Also just noticed BattleZone 2 also supports embm

Well, the main question is - supports EMBM through DX6, DX7 or later versions?
IIRC DX6 EMBM was used in Expendable only.

can anyone tell me how to open the command console and run the time demo in this game?

soviet conscript wrote:

can anyone tell me how to open the command console and run the time demo in this game?

It uses command line options. This is what you need to do:

- Run the game and configure all the options in the launcher. Also go into the game, there are more options inside the game.
- Once you're happy, quite the game and create a shortcut to the GO.EXE file
- Edit the shortcut and add -timedemo (or -timedemo 1 or -benchmark)
- Then run the shortcut and it should pop up with a message that it's going to do a timedemo run

worked, thanks!

soviet conscript wrote:

worked, thanks!

Too easy 😊

I read somewhere that the PowerVR Kyro II supports EMBM, so I tried it out with Expendable and it works perfectly. Great frame rates with a P3 1GHz, too. Thanks again for the patch, Tuxality!

Kyro 2 does support EMBM indeed (a lot of the Kyro tech demos involved EMBM in D3D in various creative ways including animated fire) so i'm not surprised at all!

Recently I've acquired Expendable on GOG and sadly my patch didn't work on this release. So... I've patched it again and enabled EMBM support on GOG release. 😀
If anyone has GOG release and would like to try it out, just grab new patch from my website: http://tuxality.net/projects/expendable

EDIT: Updated link due to the domain change.

I think Offroad by Rage also uses bump mapping on the cars

Tuxality wrote on 2020-02-16, 23:03:

Recently I've acquired Expendable on GOG and sadly my patch didn't work on this release. So... I've patched it again and enabled EMBM support on GOG release. 😀
If anyone has GOG release and would like to try it out, just grab new patch from my website: http://redtux.rocik.net/projects/expendable

Hi,

I/we found your patch. Here is a patched version of your patch that works on the zoom-platform.com release.

Its only a 2 byte patch, as this is how we handled the nocputest issue. Using your GOG patch on our release worked, but you could no longer directly run the exe (you had to make the shortcut with the extra parameter).

I tried to contact you via your site, however the contact page does not work.

embm should also work on old intel igp like i815/845 or am I worng here?

Not sure about Intel IGPs, but 3DMark2000 and 3DMark2001 SE can both be used to test for EMBM support.

The game can now be fully restored on QEMU WHPX/KVM running Win9x/ME VM with WineD3D. Frame rate is exceptional. Tried up to 1280x960 32bpp and over 90 FPS average measured in the game's timedemos with max video options. I am trying to see if the EMBM can be enabled, too, with WineD3D, which would add additional eye candies to the touch of the game.

Tuxality wrote on 2020-02-16, 23:03:

Recently I've acquired Expendable on GOG and sadly my patch didn't work on this release. So... I've patched it again and enabled EMBM support on GOG release. 😀
If anyone has GOG release and would like to try it out, just grab new patch from my website: http://redtux.rocik.net/projects/expendable

Hi,

Could you possibly patch it for Steam release? 😁

I did some tests on my Win98 PII 450 using different GPUs (I don't have a Matrox card.. yet) the only way I could get the patch to work was on my FX 5600 Ultra with DirectX9.
Performance is much better on the MX 400 though and I wouldn't want to play the game on the FX5600.

It starts on MX 400 but all the water is gone you can see the bottom of the ocean 😀

So I copied it over to my Athlon WinXP machine and there it refuses to start. Re-installed from CD it starts with AMD logo splash screen. But alas, without the bump patch!
Does this mean there is a CPU specific version of the game executable? The executable would have to be re-patched?

The original link redtux.rocik.net is 404 (but can still be viewed with wayback) and the patch can be downloaded elsewhere:

https://pcgames9505.weebly.com/expendable-downloads.html
ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/games/patches/re … xp_g400bump.zip
https://web.archive.org/web/20200924152526/ht … ects/expendable

tuxality's site moved here: http://tuxality.net/projects/expendable

i don't think it is CPU specific, here it shows working with Athlon XP 2500+, but using a Matrox card.

There's a (demo?) version of Expendable on the Matrox G400 driver CD which has EMBM enabled. Note that you need to leave the CD inserted while playing. Personally, I wasn't too impressed with how the water looks in that game. It's too shiny and plasticky to my eyes, and seems more like some kind of jelly.

What actually blew me away me was the Matrox Tech Demo from that same driver CD. The water there looks amazing, with proper reflections and distortions. This is especially impressive when you consider that the G400 came out in '99. Nvidia didn't have that kind of water until the GeForce3.

Yeah, never saw that elsewhere. It looks like pixelshaded water, but g400 does not have a pixelshader!

dr.zeissler wrote on 2021-11-18, 05:57:

Yeah, never saw that elsewhere. It looks like pixelshaded water, but g400 does not have a pixelshader!

It's crazy how good that looks. BTW, the demo has a "free fly" mode as well (press the "0" key to activate) which lets you can freely roam that entire 3D environment, without following the fairy around. Using that, it's evident that the water reflections update in real time, so it's not some kind of gimmick. Also, pressing the TAB key provides some additional stats:

Now, let's compare that to Expendable's "jelly water" thing:

Yeah, not even close. But then again, I imagine running that reflective water in the game would have incurred a pretty steep performance penalty.