Nice! I've not been able to test on real hardware so this is good to see. Regarding the differences, one of the most important (that has led to the most number of subtle issues) is that in the new version in fullscreen, we render the whole frame. That's 11% more frame per frame, to paraphrase Cave Johnson. To explain some of the weirder frame drops close to doors, it's because of overdraw. The hidden space behind the closed door is rendered and then drawn over by the door. This is why the frame rate goes up slightly when the door is open. It's on my bucket list to fix. It's also how you can tell which doors are props, like the locked ones along the first hall or that one you commented on.
Thanks for covering this, I had somehow missed the developments this year despite having been obsessed with this ludicrously ambitious game for years (ever since reading the reviews in the 90’s really). In fact the main reason for upgrading from an 040 to an 060 in April this year was to improve performance on this game and I have been amazed how well it does work on an 060 (seems like a bigger leap than any other game for some reason and actually becomes perfectly playable). So these further improvements are really exciting, can’t wait to check it out myself.
AB3D and AB3D2 were programmed in Assembly/Machine Code, which is an amazing achievement. Most of the games like this in that period were programmed in C (some with a bit of assembly) which is comparatively like programming with a cheat code :-) Frame increases like that incredible. As for FPS to compare, Doom had an 35 fps cap (and that was highly celebrated) but to get that consistently you needed a top end PC with a DX4 or preferably Pentium. The renderer used in AB3D2 did have some more advanced effects (lighting/water/mouse look) so comparison is a bit dodgy.
Nice! I've not been able to test on real hardware so this is good to see. Regarding the differences, one of the most important (that has led to the most number of subtle issues) is that in the new version in fullscreen, we render the whole frame. That's 11% more frame per frame, to paraphrase Cave Johnson. To explain some of the weirder frame drops close to doors, it's because of overdraw. The hidden space behind the closed door is rendered and then drawn over by the door. This is why the frame rate goes up slightly when the door is open. It's on my bucket list to fix. It's also how you can tell which doors are props, like the locked ones along the first hall or that one you commented on.
Thanks for covering this, I had somehow missed the developments this year despite having been obsessed with this ludicrously ambitious game for years (ever since reading the reviews in the 90’s really). In fact the main reason for upgrading from an 040 to an 060 in April this year was to improve performance on this game and I have been amazed how well it does work on an 060 (seems like a bigger leap than any other game for some reason and actually becomes perfectly playable). So these further improvements are really exciting, can’t wait to check it out myself.
Nice job, Amipal - puts the new version squarely on the UA-cam map. 🙂
AB3D and AB3D2 were programmed in Assembly/Machine Code, which is an amazing achievement. Most of the games like this in that period were programmed in C (some with a bit of assembly) which is comparatively like programming with a cheat code :-)
Frame increases like that incredible. As for FPS to compare, Doom had an 35 fps cap (and that was highly celebrated) but to get that consistently you needed a top end PC with a DX4 or preferably Pentium. The renderer used in AB3D2 did have some more advanced effects (lighting/water/mouse look) so comparison is a bit dodgy.
I'm getting Quantum Leap vibes with the info text.
Lol, yeah now you mention it.