Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 10:20:08 -0600 (CST) From: Chris Dillon <cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us> To: Stephen McKay <syssgm@detir.qld.gov.au> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org, Haikal Saadh <wyldephyre2@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Choice of display cards under freebsd. Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.20.0002040908400.48411-100000@mail.wolves.k12.mo.us> In-Reply-To: <200002041234.WAA43156@nymph.detir.qld.gov.au>
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Moved to -chat, since this isn't really appropriate for -hardware anymore. On Fri, 4 Feb 2000, Stephen McKay wrote: > On Thursday, 3rd February 2000, Chris Dillon wrote: > > >My point was more that the 3DFX cards can't even do what their peers > >can, which is 32-bit color-depth and Z-buffering. > > We're pretty close to agreement on most things. Even this. > > But my point is that these other features aren't always useful. To my > mind, the only real failing of current 3dfx cards is the limited maximum > texture size. I forgot that one. :-) This can be a significant quality issue if the games you're using take advantage of large textures. Text on signs and other stuff can be downright unreadable without large-texture support in your hardware, but luckily the game designers are usually smart enough not to stick important clues where hardware issues might conceal them. :-) > AGP is a crock, hardware transform and lighting is ahead of its > proper time (ie it's all hype without sufficient fill rate), and > 32 bit colour ain't useful. Maybe 32 bit Z-buffering is useful, > but I don't see the clipping problems you see *except* when a 32 > bit card does pretty much the same thing (thinking Unreal and Half > Life here). I agree that AGP (2x/4x/1000x/ad-nauseum) is a crock and that 32-bit color isn't too useful, but 32-bit Z-buffering can be, if done right. Consumer hardware T&L is only just slightly ahead of its time. Support for hardware T&L will probably be present in every Windows game made from this point on, since the hardware is here and DirectX 8 will support it natively (nevermind OpenGL, which has always supported it). In case you think the HW T&L itself isn't up to snuff, the GeForce 256 actually significantly outperforms professional graphics subsystems with HW T&L on cards costing in the 4 to 5 figure price range. The visual quality can suck and you wouldn't want to do the same job with it, but that is exactly why NVidia released their Quadro chipset (a derivative of the GeForce designed for professional applications). However, HW T&L also should only matter if you have an underpowered system processor. This is good for me, at least, because I don't go out and buy a new processor every two months. > >If you take the Matrox G400 MAX as an example, it performs nearly as > >well in 32-bit modes as it does in 16-bit, so 32-bit doesn't have to > >mean a significant performance hit when your hardware is designed > >correctly (plenty of memory bandwidth). > > When 32 bit is a zero cost option, I'll be converted. Check back in a year. We're getting pretty close. > >> I recommend a cheap Voodoo2... > > >Right, but I've also had limited luck getting my VooDoo2 to work under > >FreeBSD. It does work, but I just can't get the gamma correct > >(everything is too dark), and the mouse is totally erratic (a > >linuxulator config problem on my part, I know). I guess I also > >haven't cared enough to actually get it working correctly. :-) > > Well, OK, I admit I got a Weendoze box for gaming because so few games > work with anything else. But soon, I'll have another go at gaming with > FreeBSD. Last time I dabbled, it was with one of the early Quake3 tests > and it worked fine on the Voodoo2 and the Linuxulator. Maybe my monitor > is naturally brighter. I run FreeBSD on my system 99.9% of the time, but when I do want to play a game, I just boot Windows. I don't think any amount of monitor brightness would help my situation in FreeBSD, though, since I cranked mine all the way up and could still just barely make things out. Most of the time I'd have to fire off a rocket just so I could see the explosion. > Despite the limitations, a cheap Voodoo2 will be easier to get working > for Linuxulator games than any other card, and will do OK until proper > OpenGL support arrives for better cards. Probably, since it is a separate piece of hardware. I actually wouldn't mind finding an extra 12MB Creative VooDoo2 so I can do SLI (at least in Windows, if not FreeBSD). I don't suppose you've got any pointers to documentation on setting up the Linuxulator for stuff like Quake2? Especially the mouse, since that seems to be a significant hangup for me. I haven't tried in a long time, so maybe the latest GLide stuff would fix my gamma problem. -- Chris Dillon - cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us - cdillon@inter-linc.net FreeBSD: The fastest and most stable server OS on the planet. For Intel x86 and Alpha architectures. ( http://www.freebsd.org ) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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