Intergraph Reactor questions

I got my Reactor yesterday, but have had little time to use it. I have the following comments/questions, - ICR2 was very fast, but Grand Prix 2 is now much slower. If I set details to 'auto' in GP2, the detail level is set to minimum. This is on a Pentium 133. Can anything be done about this? My solution was to go to manual configuration for graphics. - Will MicroProse/Rendition work on a patch to make GP2 Rendition Ready? - How do we paint the 8-bit carsets in IndyCar 2 (Rendition Ready)? Do we lose by installing carsets from the net, eg - cars96? - I understand that Creative Labs is shipping Flight Unlimited with their Rendition card. Is this the Win95 version? In other words, I have Flight Unlimited for Windows 95. Is it Rendition Ready? - Is the following correct? --- a Win95 game that uses Direct Draw is Rendition Ready. A Dos app must be tweaked to be Rendition Ready. Thanks, -Paul

Eric mentioned that the VGA emulation has been Rendition's achille's heel. There is supposed to be a patch available soon that may help some games run 5x faster, but will break some others. The patch is switchable, so you can enable for those games it helps and disable it for those it breaks. WRT "Rendition-ready", Direct Draw apps will work on a Rendition, but the real gains come with Direct3D apps. The first apps using Direct3D are just making their way to the market now, but you should see many more appearing as we get closer to the holiday season. DOS apps written to Speedy3D or directly for the Rendition will get the best gains. Also, apps using VESA 2.0 will be faster, though not nearly as fast as those written for 3D. Dave (davids) Sparks Late Night League http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html

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> I got my Reactor yesterday, but have had little time to use it. I have the > following comments/questions, > - ICR2 was very fast, but Grand Prix 2 is now much slower. If I set > details to 'auto' in GP2, the detail level is set to minimum. This is on a > Pentium 133. Can anything be done about this? My solution was to go to > manual configuration for graphics.

Are you using SVGA? I haven't run GP2 yet but it should run well if you can use SVGA. Depending on your old card it will probably be slower in VGA. No word on this yet. Are you kidding me! Play the damn game,***the paint kit. (I don't know) The Windows95 version doesn't support hardware acceleration so I would suspect this is a special Rentition version or a CGL version. I'm still not sure if you can use CGL games on Reactor, but I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. Maybe. Yes.

CGL games will only work on the 3D Blaster. Creative Labs controls this through their BIOS. Doesn't really matter though, as CGL is practically dead and I wouldn't expect to find many new releases supporting it over Rendition's Speedy3D. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

VGA is quite slow on the Rendition cards. VESA 2.0 SVGA modes however are quite fast. There is a 'patch' that Mike Boich is trying to get Rendition to approve for unsupported release that will allow regular VGA games to instead use the 320x240 VESA mode. He said that in 3DBench tests (an old VGA benchmarking utility) scores went from 30 to 140 using it. I have no idea, but most future games will either be supporting a 3D card natively (most likely Rendition or Voodoo) or use Win95's Direct3D. The 8-bit carset is the same as the sets available on the Internet. The 4-bit set was a special set made specifically for slower machines. It can't be modified with the included paintkit. I've downloaded a cars96 set and it works fine with Rendition ICR2. I think the version that is shipping is the DOS version, but I could be wrong. No, your Win95 version is not Rendition Ready. See below for details. No. The only way a program can be Rendition Ready is if it is written specifically for the card as Indycar2 is or Nascar2 will be (there is a whole list of titles on the Reactor homepage http://www.intergraph.com/ics/reactor). The Rendition cards will be able to accelerate any Win95 game that uses Direct3D (not DirectDraw which is for 2D graphics) as will other 3D cards. Direct3D is a new standard API that many games will utilize so that a direct port for each 3D card is not required. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

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> > - How do we paint the 8-bit carsets in IndyCar 2 (Rendition Ready)? Do > we > > lose by installing carsets from the net, eg - cars96? > The 8-bit carset is the same as the sets available on the Internet. The > 4-bit set was a special set made specifically for slower machines. It > can't be modified with the included paintkit. I've downloaded a cars96 set > and it works fine with Rendition ICR2.

