| Barrage of Boards: 3d Update
by John Reynolds |
||||
|
In other words, a high texture size and 32-bit rendering is one thing, but bump-mapping then allows for artists to go back over the surface of a building, object, or character/player model and richly add graphical details such as nicks, ridges, scars, and so on, all of which helps to remove the flat surface appearance so prevalent in today's games. From a performance perspective, bump-mapping doesn't come free, but if used wisely it could certainly lend a wonderful touch of graphical immersion to many games. Moreover, the G400 comes with what Matrox is calling its DualHead technology, which is essentially taking advantage of Windows '98's multi-monitor support to offer dual-video signals. In fact, I was told that Flight Simulator '99 was displayed at this year's E3 with two monitors, one showing the pilot's main cockpit view and the other flight instrumentation. As a sci-fi simulation nut, I can only imagine the fun, and usefulness, of permanently setting a second monitor to a rear view for when those pesky Kilrathi or TIE fighters are on your six. The downside is that the G400Max is expensive, requires at least a 400mhz+ processor to really shine, and still suffers from some drivers immaturity. For a good review that glows with praise, look at AGN Hardware. Savage4-S3 has been something of a whipping boy for the past few years, taking heaps of abuse for releasing their abysmal Virge chip back in '96. Bringing solid 2d and 3d image quality, the Savage4 honestly lacks the fill rate to compete in today's market due to its unimpressive clock speed of 125mhz. Yet it's a solid 32-bit performer thanks to S3TC, S3 Texture Compression, a non-proprietary compression technology that's built into MS' DX6.0. This algorithm compresses detailed textures by a factor of 6:1 with little or no discernable image loss, and explains why the Savage4 handles 32-bit rendering with unusual aplomb. And as an integrated aspect of DX6, S3TC can be licensed by other companies. Unfortunately, even with its texture compression, the Savage4 simply cannot compete with heavy-hitters like the V3 or TnT2, falling well behind in most benchmarks. For a fairly comprehensive look at S3's latest, go to Anandtech.
|
 PowerVR 250-It's hard to give a definite treatment on this chip since it's the farthest away from release of the products being discussed. Offering a 250mhz RAMDAC for decent 2d, and a 125mhz core speed with 16mg of SDRAM for 3d horsepower, the Neon 250 would, at first glance at these specs, seem to be a fairly mediocre product, perhaps one that's been delayed too many times. Early previews tend to belie this assumption, however, showing that the chip holds its own against the competition. Yet the 250 employs what's known as tile rendering and deferred texturing, a rather unique output architecture that once called for specific code support from developers in earlier iterations, though Videologic is now working to make these differences seamless through standard API functionality. The 250 will also be the second chip that supports environmental bump-mapping, following the G400's lead in bringing this exciting new feature to the market. The downside to the latest in the PowerVR series is that its unique rendering architecture might not be so transparent to developers, who have moved in droves the past half-year to supporting non-proprietary programming interfaces such as D3D and OpenGL. And it fails to distinguish itself from the competition simply by not being the best at any one particular thing. For a preview of the 250, look at Sharky Extreme. Here's the fun part: making a recommendation. I would start by first pointing out that the url links provided for each product are not intended as individually exclusive reviews. Go to other websites, and print magazines, until you've read at least three or four reviews of each board before making a final decision-it's honestly the best way to guarantee arriving at an informed, objective understanding of the products, their strengths, their weaknesses. After that remains simply looking at your wallet and doing a little online vs. retail price shopping. Go to Page Three
|
|||
|
Copyright © 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, INC. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated May 25th, 1999 |
||||