rec.autos.simulators

>>You_are_correct - there are some features unique to the 3Dfx hardware that
>>cannot be accessed using DirectX5 - none that are useful to CPR I might
add.

>>However, the next generation of DirectX, I am assured, will address the
>>double-pass rendering and the other last couple of items.

>No offense, but I have EXTREMELY little faith in this promise. For one
>thing, the "feature gap"  not supported by D3D will probably grow as
>soon as next month, when Voodoo2 boards are released. Microsoft has
>been extremely slow and unaggresive in updating D3D to compete with
>Glide. And Microsoft has already stated they will NOT support geometry
>acceleration in the future, which is almost certainly the next major
>task the 3d boards will tackle.

>>The performance issue I stand by - why? Because we just spent 3 weeks and
>>$$$ on doing the glide port
>>so we know what we're talking about. This is not secondhand info - we did
>>the numbers. I have the two versions in front of me right now - we did the
>>port because WE thought it might buy us some performance. It didn't - end
of
>>story (yeah, right).

>I believe you are telling the truth about Glide in CPR - but that is
>one program. For many, many other programs Glide has offered the
>developers significant speed improvements (and, of course, greatly
>lowered development costs for both imlpementation and testing).
>Perhaps they have more advanced graphics engines, and needed those
>features D3D doesn't support. Or maybe just more experienced Glide
>programmers who know how to make the API work.

>Joe

...snip
>>"The patch is indeed reality. It should be on our web site next week. It
>>does not include native glide support. But its not like that would get you
>>vast speed improvements anyway. We've worked hard to get good efficiency
>>with d3d. The biggest thing you can do for your hardware performance is to
>>make sure your driver supports DrawPrimitive.

>...snip
>>>"The patch is indeed reality. It should be on our web site next week. It
>>>does not include native glide support. But its not like that would get
you
>>>vast speed improvements anyway. We've worked hard to get good efficiency
>>>with d3d. The biggest thing you can do for your hardware performance is
to
>>>make sure your driver supports DrawPrimitive.

>Thanks, Makes my choice a bit easier now. Almost ate my words and
>bought CPR about a week ago anticipating the "patch" and AT THE TIME,
>the supposed strong possibility of native "glide" support. To tell you
>the truth, the only reason I passed it up was the high retail price of
>$54 which was rather shocking since there are currently so many
>undesirables within the AI and framerate,ect... Guess this is a
>no-brainer since Microsoft's name usually holds true to atleast $10 to
>$20 more per similar title vs.s many other respectable and popular
>software publishers. Another thing which is a bit of a "pain in the
>a$$" is the endless searching for CERTIFIED drivers for soundcards,
>video, monitor, ect... just to be sure you are getting the so-called
>optimum performance in Direct3d. Guess this could be my fault for not
>shopping smart and making sure I have the latest most popular "leading
>company brand" hardware in my system, but my P166MMX w/ 32Meg EDO,
>Mtech R528WP w/ 512PB cache, IMES 12X CDRom, Addonics SoundVision 500,
>Stealth II, Pure3d.... seems to produce pleasing results in about
>everything short of about 90% of D3D titles which just don't come
>close to Glide, OpenGL, RRedline, and Rendition ports. I was still
>looking forward to CPR in a "fixed" and "true accelerated" state, but
>it looks like this round UBISOFT'S FORMULA F1 will be the open wheel
>racer on my system.

>Ron L.

>(Please remove the extra letter(s) to respond)

>Home of the SSC http://www3.pgh.net/~lazer/
>For Nascar2 & Winston Cup Fans!

>>Microsoft "slow and unaggressive"? Can I quote you on that?     ; )

>Some of your critics will like that one, eh? ;-)

>>A new version of DirectX has shipped every ~10 months - version 6 coming
>>soon - your faith not withstanding.

>>Sounds pretty aggressive to me ... ?

>I wouldn't say it's been ignored, but it also doesn't seem that
>Microsoft is as serious about DX as they could be. Note the
>still-infuriating "calibration jitters" that Win95 has reading ***
>devices on many systems. This is a software problem, as the devices
>read perfectly clean in DOS (and it has the same problems for
>soundcard joysticks and dedicated speed-adjustable gamecards). These
>problems, which really detract from the overall quality of Win95 as a
>*** platform, have been there since the first versions of DirectX
>and they remain unfixed. When you fix long-outstanding, basic problems
>like this I will be much more enthusiastic about DirectX generally and
>D3D specifically.

>>You have a 3dfx card - you are happy. Great! It's a good card.

>>What about those owners of Rendition? Riva 128? The new faster breed of
>>cards coming soon?

>>One day you'll buy a new card - it may not be Voodoo based. Think about
it.

>I don't care. I want the BEST *** experience possible, and am
>willing to pay for it. Today that usually means Glide games running on
>3dfx. If someone else produces a better card (good enough to get
>developer API support) I'll buy that card. Though frankly, I see no
>one appraoching Voodoo soon. Voodoo1 has been out over a year, is
>about to be made obsolete by Voodo2, and the competition is only now
>just getting *close* to Voodoo1 quality and speed. Looks like Voodoo
>will remain the king of 3d cards for AT LEAST the next year.

>Having said all that, I certainly acknowledge that good, quality D3D
>games are *possible* - Moto Racer and Jedi Knight come to mind. And if
>a game does provide "good enough" graphics through D3D combined with
>solid gameplay, I will buy it. Though I'm wishing I hadn't bought
>G-Police, which won't run on my system at all.

>>And the "feature gap" between D3D and custom api's is closing, not
opening.

>Maybe, we'll see. The final feature set of Voodoo2 has yet to be
>announced.

>>Please don't slam us for trying to provide support for as many users
systems
>>as possible.

>Nothing wrong with trying that, it's an admirable goal, I just find
>that D3D in it's current state is too much of a compromise. I wish you
>had chosen a better, established 3D API such as OpenGL. Speaking of
>which, I saw a rumor posted the other day that MS *was* looking at
>getting behind Open GL on Win95, but I couldn't find any news about
>this - any truth to that?

>>p.s. out of curiosity - do you program using any of these api's?

>No, not currently (thinking about applying for a job in the games
>industry though).

>Joe

> >One day you'll buy a new card - it may not be Voodoo based. Think about it.

> Dean, the guy owns a 3DFX ... he's not going to buy anything that's
> not from them!  When you buy a 3DFX, you are sworn to the "code" which
> says that you will become one of the faithful for which 3DFX can do no
> wrong, all Voodoos rule, and anyone who doesn't own one is an infidel
> :)

> >I was still looking forward to CPR in a "fixed" and "true accelerated" state,

> Do I smell a religion forming here?  Is D3D no longer "true"
> acceleration?  Does the church know about this?  BURN THE INFIDELS!
> <G>

> > but it looks like this round UBISOFT'S FORMULA F1 will be the open wheel
> >racer on my system.

> UbiSoft has a nice sim, but its not a CART sim.  Apples & oranges.