VOGONS


First post, by RaVeN-05

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

____________________________________________
Hello, First of all its copy of
https://www.voodooalert.de/board/forum/index. … 3159#post393159
Just desided to stick it here, so often wants to find it and losses where it is. =)
____________________________________________
Graphics chips that support S3 MeTal (selection):

  • S3 Savage 3D
  • S3 Savage 4LT / GT / Pro / XTreme
  • S3 Savage 2000

Graphics cards with these chips (selection):

  • Hercules Terminator BEAST
  • Diamond Stealth III S540 XTreme
  • Diamond Viper II Z200

Games with S3 MeTal:

  • Adventure Pinball: Forgotten Island - From release (VGA Capture)
  • Deus Ex - From release (1)
  • Dr. Brain: Action Reaction - From release (VGA Capture)
  • Nerf Arena Blast - From release (VGA Capture)
  • Rune + Halls of Valhalla (Add On) - From Release
  • Rune GOLD (= Rune + Halls of Valhalla) - From release (1)
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen - From Release (1)
  • Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror - From Release (VGA Capture)
  • The Nameless Mod - Deus Ex Mod
  • The Wheel of Time - From Release (1)
  • Unreal + Return to Na Pali (Add On) - From release (VGA Capture)
  • Unreal GOLD (= Unreal + Return to Na Pali) - From release (1) (s3tc textures)
  • Unreal Tournament - From release (1) (s3tc textures)

____________________________________________
S3 Savage Demo Maps (Game Packs) (Demonstrates Hi-res Texture Capabilities)

____________________________________________
Software Development Kit (SDK)
Probably one file is available from SDK its can be founded on Deus Ex
https://www.moddb.com/games/deus-ex/downloads/sdk-v1112fm
____________________________________________
Possibility to support more games trough MeTal API:

____________________________________________
So, any Exclusives?
S3's Savage Island Demo (1) Interactive Tech Demo MeTal API only, s3tc textures
VGA Capture Video, max quality

  • Quake II S3 Demo Maps - higher depth color textures, you can delete OpenGL32.dll inside Quake2 directory and quake can run these maps, but textures will be loaded from WAL files that is 8bit color, with OpenGL32.dll you need S3 Savage card, because MeTal API used, you will get better textures, textures stored in *.s3t fies that is not trivial to read/convert them, also file names is probably adresses of textures, so its hard to guess what is it, need open WAL open S3T and look if they similar.



s3t and tga files is generated by opengl32.dll they exact the same content as wal files, so quake2 with s3tc demo maps can be runned on any video card, just delete opengl32.dll inside quake2 directory
____________________________________________
The Official and Unofficial S3TC Textures in Unreal Engine Games is supported trough Direct3D 10
http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/
____________________________________________
Project to maximize compatibility is here
http://tuxality.net/projects/s3savageix
is for 🔽 S3 METAL API PATCHED FOR S3 SAVAGE/IX AND S3 SAVAGE/MX

Last edited by RaVeN-05 on 2023-07-13, 16:38. Edited 2 times in total.

https://www.youtube.com/user/whitemagicraven
https://go.twitch.tv/whitemagicraventv

Reply 1 of 18, by Takedasun

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
RaVeN-05 wrote on 2020-12-18, 09:29:
Filename S3QUAKE3NOCARD.7z […]
Show full quote

Filename
S3QUAKE3NOCARD.7z

File comment
S3Quake3.exe runable on any card

The attachment Savage4_error.png is no longer available

doesn't work on s3 savage4

Reply 3 of 18, by Takedasun

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
RaVeN-05 wrote on 2020-12-29, 17:33:

You used old version, re-download attachment and try again

Works!!!

S3Quake3.exe +map q3dm17

The attachment Savage4_work.png is no longer available
The attachment Savage4_works2.png is no longer available
Last edited by Takedasun on 2020-12-29, 20:04. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 18, by Takedasun

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Can't run special levels
dmmq3dm1.zip
dmmq3dm2.zip
dmmq3dm3.zip
dmmq3dm4.zip
dmmq3dm5.zip
dmmq3dm6.zip
dmmq3dm7.zip

S3Quake3.exe +map dmmq3dm1

The attachment q3.png is no longer available

Reply 5 of 18, by RaVeN-05

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

dmmq3dm*.zip
This maps is designed for dmmq3.exe which is LOST, s3quake3.exe not compatible with them.

