Voodoo 3!!

doanster

Senior member
Jun 8, 2005
585
1
81
so whats the earliest card way back when that had support for anti-aliasing?
i m guessing it all began with the Voodoo5's and Geforce2's??
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
The 3dfx voodoo5 5500 was the first true hardware FSAA in the gaming area, IIRC, and it did a fine job at it.
 
Jan 9, 2001
704
0
0
Actually, I'm almost 99% certain that the V3 3000 AGP that I owed had the option to enable AA with the last driver release for it, right around the time that Win2K Pro was just hitting the market. I actually shot Kyle Bennett over @ HardOCP an email and it ended up on the news page. You might want to drop him at email and you might get some further information.
 
Jan 9, 2001
704
0
0
XTknight, again I want to say that I am pretty certain that it was an option. If I remember correctly, when Quake 3 was the biggest rage, you could enable AA with the V3 series. Then again it played like total ass, but that's a matter of opinion, not whether it actually worked or not.
 

Lorn

Banned
Nov 28, 2004
2,143
0
0
I remember seeing advertisements for the Voodoo5 in magazines, talking about how amazing FSAA was. That would give me the impression that the voodoo5 was the first to have it, which would lead me to believe that no other cards in the series before it had FSAA.
 

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
Originally posted by: CCityInstaller
Actually, I'm almost 99% certain that the V3 3000 AGP that I owed had the option to enable AA with the last driver release for it, right around the time that Win2K Pro was just hitting the market. I actually shot Kyle Bennett over @ HardOCP an email and it ended up on the news page. You might want to drop him at email and you might get some further information.

I'm 100% certain it did NOT. ;) How can I be so sure? I have a Voodoo3 3000 and 2000. The Voodoo5 series was the first to come out with FSAA. And let me tell you, you could enable it, but you ain't playing any games at a decent frame rate unless you enable it at 640x480 or 800x600. :( How do I know? I have a Voodoo5 5500 too. ;)

 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
7
81
All the voodoo cards prior to Voodoo4/5 had edge AA, but not FSAA. The last 3dfx drivers released were capable of forcing edge AA, it had a minimal performance hit, but also didn't work all that well.(edge AA just isn't that effective)

I also remember a program that allowed super sampling to be forced with the voodoo2.....however, while the voodoo4 and 5 had a 1/2 or 3/4 performance reduction in performance with AA(and the geforce 1 and 2 cards a bit higher), the super sampling with the voodoo2 basically removed any aspect of real time from games as it used the cpu to perform the super sampling. It was more just for show than anything else.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,668
768
126
I don't remember seeing such an option in the control panel but some games had the capability. I remember Nuclear Strike supported it on my Voodoo2 and it ran at 80+fps at 800x600. I think I also ran one of the 3dfx patches for Descent 2 on a Voodoo3 3000 with AA. Must have been the edge AA you are talking about.
 

doanster

Senior member
Jun 8, 2005
585
1
81
Originally posted by: HDTVMan
Originally posted by: doanster
hey does anyone know if the Voodoo 3 3000 supports anti-aliasing??
thx!

What were you planning on doing?

have you guyz heard of the game "The Longest Journey"?
well, apparently anti-aliasing does not work at all on ANY ATi card watsoever (I have a 9800PRO)... which is rediculous. since the game is like 5 yrs old, i just need an old video card from nVidia or 3dfx that lets me run the game with AA enabled, cuz the game looks horrible without AA.

 

So

Lifer
Jul 2, 2001
25,923
17
81
Originally posted by: doanster
Originally posted by: HDTVMan
Originally posted by: doanster
hey does anyone know if the Voodoo 3 3000 supports anti-aliasing??
thx!

What were you planning on doing?

have you guyz heard of the game "The Longest Journey"?
well, apparently anti-aliasing does not work at all on ANY ATi card watsoever (I have a 9800PRO)... which is rediculous. since the game is like 5 yrs old, i just need an old video card from nVidia or 3dfx that lets me run the game with AA enabled, cuz the game looks horrible without AA.


