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First post, by elianda

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I made a small table which registry features are available with the drivers for the Riva128:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J44FH … dit?usp=sharing

Also with the ELSA_4.10.01.0300-0012 driver Super Sample Antialiasing works (even on 4 MB cards)

Phil has an ELSA Victory Erazor LT with Riva128ZX 8 MB and ran the 4.10.01.0303-0002 driver and could get AA working. This driver checks for an ELSA card and more than 6 MB (for AA).

Also the STB 166 might be worth a try for AA due to the specific AA registry keys, however I don't own a Velocity 128.

Last edited by elianda on 2017-02-27, 05:16. Edited 2 times in total.

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Reply 2 of 15, by lazibayer

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Impressive!
It's interesting that Diamond, STB and ELSA have such similar version numbers, all starting with 4.10. I wonder if they are all following the version number of Windows 98.

Reply 3 of 15, by havli

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Interesting find. I suppose it is Ordered Grid Supersampling, just like TNT(2) and GeForce are using? Anyway - it seems 3dfx wasn't first to get AA working on consumer-class GPU after all. Not that AA on Riva 128 would be actually useful... the raw performance is simply too low.

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Reply 4 of 15, by elianda

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There are rumors that Phil has another video in the queue with a bit more in depth information, also regarding AA performance. I guess you'll be surprised.

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Reply 5 of 15, by swaaye

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havli wrote:

Interesting find. I suppose it is Ordered Grid Supersampling, just like TNT(2) and GeForce are using? Anyway - it seems 3dfx wasn't first to get AA working on consumer-class GPU after all. Not that AA on Riva 128 would be actually useful... the raw performance is simply too low.

Before that particular SSAA craze, there was edge AA. Look at some of the Rendition Speedy3D / RRedline game videos. Or some Nintendo 64 games. It cleans up aliasing very well, but it misses some polygon edges due to its limitations.

I think the 3dfx logo that plays for Glide games uses edge AA too. Glide games rarely used it though for some reason.

Reply 7 of 15, by elianda

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Which option do you speak of?
AFAIK the Riva128 has no support for trilinear filtering.

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Reply 8 of 15, by Putas

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I tried to watch mip levels in Quake 3, but could not see any difference. Anyway, main problem of the chip is mip selection going crazy.

If I have generic Riva 128, which registry do I need to turn on AA?

Reply 9 of 15, by elianda

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AA is by default allowed. However it follows the DirectX5 logic where the application has to switch it on.
I would recommend to test first with PCP, IDG or X Bench where you can enable AA in the application.
You can set in the "More Direct3D" subpanel the Type of AA used. (which is AAMETHOD in Registry).
Registry settings are typically somewhere near HKLM\Software\NVidia\Riva128\Direct3D
With all settings on default registry shows empty there, as only keys are set if you change something, e.g. if you disallow AA in the control panel there will be ANTIALIASENABLE = 0 set.

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Reply 10 of 15, by swaaye

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elianda wrote:

Which option do you speak of?
AFAIK the Riva128 has no support for trilinear filtering.

I'm sorry. I'm actually thinking of the per-pixel mip mapping option. When I played around with it awhile back, I couldn't tell if it was actually doing anything. Seems misleading.

I see Putas figured out what I meant. 😀

Reply 12 of 15, by elianda

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I wrote a bit regarding AA in my gallery:
http://retronn.de/imports/hwgal/hw_elsa_victory_erazor.html

Briefly:
In the latest NVidia drivers AA seems to be internally disabled or bugged 'off'.

I have patched the INF of the ELSA_4.10.01.0300-0012 to work on any Riva128. This driver does not check by code for an ELSA card and supports SSAA, works even on 4 MB cards:
ftp://retronn.de/driver/NVidia/Riva128/300_patched_inf_ELSA/
Try this one.

The mentioned ELSA 4.10.01.0303-0002 driver in the first post checks for an actual ELSA card, however it supports Edge and SSAA but checks for a >6 MB card. Phil reported that both AA modes work with this driver as well. So you need a ELSA card with 8 MB Riva128ZX to get this running.

X Bench:
ftp://retronn.de/archiv/benchmark/x/
(press F11 after start to set graphics)

IDGBench:
ftp://retronn.de/archiv/benchmark/IDGBench/

Maybe the latest Nvidia driver can somehow be patched to support AA on any card again.

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Reply 14 of 15, by elianda

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Maybe the more interesting thing would be if AA in old DirectX5 style can be forced ON for games with some hooking tool. The performance of Riva128 with edge AA is not so bad, so it could be indeed useful. I don't know of a tool for this (Tommti Systems 3Danalyzer works only with later DirectX?!?)

Next thing would be to reenable the AA functionality in the latest NVidia driver...

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