first PC 3D cards

[archie4oz]

The Matrox Millenium also supported some 3d primitive processing in hardware. I remember a test available in the drivers.

There was little to no game support but the technology was there.

I beieve that this was pre-voodoo 1 days.

You could go even further back to '93 to the Impression Pro...

actually, I have seen Matrox Millenium running "hardware accelerated" NASCAR. This happened somewhere in late 1995. maybe it was christmas time, I am not sure.

the millenium's problem was that it supportted Hardware accelerated primitive (in this case; quads and triangles) drawing & shading, but not at all texture mapping.

Well the Milleniums (MGA-2064W, MGA-2164W) were really just product evolutions of the Impression (MGA I, II) which, as I noted before came out around '93.

I had an Impression that came with HEIDI support (along with HOOPS, VAGI, and hehehe Intel 3DR)... It also had some hardware accelerated game demos (using Rendermorphics Reality Lab, before MS made it into Direct3D)...

 

[Crazyace]

If you go back that far..

you might as well include all of the TIGA ( IIRC) cards that were based around the TI34010/34020, designed to accelerate AutoCad mainly ( again no texture mapping )

 

[AzBat]

megadrive0088,

Another card you might be thinking of was the Paradise Tasmania 3D. It came out in early 1996. Western Digital had bought Paradise shortly before then. The card was a PCI-only just like the Voodoo, and it came out earlier. The chip it used was Yamaha Systems YGV612 RPA2. My Dimension 3D partner, Biff Stephens, did a review on it. You can find it archived here...

http://web.archive.org/web/www.dimension3d.com/reviews/tasmania.html

BTW, I still have that review board.

Tommy McClain

 

[megadrive0088]

megadrive0088,

Another card you might be thinking of was the Paradise Tasmania 3D. It came out in early 1996.

yep that's one of them