586 + Voodoo 2 performance \ VOGONS

586 + Voodoo 2 performance

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First post, by kanecvr

Posted on 2015-06-30, 12:20

kanecvr Offline

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Hi guys. It's been a while since I posted here since my auto restoration project has been very demanding lately, but I wanted to share with you my latest "experiment"

I built a new 586 around a Biostar MB8433UUD-A UMC chipset socket 3 board, and I was surprised to see how speedy it is. With an am5x86-p75 overclocked to 160MHz, it runs as fast as most pentium systems - so I tought - why not throw in one of my Voodoo 2 cards for old time's sake. My first PC was a Cyrix 586 to witch I added a Voodoo 2 later - most glide games were quite playable (carmageddon, gl_quake) others not so much (quake 2 was a slideshow, and barely playable with the voodoo 2 card at 320x200).

So here are the results: http://youtu.be/ab6_eyiyCIo

Please keep in mind that the video is shot with my phone and it runs at ~20 fps... I'll replace it with a 30FPS one as soon as I have time.

It gets 18.4 to 20.3 average FPS in GL_Quake at 640x480 and feels quite playable. Unfortunately the engine won't start at 320x200 so I can't test it that way, but I remember it ran great at that resolution on my first PC. I'll try updating GL-Quake to 114 and installing the latest miniGL - maybe I can get it running at 320x200 that way.

The attachment IMG_20150621_041828.jpg is no longer available

Funny thing is, w/o the voodoo card, it gets 18-19 fps at 320x200 😀.

Sorry about the video quality - I'll shoot it again using my camera - running both software rendered quake and GL_quake.

Reply 1 of 5, by dr.zeissler

Posted on 2015-06-30, 13:25

dr.zeissler Offline

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is it about the weak Floating-Point-Power of the am5x86?
this has no 3dnow-feature, so better option for this.
use a real pentium or pentium II or a K6 with 3dnow patch.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 2 of 5, by Logistics

Posted on 2015-06-30, 13:33

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I know it has been a LONG TIME since I had the system I would have used to run Quake in 3D, but these framerates seem off. IIRC I had a Pentium 60 when I first started playing Quake, online. I recall that during this time I eagerly added a Voodoo1, which was leftover by a friend of mine who upgraded to a Voodoo2, then another for SLI. I recall that my game was playable, but was certainly not an amazing framerate--probably akin to the framerate YOU are getting, but again, that was with a P60 and V1. It doesn't seem reasonable that your framerate is so low. (IIRC, I would have been running 640x480 as well.)

Reply 3 of 5, by Artex

Posted on 2015-06-30, 13:35

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dr.zeissler wrote:
use a real pentium or pentium II or a K6 with 3dnow patch.

Maybe even a POD83? Too bad they have a hard timing running OC'd at @ 100Mhz due to undervolting them on the Socket 3 platform.

My Retro B:\ytes YouTube Channel & Retro Collection

Reply 4 of 5, by swaaye

Posted on 2015-06-30, 19:56

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I've done this with a AMD 5x86 160 before. Those frame rates are about right. A Pentium Overdrive 83 would be much faster, around double perhaps.

Reply 5 of 5, by leileilol

Posted on 2015-06-30, 20:07

leileilol Offline

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kanecvr wrote:
Unfortunately the engine won't start at 320x200

because Voodoo2 can only go as low as 512x384, and to be honest, resolution isn't going to help you here. Might as well crank it up to 800x600 . 320x200 only started being supported on the VBanshee/V3

What will help is r_dynamic 0 and gl_flashblend 1 😀 That also goes for Quake2 which is a bit more cache heavy. Use low sound quality w/ performance for that one too

Also remember that the V2 has a performance edge over the V1 when it comes to multitexturing and it does make a small difference on a 486 class computer. 😀

My Voodoo2 is dead, but when it lived I did the same exact thing on the a similar AM5x86 160mhz setup and I also saw 17-28fps and it is indeed a more playable game than the software renderer. This was years ago because I wanted to debunk the "you cant use 486 with voodoo2 it require pentium" horseshit flying around the internet

Also Q3A can "run" on a 486 despite the Pentium MMX min requirement. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 I almost want to try profile generation on that to see if it can squeeze a bit more out of it. Other ways may include stripping some of the lightgrid system to do Quake-like fixed direction light and integer-precise shaders

long live PCem

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