PowerVR Series 1: PCX 1, 2 old screenshots

Thank you very much!
I'll notify everyone when I got the neon250 page up.
Gonna have to prepare for our first review at KyroNet very soon too...
 
Anyone mentioned Neon250?
I have one right here!!
I may have a PowerVR PCX 1 or 2 also somewhere...
All my 3dstuff started way back in the days of PCX 1.
If anyone remembers, I had the first and only dedicated PowerVR (if not 3d) site in the world. Oh man those were the days, developing the glQuake drivers with NEC, while everyone was claiming that there was no way that glQuake would run on PowerVR. Talking with Brian Hook about the image quality of the PowerVR PCX2 and one day NEC send me a box with I believe 6 PowerVR cards, to hand out to my friends and tell NEC what they liked or disliked.

Hell, I started all this back in 1994, my small website was about 3dtechnology even when there was no 3dfx or PowerVR.. AT one time when I got the news that the NDA was lifted from the GLquake drivers, I published it and I got around 1 or 2 million page views a day on my site. The bad thing my ISP's network went completely down because of me.....
:)

Anyway what do you want me to do with the Neon250?

Also: Neon 250 review on beyond3d
Hmm seems paths to images are not correct anymore, will correct them this evening..sorry about that.
 
wow this is a great thread to read. I was all for PowerVR back in 1996-1997. I thought they had much better technology than 3Dfx. With PowerVR2 (and PowerVRDC) Videologic gave us true arcade quality that blew the socks off anything else, rivaling and in some areas surpassing the best arcade technology of the time.

It's sad that alot of the promises of PowerVR1 went unfullfilled. Not the technology but the software that would make it shine, I'm talking specifically about the annouced PowerVR versions of Namco's arcade games: Rave Racer, Air Combat 22 and Tekken. The first two, especially Rave Racer would've been KILLER APPS for PowerVR, and in my perfect world, would have been what made PowerVR the choice, beating 3Dfx.

My utter dismay at the cancellation of those games, it was truly crushing. Are there any screen shots or movies of Rave Racer PowerVR? All I have is the issue of Next Generation with a number of pixtures. but if there are anymore, I'd love to see them. PowerVR SGL Virtual On must have been great, especially compared to the saturn version. though naturally Dreamcast (which uses PowerVR2) VOOT has to be so much better.

But as for Rave Racer (as well as AC22), the PowerVR version was the only previewed home conversion of that game. it never made it to consoles. Its sad that Rave Racer remains in the arcade at present. PowerVE1 could have made a better than 50% conversion from what I saw in the previews. I believe Rave Racer PowerVR was shown at various trade shows in '96-'97, any impressions?
 
Megadrive:
Unfortunately, the RaveRacer demo doesn't run with the "current" PCX2 libraries. Maybe one day (perhaps when I can use the timeslice techniques in Pratchett's "The Thief of Time", or borrow the "Procrastinators") I'll have a troll through the RCS system to see if I can rebuild an antique SGL library that supports the features of the Namco demo. Don't hold your breath though.
 
Thanks to Simon, marco and Pottsey for the links.
As for Simon's links...I still cannot access them.. I will try to access them on a different network (at U, at the end of this week).

for the Beyond3D's Neon250 review:
My wallpaper look very similar to that board: :D

Beyond3D Neon250 board pic:
http://www.beyond3d.com//reviews/videologic/neon250/Board.gif

KyroNet's Kyro board Wallpaper V1.1 pic:
http://kyro-net.paraknowya.net/KyroNet_wall.jpg

anyway, these were off topics...I will try to finish up a "very short" history of Neon250 as soon as possible....
thanks guys
 
kyronet said:
Thanks to Simon, marco and Pottsey for the links.
As for Simon's links...I still cannot access them.. I will try to access them on a different network (at U, at the end of this week).
Click to expand...
OK, I've emailed them to a "geo h" address I found on the kyronet site. I'm guessing that's you.
 
Simon: might be a cool project for a rainy day :)

What were your impressions of the Rave Racer demo (or full game if it ever got that far) on PowerVR, one of the more impressive demos?
To me it looked alot like the arcade version but I couldn't tell what the framerate was.

I'm really curious why exactly it got cancelled and by who, Namco or NEC or even Videologic. My guess it Namco since it was their game....

finally, was there also anything on Air Combat 22 and/or Tekken?
 
I also have a Neon250, and can take shots for you.