One strange thing I have noticed with the carsets I've used (like Michael Carver's excellent PPG96 set), is that with the Rendition version of ICR2, the helmets are constanly changing colors from one drivers helmet to the next. It looks kind of like a morphing effect. You can see it in the replays, while you are driving, and viewing the opponents in driver menu. Has anyone else seen this? The ICR2 version with the Reactor is awesome. With my Intel P166 32mb, I can run at Michigan all details, high detail mirrors and the framerate never drops below 30. Quake is also very cool. However, I'm having some major problems in Win95(maybe more about that later - since Tuesday I'm now on a first name basis with Intergraph tech support in Alabama). The best resolution I can get in Win95 that does not lock up my computer is 640x480 16 colors(NOT 16bit). However, since I spend about half my life with Papyrus sims it may be worth it. I'm hoping the new drivers released next week will fix my problems. Don Chapman Carved In a Rock Productions

Some clarifications on my original questions, I am running GP2 in SVGA mode with graphics level sert to 'automatic'. Previous to installing the Reactor (I had a Matrox Millenium) when I run a race, my detail level was automatically set to the maximum. With the Reactor, my detail level is automatically set to minimum. I had to go into the Graphics menu and change from 'automatic' to 'manual'. Also, I suffered brainfade when typing Direct Draw. I should have typed Direct3D. -Paul

>I got my Reactor yesterday, but have had little time to use it. I have >the >following comments/questions, >- ICR2 was very fast, but Grand Prix 2 is now much slower. If I set >details to 'auto' in GP2, the detail level is set to minimum. This is >>on a Pentium 133. Can anything be done about this? My solution was to go to lose by installing carsets from the net, eg - cars96? Paul, I had no problem moving in new PPG96 car set into INDYCAR2 and selecting the car set for new INDY2(3D). The paintshop I havent played with yet so I cant answer that question. Older tracks can move over and work also. Grand Prix 2 is weird for me also. I am running a Pentium 150 and the estamated frame rate drops drastically from 18 to 10-11. Yet when I set my actual frame rate to 14-16, the occupancy is less than 90% on most tracks except for Monooco. There is no hope for that track. I have everything turned on but sky and track( front view) and all turned on for rear view,set to manual SVGA. With these settings I see no slow down by myself racing, and normal slowdown at start of races. This was on Japan, Spain, Austrailia, and Canada. I hope this helps a little, I dont quite understand the frame rate numbers now with this new card. I thought they would go up, not down. Massayard web site news indicated that Microprose is coming out with new updates in 97, but no indication on graphics speed enhanncments or what updates are at this time. Bye for now, Dave Thayer

Just a quick question, did you remove your old video card from Display Adapters section of the Device Manager? -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Would anyone mind telling me how much the card goes for? I've been unsuccessful in tracking it down up here. TIA

Right now it's only available through direct order from Intergraph. Mine was $216 including tax and shipping. See http://www.intergraph.com/ics/reactor for details. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

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> > > - How do we paint the 8-bit carsets in IndyCar 2 (Rendition Ready)? Do > > we > > > lose by installing carsets from the net, eg - cars96? > > The 8-bit carset is the same as the sets available on the Internet. The > > 4-bit set was a special set made specifically for slower machines. It > > can't be modified with the included paintkit. I've downloaded a cars96 set > > and it works fine with Rendition ICR2. > One strange thing I have noticed with the carsets I've used (like > Michael Carver's excellent PPG96 set), is that with the Rendition > version of ICR2, the helmets are constanly changing colors from one > drivers helmet to the next. It looks kind of like a morphing effect. You > can see it in the replays, while you are driving, and viewing the > opponents in driver menu. Has anyone else seen this? The ICR2 version > with the Reactor is awesome. With my Intel P166 32mb, I can run at > Michigan all details, high detail mirrors and the framerate never drops > below 30. Quake is also very cool. However, I'm having some major > problems in Win95(maybe more about that later - since Tuesday I'm now on > a first name basis with Intergraph tech support in Alabama). The best > resolution I can get in Win95 that does not lock up my computer is > 640x480 16 colors(NOT 16bit). However, since I spend about half my life > with Papyrus sims it may be worth it. I'm hoping the new drivers > released next week will fix my problems. > Don Chapman > Carved In a Rock Productions

I had the same problem with the color in WIN 95. All I did to fix it was go to: Start Settings Control Panel System Device Manager Slick on the plus on Display Adapter Highlight Rendition Verite Select Properties Click Driver tab Click Change driver Insert Reactor Driver disk This fixed mine. Hope it helps.

