Games that came with my 3D Blaster PCI/Rendition Verite V1000 card (that I'd LOVE to be able to play): - Rebel Moon - Flight Unl […]
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Games that came with my 3D Blaster PCI/Rendition Verite V1000 card (that I'd LOVE to be able to play):
- Rebel Moon
- Flight Unlimited
- Battle Arena Toshinden

I think someone has brought up Toshinden on these boards before. Doesn't it work in a 3dfx-enabled build, such as ykhwong's? Maybe I'm just thinking of the Windows version.

There are a few versions of Toshinden, the 3dfx version will run in DOSBox's that support 3dfx.

You can see some of the non-3dfx versions in vetz's 3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes...
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Zqy5BZQ1E&feature=g-high-u

laxin84 wrote:

Games that came with my 3D Blaster PCI/Rendition Verite V1000 card (that I'd LOVE to be able to play): - Rebel Moon - Flight Unl […]
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Games that came with my 3D Blaster PCI/Rendition Verite V1000 card (that I'd LOVE to be able to play):
- Rebel Moon
- Flight Unlimited
- Battle Arena Toshinden

All of these were DOS-based games meant to show off the V1000 when it first came out in 96. Flight Unlimited was my fave of the 3. I'm pretty sure at least Flight Unlimited and BAT were direct-access games.

Is there any way to emulate the V1000/V2200 in DOSBox/anything at all (lol) to get these running again? It's fully possible I actually have one of these cards lying around the house somewhere and may be able to recreate a Win9x system, but I'd much rather just run a VM or DosBox style program instead on my main rig...

All those games are CGL based (Creative Graphics Library) and was originally created for the Creative 3D Blaster VLB which came out a year earlier than the PCI version. For the re-bundle they added bilinear filtering on Rebel Moon and Flight Unlimited, but Battle Arena Toshinden (only demo with the bundle) stayed the same. They can't be run on any other V1000 cards, and I can't say the CGL games really showed off what the card could do. Indycar Racing II and Quake using Speedy3D was much more impressive.

For more info on CGL games, check out this thread: Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Ha, found this thread by accident, 2 1/2 years after the last post... I'm actually the developer for the Rendition port of IndyCar Racing II and NASCAR Racing 2, in 1996. I know that the 3D hardware access in those games (same code) was extremely low level, I wrote code to manage virtual memory to linear memory mapping, to build command lists and start the DMA to the cards (or use I/O ports in 'slow' mode); I don't think the game used Speeedy3D for much, unless it was just setup. I know that John Carmack also wrote very low level stuff, including microcode that ran on the card itself, for the Quake I R1000 port. I also ported IndyCar Racing II to the Matrox Millenium card a year earlier; it wasn't a true 3D accelerator but it sure accelerated the game via fast 2D ops. That was direct to registers, but using the card's BIOS to set up the graphics mode initially. I also briefly worked on fixing a bug affecting running Final Fantasy VII on the R1000. I think that was via the API though.

miken wrote:

Ha, found this thread by accident, 2 1/2 years after the last post... I'm actually the developer for the Rendition port of IndyCar Racing II and NASCAR Racing 2, in 1996. I know that the 3D hardware access in those games (same code) was extremely low level, I wrote code to manage virtual memory to linear memory mapping, to build command lists and start the DMA to the cards (or use I/O ports in 'slow' mode); I don't think the game used Speeedy3D for much, unless it was just setup. I know that John Carmack also wrote very low level stuff, including microcode that ran on the card itself, for the Quake I R1000 port. I also ported IndyCar Racing II to the Matrox Millenium card a year earlier; it wasn't a true 3D accelerator but it sure accelerated the game via fast 2D ops. That was direct to registers, but using the card's BIOS to set up the graphics mode initially. I also briefly worked on fixing a bug affecting running Final Fantasy VII on the R1000. I think that was via the API though.

Hi, welcome to the forum

Interesting post! Thanks for the interesting info, certainly new information! Did you work for Papyrus back in those days?

Btw, are you sure you are not mixing up Indycar Racing II with Nascar Racing regarding the Matrox Millennium? Or was there actually a port for the Matrox Millennium of Indycar Racing II?

Maybe you also know if Nascar Racing (the first game) was demoed on Rendition Verite? There are some indications on this:

- Nascar Racing on Rendition Verite This could all be talk about the sequel, but nothing is mentioned of that in the press rele […]
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- Nascar Racing on Rendition Verite
This could all be talk about the sequel, but nothing is mentioned of that in the press releases. It is possible that a port of the original NASCAR Racing was made to show its potential on the Rendition Verite, but since the release of the V1000 card shifted from Q1 1996 to Q4 1996 they switched to releasing the sequel with support instead.

Our initial port of NASCAR Racing(TM) to the Rendition Verite demonstrated our future Rendition Ready titles will deliver quality and performance most industry insiders believed would be impossible ...

