I bought a 3dfx Voodoo 1 card back in 1997 to add to my very first computer, the difference was mind blowing. I now have two Windows 98 PC's, with one built around a 3dfx Voodoo 1 once again, a Monster 3D card just like I had in 1997.......and too many games to list here. Everyone needs a hobby, and this is mine, many games I purchased with my son in mind so he can relive his childhood all over again...........he sat on my lap and played games with me when he was four years old in 1997. :)
PowerVR was made by VideoLogic (now Imagination Technologies), NEC was the fab that manufactured the accelerator chips - they switched suppliers and used STmicro afterwards for their Kyro series. IT are still around today making ARM and RISC-V GPUs, collaborating with companies like Apple for their A series chips.
V1000 didn't increase gamma and that was the only difference between 'bad' and 'good' image quality. You could easily change gamma setting in 3dfx drivers control panel. It was set so high because typical CRT monitor of the time was pretty dim. I understand you tested everything on LCD with 2.2 gamma and not 2.5-2.6 gamma old CRT, didn't you?
3DFX Voodoo 1 was my first 3D accelerator card and it was a revolution for me! These washed-out look wasn't a bug, it was a feature back then when we were challenged with pixelized 320x240 software renderer😄 Well,for today's standards, early PC 3D games mostly looking quite crappy but from the times perspective it was awesome.
I still have my Diamond Voodoo cards just because of the memories alone. I just can't throw them away. Playing Quake II was just mind blowing and I will never forget the hours spent with a 500 ping and a dream.
If you want the voodoo to look like the rendition then lower the default gama setting. Voodoo by default has a high gama correction that looked good on average crt's
I think the real issue you are having with the voodoo's visuals is the gamma, the picture is too bright and it looks posterized, otherwise it would look as good as in the rendition.
When I got my first voodoo2 12mb I can tell anyone what wasn't there at the time that it was a game changer. Absolutely massive. Suddenly I was able to play psx sort of titles on my pc without the poor graphics and jerkovision. My friends had their playstations I was always wishing I had but the voodoo enabled that sort of gaming, brilliant stuff.
3DFX won by what they did not do. They did not integrate a 2D core with windows acceleration. They did not do T&L. They just rasterized. Why was this a genius move? Games had to support software rendering, so couldn’t have that many polygons. Everyone already had a 2D card. They were therefor much cheaper, much faster and didn’t get bogged down dealing with 2D graphics and bugs.
ordered diamond voodoo !!! I think this is the one I've had in 1997. For sure it had 4mb like the one I've ordered. I also hve s3 savage elephant 4mb. Now I also have pentium II, 166 and 200.... and k7. Not sure what to pair this with
I remember Janes F15. Before the 3dfx it felt like flying a plane in Prince of Persia. After installing my 3dfx it went so smooth man, the reflections of the sun, missiles and flares I still remember the 1st time I used it
My config from back the time was : cyrix m2 200@233mhz,80mb edo ram ,matrox millenium 8mb and voodoo 2 12mb. I was able to play everything on it to be honest. Even first max payne. I remember Turok 2 was looking awesome on 3dfx glide.
It WAS that good..when they had a couple early successes in the Voodoo and Voodoo2. But you could tell when the TNT2 rolled around and the Voodoo3 is all we got that 3dfx were about to be surpassed. Even the V5-5500 release was lukewarm for reviewers. Doesn't matter how good the V5-6000 was going to be if it never released.
Actually the Voodoo 3 series was a success for 3dfx, it sold very well. The end for 3dfx came in mid-2000 with the V5 5500 which did not sell very well and the company was finished with the V4 4500 which nobody wanted because it was not only a little slower than its rival the GF 2 MX but also 40-50$ more expensive.
@@supermario8416 It sold well and OEMs loved it. The install base was large. But even the flagship 3500 didn't really knock anyone's socks off like the first two.
@@saxxonpike in early and mid-1999 with the Voodoo 3 series 3dfx still had the fastest cards on the market. Only at the end of 1999 3dfx lost the performance crown to the Geforce cards.
