RTG software and CV64-3D

[Damion]

Here's what I've noticed with this card....

Picasso96: Everything in WB is smokin'. 2MB backdrops load and instantly "pop" on the screen. Very nice and fast.

On the other hand, most RTG demos are literally a slideshow.

CGX3/4: WB stuff is very slow. Backdrops draw slowly, window redraw is sluggish... (acts like it uses the CPU instead of the gfx card blitter). However, all RTG demos are flawless - nice to watch eph stuff run smoothly on an A2000. :-)

Quake benchmarks are the same on both, P96Speed benchmarks are also very similar.

Warp3D: Essentially shagged under P96, but works (kind of) with CGX. Payback loads up, and is much faster than the software renderer - unless you walk near certain objects, then it slows to a crawl. GLQuake loads (with funky colors) but crashes quickly. (I didn't think it would work, AFAIK glquake for Virge on the PC only supported the DX and later, not the original as used on the CV64-3D). I know the Virge sux, so I'm not too concerned about trying to get Warp3D working better.
 
In regard to the issues with P96 and CGX... though I'm no expert, I've messed with all the tooltypes and env variables, so I assume it's just the way it is...(?) Kind of a bummer that each RTG software has some nasty downfall with this card, causing me to switch between them regularly.

Any suggestions/comments are welcome. :-)

[Damion]

Awesome, thanks for all the info gents! :pint:

I'll definitely rtfm again and play with the tooltypes, in case I've overlooked something... I'd actually prefer to get WB working well with CGX and use that, since demos run great with it (as opposed to like a 2fps slideshow with P96), and as pVC mentioned certain other features work better. As it is, AfA_OS enhancements fly along pretty nice with P96, but I do get the redraw bugs, no overlay, broken W3D, etc.

@Wol

Glad to hear, so chances are I've made a mistake and configured something improperly. I've really only messed with the CV64/3D, so hopefully CGX works as well on this card as it does on your CVPPC and CV64. <-would love to get one of those for my A3K, BTW... by all accounts it's a pretty nice card.

@stefcep2

I hear ya on the double negative thing, reminds me of how the service information for the German cars used to be translated... made it a real test of mettle to figure out exactly how the fsck you you were supposed to test certain things, LOL.

@darksun9210

I'm using the v4 CD, with the rc6 update from the a1k.org phase5 archive.

In regard to the card type... unfortunately, I have a phase5 version with 70ns RAM and an original Virge. I've been sticking to 1024x768x16 screenmodes, anything larger (or above 16-bit) really slows things down. (Could be the Z2 bus having an effect here as well). I did go ahead and stick a heatsink on the Virge anyway... finally got a chance to use that little POS aluminum Zalman that's been sitting in my closet forever. :-)

getting GLquake68k to work, usually wants a shed load of ram allocated, at least 32-64Mb (--edit-- in a continuous block), and a massive stack. usually 500k-800k or above. try lowres 15bit screenmodes like 320x256 to check it all works. i have run glquake68k at 1600x1200 which is pretty much a slideshow, but very pretty, and left it run all day as a stability test and it was fine.

WOOT! OK, cool... glad to hear this works. (edit -- 1600x1200 glquake is pretty impressive on 68k miggy, LOL!) Any chance you know where to get the glquake68k executable? The only version I can find (on aminet) is blitzquake, which I guess only works with Voodoo cards(?). I'd be happy to get this running just for kicks. :-)

[Damion]

Well, unfortunately I've had no real luck yet, aside from getting AFA working stable with CGX and figuring out some other tweaks to avoid problems/improve stability.

I did find some info on the CV64/3D overclocking page:

I had been using CGX for many years, and I decided to try P96, as I was unhappy with the bugs I had in CGX. I was amazed with the results. Everything seems to be about twice as fast! Booting is faster, menus are much faster (for example in CeD they are about 10x faster). Moving windows is faster. WB backdrops are textured much faster, scrolling... etc. This appears to be because P96 makes extensive use of the blitter whereas CGX uses fast-RAM for the parts of the screen that are under windows.

This pretty much mirrors my experience exactly (aside from boot time). The difference in WB between P96 and CGX is really remarkable on this card, CGX is just dog-slow in comparison.

I went ahead in installed the PIV I bought from red earlier this year, to see if the problems were consistent between different hardware. While I'm still experimenting, I noticed a few things right away:

Scrolling/etc is faster on the PIV, and higher resolutions are less sluggish.

The PIV definitely has a sharper picture... It's real impressive in this regard, even better than your average PC video card IMHO. edit: actually, the 3D looks a bit better if you plug straight into the card as opposed to the scandoubler. Signal strength (on the 3D) is weaker, text is nearly as sharp but the PIV has a bit clearer picture overall.

Demos work smoothly with P96 on the PIV straight off... Loonies "the castle" works just fine with PIV/P96, why it's a slideshow on the CV64/3D + P96 combo (but fine with CGX) I can't figure out.

When I get time I'll try the CGX drivers with the PIV, and see how WB runs.

@pVC

Interesting info, especially about the voodoo. I've thought about towering one of my A1200's and getting a PCI board... sounds like fun.

Just for kicks, I'd like to run a quake timedemo on the A1200 and see how much faster it is than Z2/rtg (with the same cpu etc). I'm pretty sure I recall quake being a few fps faster on AGA. Bustest sez it's faster as well IIRC.

[Damion]

pVC wrote:

-D- wrote:
Quake benchmarks are the same on both, P96Speed benchmarks are also very similar.

BTW. How are your P96Speed results compared to these?

Definitely slower, but look consistent considering the clock difference... nice o/c on that CV3D, btw :pint: I'll post a similar benchmark in the next few days.

The Voodoo simply urinates on the CV3D, lol.