The very first time I installed the card I did not, after Having the video problem I went to Display Adpaters and removed the S3( I had a #9GxePro card originally) driver entirely. I then removed the Rendition as well and reinstalled from the drivers from disk but sill had the same problem. I actually bout two Reactors and in my other machine it is woking perfectly in Win95. Here are the two configurations of my machines: Non-working machine: Intel P166 Triton II motherboard Award Bios version (2A59CPAO) Sound Blaster 16 with CDROM interface and Roland daughtercard 3COM network card US Robotics DSVD Modem Win 95 with service pack one installed Old graphics card was #9GxePro(S3 chip) Working Machine: Intel P100 Triton motherboard Award Bios version (2A59CF2N) Sound Blaster 16 with CDROM interface 3COM network card Win95 (no service pack installed) Old graphics card was Diamond Stelath(S3 chip) I have since removed all cards from the P166 machine and still have the same problem. Win95 has never shown any device conflicts. The IRQ's for the 3Com and SoundBlaster cards are set the same for both machines. I have also now removed the Win95 service pack from the non-working machine. Still same problem. I have aslo re-installed 95 on that machine, although I did just overwrite what was in the existing directory. I am saving a full re-install as a last resort. Have you noticed the "morphing helmets" in the carsets you've installed into ICR2 Rendition? I have seen this on both my working and non-working machine. Don Chapman Carved In a Rock Productions

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>I had the same problem with the color in WIN 95. All I did to fix it >was go to: > Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Slick on the plus on Display Adapter > Highlight Rendition Verite > Select Properties > Click Driver tab > Click Change driver > Insert Reactor Driver disk >This fixed mine. Hope it helps.

Intergraph Tech support has walked me thru these same steps several times, but still nothing works. Do you have the Windows 95 service pack installed on your machine? Don Chapman Carved In a Rock Productions

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> >I had the same problem with the color in WIN 95. All I did to fix it > >was go to: > > Start > > Settings > > Control Panel > > System > > Device Manager > > Slick on the plus on Display Adapter > > Highlight Rendition Verite > > Select Properties > > Click Driver tab > > Click Change driver > > Insert Reactor Driver disk > >This fixed mine. Hope it helps. > Intergraph Tech support has walked me thru these same steps several > times, but still nothing works. Do you have the Windows 95 service > pack installed on your machine? > Don Chapman > Carved In a Rock Productions

Nope. Sure don't. But, I don't know what that is or what it does. It sounds like you have a conflict somewhere. Is it running in SAFE mode?

> - Is the following correct? --- a Win95 game that uses Direct Draw is > Rendition Ready. A Dos app must be tweaked to be Rendition Ready. If by "Rendition Ready" you mean "takes advantage of the 3D graphics features of a Rendition based video card", the answer is no. DirectDraw does not address 3D graphics, so a program that uses DirectDraw will not automatically use the cool features of a Rendition card. You are correct in stating that a DOS program must be altered to use the 3D graphics capabilities of a Rendition based video card. I probably wouldn't use the term "tweaked", since this generally implies minor poking & prodding & tuning. If the graphics system of the original DOS program was well designed, I'd describe the conversion as "a relatively straightforward transplant of the heart of the graphics system." This is major surgery, but is pretty clean and well defined. If the original graphics engine was poorly designed, I'd describe the conversion process as "a ***y mess created with a chain saw." Since you're from Microsoft, I'll bite... One might ask, instead, "Is a Win95 game that uses Direct3D Rendition Ready?" Again, the answer depends on what you mean by "Rendition Ready". I believe Rendition has some form of marketing campaign involving the term "Rendition Ready". If so, you'd have to ask them whether a game that talks to a Verite' based video card through Direct3D meets their criteria. In general, I would say "No, the game is not Rendition Ready, it is Direct3D ready. If you happen to have Direct3D drivers for your Rendition based card, then your game will probably be able to take advantage of most of the cool features your video card offers..." Ok, so I'll only nibble. I'll leave it at that, unless someone has a good reason to start a Direct3D holy war. Randy \