VOGONS


First post, by Gahhhrrrlic

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Seeing as the 3dRage II is nothing more than a glorified 2d chip with some 3d features stapled on, I figured the responsible thing to do as a retro hardware aficionado is to force it to do things that it was only supposed to be capable of on paper.

To that end, I've installed several DX5 games on Win95. Starcraft for example actually works so that's a win. TRII and wipeout kinda work. Now I'm moving onto OpenGL 1.0, which is purported to work as well. Looking for old games that support this, I found Descent, Homeworld and a few others. Homeworld is too much for a humble P133 but Descent caught my eye. Problem is, I don't think I am seeing the right version on today's internet because the features are probably well beyond OGL 1.0's capabilities. I suspect some super ancient version of the Descent remake used that API but I can no longer find it.

Would love it it someone could comment on the 3D Rage II's capabilities in terms of DX and OpenGL and point me to a few OpenGL games (Descent would be an excellent candidate) that would actually run on the 3D Rage II on a P133 machine.

Apparently this card also supports a particular version of AutoCAD but again, I'm having trouble determining exactly which version shipped with the ATI drivers necessary to make that acceleration work.

https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-Maximi … -Retro-Computer

Reply 1 of 12, by The Serpent Rider

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Vintage3d.org already has quite a lot of tests. You squeeze playable fps in Quake or Turok with super low resolution and MDK in SVGA, but that's about it.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 2 of 12, by auron

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if by "remake" you mean source ports, the latest d1x 1.43 from 2001 can be downloaded here: http://www.dfiles.de/download/d1/patches/d1x143w32.zip

however opengl 1.0 and the 3d rage ii were pretty old even by that point, so it may or may not work, and there's no readme to give any sort of requirements.

Reply 4 of 12, by Gahhhrrrlic

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That source port is a patcher right? It doesn't seem to work, unless I'm using it wrong. Does it need to pair with a specific version of descent?

https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-Maximi … -Retro-Computer

Reply 6 of 12, by Gahhhrrrlic

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Ok thanks it worked. However... for some reason there is no cockpit view anymore. It says F3 to toggle except that doesn't work at all. I liked the cockpit view...

https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-Maximi … -Retro-Computer

Reply 7 of 12, by Anonymous Coward

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I don't think ATi ever got OpenGL working on the Rage II(+). I think it may have worked on the Rage IIC, but I never owned one so can't confirm.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 8 of 12, by Gahhhrrrlic

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That wouldn't surprise me. IIRC, OpenGL was far more advanced than DX at that time so maybe the drivers were harder to get working properly.

The card supposedly supported other APIs, even the super FX chip on the SNES I thought and AutoCAD as well. Is there any working evidence of some of these other APIs on this card?

https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-Maximi … -Retro-Computer

Reply 9 of 12, by Jorpho

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Gahhhrrrlic wrote on 2020-07-30, 17:55:

The card supposedly supported other APIs, even the super FX chip on the SNES I thought

What on Earth gave you the idea that anything on the PC ever had anything to do with the Super FX chip? Maybe you were looking at FX Fighter?

and AutoCAD as well.

There's never been much call for running ancient versions of AutoCAD hereabouts.

Is there any working evidence of some of these other APIs on this card?

ATI CIF would be the only conceivable candidate.

Reply 10 of 12, by Gahhhrrrlic

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I'm just going by what the wiki says, which is rather extensive for this card:

"The chip also had driver support for Microsoft Direct3D and Reality Lab, QuickDraw 3D Rave, Criterion RenderWare, and Argonaut BRender. OpenGL drivers are available for the professional 3D and CAD community and Heidi drivers are available for AutoCAD users."

Argonaut invented the FX chip and made games like StarFox and Vortex for the SNES.

https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-Maximi … -Retro-Computer

Reply 11 of 12, by Jorpho

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Gahhhrrrlic wrote on 2020-08-01, 18:38:

Argonaut invented the FX chip and made games like StarFox and Vortex for the SNES.

Okay, but just because Argonaut invented the FX chip and also made an engine called BRender does not mean that the Rage II somehow supported the FX chip. (In fact, the one guy who attempted to do so discovered that development for the FX chip was astonishingly difficult.)

Reply 12 of 12, by Gahhhrrrlic

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Good point. I guess I read too far into it. Seems FX Fighter Turbo might be the only game on the PC worth playing, which could take advantage of the card's acceleration. I should test that at least.

https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-Maximi … -Retro-Computer