It's a shame that Direct3d never worked well on the card, but Quake engine games ran and looked very nice. I sort of mutilated mine though, it's got a big fan and Alpha heatsinks on it :p
 
Ozymandis said:
I also have a Neon250, and can take shots for you.

It's a shame that Direct3d never worked well on the card, but Quake engine games ran and looked very nice. I sort of mutilated mine though, it's got a big fan and Alpha heatsinks on it :p
Click to expand...

Thanks alot, but I think there's a lot of Neon250 shots up there (URLs) already. But thanks anyway.

BTW, since a lot of people seems to be very much interested in PCX1/2 screenshots, we at KyroNet will now stop working on our "very short" history of Neon250.
Instead, we will try ("try") to take more screenshots using PCX1/2 to make a game gallary.

BTW, does anyone know if the m3D/PVR PCX2 driver works under Windows XP Pro.?
The URL (driver) I posted up there is for Windows ME/9x only...



---------------------------------------
George from KyroNet
http://kyro-net.paraknowya.net
 
kyronet said:
In fact, I've started the section on PowerVR Series 2: Neon250.
But I do not have a Neon250 board, do you have any idea of where I can obtain some screenshots taken with Neon250.
Click to expand...

The review of the Neon250 AGP/PCI was my first review on deferred Power (www.mitrax.de). There are some shots from both cards and also shots from Q3A, Evolva, etc. taken with this cards.
BTW, I use the Neon250 PCI at this time in an old Pentium system and it runs not great, but it runs.

Here is a Link to the review: http://www.mitrax.de/review.php?id=5
 
does anyone remember there was a small software by PVR, which allows you to switch between primary / secondary video controller...
I can't find it anywhere (cause I forgot the name of it)
PVR-Net used to host that file...somewhere with the Neon250 driver page
 
kyronet said:
does anyone remember there was a small software by PVR, which allows you to switch between primary / secondary video controller...
Click to expand...
..written, incidentally, by the guy who did the original mini-gl drivers (and also ported GL Quake to the DC in a weekend)...
I can't find it anywhere (cause I forgot the name of it)
PVR-Net used to host that file...somewhere with the Neon250 driver page
Click to expand...
The name was something like "3D control centre". I tried a quick search on Google (with extra keywords like DirectX, 3D, primary, etc) but I gave up.


EDIT: /me slaps head:

ftp://ftp.videologic.com/PUB/PRODUCTS/APOC3Dx/DRIVERS/3DCC.zip
 
Thanks guys!

I have removed everything in this message. (edited this message)

I have format and reinstall Win Me (instead of XP)...but my m3D is still not working...(not being detected)
I give up.

Anyway, thanks you very much to all of ya.
I'm moving on to write up PVR Series 2 history.
 
kyronet said:
never mind the Voodoo1...I was unable to find the cable which connects the Primary video card to the add-on card
Click to expand...

If you have a monitor with two inputs, you don't need the pass-through cable. I briefly had a Voodoo1, which I connected to my monitor's D-SUB port, while my TNT was connected to the BNC connectors.

(Before anyone asks: Why on earth did he have a Voodoo1 if he had a TNT? The answer is that I didn't get Final Fantasy 7 to work with my TNT.)
 
Yes that looks familiar. FWIW, the original ran on an even less powerful predecessor of PCX1.

[UPDATE] OMG that really is a blast from the past [/Update]

FWIW, in helping out with the port, I came to the conclusion that the arcade hardware the original ran on didn't have much in the way of shading because there were several versions of the car textures for each lighting condition.
 
vetz said:
Interesting :) Was the demo playable, or just an auto demo as seen in the video?
Click to expand...
I don't actually know. I think I only had the auto demo, but this was a long time ago and involved many late nights of coding so don't take that as gospel. Namco/NEC might well have had a full version. What was cool was when I first downloaded (via ftp?) their first drop of the code, it played whatever was in the CD tray. Let me say that OMD's "Stay" makes a good track to accompany a driving game.

That I guess was the the midas3? http://tweakers.net/ext/f/TRpxt6GlIVLCpUzDxEcwdbTD/full.jpg
Click to expand...
Midas3? How about Midas 1 :)
I also have to ask :p Do you still own this demo? Any possibilities that you are going to make it public at any point in the future?
Click to expand...
That was many PCs ago. Doubt any harddisks of that era still exist let alone working hardware.
 
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