INTERGRAPH REACTOR 3D ?

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> Hello, > I have been away from this group for a while so some of this may seem > like old questions. I have a Pentium 100 system with 32mb of ram and a > couple of questions concerning the new 3D cards. I am heavily into the > racing sims and I'm looking to upgrade my video card anyway since I have > a lowly ATI Mach64 2mb Dram that doesn't do very well in dos for games. > I was just wondering if the INTERGRAPH REACTOR 3D card supports Open GL > and Windows NT. I have a triple boot system and support of DOS, Windows > for Workgroups, Windows 95, and Windows NT 4.0 is very important to me, > as well as great performance for Nascar 1, Indycar 2, NFS, GP2, and > Nascar 2, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. > Also, what other companys sell similar cards? What are the software > bundles that come with them? What are the prices? How do you get one? > Should I be looking to upgrade my processor already? What gives more > bang for the buck. Processor or video card upgrades? > Thanks, > Matt Howell

If I had $200 I'd get the Reactor card right now... John -- +++++++++++++++++++++ Visit the New Ohio Business Directory at: [link lost in import] Need a web site??? Visit mine at: [link lost in import] How about some Common Sense??? [link lost in import: /~jvoznak]

>If I had $200 I'd get the Reactor card right now... All you need now is $150. They dropped the price !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check out http://www.intergraph.com/ics/reactor/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This space intentionally left blank

To the rescue! Yes, the card has a VGA core, albeit a slow one. Yes it has very fast (about Matrox speed) on-board VESA 2.0 SVGA modes, thus SciTech's Display Doctor or other type of UniVBE driver is no longer needed (a savings of $34.95). Yes, Nascar2 is being designed to be 'Rendition Ready'. If you don't know what this means (I'd like to thank Jay Eisenlohr of Rendition for this): "Rendition Ready is program designed for the consumer like yourself. The RR logo was designed to be reproduced inexpensively and placed on retail hardware and software packages to aid the consumer in matching logo's indicating products capable of an expected high quality 3D *** experience. They're are currently 4 minimum requirements for a Rendition Ready Logo for a sw package: 1. Texture Mapping 2. Perspective Correct Textures. 3. Bi-Linear Filtering 4. Greater than 25 fps on a Pentium 166mhz processor Any supported API may be used. The hardware, of course, must contain a Rendition graphics processor." The Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI has Win3.1 drivers. The Reactor is identical in hardware, so you should be able to get the default 640x480 16-color VGA working. Intergraph has chosen not to develop drivers due to the low demand. Yes Win95 is fully supported with DirectDraw and Direct3D. As with any video card, drivers are continually updated. Even the mighty Matrox Millennium shipped with poor initial drivers. The NRL basically is a means to connect to the server that will be running the multi-player races. You will still need Nascar2, much like Hawaii still needs Nascar1. Nascar2 will be accelerated on the Rendition boards, even running in a Win95 DOS Box. Well I wouldn't say vastly. IMO Monster Truck Madness and Hellbender are not very well coded games. Neither is a very good demonstration of Direct3Ds potential. Even the ultra fast 3Dfx Voodoo cards (a 3D only add-on card) slow down to 10-15fps in MTM. I don't have any hard dates, but NT 4.00 drivers are currently in development. I have no idea. No, these cards (unlike the Voodoo cards) are 2D/3D and as such replace your current video card. They currently are a good general purpose card (though the DOS VGA core is quite slow). Full screen MPEG playback is reportedly very good (I haven't tested this myself). DOS SVGA VESA 2.0 modes are very fast. Windows 2D acceleration is about the same as an ATI Mach64 or Diamond Stealth64, and this will improve as the drivers progress. There are only 3 companies currently marketing Rendition cards (Intergraph, CL, and Sierra), and I believe all 3 are shipping (I'm not sure about Sierra though). The 3D Blaster has been available at CompUSA for a few days now. The market for these cards is DOS and Win95, thus no one is really waiting for other drivers. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

<a whole buncha snippin' goin' on)

