There are dedicated benchmark programs for DOS and Windows. For DOS there is 3dbench 1.0c or PC Player Bench. And for Windows there is 3dMark1999 and 2000.

VGA grabbers can be quite expensive, but offer the best quality. A cheap solution (this is what I use) are VGA to S-Video converters or using a video card that comes with S-Video out.

I forgot to mention dedicated benchmarking programs, thanks for reminding me 😀

3DMark 99 and MAX (Don't think 2000, it's DX7), FinalReality, Winbench 3D, any other suggestions?

I primarily asked you to test the Tasmania, so this is what my post will be covering.

The Tasmania has only 5 known games that it supports (which you can find in my list here on vogons). I would test all of these with the Pentium 100 you got as that should bring out the performance differences the most. They are all DOS games and in theory the normal retail versions should work as the Tasmania accelerated API's of different 3D engines.They probably have no framerate counter and there are no benchmark tool that is known to work on the tasmania so the only way is to capture footage. Capture with the same graphical settings with and without the Tasmania and then put the videos side by side. Any performance difference will then be easy to see if there actually are any. I don't think the Tasmania offered any graphical enhancements, just extra framerate in higher resolutions.

VGA capture cards like the one I use for my videos is a bit expensive. If you don't want to go to that step using a cheap VGA to S-video is an alternative. Using a video card with S-video is not an option as the Tasmania reroutes the VGA signal just like a Voodoo card.

So basically:

1. Get the supported games, see if they indeed work with the retail versions.
2. Test on a Pentium 100 (and faster to see if there are any CPU scaling with the Tasmania).
3. Get a real VGA capture card or VGA to S-video. Capture gameplay with and without the Tasmania.
4. Put both capture files side by side in a video. Render it in 720p
5. Upload to Youtube.
6. Find other possible supported games (Renderware games from 1996-1997 like Scorched Planet) and test 😀

Short about FRAPS. It only works with Direct3D and OpenGL for capture. The benchmark tool can be used in some PowerVR and ATI CIF games, but I don't know how accurate it is.

If you don't go the capture footage route, I hope you atleast can give a detailed story about how each game performs with and without the tasmania.

How does the recording with VGA to S-Video work exactly?

NitroX infinity wrote:

How does the recording with VGA to S-Video work exactly?

You need two gadgets. One is a VGA to S-Video converter and the other one is a USB S-Video capture device.

You're looking at ~ 60 - 100 bucks I would say.

The other option is to just film the screen.

First you need something like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-PC-LAPTOP-V … =item2a2801c8d3
(Lowest price, free shipping and including cables)

Then you put the S-video input into a device that can record video. This could be a video card, a TV card, etc. If you don't have that available, then you need something like this: S-Video to USB:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-Interface-to- … =item1e74ec15d5

60-100 bucks? More like 20!

You use Virtualdub or VLC to capture the footage. The USB device own software can probably also do it, but it probably sucks.

If you want to spend 120 dollars and get alot better quality, then I have this card:
http://www.amazon.com/AVERMEDIA-Broadcaster-1 … 7/dp/B006T8QCYA

There are probably other solutions as well in this price range.

Damn that's cheap 😀

I had bad luck with that ezy capture device. Apparently it's a fake.

This is the legit one: http://www.ezcap.tv/

Btw vetz, how do you imagine #4 on your list is gonna happen?

If there's no timedemo thingy then I'm gonna have to play manually. If that's the case, no two games are gonna be the same. Which makes it a bit pointless of putting the recordings side by side, doesn't it?

Oh, something I just ran into which you might find interesting;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRender#BRender

Most games in the mid 90s had auto demos that would start playing if you stayed in the mainmenu. If the game got this, it's pretty easy to capture and compare. Other options are ingame cutscenes or sections of gameplay were you don't have control over the camera/character.

If everything fail, then most of these games seems to be flight games and they have something called autopilot. Just set it up to fly to the nav points and the game should in theory behave the same. Other options are to just find an nice spot and just walk/fly/drive straight forward at the same speed for a defined amount of seconds. Putas has described all his testing methods on vintage3d.org.

If it that is also impossible, then just try and play a section and then replay it again trying to copy your actions as best as possible. It won't be perfect, but if the Tasmania offers significant better framerate it won't matter as it will be very clear.

Nice list, but I don't think it's nearly complete, but they do mention some games:

Well-known games made with BRender include Carmageddon, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, FX Fighter and I-War (Independence War).

Scorched Planet is the only RenderWare game from the time that I know of.

RenderMorphics (bought by Microsoft in 95 to become DirectX and Direct3D) I've not found any games on.

Okay, thanks. I'll buy the AverMedia thingy tomorrow. And then I need to check what else I need. I think a monitor and an hdmi to vga (or dvi) cable. And ofcourse a bunch of games 😜

You are actually buying the expensive solution? 😳

I hope you have other plans as well for it, not just for the Tasmania 😉

If you are actually going to buy it, then be aware of the following limitations:

1. 800x600 from Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2's have problems. You are missing around 10-15% of the image and the quality is not top notch. 640x480 and 1024x768 work fine.
2. Battle Arena Toshinden on the NV1 does not work correctly (see my video). Same issue as with the Voodoo's, but even worse, though does not suffer quality loss.
3. 512x384 in anything other than 60hz is a no-go!
4. Windows NV1 games can't be captured in full screen for some reason. You need to run them in windowed mode and then edit the footage so it appears like fullscreen mode if you want that.
5. More info can be found in my post here on Vogons.

To solve all these problems, and to also capture from more sources, I've been looking at this little board:

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/cga-ega-yuv- … l?sef_rewrite=1

Found another BRender game: Privateer 2: The Darkening

You're actually telling me the cheap solution is the better one?

(And yes, I do plan on using it for more than just the Tasmania; think all rendering modes of UT compared, etc)

hehe, in terms of quality it's not, but if it was just for testing the Tasmania it is a bit overkill and the cheap S-video solution would suffice.

If you plan on testing Unreal Tournament it will come handy, as the quality differences between VGA and S-Video become greater with higher resolutions.

As for other cables, I would advice to get a VGA splitter so that you can see both the image on a monitor and capture at the same time. They are very cheap on Ebay where I got mine and it works just fine.

Up to 640 x 480 S-Video recording is fine! I use NTSC because it has a higher frame rate. The higher resolution of PAL isn't much of a benefit.

About the VGA splitter. Are we talking about one of those boxes with VGA input and outputs or would a cable work just as well?

You need a box with power since it "copies" the signal to another output. I think the cables one only work if you have two outputs and just use one of them at the time.

Yay, it arrived! That's one step closer. Now all I need is a VGA splitter, a secondary system and a bunch of games. Oh, and space to put the systems 😁

Yes you need a powered VGA splitter! Keep us posted.

Small and insignificant update; am looking for various BRender and RenderWare games now, have several in my sights.