3Dfx was beaten by themselves; making awkward and incorrect business decisions. Had they just focussed on selling chips nVidia would have not won the race.
Great video. I always enjoy comparisons of those early 3d cards. The ideal setup would be a V1000 paired with a Voodoo1, but who had money for something like that? Luckily the glorious Voodoo2 was just around the corner.
@@KITR-UK It's odd, probably some driver version issue. But you can restore the image quality by lowering the gamma control. Gladly it doesn't have anything to do with the performance, so that part was accurate.
In case no one commented about it yet, the reason why picture on the Voodoo looks washed up is the gamma settings - defaults were set to high values. Once you lower the gamma in the driver settings, it looks basically on par with Rendition. Another thing, regarding bad performance of Virtua Fighter 2 - it's not because of Voodoo being unable to render it faster (lacking the raw fill rate), it was the CPU bottleneck, since geometry (triangle setup) was done on the CPU. Non-MMX Pentium 200MHz CPU is just too slow for Model2-level 3D models (default, lower-poly models were made originally for the Sega Saturn version). And the third thing, about 3dfx "bragging" about a deal with Sega for the Dreamcast. Well, they weren't bragging, they were just in the middle of an IPO at that time and they were obligated to disclose everything they were doing as company. OK, those were my nitpicks, but overall I like the video. :) Cheers!🍻
Thanks for the nitpicks :) You're partly right about the gamma settings, they were set too high, however, I tried messing about the gamma settings recently and found out, Rendition still looks better no matter what. But lowering the values certainly helps. As for the Virtua Fighter 2, you're right, but the game sucks using pretty much any CPU or GPU, it's just too slow and ugly compared to the arcade version. Cheers.
That was Dragon's Blood, wasn't it? I had/have that game on Dreamcast! As for VooDoo's, right now I have a V1, V2 12MB SLI & V3 3000, really enjoy playing around with those cards. The V3 is the card I have in my main retro pc. And yes, the NV1 was bloody rubbish, I think we've mentioned before we both had the Diamond Edge 3D.... shudder.
Dreamcast is my all time favourite console. But to be honest, I've bought it mainly because of Shenmue and Soulcalibur. I never fancied Voodoo 3. But I've got it and I'm going to make a video about it :)
the puny max texture size was a blessing and a curse for the voodoo. on one hand it allowed performance to be higher, but as you can see from those backgrounds in Resident Evil and Virtua Fighter, it stands out like a sore thumb. a worst case scenario for sure. I only recently bought a voodoo 1 (monster 3d) to see what the fuss was about, as back in the day I didn't have any gen 1 graphics cards. My first was a Riva 128 in my dad's Pentium 2 back in late '97. Riva 128 was a great card for sure, but if I could go back in time and choose, I'd take voodoo. Riva 128 had better d3d performance but the dithering and filtering was pretty ugly in dark games. Luckily the graphics card race between the top dogs was high octane - we didnt have to wait long for faster and better looking graphics. What did you have back in the day?
I completely passed on the Voodoo 1 and bought Diamond Edge 3D. It was, however, a big mistake. The card was rubbish. Then I got ASUS with Riva 128 and Hercules Thriller 3D with Verite V2200 and I was quite thrilled with the V2200. As you wrote, the Riva 128's picture quality was horrendous and even though it was a tad faster than the V2200, I kept the Hercules.
I bought a 3dfx Voodoo 1 card back in 1997 to add to my very first computer, the difference was mind blowing. I now have two Windows 98 PC's, with one built around a 3dfx Voodoo 1 once again, a Monster 3D card just like I had in 1997.......and too many games to list here. Everyone needs a hobby, and this is mine, many games I purchased with my son in mind so he can relive his childhood all over again...........he sat on my lap and played games with me when he was four years old in 1997. :)
PowerVR was made by VideoLogic (now Imagination Technologies), NEC was the fab that manufactured the accelerator chips - they switched suppliers and used STmicro afterwards for their Kyro series. IT are still around today making ARM and RISC-V GPUs, collaborating with companies like Apple for their A series chips.
