Both were for servers and businesses or production environments requiring higher security and stability than what a consumer os could provide.

They also predate the major 3D acceleration push and have little to no API support for it. OpenGL would have been the only major 3D API they support with proprietary drivers and hardware.

As for usability I think you are a little hyperbolic about that.

OS/2 Warp 4 was quite an early bird by comparison, even. It shipped in 1996 with OpenGL.
It also had voice-recognition and a high performance generic video driver (Generic GRADD).
Windows 95 didn't even feature DirectX at the time (not to mention OpenGL; that was available separately).
The "Windows 95 Game SDK" was from late 1995, but didn't feature Direct3D yet. Merely DirectSound, DirectPlay and DirectDraw.
OS/2 Warp had something similar, DIVE.

@TrashPanda "Hyperbolic"! YMMD! 😹

Edit: I vaguely remember that major CAD/CAM programs had their own graphics drivers.
Even in the Windows and OS/2 days.
They were being mentioned on the card board box of old graphics cards.

Rage II/II+ has ATi original OpenGL drivers for Windows NT 3.51, i have not tested them (OPGL351.EXE and OPGL351.TXT)
maybe they work with Rage2c AGP cards also somehow, but for sure they are for RageII and RageII+ earlier ATi videocards.

OPGL351.EXE 714,6 kB Display Driver with OpenGL support for ATI 3D RAGE II/II+, this is release R101.16 of the ATI 3D RAGE II June 26,1997 - Windows NT 3.51 OpenGL driver.

Also we have Windows NT 4.0 driver with OpenGL support for 3D RAGE PRO and 3D RAGE II+ / II - release 4.3.92 of the ATI October 8,1997 (nt404392.exe and nt404392.txt)

nt404392.txt readme has available OpenGL driver support info for theses cards and systems:
3D RAGE PRO: Windows NT 4.0 (ON WEB and ON CD) , Windows NT 3.51 (ON WEB, N/A ON CD)
3D RAG E II/II+: Windows NT 4.0 (ON WEB, N/A ON CD), Windows NT 3.51 (ON WEB, N/A ON CD)

ON WEB - The driver is available on h t t p : / w w w . a t i t e c h . c a
ON CD - The driver is available on CD ROM.

Rage3 cards are faster in 3D tasks, NT3.51 drivers without OpenGL i have for Rage Pro :
Anybody has file or file name for Rage Pro and NT 3.51 drivers with OpenGL support that ATi is talking about, like OPGL351.EXE is for RageII/II+?
I hope someone can share those missing files. NT 3.51 has OpenGL 1.0 support and RageII+DVD would be nice to test it out for that old NT3.51.

Rage2 WinNT 3.51/NT4.0 OpenGL drivers are here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/15435715/winnt-ra … rivers.zip.html

Prescott wrote on 2023-07-13, 08:14:

Without 3D acceleration, these two OSes are entirely unusable, as 32-bit with no 3D acceleration is entirely pointless. May as well just go back to DOS and Windows 3.1.

I work with, among other things, AIX systems at my job, so this is such a weird statement to me.

Prescott wrote on 2023-07-13, 08:14:

Why? What is the point of an OS being fully 32-bit if there isn't 3D acceleration?

Proper 32-bit OSes were more robust and reliable at the time for servers, business, workstation and software development. Gaming wasn't a priority for these.

3D acceleration came alongside OSes upgrading to 32-bit in the mid-1990s, so they go hand-in-hand, except OS/2 Warp 4 and especially Windows NT 3.51 don't seem to have any drivers for any 3D accelerators available to them. Not even a Voodoo 2...

As others mentioned, OpenGL is the only viable option. However, that API wasn't originally intended for consumer hardware.

Without 3D acceleration, these two OSes are entirely unusable, as 32-bit with no 3D acceleration is entirely pointless. May as well just go back to DOS and Windows 3.1.

I find this statement weird as well.

Garrett W wrote on 2023-07-13, 10:34:

Prescott wrote on 2023-07-13, 08:14:

Without 3D acceleration, these two OSes are entirely unusable, as 32-bit with no 3D acceleration is entirely pointless. May as well just go back to DOS and Windows 3.1.

I work with, among other things, AIX systems at my job, so this is such a weird statement to me.

I quit that world like six years ago and there were still some AIX render farms running.