rec.autos.simulators

Has anyone else Downloaded Doom95 with the DirectX drivers ,
The reason I ask is it's a good way of checking out the performance of
Microsoft's DirectX (DDI) which Indycar-II Win5 patch will be using.

I'm Running a P166 , 32megs EDO ram (60ns)
with Stealth64 2m VRAM and Doom95's frame rate is ONLY around 10-15fps.
thats running it in 640x480 and thus comparing it to a dos version of
doom it's very sluggish - which makes me worried about indycar-II on Win95
(Yes I know 640x480 it's twice the resolution of the dos version of doom)

So if the Microsoft DDI drivers or Win95 overhead are really as bad as I
think they are and add to that Indycar is doing a lot more 3d / realworld
computations that doom is , it my guess is a patched Indycar-II for '95
won't be getting anywhere near the performance of the present dos version.

Rick would you care to comment on a rough ballpark frame rate for the
DDI version of Indycar-II ? (on the above hardware or lesser hardware)

or will the real patch be later this year to support Direct-3D ?

Just Curious
Geoff

p.s I'm sticking with dos until I see a better game Platform !

     <<Has anyone else Downloaded Doom95 with the DirectX drivers, The
reason I ask is it's a good way of checking out the performance of
Microsoft's DirectX (DDI) which Indycar-II Win5 patch will be using.>>

     From where'd you download it? I'd like to give it a shot and see
how it is. Thanks...
     Nick
_________________________________________________________________

#6 & #94 in the *real* quest for the Cup!!!
My home away from home... http://users.aol.com/ntotoro/122895.htm
_________________________________________________________________

We are not planning to support Direct3D with IndyCar II.

We are seeing comparable frame rates between the DOS and Windows 95
versions of IndyCar II.

Rick Genter
Technical Lead, IndyCar Racing II
Sierra On-Line, Inc.

Well, we're seeing 13-15 FPS on P-100s, 18-22 on P-133s, so I think that
either id did something wrong with DirectX, or the Stealth64 isn't
supported very well by DirectX. (We support non-DirectX mode if that's the
case for you.)

Rick Genter
Technical Lead, IndyCar Racing II
Sierra On-Line, Inc.

     <<Well, we're seeing 13-15 FPS on P-100s, 18-22 on P-133s, so I
think that either id did something wrong with DirectX, or the Stealth64
isn't supported very well by DirectX. (We support non-DirectX mode if
that's the case for you.)>>

     I got this little tidbit off the Diamond website:

     Question: Will Diamond's drivers support the new DirectDraw and
DirectVideo API?

     Solution:Yes. Once the DirectX package is finalized and officially
released, Diamond will have drivers available for most cards. Microsoft
is also releasing a DirectX compatible driver set to replace the drivers
included with the initial Windows 95 release.

     I have already replced the driver I use for my Stealth64 with the
current driver avaiable for it (It also has the InControl Tools for
Win95... pretty good so far!!!) but the drivers are being updated
regularly, the last update being around late March. It may already be
available with the drivers I have, however, because I can't tell how old
their Win95 FAQ is and portions of it say drivers for certain things
will be available before "year's end" meaning 1995. I'll check as soon
as I get home and update everyone.
     Nick
_________________________________________________________________

#6 & #94 in the *real* quest for the Cup!!!
My home away from home... http://users.aol.com/ntotoro/122895.htm
_________________________________________________________________

Adam

http://www.iit.edu/~pavlada/doom95/files/doom95.zip

also the Stealth64 updates are at
ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/display/stealth/stealth64-vram

which supports DirectX (???) or atleast claim too ,
(the Incontrol Tools are worth having)

I first installed DirectX which is included with the doom zip ,
and then installed the updated drivers for the Stealth.

Geoff

I'll  assume the frame rate figures are all detail on ,
 and the standard 33 in front ,8 behind etc.

Are microsoft still writing the video drivers for
DirectX (on a per card basis) ?
as the Driver update for my Stealth was from Diamond, and previously
drivers ie with the Game SDK , for the supported cards were from
microsoft as the they believed they could do a better job (I think..
or thats what I heard) than the guys that made the cards.

Rick another question are you using ATI video cards ?,
I ask because the ATI Mach64 was the base card for directX way back
when they kicked it off and maybe it's driver performance between
ATI and Diamond card could explain the shoddy performance.

Any chance of a rough "guess" as the when for the Win95 Patch ,
or will it be as soon after DirectX ships from Microsoft ?

Should you wish to create a random ReleaseDate for us to speculate on,
please use this formula (class libraries available from microprose)

release date =  FeaturesWeForgot.TimeToComplete() *
                FeaturesThatArntFinished().Guess() *
                MicroProse.RandomReleaseDateGenerator();

(above must be used to comply with standard (microprose) industry practice for
release dates of course !)
NB once the RandomRelease date has been generated tell no one , not even
your marketing people.

:-)

Geoff

 >Are microsoft still writing the video drivers for
 >DirectX (on a per card basis) ?
 >
 >other stuff snipped
 >
 >Geoff
 >
 >

It's my understanding that Microsoft does not write the video card specific
drivers for anyone.  It is up to the video card vendors to supply a driver to
Microsoft for inclusion with Win95 and various Service Packs.  This also applies
for other types of drivers.  Microsoft merely supplies the vendor with a spec so
that they know how to code things correctly to interface to Windows.

--- Frank ---.