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>all 3 are shipping (I'm not sure about Sierra though). The 3D Blaster >has been available at CompUSA for a few days now. The market for these >cards is DOS and Win95, thus no one is really waiting for other >drivers. >-- >Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences >Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Lots of people have multiple OS's on their computers. You say no one is really waiting for other drivers. That is quite a generalization. If there were even 2D drivers for the Rendition chip under OS/2, I would buy the card today....as it is....I don't think it would be feasible to change out my video card when I want to run ICR2 or Nascar2. Won't be buying one soon, I can't afford to have two complete computer systems. <shrug> sorry Intergraph, you support me, I'll support you. Ralph<Ralphw on Hawaii>Williams /----------------------------------------------------------------------\ /Ralph Williams My real .sig file is in the shop getting repaired.\ /----------------------------------------------------------------------\

I am confused. Please help! DOS: Supported? Does it support VESA ? in hardware, or are drivers required? NASCAR requires VESA? Nascar2 requires VESA? Nascar2 is DOS and can take advantage of Rendition capabilities if it is available? Win 3.1/WFWG 3.1/Win 3.11/WFWG 3.11: Not supported?????? Does this mean that it will not work period? Or just that it supports some VGA standard and that it does not have some special high speed support for 1280 by 1024, 1024 by 768, non-interlaced, 90hz refresh, etc. etc. (As you can tell, I am no expert in this area?) Win'95: Supported! Some later enhanced drivers need to be downloaded to improve the drivers included in the shrink wrapped box. In 1997 the NRL will exist and require this platform, but the application that actually runs in Win'95 will not necessarily a: require b: take_advantage_of c: be_vastly_improved_by the Rendition capabilities? Monster Truck Madness, also discussed in this newsgroup, requires Win'95 and can take advantage of and will be vastly improved by the capabilities of the rendition based board. Win'NT 3.52/Win'NT 4.00: Not supported yet! At some point in time, beta drivers will be downloadable. That beta date is xx/xx/xx? At some even later point in time, production quality and performance drivers will be downloadable. That production date is yy/yy/yy? OS/2: Not supported yet? Any plans? Dates? Will not even work in standard VGA mode? Do these rendition based boards co-exist with a more general purpose video board (use two PCI slots)? Or are the rendition based boards going to be a general purpose video board once all of the drivers are written? Is it the availability of the drivers for the above platforms that the other companies selling rendition based boards are waiting for? -- Best Wishes!!! Robert Huggins Raleigh, NC

That was in reference to the card manufacturers. All three of them are shipping their cards with DOS and Win95 support alone, they are not waiting for the Win3.1, NT 4.0, or OS/2 drivers to be finished. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

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>No, these cards (unlike the Voodoo cards) are 2D/3D and as such replace >your current video card. They currently are a good general purpose >card (though the DOS VGA core is quite slow). Full screen MPEG >playback is reportedly very good (I haven't tested this myself). DOS >SVGA VESA 2.0 modes are very fast. Windows 2D acceleration is about >the same as an ATI Mach64 or Diamond Stealth64, and this will improve >as the drivers progress. There are only 3 companies currently >marketing Rendition cards (Intergraph, CL, and Sierra), and I believe >all 3 are shipping (I'm not sure about Sierra though). The 3D Blaster >has been available at CompUSA for a few days now. The market for these >cards is DOS and Win95, thus no one is really waiting for other >drivers. >-- >Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences >Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Does SVGA VESA 2.0 include 640x480? Currently I have a Diamond Stealth 64 and was wondering if the Reactor card is better for games at this resolution. ie. will games such as Indycar 2, Nascar, GP2, Wing Commander III, etc. run better than my current card at 640x480 and by about how much and have the opposite effect when running these games at VGA (ie. slower).

> Does SVGA VESA 2.0 include 640x480? Currently I have a Diamond Stealth 64 and > was wondering if the Reactor card is better for games at this resolution. ie. > will games such as Indycar 2, Nascar, GP2, Wing Commander III, etc. run better > than my current card at 640x480 and by about how much and have the opposite > effect when running these games at VGA (ie. slower). Yes it does. Reactor's VESA speed is excellent, comparable to Millennium's. Nascar1 and GP2 run at roughly the same speed as my Matrox did, Rendition- Ready Indycar2 comes with the card and is truly AMAZING, 30fps with all the textures, anti-aliasing, 16-bit color ... Nascar2 will be Rendition-Ready out of the box so expect the same kind of frame rates as with ICR2. Go for Reactor, you won't regret it! Plus Intergraph's customer support must be the best there is ... -- Henrikki (Hena) Hakkanen Tel. +358-(9)0-345 5538 ------- The best way to accelerate a Mac is 9.81 m/s2 -------- -------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine and does not necessarily reflect those of my employer!