dr.zeissler wrote:

The lastest 3dfx-drivers have code for dx7, so installing dx8 means, that there is dx8 installed in the system,
but some features will not work, because the gfx-driver is not dx8. but i mentioned above, some software
requires dx8 installed and does work, although the gfx-driver does not support dx8. that's strange.

Yes, that's what I tried to explain on my blog. There are 'caps' bits that indicate which features your hardware supports. So your hardware doesn't need to support all the features in the API. The software can query what it supports, and choose the proper rendering algo for the hardware.

A long time ago, my S3 Virge based card came with drivers which I'm pretty sure were DirectX 2 on Windows 95. It had noticeable acceleration for Destruction Derby. There was some other game that forced me to update DirectX, and having done this, Destruction Derby lost a lot of speed. It seemed apparent that it's 3D acceleration had been broken by the DirectX update.
It's been a long time since I experienced this though, so I might not correctly remember the details.

xjas wrote:

elianda wrote:

Subreality by WTSoftware (not on pouet, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oi3M75QQnI )

Can always count on you to provide stuff I've never heard of 😎
Got a download link for this anywhere? If that song is a tracker tune I would LOVE to get my hands on it.

There you go: ftp://78.46.141.148/scene_demos/

THX!

This one runs with DX6 and is very nice https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=4485 (but not completely stutterfree on my machine)

I really love the early win-dx-demos and I am still collecting and organizing because I find it very usefull to categorize this stuff by the API it uses.
I normally configure machines to a special purpose, mostly depending on the gfx-card and it's hardware features.

What really impresses me is are reflections on water or mirrors even without having pixelshaders at work.
The matrox G400 techdemo showed fantastic water reflections with a DX6! card.