#rendering 24 bit
26 messages in this thread
I have a diamond Viper video card….and i have misplaced the second disk
which has the 24 bit driver on it…i was wondering if there were any 3rd party
drivers which you were aware of that i could download….320*200 is getting
annoying….
Jean-Louis,
I _think_ Panacea might have a demo driver here in the libraries that will work
for your card. Also, you should be able to use VPRMODE VESA (a Viper utility
mode) with rcpvesa.exp using set rcpadi=\3ds2\drivers\rcpvesa.exp to at least
get high resolution, although at only 256 colors.
John
Thank you i'll try them both……..but if anyone else finds a 24 bit driver
please tell me….
Vibrant Graphics has an excellent driver available for your card. Their phone
# is (512) 250-1711. You get 24 bit RCPADI for the materials editor and the
render/view, which you don't otherwise get. No more 8-bit viewing of 24 bit
images!
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
Hello Jean-Louis,
Hey! Gotta get that Viper rendering in 24-bit! There is a Diamond BBS that will
have those drivers. Call 408.524.9301 and I'm sure that they will have the
latest drivers. I believe Panacea has some free ones on this forum. Also,
Diamond can be found here on CI$, I think in the GraphDev forum.
If worse comes to worse, let me know and I'll Email you the disk!
-Alan Iglesias
Alan;
I want to buy a new video card. I now have a 256 max color Video Seven VRAM
VGA card and an NEC MultiSync 3DS monitor. I want to go to at least 16 million
colors at 800×600. Will the Diamond Viper do this with the drivers just
discussed for 3D Studio?
I have an ISA bus computer. If this board is not compatible to my computer, or
16 million colors are not available at 800 x 600, is there another card that
could be recommended?
Thanks!
Dennis
The Viper VLB card does all that and more, Dennis, but unfortunately it *is* a
VESA Local Bus video adapter. There are quite a few 24-bit VGA cards out there
(all seemingly very supported by the Vibrant drivers in r3) starting from the
79$ Cirrus Logic unit (24 bit @ 640×480) and moving right up the scale. The
Hercules entries seem to be very well received here on the forum, and are
capable of some great display options.
Many folks I know like the Diamond 24x, but I think that it may top out at
640×480/24 bit as well. Anyone?? FWIW, I find 640×480 to be a great true-color
res for 3DS pics, if a little scanty for Windows graphics apps…
Maybe others could jump in here with more advice…
-Alan Iglesias
Alan;
Thanks for responding. I was thinking of getting a less expensive board at
this time in hopes of upgrading to a Local Bus Computer within a year. So I
particularly like the sound of a $79.00 board.
Dennis
I am going to jump in here and mention that LOCAL BUS motherboards are not
expensive. Multi-speed and upgradable two slotted (Local Bus) and 6 ISA slots
with a 128K cache upgradable to 256K. Can use 33/50/25Mhz 486 cpu. Only
drawback is they only hold up to 32MB RAM. However, these can be purchased
without the CPU for less than $150.00 AMI BIOS and SIS Chipset.
EISA boards with two LOCAL BUS slots start at $400.00.
These mothers(boards) have a 256K cache, expandable to 512K and 1MB. Ram is
expandable from 4MB to 256MB, 8 EISA slots and 2 VL-BUS slots and a ZIF socket
for a Pentium Chip. AMI EISA BIOS and SIS EISA/VL Chipset.
I don't mean to be advertising here but from the message thread I got the
feeling that you thought the VL boards were very expensive. (In some magazines
they are).
Merlin
G. Farmer
CRYSTAL
CAVE COMPUTER
103
BARR STREET
CARTERV
LLE, IL. 62918
VOICE (618) 985-8154
Merlin G Farmer;
Thanks for jumping in. I'm glad you did. Sometimes I find myself in
"tunnel-vision" mode and need to be snapped out of it.
In my looking around, even at motherboards, it seems that there are so many to
choose from, and the prices vary so much. A local store sells them from $250
to $995. The $995 model is a 66Mhz model with CPU. Yet before I buy a
motherboard for that price, I can get a whole computer at 66Mhz with a monitor
and a 340 Meg Hd and 8 Megs of RAM for $2000.
Supposedly I can put a 66Mhz CPU in my motherboard, but it is an ISA bus board,
and the CPU is over $500. So with so many options, it becomes confusing which
way is the best way to go.
I like the Idea of getting another inexpensive motherboard, and then buying the
local bus video card that will be state of the art (for at least a year). 🙂
Thanks again for the input.
Does anyone else have some suggestions. I really appreciate comments. The
more input I get, the more informed decisions I can make.
Dennis
Glad to be of help. Yes I agree, with input from many it can make a decision
easier, on the other hand, it can be too much info and make a decision harder.
I personally would go for the cheaper motherboard and the higher grade graphics
card. I speak of this because I went with a less expensive graphics card and a
hi grade expensive motherboard, at that time all 486 motherboards were
expensive. I use a Cardinal SnapPlus Video board, it could be better, but it
does allow me to output with genlock, the input is what is poor. If I had to
do it again now (and I wish I could,) I would have gotten the Targa board and
stayed with my 386.
