't make sence since the 6 K has about 62% less rendering power.

You could state the same thing about Mercury and it would be false, it's no faster then a regular V2 SLI rig.

Where the V5-6000 shines is at 0x/2x/4x AA, the V6K's VSA-100 chips are always active where on the 8164 at the same settings some of the chips are idle.

The 8164 only has the advantage under maximum rendering settings, that is what it was designed for.

It can also be a liability since you can't use those extra chips when AA is set at 0x/4x AA.

oh okay but I referred to the FSAA x8 setting there the 8164 does have the upper hand :) sorry that I haven't been to clear at my point .  :-X

but yeah it's image quallity is outstanding 8)

Here are two screenshots showing the difference between the AA5 driver and the Wicked3D mini driver, please note that the files are 380k+ each so you can blow them up and examine close!

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/album268/aa5_driver

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/album268/wicked_driver

Using the screenshot utility included with the AA5 drivers, when activated dumps a BMP in the Quake3 directory. The BMP is always darker then what is displayed, so what I did was open both in photoshop and increase brightness 30% and contrast 40% to aproximate what it looks like on my LCD.

In either case 8x AA looks like it is working with the wicked driver, but on the LCD the game looks very washed out compared to the original AA5 driver which looks very rich and detailed.

To get the shot I start a server game with the same map, back into a corner and then zoom into the corner of the wall. In this way I can get pretty close to the same shot everytime.

Next time I fire up the V6K I'll take the same screenshot.

Gary

yes indeed , you mean the line under the ledge right ;)

You have a sharp eye Thandor my friend ;)

wrote on 30.09.05 at 14:50:40:

It looks like the AA5 driver has a rendering problem.

Bear in mind that the Wicked driver was made to support Quake 3, the AA5 driver to support OpenGVS.

Even with the rendering error there (which I only note in screenshots) in person the AA5 driver looks much richer.

I agree with @Gary - the AA5 driver looks a lot smoother than WickedGL...even with weeny teeny rendering errors! 8)

I'll tray and take a picture with the camera the next time I have the system operating, it's just so washed out looking with the Wicked driver.

On a slightly unrelated topic... ::)

@Gary - would it be possible for you to update the AArdvark page with a screenie of the CGA/EGA antialiased port in action? ???

Just wondering what 3Dfx rendering would look like on one of these "old" monitors! ;)

It would have to be running an arcade application designed for 3dfx hardware and a low res monitor.

Of which I have neither item, sorry.

BUGGER! Ah well, we can only hope! ::)

hmm what about the game W.A.R.? that is an arcade app designed for 3dfx right or wouldn't that be possible?

wrote on 22.10.05 at 13:58:47:

hmm what about the game W.A.R.?

1) It runs on dedicated hardware non-pc based.

2) I don't have it.

Back on subject please.

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/q3d_aalchemy.htm

Updated.