First post, by ubertrout
I remember running a Matrox m3d years ago and always wanted to experience that again, but I got rid of that actual card pretty quickly. I'm now pleased to share a build of 86box which runs PowerSGL games pretty much perfectly: https://github.com/z2k-retro/86Box/releases/tag/pcx-v0.1
It emulates the card itself rather than wrapping the API. I know there are other projects to do that and this is meant as a seperate thing. The emulated m3D sits in an 86Box Windows 95/98 machine as a second card beside the 2D card, just like the real thing, and runs the real Matrox drivers. That means PowerSGL games, Direct3D games through the m3D’s driver, and the PowerVR ports of Quake and Quake II all work the same way they did in 1997.
Here's results comparing frames dumped from this build of 86box against the same frames rendered on the real card:
- SGL demos (SGLTri, logo): exact
- Moto Racer demo: 0–13 pixels
- Shadows of the Empire: 0–5 pixels
- Ultim@te Race: exact, including fog and mip-mapping
- Quake (PowerVR) timedemo: exact
- Quake II (PowerVR): 1 pixel
- Unreal: 0–2 pixels
- MDK: exact
Tomb Raider, Hexen II and Terracide also look right but I haven't done dumps yet.
Some quirks are the card’s own, and the emulation reproduces them. For example, Shadows of the Empire has issues but those same issues reproduce on the m3d on the dumped frames. That said, there's clearly still work to do.
The tools, renderer and a full technical reference are here: https://github.com/z2k-retro/powervr-pcx2-tools
That includes:
- registers, scene and texture formats;
- everything measured on the card;
- how to repeat the measurements on your own card;
- a user guide: https://github.com/z2k-retro/powervr-pcx2-too … /using-86box.md
On speed: on a Core Ultra 7 270K, games are smooth, including Quake II. On my older i7-3960X which I used for most of the testing (due to the working PCI slot wired directly to the southbridge) speed is a problem and it's often more of a somewhat playable slideshow. The renderer runs on its own threads, so the main limit is 86Box’s CPU emulation, the same as with a Voodoo. I used a 450 Mhz Pentium 2 as my emulation choice since that's what the card would have actually thrived with. Unlike with a Voodoo the PowerVR cards needed a fast CPU, something which was somewhat contrary to their attempt to be a cheaper option in market segmentation.
This specifically emulates the Matrox m3d - other drivers may work but I wouldn't try. MechWarrior 2 still needs testing with the Windows 95 version. Generally speaking most of what I throw at it runs fine but this isn't a finished product yet.
In the interest of full disclosure: I wrote this with substantial help from Claude Opus 5.5 Medium. I did the hardware, the testing and the direction, and every result above was checked against the real card. The README says the same.
If you can:
Try games and report anything that looks wrong, with a screenshot and the 86Box log, on the tools repo’s issues page.
If you have an m3D or an Apocalypse 3Dx/5D, the tools can compare frames on your card in a few minutes. A second card, or a PCX1, would be especially useful.
If you have PATCH309.EXE, VideoLogic’s 1998 “Shadows of the Empire support” patch, I’d love to see what it changes.
I’ll keep updating the release as more games are checked.