3Dfx - The Voodoo Effect
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- A piece of computer history: The famous 3Dfx graphics accelerator from 1996. The Voodoo 1 addon card did not only accelerate 3D games, it improved the render quality, increased resolutions - and somehow it felt like all other graphic card manufacturers were caught with their pants down! The Voodoo effect is real and is still present to this day - although 3Dfx, the company, is long gone.
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It's definitely much better on the Voodoo, versus software rendering. Unreal was a little much for the Voodoo1 though. Much better on Voodoo 2 and Banshee.
Unreal was THE showcase for Voodoo 2 SLI. Never before could a 3D Egoshooter be enjoyed in smooth 1024x768 at 60fps!
Thank you for sharing. Unexpectedly, there are still people who remember this company in 2021. I am also a fan. It is a pity that it closed down
I lived this upgrade first hand. The moment I booted unreal up after adding the voodoo was almost enough to make me cry. The most beautiful thing I ever saw at that point. Absolutely amazing. The screen grab just doesn't capture the same feels that my 17 inch crt produced. Color poured out of that screen.
I absolutely agree. It was such a memorable event! There was a computer store in the city I went to school. Sometimes I just went there to see the Unreal castle fly-by intro in endless loop running on Voodoo2-SLI - and the shop owner even let you play. It was 'unreal'.
Oh wow this brings back memories. I remember my very first PC had an S3 Virge and a Pentium at 120Mhz (I think) and a friend of mine had a Voodoo 2 SLI PC. It was amazing how games looked on his setup. I later bought a brand new PC with a K6-2 at 400Mhz (think I overclocked it to 450Mhz) and a Voodoo 3 2000. It was mind-blowing for me at the time. I think I still have the processor somewhere since I really wanted to keep it as a souvenir. Too bad I didn't keep the GPU.
Thanks for sharing! Memories of first PCs are the best.
More than Unreal, it was... unreal the difference this card had on Tomb Raider using the patched EXE. The difference with the software rendering was just on another UNIVERSE.
Excellent video. The 3dfx video cards were the best until the end of 1999 when the Geforce 256 was released by Nvidia.
99% of games still ran better on Voodoo 3 and later on Voodoo 5.
Excellent video. With a faster CPU the FPS would be even higher, Unreal needs at least a P2 350 or 400 to run acceptable.
Yes, I agree. I may check different combinations of K6-2+ and Voodoo 2. I wonder how much performance one could get from those 66MHz FSB + EDO Memory platforms - and if it makes sense.
Unreal ran great for me on a intel mmx @ 233mhz and voodoo 2
I am going to test Unreal with the exact CPU you mentioned. Maybe I will even be able to overclock the CPU a little bit. Video may come soon!
@@bitsundbolts The CPU was actually a 200mhz pentium mmx but I overclocked it to 233mhz with a jumper switch on the motherboard lol
You develop a different relationship with your hardware when you physically have to move jumpers and short wires compared to changing settings in the BIOS :) at least this is how I feel
I never had a Voodoo card back in the day. The first 3D card was an Nvidia Riva 128 in late 1997, then when I got my own PC a few years later in 2002, it was a Geforce 2 MX (really good card for the price). Just a few years back I bought a Voodoo Banshee, a Voodoo 3 and then just recently a Diamond Monster 3D Voodoo. I just had to see what the fuss was about, and they are great cards. So smooth! Definitely the brand to get if you want great compatibility in late 90s 3D games.
As a kif of the 80´s, born in 83, i made my first steps with a PC and 3Dfx. I remember it as it was yesterday beggin my parents to get a Diamond Monster 3D to endhance my Cyrix 133+ with 32MB EDO Ram and 1,1Gb of HDD. All just to play Unreal. The results were far away from smooth by todays standards, but enouth to have acceptable framrates for inner Areas of the game at 384x240. The visual differences on the other hand were like a from a different plant. The filterling, the lighting, particel effects, fog ... after seeing this difference a single time, all friends also want the 3DFX EFFECT. Followed with a Voodoo2, then Voodoo 2 SLI, then Voodoo 3 3000, i stayed with 3Dfx as long as i could befor the next bigh thing came up, Geforce 256 with T&L.
