... My very meager PC's over-all specs...
2.50 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 in an HP Pavilion 754v
512 MB DDR SDRAM
64 MB " " Graphics Ram with an 82845G Intel Card
((( No ATi or NVidia cards, here.)))
(But I do have a very old and apparently, now, useless Voodoo2. :(
And OpenGL 1.1 is On Board, already.
DirectX 9.0b
.....................................
(Sorry to bother your Graphic Wizards and 3D Masters, here.
Because I feel TOTALLY out of my league, around you guys. :)
Well... I have been having some great luck with QUAKE 2 and graphic/game enhancement LTL/TBM...
And also, games like ALICE, Syberia (My Daughter likes getting games for me.) :), The Thing, Silent Hill 2 and emulating Silent Hill 1 for the PS2, ALL, ran very well on my puny little system. :)
But,,, now,,, I can just barely SEE "Silent Hill 3"...
(I have GREAT sound...)
But no movies and no screen clears or refreshes.
And also, I have some "hidden" 3D animations...
But I can hear the foot-steps?
But, I can see only a frame of the changed animation,
ONLY when I press the "Escape key".) :(
But,,, I would say that "3D-Analyze", version 2.31, is doing an EXCELLENT job with my non-3dfx card!!!
But,,, here I am with my "hat in hand", asking for a little help. :)
Ps,,, I am trying to talk about this problem at their KONAMI Message board, here, under "Silent Hill"...
http://www.konami.com/main/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
And within the message...
"Please Konami... Help us, PC Owners, at least emulate SH1 !!!".
Plus I have already email their tech support and another site official...
... There...
And now, you are going to tell me to, please, GO AWAY!!!
And spend $300+ USD for a new ATi 9800 PRO card... Right??? [8D]
(I can't edit my message, above??? So here's some "edits". :)
That QUAKE 2 mod is called LTK/TBM, "License To Kill/The Borg Matrix", where mSparks, by himself, has re-wrote the entire QUAKE 2 and ACTION mod into a pretty neat FPS combat game with Ninjas and sword-play, even. ;)
Also, I have a very old and loved VOODOO 2 card, but not on this new machine... (Like that old card could, EVEN, begin to help me with this Shader MESS? ;)
And, now, for a REALLY DUMB question...
Should I get ALL of the drivers and dll files for a particular graphics card, that I don't even own??? (I noticed that 3D-Analyze has several very special dat and dll files.)
So,,, could it be that I need "something special", also, to help my very generic Intel card, above??? (See... I warned you that it was going to be PRETTY DUMB. :)
(Thanks for putting-up with my very novice questions.) :)
Quite frankly, I agree with the dude at that link, lyra or whatever. The intel graphics are ****, as you say, they only support OpenGL 1.1 and like DirectX 7.0?, which is simply unacceptable from a new system. If all you need the card for is like minor gaming, and you don't mind scaling back the details a little once in a while, a Geforce 2/3 (non MX or XT) should do you fine, or a radeon 9000 or 9500.
... Thanks, Amp_Man... (I really do respect your opinion on this.)
But,,, I am still curious about what Thomas of 3D-Analyse and that fellow, who still LOVEs Amiga!!! (I saw the Amiga's birth after the C64 and I will always appreciate its EXCELLENT system-structure. It is a shame that Commodore bought it. :(
Also, back then, in the mid 1980s we have dreams of TOTALLY PROGRAMMABLE software-based graphics cards with a seperate and very fast processor and LOTs of FAST RAM.)
PS...
Here is another group that is creating their own and better Vertex Programs and some Dreams...
http://www.dronez.com/english/dev_26_march.html
(Ahhhh... the PURITY and SPEED of the Assembly Language!!! :)
And they are doing all of this high-tech work for only one GAME that they created...
BRAVO Amigos !!! (And one BIG YAWN for KONAMI... :)
http://www.dronez.com/
So,,, MUCH have changed since the 1980s...
But NOW, perhaps, processors like my 2.5 GHz and LOTs of dedicated or isolated RAM (64M used to be a decent amount?) MIGHT be a BIG help with our current "graphics card emulation" needs???
PS...
I explored the "graphics card game" from VOODOO 1 and up, in the last century.
So,,, IF I buy one of the "very best and current" graphics cards,,,
do you think that I will truly be done with this "graphics card game"???
(According to our PC History,,, I suspect, not ??? :(
.. Jim ... (Yep... Just call me "Jim" ala "James T. Kirk".) :)
(And BTW, I probably screwed-up by putting this in your
"Gaming with Voodoos" section... (Sorry)...You may dispose of my "novice noise" and pipe-dreams, here, if you wish?) Because over-all this little dream might extend to ALL of our cards, someday?
... Here is one "Happy Ending" brought to you via "3D-Analyse" !!!
http://www.konami.com/main/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000348
... And one more Dreamer or TWO and their quests, before I go...
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=111901