Use 24 bit color.

Thanks! I double checked and windows is already set to 24 bit color. Mechwarrior (windows) doesn’t seem to have its own color depth setting, so I assume it uses Windows. In GL Quake I can set bpp in console but it doesn’t have any effect on the diamond grid pattern.

I do notice that the higher resolution you run the games, the tighter the pattern gets. But even at 1024x768 it still has an almost comic book like dot matrix pattern, just finer.

Quake sample in 24 bit. Maybe this is just what this card does? Unless people are getting clean output from it?

I have seen the dithering pattern when running Tomb Raider in S3D mode on my Virge DX, but maybe not quite to the extent that you're experiencing. Here are some photos from that game that I took a few years back.

Also, it's possible that my phone's crappy camera smooths out the dithering effect. I can't double check this at the moment, as my Virge DX is currently sitting in storage.

Awesome thanks. I’ll have to try Tomb Raider later and see. Yours does appear to be more speckled than diamond shaped so it blends much better. Could be a higher resolution masking it too.

In Mechwarrior I was running 640x480 and it’s super noticeable. At 800x600 the grid is much finer and more like little dots. GL Quake looks terrible at lower resolution and about the same even at 1024x768. So maybe the game itself has some impact too on how it renders.

It's possible few S3d games are willing to use 24 bit color unless you modify them. S3d itself supports 24 bit modes but they weren't often used. Try something in Direct3D and be sure it's running in 24 bit without guesswork. It'll get rid of not only the overall dithering but also the alpha bug where fully transparent sections are dithered.

The dithering is normal behavior. It would be ugly and banded if it weren't. ViRGE isn't the only old 3d card to do this.

It's also normal for S3 to erroneously apply the dither in translucent texels. (i was hoping this thread is about that)

I was able to try a DirectX 6 .1 game, F22 Lightning 3. I can confirm the pattern is there, but looks better. At 1024x768 it’s pretty minimal unless looking closely. At 640x480 the pattern is much larger and noticeable. This game runs pretty slow in any resolution. This game says it only supports 16-bit color .

I can confirm Tomb Raider looks similar to the Tomb Raider sample shared above with S3 Virge Patch. It doesn’t tell you what resolution it is or let you choose it, but monitor says 640x480. Pattern is still there, but much tighter and harder to see.

Maybe this is just how the card is. Lower resolutions make it really bad, higher resolutions hide it better but still always has a speckled look.

leileilol wrote on 2025-02-21, 02:09:

The dithering is normal behavior. It would be ugly and banded if it weren't. ViRGE isn't the only old 3d card to do this.

It's also normal for S3 to erroneously apply the dither in translucent texels. (i was hoping this thread is about that)

Thanks, that makes sense. Surprised how prominent it is and the weird diamond pattern on Nate as of normal gradient dots like most dithering.

It's a standard 4x4 ordered dithering matrix you'll also see on 3dfx (unfiltered) and PowerVR cards

16 bit vs 24 bit at 320 x 200 in Ignition using my Glide-S3d wrapper and VGA capture: