Rendition or Bust

I don't get it. GPL is the most advanced racing simulation on the planet, bar none. And it supports Rendition superbly. GPL looks sharper, and has brighter colors than with 3dfx. Ok, so here comes N3, and no native Rendition support. How hard would it have been to simply convert the Rendition DLL file that comes with GPL, to allow N3 to have native Rendition support? Is there some feature of N3 that is more advanced than GPL? I doubt it. Someone please explain that to me, and please, no "Rendition is dead, go buy a vooodoo card" replies, I've already read too many of those posts. Thanks for listening. Eddie88

I doesn't look sharper than with 3dfx...in fact it has much slower draw-in for detail and less refined/detailed thin lines (check out telephone wires at Spa, e.g.). The colours are identical if you have your 3dfx gamma settings set properly--which, apparently from this newsgroup, is beyond most people's technical capability. I own a Hercules Thriller3D and a 12MB Voodoo2 and can switch back and forth with ease. The frame rates in GPL are more stable with the Rendition (and hence most of the slo mo effect is eliminated), but aesthetically the Rendition is not up to par. Hercules is now bankrupt and Rendition is a dead technology...I would assume that's why (the latter) Papy didn't bother with it for N3. Marc.

I too used to think rendition looked sharper than 3dfx until I got my V3000 card. I have no desire to go back to rendtion technology. -- Don Burnette Dburn on Ten http://members.home.net/d.burnette/Sportsman%204.htm

It's too bad Rendition never came out with their V3000 chip :( I bought the original V1000 as soon as it was available in 1996 (for ICR2 of course), then upgraded to a V2100 Stealth 4MB card which was better for Nascar 2. Lately I've been using a V2200 8MB AGP card along with SLI'd 12MB Voodoo 2's. Even though I really love those Rendition cards, they just can't keep up anymore. GPL runs better on my machine with the V2's. Just about anything that's D3D will run better on a new generation card than the V2200. I guess it's time for one last run through an ICR2 season and then upgrade to the Voodoo 4 or whatever is next :) Wayne Hutchison

IT all comes down to numbers. and yes this means Rendition is dead. Sorry. But if you take away development $$ to budget in Rendition work, then something else suffers. So choices have to be made. And really folks, If I was in Papy's shoes, the choice would be very easy to make. the ONLY people who still have Rendition cards are ICR2/N2etc/GPLers. Thats it..anyone buy a Herc to run QuakeIII?? Anyone buy Stealth II's to get Unreal smokin'? Without any real #'s to back it up, I'd still be willing to bet that just the TNT market dwarf's all the V1's and V2k Rendtions combined. Then figure all the systems with ATI, Matrox and 3dfx and you can't imagine how SMALL a market segment Rendition has left. So sure, get those artists cranking out AA'd Rendition graphics and cut out that unnecessary Multi-player stuff. I've spent the last two years re-booting multiple times to fix the screen res on my Stealth II. Since I went to a 3dfx V3 3000, I haven't had lockups, lost screen rez's or any of the old bugaboos that came with my DSII 220. Hey it was a great card, once upon a time...Really loved those screen shots in N2/99 that you could get with a Rendition...:) So you've got a Rendition card, and you like it...great. You've got GPL to keep you happy. But if you are so set on the past of Rendition, then I hope you kept your 386sx to run it on.... dave henrie

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> I don't get it. GPL is the most advanced racing simulation on the planet, bar > none. And it supports Rendition superbly. GPL looks sharper, and has brighter > colors than with 3dfx. Ok, so here comes N3, and no native Rendition support. > How hard would it have been to simply convert the Rendition DLL file that comes > with GPL, to allow N3 to have native Rendition support? Is there some feature > of N3 that is more advanced than GPL? I doubt it. Someone please explain that > to me, and please, no "Rendition is dead, go buy a vooodoo card" replies, I've > already read too many of those posts. Thanks for listening. > Eddie88

> IT all comes down to numbers. and yes this means Rendition is dead. >Sorry. But if you take away development $$ to budget in Rendition work, >then something else suffers. So choices have to be made. And really >folks, If I was in Papy's shoes, the choice would be very easy to make. >the ONLY people who still have Rendition cards are ICR2/N2etc/GPLers. Ummm, yeah, that's the ticket. Let's see if we can alienate as many loyal customers as possible... ;) "But in a way, fear is a big part of racing, because if there was nothing to be frightened of, and no limit, any fool could get into a motor car and racing would not exist as a sport." -- Jim Clark

If you don't want to hear the truth, then why did you posting this -- just to have sunshine blown up your ass? Face it. Rendition, for now, is a dead issue. I chose wrong myself, but saw the writing on the wall, pulled up my socks and went out and bought a Voodoo card. Why should Papyrus continue to code for a card that nobody's buying any more? Just to keep you happy?

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> I don't get it. GPL is the most advanced racing simulation on the planet, bar > none. And it supports Rendition superbly. GPL looks sharper, and has brighter > colors than with 3dfx. Ok, so here comes N3, and no native Rendition support. > How hard would it have been to simply convert the Rendition DLL file that comes > with GPL, to allow N3 to have native Rendition support? Is there some feature > of N3 that is more advanced than GPL? I doubt it. Someone please explain that > to me, and please, no "Rendition is dead, go buy a vooodoo card" replies, I've > already read too many of those posts. Thanks for listening. > Eddie88

-- Bob Curtin Worcester Area Strategy & Tactics Exchange http://www.tiac.net/users/ten10ths/ "If God had intended men to join the Army he would have given us green, baggy skin"

How many game boxes do you see with the word "Rendition" on the box? I'm sorry, but the fact is that Rendition _is_ dead as a standard. D3D/3dfx are the current standards. For now... -Larry

But at least Papy could try to get D3d work with a Hercules Thriller card. Everybody else can.............. Face it. N3 is just a rush release with ATI and Hercules owners biting the dust. Of course I'll have to upgrade in the future to a V3 but I think it's rediculous to buy every year a new videocard to keep up with Papy's changes............'97: Screamin 3D. '98: Thriller. '99:Voodoo3 ? I don't think so. Harald

> > How many game boxes do you see with the word "Rendition" on the box? > > I'm sorry, but the fact is that Rendition _is_ dead as a standard. > D3D/3dfx are the current standards. For now... The sad part is...someday, we will have this discussion all over again when Glide becomes irrelevant. then all the 3dfx owners will be complaining. Progress lads...either you accept it, or get run over. dave henrie

I would be more inclined to think it is _their_ drivers, not Papy, that doesn't play nice (or fully compatible) with D3D. Since the vast majority of D3D cards work perfectly, this is the only thing that makes sense to me. D3D is D3D. The card either supports it properly, or it doesn't. -Larry

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> > How many game boxes do you see with the word "Rendition" on the box? > > I'm sorry, but the fact is that Rendition _is_ dead as a standard. > D3D/3dfx > > are the current standards. For now... > But at least Papy could try to get D3d work with a Hercules Thriller card. > Everybody else can.............. Face it. N3 is just a rush release with

ATI > and Hercules owners biting the dust. Of course I'll have to upgrade in the > future to a V3 but I think it's rediculous to buy every year a new videocard > to keep up with Papy's changes............'97: Screamin 3D. '98: Thriller. > '99:Voodoo3 ? I don't think so. > Harald

On Sat, 18 Sep 1999 16:23:19 GMT, "Marc Collins" >>>>>....>Hercules is >now bankrupt and Rendition is a dead technology...I would assume that's why >(the latter) Papy didn't bother with it for N3. Wow, when did Hercules "bite the dust"? Not that I really care, but are they outta business, or re-building? I have an older Dynamite Pro (tseng ET-6000 chip). Nice 2-d card for its time; it still works pretty well. WONDERED why here haven't been any newer/better drivers for this card; now I know why...(heheh). Matt -Teehole

"Officially" I think it has been about a month, but from reports they started clearing out about 2 months ago and then just went silent. Somewhat sad since their original stuff gave us a nice shove foward. On the same note (somewhat) I just read that XEROX's PARC division LIVES (for the uninformed THEY had the GUI that Apple "borrowed" and is so laughingly *still* trying to sue M$oft for "borrowing" from THEM) No new shattering advances from PARC but they are trying. _____________________________________________________ "Claiming NASCAR Revolution to be a hard core racing simulation is like Milton Bradley claiming their board game 'Operation' is a hard core, in-depth medical simulation _____________________________________________________

Heaven forbid you also mention that it was with the full support and blessing's of Xerox Parc. Apple was _invited_ to the party. Don't make more out of it than it is. -Larry