Bruno128 wrote on 2024-07-07, 08:17:

Deus Ex 1.112fm. Glide vs Direct3D, both 1024x768x16 high detail. Some extra data to back this entry.

Good stuff, always nice to have more examples. Added this as well.

And it's interesting that the crane control panel glitch occurs even with 45.23 drivers.

I just see differing lod bias on the first, and a moire effect from D3DDrv's additional detail passes on the second (with smaller scale detail textures - GlideDrv does not implement this. Because the scanlines on that panel are a detail texture, it's a pattern that lines up and makes a denser pattern leading to the moire. Not Nvidia specific either - try D3DDrv on a Voodoo3+ and you will see the same results.)

EDIT: A little picture to demonstrate, because this is very much not a hardware difference and more of a deliberate technical decision by someone at Epic.

Hitman: Codename 47, ver. b192. Glide vs Direct3D, both 1024x768x16, "full" texture quality.

"Jungle God", I can't pick a better one but draw distance is smaller with Glide if you look at the bush in the background. Floating debris and water level can be ignored because it's random.

"Rotterdam havens", the track wheel (left front) texture is sometimes flickering/disappearing in Glide but not in D3D.

Slightly different view angle can be ignored because of random camera bob and catching the exact same scene is nearly impossible.
I'd say this round goes for D3D. But hey at least you get the old-style splashscreen 3DFx animation on startup.

Bruno128 wrote on 2024-07-22, 11:25:

Hitman: Codename 47, ver. b192. Glide vs Direct3D, both 1024x768x16, "full" texture quality.

"Jungle God", I can't pick a better one but draw distance is smaller with Glide if you look at the bush in the background. Floating debris and water level can be ignored because it's random.

Nice work on the tests.

Not sure if the draw distance differences are caused by this, but I think any game which supports Anisotropic Filtering natively (without forcing it in the driver) will look better when not using Glide due to sharper distant textures. IIRC, even the Voodoo 4 and 5 don't support AF. But I don't own either of those cards, so someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-07-22, 12:54:

Anisotropic Filtering

This is the settings screen on both systems, excuse for the quality.

Bruno128 wrote on 2024-07-22, 13:36:

This is the settings screen on both systems, excuse for the quality.

So the draw distance was not AF specific, but Glide specific then. Good to know.

As for Anisotropic Filtering and its impact in older games, I like pointing to these screenshots from Half-Life taken by @UCyborg. Once you spot the difference, it's hard to unsee it. 😀

I've done some more testing of the redeemer rendering bug in Unreal Tournament (v436) on several different cards with the vanilla Direct3D renderer. All cards were tested with these settings. By default, VolumetricLighting, DetailTextures and VertexFog were all False under Direct3D.

1[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
2Translucency=True
3VolumetricLighting=True
4ShinySurfaces=True
5Coronas=True
6HighDetailActors=True
7UseMipmapping=True
8UseTrilinear=False
9UseMultitexture=True
10UsePageFlipping=True
11UsePalettes=True
12UseFullscreen=True
13UseGammaCorrection=True
14DetailTextures=True
15Use3dfx=False
16UseTripleBuffering=True
17UsePrecache=True
18Use32BitTextures=False
19DescFlags=1
20Use32BitZBuffer=False
21UseVertexFog=True
22UseAGPTextures=False
23UseVideoMemoryVB=False
24UseVSync=False

Win9x
Geforce2 MX (Detonator 6.31) -- Same as TNT2 in 32 bit color, has a shimmery multitexture issue on some floors in this mode. Renders redeemer and UI correctly in 16 bit color.
Geforce4 Ti (Detonator 28.32 and Detonator 45.23) -- Same as TNT2 in 32 bit color. Renders redeemer and UI correctly in 16 bit color.
Radeon 9550 XL (Catalyst 6.2) -- No rendering issues with the redeemer in 32 bit color

WinXP
Geforce 7600 GT, Geforce 7900 GS -- Driver dependent, oldest drivers rendered like TNT2 in 32 bit color, later 19x.xx drivers had other rendering issues in 16 bit color iirc

TheMLGladiator wrote on 2024-12-31, 22:09:

I've done some more testing of the redeemer rendering bug in Unreal Tournament (v436) on several different cards with the vanilla Direct3D renderer.

Interesting findings!

I wonder why switching to 16-bit colors makes a difference for the Redeemer. Also, it's weird that neither Nvidia nor Epic ever fixed that, given how popular UT was back in the day.

Hi, what about Need for Speed: Porsche? I just saw a video where the Glide renderer showed lensflares and D3D did not. I didn't (couldn't by watching video) compare anything else.

villeneuve wrote on 2025-10-30, 21:39:

Hi, what about Need for Speed: Porsche? I just saw a video where the Glide renderer showed lensflares and D3D did not. I didn't (couldn't by watching video) compare anything else.

NFS Porsche is very similar with D3D or Glide. It is very picky with driver and Direct X versions however.
Re: Best hardware for Need For Speed Porsche 2000 / Unleashed

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-08-22, 19:59:

After testing this one for a while, I have some thoughts. First, this is a really weird game. Second, when you first install it, […]
Show full quote

Garrett W wrote on 2023-08-22, 11:46:

Messiah had a notoriously long development cycle for the time, it's likely it was designed with software and Glide only for most of its development. I seem to remember people pointing out differences in the past.

After testing this one for a while, I have some thoughts. First, this is a really weird game. Second, when you first install it, it has an unskippable 3 minute long video ad for Interplay's next game Sacrifice, which is a really shady marketing tactic. Third, it's really buggy and frequently crashes with every graphics card and system that I've tested it on. Fourth, it almost looks best in Glide mode, but not quite. Here's why:

The attachment Messiah_Options.jpg is no longer available

Notice how the "Character Texture Resolution" setting is grayed out and permanently set to "Low" on my Voodoo3? Yeah, that's why. Pretty much everything else is better in Glide mode, draw distance, texture filtering, colors... you name it. But that one setting makes the textures on the character's clothes look low-res, which is very noticeable. I've posted some screenshots here if anyone's curious. The one good thing that came out of these tests, is that I could at least confirm that Messiah uses table fog, so it wasn't a total loss.

I did not known where to put it, but this was the only thread i found mentioning this.

These are modifed exe files that enable Character Texture Resolution from low up to mid or high on Messiah. It did not seems worth opening a new thread for this and it part of the 3Dfx stuff here.

Another title that would be worth considering for the list would be Sierra/Papyrus Grand Prix Legends. The game originally included Glide and Direct3D renderers. Papyrus later released an OpenGL beta patch. It has been years since I played it, but I always felt the Glide renderer had the fewest artifacts and best appearance, although the higher rear-view mirror resolution of the OpenGL renderer made it appealing.