V1000 didn't increase gamma and that was the only difference between 'bad' and 'good' image quality. You could easily change gamma setting in 3dfx drivers control panel. It was set so high because typical CRT monitor of the time was pretty dim. I understand you tested everything on LCD with 2.2 gamma and not 2.5-2.6 gamma old CRT, didn't you?
I actually did test it with a CRT monitor, with pretty much the same results.
3DFX Voodoo 1 was my first 3D accelerator card and it was a revolution for me! These washed-out look wasn't a bug, it was a feature back then when we were challenged with pixelized 320x240 software renderer😄 Well,for today's standards, early PC 3D games mostly looking quite crappy but from the times perspective it was awesome.
Washed out colours were a feature? LOL.
I still have my Diamond Voodoo cards just because of the memories alone. I just can't throw them away. Playing Quake II was just mind blowing and I will never forget the hours spent with a 500 ping and a dream.
If you want the voodoo to look like the rendition then lower the default gama setting. Voodoo by default has a high gama correction that looked good on average crt's
Can’t you tweak the color balance in the voodoo driver? Like bump up the contrast and vibrance and lower the gamma a tad
You're right, I could've played about the colours a bit. Next time.
I think the real issue you are having with the voodoo's visuals is the gamma, the picture is too bright and it looks posterized, otherwise it would look as good as in the rendition.
When I got my first voodoo2 12mb I can tell anyone what wasn't there at the time that it was a game changer. Absolutely massive. Suddenly I was able to play psx sort of titles on my pc without the poor graphics and jerkovision. My friends had their playstations I was always wishing I had but the voodoo enabled that sort of gaming, brilliant stuff.
3DFX won by what they did not do. They did not integrate a 2D core with windows acceleration. They did not do T&L. They just rasterized.
Why was this a genius move? Games had to support software rendering, so couldn’t have that many polygons. Everyone already had a 2D card. They were therefor much cheaper, much faster and didn’t get bogged down dealing with 2D graphics and bugs.
ordered diamond voodoo !!! I think this is the one I've had in 1997. For sure it had 4mb like the one I've ordered.
I also hve s3 savage elephant 4mb. Now I also have pentium II, 166 and 200.... and k7. Not sure what to pair this with
Diamond made only 4MB models. I'd go with Pentium II.
Wild, i remember all of this. Exciting times in gaming,
I remember Janes F15. Before the 3dfx it felt like flying a plane in Prince of Persia. After installing my 3dfx it went so smooth man, the reflections of the sun, missiles and flares
I still remember the 1st time I used it
My config from back the time was : cyrix m2 200@233mhz,80mb edo ram ,matrox millenium 8mb and voodoo 2 12mb. I was able to play everything on it to be honest. Even first max payne. I remember Turok 2 was looking awesome on 3dfx glide.
matrox - theres a company that dropped the ball
It WAS that good..when they had a couple early successes in the Voodoo and Voodoo2. But you could tell when the TNT2 rolled around and the Voodoo3 is all we got that 3dfx were about to be surpassed. Even the V5-5500 release was lukewarm for reviewers. Doesn't matter how good the V5-6000 was going to be if it never released.
Actually the Voodoo 3 series was a success for 3dfx, it sold very well. The end for 3dfx came in mid-2000 with the V5 5500 which did not sell very well and the company was finished with the V4 4500 which nobody wanted because it was not only a little slower than its rival the GF 2 MX but also 40-50$ more expensive.
@@supermario8416 It sold well and OEMs loved it. The install base was large. But even the flagship 3500 didn't really knock anyone's socks off like the first two.
@@saxxonpike in early and mid-1999 with the Voodoo 3 series 3dfx still had the fastest cards on the market. Only at the end of 1999 3dfx lost the performance crown to the Geforce cards.
3Dfx was beaten by themselves; making awkward and incorrect business decisions. Had they just focussed on selling chips nVidia would have not won the race.
