Video/Graphics Boards
YOU NEED TO KNOW that FS98 actually provides 3D support through DirectX 5.0 or 6.0. As such, you will realize 3D acceleration benefits from virtually any 3D accelerator that is DirectX compatible. It is not so much that FS directly supports a card, it supports the API, which in turn relies on driver compatibility. FS98 needs a 3D accelerator of the latest generation. You will need a Voodoo2 add-on board to give most military sims (based on 3dfx) good performance and image quality. But using those 3D dedicated boards for FS98 you will not be able anymore to have FS98 in a window in 3D mode. This is very annoying if you want to write messages in multiplayer mode. The simulator only can run in 2D during multiplayer sessions or using 2D flight planners. Modern boards can handle both 2D and 3D and don't need a separate daugtherboard, like the available Banshee board. The 16Mb TNT boards (like the Viper 550/770) are giving best overall performance for FS98. Current available boards These two chipsets are the best available at this moment (March 99) for FS98. If you often both FS98 and 3Dfx games like Falcon, Unreal/Doom Banshee your board. It is 3Dfx' first 2D/3D solution, unlike the Voodoo Rush it doesn't require an additional 2D part. 3Dfx was putting a lot of effort into the 2D hardware, offering 'all Windows GDI functions in hardware', thus saving a software layer between the driver and the graphics hardware. This is supposed to make it the fastest 2D chip available. It offers an integrated 250 Mhz RAMDAC, to enable good quality 2D. The main difference between Banshee's 3D engine and Voodoo2 is the missing 2nd texture unit of Banshee. This second 'TMU' enables Voodoo2 to render complicated scenes using both texture units in parallel and thus faster than if it's done sequentially. Quake 2 is a typical example, it uses at least two 'passes', which can be done at the same time with Voodoo2. Banshee will not be able to do that. On the other hand the raw fill rate of Banshee is higher than Voodoo2's. Whilst Voodoo2 runs at 90 Mhz and thus offering 90 MPixels/s, Banshee will do 100/125 MPixels/s. Games that don't use 'multi-pass texturing' will so run slightly faster on Banshee than on Voodoo2. Those games are right now in the vast majority, but this will change in the nearer future. You can find the Banshee chipset on the Diamond Fusion board and on the Creative Banshee. The Diamond Fusion board is performing a bit faster as it runs on a higher clockspeed, made possible by active cooling of the boards processor. The RIVA TNT architecture is the first integrated, 128-bit 3D Processor that processes 2 pixels-per-clock cycle which enables single-pass multi-texturing and delivers a mind-blowing 180 million pixels-per-second fill rate. RIVA TNT’s (twin-texel) 32-bit color pipeline, 24-bit Z, 8-bit stencil buffer and per-pixel precision delivers unsurpassed quality and performance allowing developers to write standards based applications with stunning visual effects and realism. The RIVA TNT offers industry leading 2D and 3D performance, meeting all the requirements of the mainstream PC graphics market and Microsoft’s PC’98 and DX6 initiatives. The TNT delivers the industry’s best Direct3D acceleration solution and also delivers leadership VGA, 2D and Video performance, enabling a range of applications from 3D games through to DVD and video conferencing. A complete high performance OpenGL ICD is included in the standard SW driver package. OK, that was the technical story. But believe me, boards based on this chip, like the Viper550 16MbTNT, are simply the best for FS98. New generations 3Dfx will release Voodoo3 as a kind of combination of the Banshee and the Voodoo2. So also this board is a stand alone one and can handle both 2D and 3D. STB will release this chip on new boards starting March/April 1999 in the USA. It's not clear what manufacturers will release Voodoo3 in Europe. Here is a dedicated Voodoo3 page.Latest news: Voodoo 3 boards has been released on April 7th 1999. The Riva 128 TNT build in the Viper 550 (TNT 16Mb) and STB Riva128 board will get it's successor in the TNT2, to be released in April/May 1999. It is a very promising board with 32MB SDRAM. Adding support for AGP 4x should help further increase the performance of the TNT architecture which relies heavily on AGP transfer and always has, with AGP 4x the bandwidth is a massive 1Gb/sec, while this doesn't compare to the onboard rate of more than double 2.4Gb/sec it is quite impressive and coupled with the support for 2048 x 2048 textures it'll make the TNT2 a hell of a capable piece in terms of delivering splendid visuals. Check this site out giving you detailed information.
ATI Rage 128 ATI already released this one. It's also a AGP 4x board with 32Mb. First looks are reporting lot's of problems, probably due to the bad drivers included. Performance will be better with new drivers. It's the first released board of this new generation. 1998 information.... The hottest news about new 3Dfx boards can be found at the Dimension3D site.(Thanks to Marc Saric). In March 1998 Diamond released the Monster 3DII with Voodoo2 chipset. Several tests with this card show up with a interesting result: In AGP version the RIVA128 chipset (f.i. Viper 330) is still a faster card for FS98. Remember the Monster3DII is still a daughter card to be used next to a 'mother' card. So it takes one PCI slot which may be needed if you want to add a multi-display configuration. If you want to read technical 3D matters and a personal 3D advise of Mr. William Hoscheit, you can read this zipped textfile. Conclusion about video boards You may be convenient with what you have now but with a good 3D card, you will double your frame rate, even at higher color and display resolution! Frame rates can jump from 4 (in 3D mode) to 21 frames per second with 16 bit color at 1024 x 768. But don't run to the shop and buy a new 3D board. Just wait a few weeks, read some tests and ask for a 3Dfx board which can handle both 2D and 3D. Great boards are the STB Riva 128 (in Europe hard to find, f.i. in Dell systems) and the Diamond Viper 550. Important epilogue: Don't sell your old graphical board if you bought a new one! Using Windows 98 you will be able to fly in multiscreen mode. With a old color monitor for the panels or the flight planner you would regret not having two video boards anymore..... Luciano Napolitano release a neat program, WideView98, which makes the use of Multi-monitors a bit easier. Read the doc first. © 1999 JohanvC |
Nvidia will release the TNT2 board in May 1999. Diamond announced the Viper770 for a May 3 release.. (top graphic).