But you can run converted maps in any Quake 3 version (retail version)
a test versions like this s3quake3.exe is pre-release, and their map formats different, different bsp structures, its not trivial to convert them i think.

https://www.youtube.com/user/whitemagicraven
https://go.twitch.tv/whitemagicraventv

Reply 6 of 18, by RaVeN-05

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I can only offer a new fixed version that allow you to load maps from quake 3 test versions 1.07 and 1.08

So maps q3test1, q3test2, q3tourney can be added to this build

It requires to manually select, edit files, i mean remove TGA files that names has the same names as DDS files, because this build prefer TGA over DDS

so simply copying pak0.pk3 from non s3 buid overrides all hi-res textures.

another interesting this is, textures can be converted to TGA and used in any Quake III Version as hi-res textures.

Might be possible to use dmmq3 textures in any Quake III Arena Version as hi-res textures, by simply rename "my converted version" to zdmmq3.pk3.

By adding "z" at start of file name , overrides all pak*.pk3 files loaded before.

So there is a lot of interesting experiements here

Textures from s3 q3 for any quake3 version beta!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ysoj2CsOC8eI … iew?usp=sharing

https://www.youtube.com/user/whitemagicraven
https://go.twitch.tv/whitemagicraventv

Reply 7 of 18, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

The older Savage4 chips have native win3x/9x upwards drivers...great!
currently searching for a savage4 PCI card.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 8 of 18, by RaVeN-05

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Properly Converted textures from s3quake3.exe version to any Quake III Arena version, hi-res textures for q3dm17 and q3ctf5 maps
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gi5p__XJrdhM … iew?usp=sharing

dmmq3dm maps also properly converted (previously shaders fails)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tsBJbzpYKHcV … iew?usp=sharing

for s3quake3nocardmaps

additional maps (q3test1,q3test2,q3tourney)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TvYGwmk55NoF … iew?usp=sharing

https://www.youtube.com/user/whitemagicraven
https://go.twitch.tv/whitemagicraventv

Reply 9 of 18, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I can't figure out how to try my original unreal with S3TC Textures on my Savage4. Regardless what I do I get corrupted textures.
My machine is a Win95b P2-333 32MB S540 AGP Card. I am using the Win95 DX6 drivers.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 10 of 18, by vorob

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Guys, I’ve got laptop with S3 Savage/IX w/MV. What can you tell me about this card? I was quite surprised to see HW acceleration on it. Games I’ve tried that run without visual artefacts:

Quake II, Thief DP, Thief II, Blood 2.

But, for some reason, Deus Ex and Unreal look and work like trash. In Deus I even tried it’s native api.

The attachment AE21E9E8-CDB4-426F-AA78-B6E62358C6E9.jpeg is no longer available

Any advise?

Btw, what does w/MV mean?

Reply 11 of 18, by LubieCipy

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

w/MV means it has macrovision, I don't remember what this is for but it has no effect on performance. Unreal engine games should look better in OpenGL mode

Last edited by LubieCipy on 2022-01-13, 09:13. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 12 of 18, by vorob

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Deus Ex in ogl was bad 🙁

Reply 13 of 18, by Joseph_Joestar

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Since I finally got my hands on a Savage4, I've decided to play around with it for a bit. I'm using Unreal Tournament '99 GOTY with S3 Metal rendering and compressed textures installed from the second CD.

The attachment Compressed_Textures.jpg is no longer available

In the screenshot below, I'm directly comparing the S3 Metal rendering of the Savage4 to the Direct3D rendering of a GeForce4 Ti4200. Note that the screenshot doesn't correctly capture the gamma values used by the game in S3 Metal mode. This is why the Savage4 screenshot looks so dark. In the actual game, it's much brighter.

The attachment UT_DM-Curse.jpg is no longer available

Still, the level of detail on that floor texture is pretty awesome. The framerate using the S3 Metal renderer is pretty good too. However, I am a bit disappointed that so few hi-res textures are used on the stock maps. From what I've seen, it's only a few floors and walls here and there

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 14 of 18, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Yes it's great, but the R7000 can do those too and it's a lot faster 😀

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 15 of 18, by Joseph_Joestar

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
dr.zeissler wrote on 2022-02-21, 16:17:

Yes it's great, but the R7000 can do those too and it's a lot faster 😀

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think the stock UT release (including the latest official patch) only supports compressed textures on Savage cards.

Of course, nowadays you can get fan made patches which improve OpenGL and Direct3D renderers significantly and offer the same compressed texture functionality. But back in the day, I think it was S3 or nothing. Also, note that there's a difference between "Compressed Textures" and "Detailed Textures". The latter can be enabled on any card, but it's not the same thing.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 17 of 18, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

But you are right, I am searching for years to get more games working with S3tc or high-res-texturres on older gfx-cards.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 18 of 18, by leileilol

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Note that the compressed textures also lack detail texture rendering on top so there's less stuff to eat fillrate with (and UT's D3D renderers give *more* detail layers than even Glide so it's not parity either)

apsosig.png
long live PCem