Mir ist eben aufgefall, dass dieses Video mit "Servus" begonnen wurde. Auch wenn du jetzt in Dubai bist, ist da etwas ein Süddeutscher am Start? Beste Grüße aus Oberfranken ;)
Absolut richtig!
Just wanna say, the low fps from software render looks playable but also looks really rough
It's a little unfair, to use the Updated Unreal Gold, which uses the Unreal Tournament engine, instead of using the original Unreal Retail release.
By using the older version, your K6-2 will easily get a 5-10fps boost ... so with 3Dfx, you'll be playing at 25-30fps depending on the situation, and the rest of the system.
Besides that, excellent video.
Oh, and the Voodoo 1 in Unreal, benefits greatly from playing in 512x384 , instead of 640x480 ...
Thanks for the info. I'll check it out
I didn't experienced the Voodoo effect but i did experience the TnT2 effect with Unreal.
In 1998 i had P-166mhz and installed the Unreal it was unplayable later i got P- II 333mhz , P2B. 440bx, 128mb ram and TnT2 pro.
Installed the Unreal and fly by castle is engraved in my brain, and that music when you leave the ship and for the first time see waterfall, and the fish in water.
Could not believe that my PC can to that, had much fun with that PC i was using it well in 2003.
Good memories!
@@bitsundbolts
Thanks for pinup !
Yeah good times good memories
I remember having a Voodoo2 and playing emulated n64 Goldeneye with it. There was an atmosphere to it. Fog, IIRC. I've never got that to be there since.
Ran 2 Voodoo 2’s in SLI mode trying for better frame rates.
And think about it, this card put in shame 6000$ cards in that time. Also Intergraph RealiZm didn't had as default geometry acceleration board and expanded texture memory, even after it couldn't run Unreal without issues. Also these cards has not been such as miracle in CAD/CAM as most of people will expect it (no 30fps fly thought fully detailed modeled house with textures and lighting).
Great vid. I sported a P166 MMX with a Diamond Monster3d then upgraded to a P2 450 with dual Voodoo2 SLI. It was mind blowing back in the day.
I believe your P2 450 with Voodoo 2 SLI made some people jealous! Sounds like top of the line gaming rig at that time.
I had the Orchid Righteous 3D in a Pentium 200 machine (non MMX).
I had a Pentium 2 350, but with some ATI "3D" card. I think the P2 350 was the lowest model to support FSB 100. The lower clocked P2s had 66 MHz if I recall correctly.
My first 3d card was a Voodoo Banshee. It held its own pretty well.
It was early February 1993 when I walked into the "Cowbox" store (Gateway) and purchased my first/last prebuilt computer.
I ordered the "Essential 450" with a Pentium 3 @450mghz. 256mg pc100 ram. 40gig HDD and a Voodoo3 3000 16mb video card. Running Win98se.
$1,800 later and I was off to play Carmageddon in full 3d graphics!!! Woohoo!!
Unreal also supported the power vr GPU, which was more efficient than a voodoo1. That said, anything after 1 was superior. Voodoo 2 could basically run anything the entire generation, 3 improved the visual output, then 4-5 added 32 bit color. Still ran on the 2 though. Open source drivers even fixed the texture resolution limit with Mesa.
I hope I will be able to get a Voodoo from each generation. I am just starting out to get retro hardware.
Had a MiroHiscore 3D with amazing 6MByte of RAM, I will never ever forget my first start of an 3Dfx accelerated game.
It was Unreal and moving through the Vortex Riker with 40fps+ on my Pentium MMX, stepping out of the ship and admiring the jaw dropping scenerie outside the ship burned into my mind.
I doubt you can compare anything in the last 20+ years coming anywhere near this step in gaming, even VR wasn't comparable.
Think this was likely due to the ease of use and flawless execution, no problems with motion sickness or something. Plain and simple huge performance boost into the 3rd dimension that made them so much more realistic and believable.
Yes I still have a working voodoo 5 5500 agp
That's great! I hope to own one of those one day as well!
