rec.autos.simulators

I'll take credit for being an ass right off the bat <g>, but I don't
think I assumed anything. The demo, or pre-alpha (not sure what it's
considered) has Rendition support.
My comments were based on the info about the demo.
No assumption was made. I believe I said if it didn't have 3DFX
support I wouldn't buy it.

Thank You!

Again, let me qualify what I said. I am a Rendition card owner, and
based my comments on my personal experiences, not second hand
information. I don't want you to believe I'm just bashing the card
because it isn't the one I own.

The Diamond Monster is way faster at Direct 3D.
5-10 fps faster (subjectively) at Monster Truck Madness, Hellbender,
MotoRacer GP, and Flying Corps.

GLQuake is nicer looking than VQuake. Just subtle stuff like the
rings of light around the laser fire and explosions.
I will give VQuake the advantage of running at a lot more resolutions.

Two games from Sierra's own Screamin' 3D bundle Silent Thunder and
***Gladiators run faster on the Monster than the Screamin' 3D.
(Yes, I know there are a coulpe different versions on the
***Gladiators CD. That isn't my point... Faster is faster).

OK, now the secondhand info...
If what some of the sites are saying is correct, it may be a quick
leapfrog for Rendition. The new 3DFX chipset is due out by years end
with a claimed 50% performance improvement.
If Riva and the NEC card don't pan out, its right back to where we are
right now. <???>

Totally understandable. I purchased the Rendition card for $200 when
the Voodoo cards were like $300. It seemed like a better deal at the
time.

Sorry if my post seemed arrogant. I'm just a consumer, and frankly, it
doesn't matter to me whats going on there.
You can program the thing in a tent wearing a chicken suit, and I
don't care. I'll buy your product if it is of value to me.

I didn't see the mention of 3DFX support before. Sorry.
Apparently some other people missed it too, because the message I
replied to was asking for 3DFX support.

I do hope you gathered from the tone of my post that I was
disappointed when I thought the game was Rendition only because
I want your product. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to post.

Thanks for the update!

--                        

You know the saying: don't *assume* or you'll make an...

 :-)

Anyway, please everyone realize several points:

A 3dfx patch will be done right after the game is released.

Rendition also-ran? Wild leapfrogging is going on in the 3D
accelerator business, and there's no reason to think that it won't
continue that way. Rendition is about to leapfrog over 3dfx later on
this month, wait til you see how their new hardware performs.

We did not decide to initially support Rendition instead of 3dfx
because of the Sierra Screamin' 3D card. We made that decision over a
year ago, and many factors played into the decision:

--3dfx was not a clear leader over Rendition at the time.

--The team for this project is very, very small--there's only 1
engineer working on this game, folks. We cannot do everything that
everyone and their brother, mother, sister and cousins demand.

--Shawn Nash, the engineer on the project, had done Rendition ports
before (NASCAR Racing).

We only had the time to support one or the other for release. We will
provide a post-release 3dfx patch/version as quickly as we can.

There are a bazillion different things that factor into the decisions
that we have to make here. You can't just speculate and boil
everything down to one or two reasons if you don't even know what's
going on in our offices.

Cheers,

Steve
--
Steven Travers
Producer, SODA Off-Road Racing
Papyrus Design Group

P.S. I do read this newsgroup regularly, but not more often than once
or twice a week, and I don't scan every subject line. If there's
something you want me to read or reply to, please be sure to put the
word "SODA" in the subject line. I often only do a text search for
that string. Thanks!

Technicaly it was, as every other game company seemed to have figured
out.

Sierra has more money than Jesus, a hit game can bring in > $20
million in short order, and you expect us to buy this crap?

If and when this happens (IBIWISI) I'll have a look at it. Until it
does I will not be buying it, nor Red Baron 2, nor any other such
technologically backwards games that can't run on my hardware.

True, the reasons why remain a mystery. All we know is Sierra keeps on
screwing up.

Joe

Thanks for your reply. I understand where you're coming from, I was
just responding to your "head/ass" comment. :-)

You see, it was intentional that there was no mention of 3dfx in that
download. And, it was UNintentional that it even appeared for download
online. It was intended for magazine cover CDs only. It is based on
code from the pre-Alpha stage of development. We are now in Beta, and
a more complete demo will appear online around the 15th of September.
Look for it at gamecenter and at the Sierra website.

Steve
-
Steven Travers
Producer, SODA Off-Road Racing
Papyrus Design Group

Sorry, I guess we all forgot that if the software won't run on your
hardware then it must be worthless! Can you give all of us here in the NG
your specs!... We all need to catch up with your perfect machine!

Joe said:

nor any other such

Chris

Sure Joe...But what is after 3dfx??? Is it the end all be all of
accelerator cards??? Don't buy the game if it won't run on your card or
suck it up and get the latest rendition card as soon as it arrives....hey
v2200 may just be faster then the precious 3dfx! BTW I run both! (v1000 +
Monster3d = best of both worlds and no ***ing about it!)

You can't stop technology..  you can only hope to contain it!

Not relevant to SODA....yet!

"No ***in"?!!

I must say that your idea of no ***ing is pretty different from
mine. Several posts recently moaning about 3dFX/Rendition including
the one above :)

V2200 _may_ be faster than 3dFX, but that is far from proven yet.
What's more it can't run NASCAR2 and ICR2-3D. Heck you'd be better off
buying a 3dFX!

Cheers!
John

All I'm saying John is that Joe continues to *** about NO 3DFX (a good
gripe....but learn the whole story before you start tearing into Mr.
Travers, the patch is coming for SODA)....So if you get both there should
be a little less ***ing!....That's what I should have said..Less
***ing! not ***ing! Sorry for the misunderstanding!

Good Day
poppa

I can see the appearance of that.

---Jim

:Does anyone else find it odd that Papy won't work on 3dfx patches but is
:prepared to put effort into fixing a Rendition related problem with a sim
:that isn't going to be developed any further?

Very good point, it's not like fixing the V2200 antialiasing
problem for ICR2 is going to boost ICR2 sales any further.

I mean, Papyrus is very low on resources and is _fully_
concentrating on _future_ projects, right? Right?

Before you send me UCE, I know what you're thinking...  Did he complain
to five or six postmasters last month?  Now, you must ask yourself one
question: "Do I feel lucky?"  Well, do you, punk?