🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello everyone, I have some questions about voodoo ( graphics and 2 )
Now I don't know too much about the 3d stuff but from a rather
blunt perspective I can see 3 basic operations.

1- Calculation of the coordinates of the triangle mesh for the
next frame (this has to be done by the cpu and my guess
is it is not that computationally intensive).
2- The triangle setup, warping the triangles and associated textures
(transforming,
what ever you call this). this step can be done by voodoo in glide or
opengl.
But in d3d the cpu has to handle it.
3- Rendering, copying textures etc. (done by the 3d card)
(Ofcourse whole bunch of other fancy stuff gets done but they are simple
operations
easily implemented in hardware- no offense here when I mean easy, easy
conceptually
I am sure you guys (Gary and the gang) are having a tough time making it
work
wonders)

Now step 2 is the critical factor here and the one I want to talk about.
In glide or opengl, voodoo graphics (2/3) and voodoo2 (3/3) can handle
this. But the competition (nvidia riva considered here) cannot thanks to
being loyal to d3d which doesn't support triangle setup by graphics
hardware. Microsoft it appears is in their usual game with Intel here.
i.e. Intel has a floating point advantage over their competition
(amd/cyrix) and doesn't want it taken away by a cheesy graphics card.
(Assuming ofcourse the bulk of the floating point operations in a typical
pc is in the 3d arena.) Riva has a full (3/3) triangle setup engine which
is gathering dust under d3d. As far as comparing the chips go though
(i.e. ok riva can be stupid enough as to not providing their own api
which supports triangle setup, but just want to compare hardware here) I
think the recent quake tests on tom's hardware guide are a load of
bullshit. I mean riva slows down on lower end cpus and 3dfx doesn't. But
riva's alpha opengl drivers don't dump the triangle setup to the chip. If
they did riva would slow down a lot less. (My guess is that riva is
slowing down because during the lovely pci or agp direct access to main
memory for textures - notice pci riva does agp type of memory access too
for textures- the cpu sits there idle which leaves it a lot less time for
triangle and other stuff) This should be cured with the real gl drivers
for riva which will dump the triangle setup to the chip where it belongs
(if the drivers ever come out that is). A true comparison of hardware
ofcourse must be under d3d where nobody has a clear advantage because of
the api or perhaps with correct gl drivers for nvidia against voodoo.
With new gl drivers I expect nvidia to slow down a lot less and
consistently beat voodoo graphics. (i.e. if voodoo2 is 3x riva now it
might become 2x or so) I am just trying to be fair here, don't flame me
out of habit. Correct me, I would like to understand this stuff.

Now voodoo2 ofcourse will be a slightly different story.
3dfx better hope people write native or gl software
for voodoo2.
And of course not write software with a lot of textures.
After all if memory access (assuming more textures than
on board memory can hold) is going to limit things
v2's advantages are going to be clouded.
So is it realistic to expect good performance from v2
on more complex software?
I mean you can get 100 fps on quake but what if I write
a software with lotsa textures?
(In lightof my limited understanding if this becomes the case
v2 will not do say 3x (or 2x if I am correct above)
better than a riva)
Above all how is 3dfx going to win the api war without
colluding with Intel?
Is 3dfx going to be an Intel partner in the
grand scheme of things?
After all Intel and their loving partner Microsoft
aren't going to love it if glide becomes defacto.
Again don't get me wrong, just wondering here.
If d3d  indeed won't support triangle setup in the near future
d3d software isn't going to smoke under v2.
Polygon count isn't going to increase a lot and I will have a v2
board yawning for action.

Anyway having said all this, you guys know when voodoo2 is coming
out?
Is diamond bringing something out in January?

To clarify in case anyone wants to know
I have a high end agp system with a riva card.
Not by choice, came with the system.
I am interested in virtual 3d world type of stuff
where you get to see a full 3d scene in full detail,
I mean in stunning graphics.
Wouldn't you say the delay of banshee is a shame since it
will keep 3dfx from the comp. manuf oem market for
a while?

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