I loved my intergraph intense 3dfx combo card, 2d and the 3dfx chips in one card. 6megs of ram if memory serves....
This CPU is too slow for 3Dfx. It is strange. Voodoo 1 works perfectly even on slow Intel CPU.
I have not tested Unreal on Pentium systems yet. I will do this soon as I got a lot of new hardware recently.
Yes, had a Voodoo card back in the day. I don't remember getting 10FPS though. It was very smooth I remember.
Maybe you used a different CPU / Super Socket 7 board with better memory - or even a Pentium MMX that would increase the frame rates. I also think we got used to much higher framerates today. 15-20 FPS back then may have been considered "smooth" :)
Wasting all those bullets in the first fight 😂
if you want some fun, try and get at least one or 2 powervr pcx2 cards like the matrox m3d and do the same tests, on a board that dosnt share all the pci bandwidth more then one will stack for better perf. no external dongle needed.. and 800x600 very playable.
I recently acquired a Kyro I and Kyro II - there will be videos about those in the future.
@@bitsundbolts i LOVED my Kyro2, i had the gf2 as well and, with a good cpu, they traded blows despite the lack of hardware TnL, i really wish they could have found another foundry to make them chips, because, honestly i think a modern take on their designs could give us another option that worked smarter rather then harder....
oh, you will have to google/ddg/etc around a bit, but there are guides to running PowerSGL games on the kyro cards, its not hard just some files you gotta copy places mostly, works great and you will be able to play the powersgl mechwarrior at higher res... i remember it running GREAT at 1600x1200 with the PowerSGL version on my kyro2 card, at 85hz even..(best the crt i had would do), damn that was a hell of a card.. also a time when you have to copy files from multi driver versions into the installer folder, then install the driver with the optimal mix of files..(same for ati rage and later cards, rage3d use to host dirvers that had the files swapped out for best compat and perf with games... for example)
dont forget to look up how to get powersgl working with the kyro cards, its def worth it for those old titles that worked on the pcx1 and 2 cards, also, Ultim@race at least play the powersgl demo for the game, for its day the water effects are bloody brilliant.. as my brit friends put it when one got a card in an old system only to have me pester him to put it in his 1366 rigs 1 pci slot..for legacy games he was blown away... ended up finding an old power VR PCX2 rush like card that has a tsang video chip on it, rare as hell, the guy had 2 of them and tossed the "Dead" one to my buddy.. just had a cap that was missing, anyway, for old games... its shocking how good these cards were, more so when paired with the right video chipset and board/processor...
i owned a voodoo rush back in the day, that alliance vga chipset was not great... not as bad as some claimed but.... yeah... early single card solutions were a bit... jank in some ways... neat as hell but.. the jank was real...
i am still running banshee :)
3dfx voodoo I am hyped
No
i had a number of voodoo cards in the turn of the new millennium. I even had a sli card made by quantum 3d these were not easy to find plus they used a medusa cable to adapt to your vga card and to your monitor, So you had 2 voodoo 2 cards on one pci slot. I even lucked out and got a voodoo 5-6000 off of ebay. I wish I could have kept a lot of the stuff I had.
Those are some serious collectibles now! I didn't even know about the Quantum 3D! And the Voodoo 5 was an engineering sample I guess?
@@bitsundbolts The v5-6000 was an early engineering sample that still had the work tag on it when i got it. one of the clowns at 3dfx stuck 4 more fansinks on it and I called it the v6-12000 ;-) This card worked when i soldered a molex connector on to give the card the extra 12 volts it needed. Since it was a work in progress it was generating a lot of artifacts and was unuseable. This thing required a power brick to feed it externally! as it turns out I was trying out on one of the motherboards they said it could be used on. A very good website to check out would be Gary Donovan's Dodge Garage. I traded the card to him for a really neat case and knows the engineer who worked on 3dfx projects. they fixed the card from what he said and it's now in his VAST collection. I also got the medusa cable from him too. Like I said I wish I could have held on to the stuff I had , But that's the way it goes. Thanks for the like and the memories.
Thanks for sharing the story!
the Voodoo could bearly run Unreal, not quite the best gaming exp