As I said, buy a PCI Geforce5xxx series and call it a day.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
3,003
126
Any card can do AA provided the driver supports it. It may not be done at the hardware level but it can be hacked on at the driver level.
 

xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
12,974
0
71
Originally posted by: CCityInstaller
XTknight, again I want to say that I am pretty certain that it was an option. If I remember correctly, when Quake 3 was the biggest rage, you could enable AA with the V3 series. Then again it played like total ass, but that's a matter of opinion, not whether it actually worked or not.

Well I played Q3 on my Voodoo3 2000 and wish I had come across that feature...damn.
 

Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
9,372
0
76
Originally posted by: doanster
Originally posted by: HDTVMan
Originally posted by: doanster
hey does anyone know if the Voodoo 3 3000 supports anti-aliasing??
thx!

What were you planning on doing?

have you guyz heard of the game "The Longest Journey"?
well, apparently anti-aliasing does not work at all on ANY ATi card watsoever (I have a 9800PRO)... which is rediculous. since the game is like 5 yrs old, i just need an old video card from nVidia or 3dfx that lets me run the game with AA enabled, cuz the game looks horrible without AA.

You mean even if you force AA through the control panel it doesnt work on a 9800? That's weird...:confused:
 

doanster

Senior member
Jun 8, 2005
585
1
81
Originally posted by: munky
Originally posted by: doanster
Originally posted by: HDTVMan
Originally posted by: doanster
hey does anyone know if the Voodoo 3 3000 supports anti-aliasing??
thx!

What were you planning on doing?

have you guyz heard of the game "The Longest Journey"?
well, apparently anti-aliasing does not work at all on ANY ATi card watsoever (I have a 9800PRO)... which is rediculous. since the game is like 5 yrs old, i just need an old video card from nVidia or 3dfx that lets me run the game with AA enabled, cuz the game looks horrible without AA.

You mean even if you force AA through the control panel it doesnt work on a 9800? That's weird...:confused:

it is weird.... actually it's really stupid... cuz ati blames the game developer for not fully supporting their products and the developer blames ATi for not creating the proper drivers.... theres a massive list of complaints about this issue at the game's forum.

 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
7
81
The Longest Journey is a mostly 2d game, you really only have two options for it to AA it....
get a voodoo 5 and use 4x AA or....
Get a geforce series card and hope their super sampling option works well enough.
 

Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
9,372
0
76
Originally posted by: Fox5
The Longest Journey is a mostly 2d game, you really only have two options for it to AA it....
get a voodoo 5 and use 4x AA or....
Get a geforce series card and hope their super sampling option works well enough.

So all you need is a card with supersampling AA for that game? I know radeon 9000 uses SSAA, so it might work if this theory is correct - but I never even though about using AA in 2d games these days, usually the IQ is not a strong point with 2d games...
 

doanster

Senior member
Jun 8, 2005
585
1
81
Hmm... how would I enable SSAA for my 9800?
btw, thx for all the replies!
another reason i want to get a voodoo is to bring back good old memories ;)
 

Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
9,372
0
76
The radeon 9800 doesnt do SSAA, only MSAA. MSAA is better for 3d games because it causes less of a performance hit, but it only blends polygon edges, whereas SSAA literally renders the whole scene at a much higher resolution and then samples it back down to the screen size, but using color values of several blended pixels from the supersampled image.

I was talking about the cheaper radeon 9000, it uses SSAA, also most older cards like the geforce2, radeon 8500, use SSAA also.
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
7
81
Yeah, though I seem to remember that the Geforce 2 cards using SSAA had problems with games while the Voodoo5 cards wouldn't.
I think the current geforce cards only support an MSAA/SSAA mixed mode and not just SSAA alone, and MSAA in my experience has always messed up 2d graphics.

You might be able to get a cheap voodoo5 on ebay, you could even get a PCI one so you could have it as a secondary card for old games.
You could also check pricewatch, but it's likely to be more expensive and less available.
 

doanster

Senior member
Jun 8, 2005
585
1
81
Originally posted by: Fox5
Yeah, though I seem to remember that the Geforce 2 cards using SSAA had problems with games while the Voodoo5 cards wouldn't.
I think the current geforce cards only support an MSAA/SSAA mixed mode and not just SSAA alone, and MSAA in my experience has always messed up 2d graphics.

You might be able to get a cheap voodoo5 on ebay, you could even get a PCI one so you could have it as a secondary card for old games.
You could also check pricewatch, but it's likely to be more expensive and less available.

thats the plan!