idspispopd wrote:Why should the header file call OpenGL or Direct3D? Of course you could define preprocessor macros to "create your own API", but that wouldn't be more than renaming function calls. The DLLs or LIBs could in theory still call OpenGL or Direct3D. But I agree with you that that's probably not the case.
My theory for a while was that S3 MeTaL was simply an extension to Direct3D and OpenGL prior to becoming a vendor extension built into drivers, and there would have been some visible dependency, either in the header or the library. While it still could be obfuscated, this does not appear to be the case.
I originally mentioned this theory in the Beyond3D thread: https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/s3-savage- … etal-api.54670/
idspispopd wrote:Regarding texture compression: S3TC was included in DirectX 6 (because S3 paid MS to do that) which was released in August 1998. Savage3D was introduced at the 1998 E3 Expo which seems to have taken place in May. Assuming developers had early access to DirectX 6 there is not much of a gap IMO.
In OpenGL S3 could introduce their own extension without asking others.
Did Unreal support S3 MeTaL in the first release on? Unreal was released in May 1998 so this makes some sense and would explain why S3 MeTaL is (probably) not supported in anything except UnrealEngine1 games.
This historical take on things really sheds some light on this, kudos. 😀 "Did Unreal support S3 MeTaL in the first release on?" <- question for leileilol?
Gamecollector wrote:Well, it looks like MeTaL is supported only in UE1 games... I can't find others games/tech demos referencies.
Original Unreal was ddraw/glide/powervr. Other 3 renderers (d3d/ogl/metal) were added later.
Agreed. But when -exactly- was MeTaLDrv.dll introduced? earliest build?
Earliest metal.dll I can find so far, 1.0.0.1, is 10/28/1998.
The "earliest" 1.0.0.0 versions seen on SavageNews:
http://www.savagenews.com/drivers/s3/s3metal.php
for the Savage 2000 obviously are later builds (since the Savage 2000 came later), making the first one they record to be version 1.0.0.1 for Savage IV and Savage3D. Again, nearly all of these are now mirrored here: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=726
leileilol wrote:There's an S3QUAKE3 demo (Q3TEST-based) and patch (1.11ish-based) out there, not sure what that uses anymore (probably GL + S3TC extensions + unneccessary vendor lock-in) and not sure where to get it either.
Hm, yeah, s3quake3.zip seems to have disappeared off the web. It's probably buried in the Internet Archive somewhere.
Here's some discussion on this, one post in here describes its contents:
http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/archi … p/t-378781.html
http://www.old-games.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=24812
http://www.bluesnews.com/s/9721/s3-quake-iii-arena-stuff
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