Merlin
G. Farmer
Dennis,
I like the Hercules cards for this resolution. Veery simple and stable card
.. but very fast! Look for the Graphite Pro 2MB VL. Now if you in the mood
to really spend some money, you could get the Matrox MGA Impression 3MB/Z (list
price around $1,500). Now this card will do 1024x768x24bit AND has a realtime
shading chip onboard for realtime Goraud shading. They have implemented this
in thier ACAD driver and I think it's only a matter of time until they have a
3DS port of the software.
Ang
Ang;
I was looking at that board. I got some specs on it and it sounds good, but I
haven't heard much talk about it on the board. I believe that some were
talking about a different version or model that had limited 3DS drivers. I was
hoping that someone would know about it. It's a bit more than I want to spend
at this time, but I am keeping it in mind.
Thanks for mentioning it.
Does anyone have more input on the capabilities/limitations of this board?
Dennis
Dennis,
I think the Matrox MGA is somewhat ahead of its time, at least for 3ds
users/Windows graphics users. Sounds very appealing to Acad users who may be
more willing to spend a lot for interface speed and fast shading. It's very
expensive and I think most people, including me, will settle for 1/2 the speed,
for 1/5 to 1/10 of the price.
Martin;
Thanks for your reply to the MGA cards. I was wondering if this was in
competition with the Targa boards. If so, then maybe it is not too expensive.
There is an option for an output to tape directly from the card.
Dennis
Dennis,
I don't think the MGA boards are meant to be competition for the targa+/vista
board series – that would be the Matrox Illuminator Pro series. They are more
like extra hot Acad/Windows display cards. You see you need a framebuffer _in
addition_ to your main display board to accomplish frame-by-frame output. A
frame buffer is simply a memory location on a card (or in an external box)
which can store a frame, while you are doing other things with your main
interface. That frame will stay in the framebuffer until you replace it with
another, allowing you to record it, edit it, or whatever you like.
>> There is an option for an output to tape directly from the card.
This is probably a real-time, vga-to-ntsc type converter, as apposed to a true
framebuffer. Although, with some slick programming I wouldn't doubt that it
would be possibly to split the memory on the card and allocate, say 2mb for
display and 1mb-2mb for framebuffering. The targa+64 is programmable to do
something like that, where it has the function of 2 32-bit framebuffers on
board (each with 1mb of memory). FWIW.
Dennis,
It's a great board! 1024x768x24bit display and 60M WinMarks are nothing to
sneeze at (and no "monkey business" involved getting the WinMarks high). With
the added "Z-buffer" you can get the realtime rendering in ACAD. I'm going to
talk to the MGA Manager this week about the expected capabilities for 3DS
users. I think they maybe trying to the whole "ball of wax" where I think if
they simply provided a DynaView "pop-up" like in ACAD … we'd go for the board
en'mass
Ang
Ang;
The Matrox MGA sounds like a great board.
Dennis
If they pull off the Dynaview-like option, I'll sell my beloved racing
motorcycle to buy one! Aargh… I hope I get some more paying jobs befor they
finish the 3ds interface <g>.
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
JT,
I just talked to Matrox this morning and they are thinking about getting
something … maybe by winter. They weren't sure of the market "pull" for such
an item. I told'em if they shipped a DynaView-like capability that could
either be used inside 3DS _or_ shelled out to to look at atleast realtime
shaded geometry, that I wouldn't put any other card in my customers systems AND
that I thought 3DS people would upgrade their VGA cards just for that feature
alone (the card also offer 1024×768-24bit .. at 60M WinMarks .. so this would
not be the only reason). If I'm right, what we need are more people calling in
and telling them that we'll buy it if they build it so that they will puch it
up in the Queue.
Ang
My fingers are poised over the phone as we speak <g>. BTW, what's the phone
number over there?
Thanks,
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
>> phone #
(301) 236-5425 were Eastern Time (Maryland … hop'n Emily heads East!)
Ang
Thanks, Ang. I just read David Stinnett's depressing message (one past this
one on the thread). Now I'm really motivated to call Matrox. I can't
understand having a hardware rendering engine on a card and not implementing it
for the number one selling 3D package around.
Regards,
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
Ang,
If they don't see the market that can generate they are simply CRAZY or BLIND.
"They weren't sure of the market "pull"??????? What I'm sure is that my money
is ready to go to Matrox if they release the realtime gouraud driver for 3ds.
BTW, thanks for the info, hope they have something for Santa 🙂 Ana
I talked to them about three weeks ago inquiring about this, and the
tech support guy told me that dispite the fact that they have had "hundreds" of
requests, they simply have no plans on implementing realtime shading with 3DS.
I told him that I'd stick with my Chrome unless they changed this, and that I'd
call back in a couple of months to see if they had reconsidered.
It's a shame, because I'd like to get the MGA VLB to take advantage of
the empty VLB slot in my system (the Chrome is running in an ISA slot), but I
can't justify the cost.
Realtime shading is a real good justification in my book.<g>
David
It's just incomprehensible and depressing that a company with a hardware
rendering engine would not write an application for the #1 selling 3D package.
I'm gettin' on the horn tommorrow…
John (one more of the hundreds of requests) Tissavary (La Luna cie)