Source: -J. David Kaemmer, vice president, Papyrus Design Group, Inc. November 1995

"The performance and quality of our NASCAR RACING game on Number Nine's board has gone way beyond anyone's expectations for what was possible on a PC platform," said David Kaemer, vice president, Papyrus Design Group. "With the gaming market so cost-sensitive, the architects of this platform really did a tremendous job in picking all the right features and performance enhancements that will really make a huge difference in 3D games. We could hardly believe how exciting NASCAR RACING became when we first ran it on the 9FX Reality 3D. I think our customers are going to be even more excited."

Source: -David Kaemer, vice president, Papyrus Design Group. November 1995

According to this source it was also showcased on E3 in 1996.

miken wrote:

Ha, found this thread by accident, 2 1/2 years after the last post... I'm actually the developer for the Rendition port of IndyCar Racing II and NASCAR Racing 2, in 1996. I know that the 3D hardware access in those games (same code) was extremely low level, I wrote code to manage virtual memory to linear memory mapping, to build command lists and start the DMA to the cards (or use I/O ports in 'slow' mode); I don't think the game used Speeedy3D for much, unless it was just setup. I know that John Carmack also wrote very low level stuff, including microcode that ran on the card itself, for the Quake I R1000 port. I also ported IndyCar Racing II to the Matrox Millenium card a year earlier; it wasn't a true 3D accelerator but it sure accelerated the game via fast 2D ops. That was direct to registers, but using the card's BIOS to set up the graphics mode initially. I also briefly worked on fixing a bug affecting running Final Fantasy VII on the R1000. I think that was via the API though.

Awesome info! Great to see an oldskool game dev here.

Those of us (vaguely) interested in game dev for graphics hardware this old have taken to collecting info like SDKs:
https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/nvidia-nv1 … api-sdks.56206/

and datasheets/user manuals:
Ex. http://vgamuseum.info/
Ex. http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/component/k2/ … 1064sg-mystique

And/or creating wrappers and emulators to keep these old games working on modern hardware.
Ex. dgVoodoo 2 for DirectX 11
Ex. Is this the possibility of a Power VR SGL Wrapper?

We've also collaborated on the most accurate list of 3D graphics card-supporting games (non-Direct3D/OpenGL/Glide) and Glide DOS games:
Ex. 3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
Ex. Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix
Ex. Re: Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compability matrix

What can we say, it's a fun hobby and a great forum. 😀

(sorry I only got an e-mail today that there were follow ups)

1. Yes, I forgot, it was NASCAR I bundled with the Matrox

2. I also forgot that another contractor dev ported NASCAR I to pre-production V1000 silicon; it was slow hardware because it didn't have DMA. I based the IndyCar II port on his work (stuff like converting a paletted game to RGB true color). I did write all the new stuff that communicated with the final, fast DMA interface, that enabled the high frame rates. But the base work sure saved me a lot of effort.

NASCAR II with Rendition V1000 support came out only months after IndyCar II. They turned off the anti-aliasing that I implemented though, because they were worried the 256K cache would take up too much memory on machines with a small amount of RAM.

Cool info 😀 Thanks for confirming that a version of NASCAR 1 existed for the V1000 (albeit pre-production)

Do you know why no other games used the AA feature in the V1000? Do you remember if there is any way to activate the AA feature you implemented in Nascar II by editing the files?

There are a few other games with AA on V1000. Grand Prix Legends and VQuake/VHexen come to mind.

swaaye wrote:

There are a few other games with AA on V1000. Grand Prix Legends and VQuake/VHexen come to mind.

Ah, you're right. Forgot about those, thanks 😀

miken wrote:

NASCAR II with Rendition V1000 support came out only months after IndyCar II. They turned off the anti-aliasing that I implemented though, because they were worried the 256K cache would take up too much memory on machines with a small amount of RAM.

Actually there is some anti-aliasing in Nascar Racing II with my Vérité V2200

fence in the far distance
Finish line and parts of other markings (not much)
huge lantern
some side objects (hard to find)

But yes this game doesn't do much anti aliasing on the Vérité.

The 3dfx beta patch anti aliases almost everything but has a bug in the cockpit with it set to max.
With the 3dfx patch there are some environment variables to setup the anti aliasing.
Does something like this exist for the Rendition port? I couldn't find anything in the readme files.

readme3d.txt (part of 3dfx beta patch):

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Anti-Alias:
N2FXAA=[0-2]
Usage: SET N2FXAA=0 Turns off Anti-Alias.
SET N2FXAA=1 Turns on Anti-Alias for flat shaded polygons.
SET N2FXAA=2 Turns on all Anti-Aliasing.

Fog:
N2FXFOG=[0.00-2.0]
Usage: SET N2FXFOG=0.01
Turns on fog. Light fog [0.01] to heavy fog [2.0].
Suggested: 0.01

Fog Color:
N2FXFOGCOLOR=[0x0-0xffffff]
RGB values used. This is optional when fogging.
Usage: SET N2FXFOGCOLOR=0xa8a8a8 (Default setting)