JEagar Posted May 17, 2000 Share Posted May 17, 2000 I have a Mac Power PC at home (with a voodoo 1 3Dfx graphics card), and a Gateway PC at work. When playing the gold demo, the graphics on the PC are much better (smoother lines, more realistic terrain and trees) than on my Mac. Am I doing something wrong on my Mac?? Usually the Mac graphics are better with games... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pford Posted May 18, 2000 Share Posted May 18, 2000 <QUOTE>Originally posted by JEagar: I have a Mac Power PC at home (with a voodoo 1 3Dfx graphics card), and a Gateway PC at work. When playing the gold demo, the graphics on the PC are much better (smoother lines, more realistic terrain and trees) than on my Mac. Am I doing something wrong on my Mac?? Usually the Mac graphics are better with games...<QUOTE> As a guy that usually jumps to defend Macs, I have state that your last sentence is incorrect. PC's have much larger variety and faster graphic accelerator cards available, and usually cheaper too. To get good graphics on MacOS, the card must support RAVE. If you don't have RAVE then you get software rendering, which is slow. Also if you don't have enough memory on the card, CM will drop features and you won't be able to support higher resolutions. If you are considering getting a new card, 3DFX is going to support the Mac with its newer cards. The older cards usually had the drivers written by a 3rd party. You may want to check http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ re: Voodoo cards and drivers. Regards pford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEagar Posted May 18, 2000 Author Share Posted May 18, 2000 Thanks for your reply, PFord, but I already have 3Dfx on my Mac card. And I get great accelerated 3Dfx graphics with Myth II and F-18 Korea. So what's the problem with CM? Does it not support 3Dfx?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Galanti Posted May 18, 2000 Share Posted May 18, 2000 If your Voodoo card has RAVE drivers, it will use the card. If you don't have RAVE drivers installed for it, CM will default to software rendering, which will look much blockier. Also, most Voodoo1 cards only have 4 megs of VRAM (if you have a MacMagic card though, it'll have 8). Cm will still have to downsample the graphics to use 4 megs of VRAM, even if it's using your Voodoo card. You never mention what graphics card the PC has, which will make a big difference... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidh Posted May 18, 2000 Share Posted May 18, 2000 I think the problem is with the RAVE drivers for the 3DFx card. I have a Voodoo 2 card/12 MB in a beige G3 with a processor upgrade to 500 MHz and 320 MB RAM and 8 MB VRAM and still the Gold Demo renders in software, and looks worse than the beta did. I, too, have other games that use 3DFX's RAVE drivers and do OK, but so far there's something about CM that just won't fly. In other threads, Steve has said they're looking into it, so hopefully there will be a fix eventually. That, or you and I may have to get an ATI card with native RAVE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted May 18, 2000 Share Posted May 18, 2000 I too have experienced the Voodoo problems with Combat Mission. I've got the latest drivers, but Combat Mission won't see the card. Fortunately, I've also got an ATI Rage Pro card and Combat Mission recognizes that one with no problems. I'm in the market for a new video card, and one of the deciding factors for me will be how well the card supports Combat Mission (not the other way around). I've been very pleased with my 12 MB Voodoo 2. For my style of gaming, it has provided all of the 3D acceleration that I need. Well, it provided everything that I needed until it choked on Combat Mission. If I learn that the Voodoo IV does a good job on Combat Mission, I'll likely pick that one up when it is released this summer. If it doesn't do a good job, then I may look for a deal on one of the Rage 128 cards, or perhaps wait and see what the ATI Radeon 256 cards have to offer. -Lurker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goanna Posted May 18, 2000 Share Posted May 18, 2000 JEagar - if you can't get a driver to work for you, I recommend getting a Rage Orion card (what do they cost these days?). I got one for my 604e a while back and it plays CM as well as my newest iMac. ------------------ desert rat wannabe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted May 18, 2000 Share Posted May 18, 2000 JEagar, I would suspect that the video card in the Gateway is better. Perhaps a Voodoo2 or something even better? Voodoo 1 cards simply can't hack CM very well because the hardware is really old and the VRAM quite small (we suggest a 16MB card ) Only thing I can suggest is to try turning your monitor to 640x480 and then boot up CM. Make sure the RAVE extensions are enabled, and one or two people reported problems be solved by disabling the GLIDE extensions. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Germanboy Posted May 18, 2000 Share Posted May 18, 2000 Well, after all the bad news re: Voodoos and compatibility, finally some good news. I have just installed the Gold on my Powerbook 1400 (upgraded to G3/233, 40MB RAM, Ram-Doubler to 120MB, original crappy video, 800x600 screen) and I keeled over when it not only worked, but worked faster than the Beta Demo and looked much much better. Still a long way from my iMac DV SE, but for such a low-end Mac, I am astonished. Sound is also much better. Fabulous work Steve and Charles. ------------------ Andreas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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