'Voodoo puts hex on 3D graphics rivals' [EDGE - June 1996]

Discussion in 'Videocards - 3dfx' started by ThunderForce, Dec 10, 2017.

  1. ThunderForce

    ThunderForce Guest

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    It was fun reading this.

    I don't think we got the same article here in the U.S. in Next Generation, but I'd have to look.
     
  2. ThunderForce

    ThunderForce Guest

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    Happy New Year guys. 3Dfx forever!
     
  3. Vibe

    Vibe Master Guru

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    The year: 1996
    The card: Voodoo 1
    The game: Tomb Raider
    The resolution: 640x480

    I remember what impressed me when this card came out, was that there were no jaggy lines, it was very smooth looking and unlike the PS1 version, had longer view distance and was much easier to see where you needed to go. I first saw the Voodoo 1 in action at Hills dept store on a PC which I think was an IBM, running this game.




    And who can forget the nature demo on 3dmark 2001? shown here at 1:22, I was so immensely impressed with this demo but it wasn't until Oblivion came out that I ever saw this level of lush details and foliage. You can see it ran rather rough on a Voodoo 3.



    Another impressive contender was Matrox in 2002 with their Parhelia card showing off it's prowess of quad texturing, pixel shader 1.3 and vertex shader 1.1 with their Reef demo. I remember how badly I wanted to play a game like this demo. You have to admit, it still looks pretty decent today as we don't see too many underwater scenes with this much going on. I believe this was Matrox's last foray into competitive gaming market if I recall correctly.

     
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  4. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    blast from the past i remeber most that stuff
     

  5. AsiJu

    AsiJu Ancient Guru

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    Yep, don't think I've ever owned a computer hardware piece as magical as the Voodoo Graphics card I had. Good times!

    How things change, Nvidia/Ati were barely competitive back then. 3Dfx and Videologic/PowerVR dominated as far as I remember. Former being better ofc :)

    Matrox is missing from the competition list, they had the Mystique card I think at the time. It had superior image quality IIRC but lost performancewise to 3Dfx and PowerVR.
     
  6. dsbig

    dsbig Ancient Guru

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    unfortunately my first pc had a trident 3d video chip in it......
    thing was a potato..
    so many flashing textures....
     
  7. Vibe

    Vibe Master Guru

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    My first computer was an AMD K6?? and had an SIS chip, games were literally unplayable except for some point and click games but even Blade Runner stuttered. I upgraded the Ram and got a Diamond Riva TNT but since I had no internet, I had no updated drivers so it still ran like crap. I had a lot of learning to do, coming from a life of consoles.

    I literally got online for the first time using AOL just so I could download updated drivers, then I was going to cancel it...but after browsing a couple sites I got hooked, even started meeting a few local girls using AOL instant messenger, been online every since.
     
  8. NostalgicAslinger

    NostalgicAslinger Guest

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    That's why I have started to make videos in beginning of 2018. :D


     
  9. ThunderForce

    ThunderForce Guest

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    Here's a recent upload of the Matrox Parhelia Reef Demo -



    In YouTube it can be set to 720p60, 1080p60 or even 1440p60
     
  10. RealNC

    RealNC Ancient Guru

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    Well, it took about 10 years for games to actually look like these graphics demos. That's from 2002, but the graphics look like 2012-ish era games.

    Or maybe I think it looks way better than it actually does. Don't know, it's kinda weird. The graphics are good but there's still something "very old" about them...
     

  11. ThunderForce

    ThunderForce Guest

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    Here's Next Generation article from March '97 on the 3Dfx / Obsidian XS-100.

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    An EDGE article from June '97 on Sega's Black Belt with 3Dfx (the Dreamcast prototype that got shelved in favor of PowerVR2).

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    And an August '97 Next Generation article, on Sega deciding between 3Dfx or PowerVR, not long before news of the final decision was made.

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    Last edited: Apr 24, 2018
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