Great video. I always enjoy comparisons of those early 3d cards. The ideal setup would be a V1000 paired with a Voodoo1, but who had money for something like that? Luckily the glorious Voodoo2 was just around the corner.
I think you had gamma issues on some GPUs
Well, I tried to keep everything at default settings. Also, I tried to run the cards with an LCD as well as a CRT and it was always the same.
@@KITR-UK It's odd, probably some driver version issue. But you can restore the image quality by lowering the gamma control. Gladly it doesn't have anything to do with the performance, so that part was accurate.
Yeah I never played quake, never owned a voodoo card and did not have a pentium. It ran like shit on my system.
Well, maybe it's time to change all those things :)
Good? No groundbreaking
Great video, side by sides are really nice.
In case no one commented about it yet, the reason why picture on the Voodoo looks washed up is the gamma settings - defaults were set to high values. Once you lower the gamma in the driver settings, it looks basically on par with Rendition.
Another thing, regarding bad performance of Virtua Fighter 2 - it's not because of Voodoo being unable to render it faster (lacking the raw fill rate), it was the CPU bottleneck, since geometry (triangle setup) was done on the CPU. Non-MMX Pentium 200MHz CPU is just too slow for Model2-level 3D models (default, lower-poly models were made originally for the Sega Saturn version).
And the third thing, about 3dfx "bragging" about a deal with Sega for the Dreamcast. Well, they weren't bragging, they were just in the middle of an IPO at that time and they were obligated to disclose everything they were doing as company.
OK, those were my nitpicks, but overall I like the video. :)
Cheers!🍻
Thanks for the nitpicks :)
You're partly right about the gamma settings, they were set too high, however, I tried messing about the gamma settings recently and found out, Rendition still looks better no matter what. But lowering the values certainly helps.
As for the Virtua Fighter 2, you're right, but the game sucks using pretty much any CPU or GPU, it's just too slow and ugly compared to the arcade version.
Cheers.
Great video, and comparison, some of this stuff I didn't know before.
That was a times, almost every year next generation graphics. From Voodoo1 to Gforce 3 (first pixel shaders GPU) in 6years!
I hope you the best success. This content desperately needs P-R-O-M-O-S-M!!!
That was Dragon's Blood, wasn't it? I had/have that game on Dreamcast! As for VooDoo's, right now I have a V1, V2 12MB SLI & V3 3000, really enjoy playing around with those cards. The V3 is the card I have in my main retro pc. And yes, the NV1 was bloody rubbish, I think we've mentioned before we both had the Diamond Edge 3D.... shudder.
Dreamcast is my all time favourite console. But to be honest, I've bought it mainly because of Shenmue and Soulcalibur.
I never fancied Voodoo 3. But I've got it and I'm going to make a video about it :)
the puny max texture size was a blessing and a curse for the voodoo. on one hand it allowed performance to be higher, but as you can see from those backgrounds in Resident Evil and Virtua Fighter, it stands out like a sore thumb. a worst case scenario for sure.
I only recently bought a voodoo 1 (monster 3d) to see what the fuss was about, as back in the day I didn't have any gen 1 graphics cards. My first was a Riva 128 in my dad's Pentium 2 back in late '97. Riva 128 was a great card for sure, but if I could go back in time and choose, I'd take voodoo. Riva 128 had better d3d performance but the dithering and filtering was pretty ugly in dark games.
Luckily the graphics card race between the top dogs was high octane - we didnt have to wait long for faster and better looking graphics. What did you have back in the day?
I completely passed on the Voodoo 1 and bought Diamond Edge 3D. It was, however, a big mistake. The card was rubbish. Then I got ASUS with Riva 128 and Hercules Thriller 3D with Verite V2200 and I was quite thrilled with the V2200. As you wrote, the Riva 128's picture quality was horrendous and even though it was a tad faster than the V2200, I kept the Hercules.
@@KITR-UK geez, nV1 AND verite? you were on the cutting edge!