3dfx Archive - Rampage dongle

gdonovan YaBB Administrator Offline Infernal Collector Posts: 2361	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #375 - 01.07.13 at 00:11:55 Anyone have an old version of FRAPS?
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gdonovan YaBB Administrator Offline Infernal Collector Posts: 2361	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #376 - 01.07.13 at 01:20:54 New SS2 version- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAhWPBqVqac If you give it a few hours, I used the youtube contrast controls to clean things up a bit. Youtube is still processing the video which is 640 x 480
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Thandor Full Member Offline What's the fuzz all about? Posts: 227	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #377 - 01.07.13 at 09:33:35 Good job Gary. Does Hardware T&L work on the Rampage? If so I'm wondering what this does with 3DMark2001 and 3DMark2003 scores .
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gdonovan YaBB Administrator Offline Infernal Collector Posts: 2361	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #378 - 01.07.13 at 10:14:14 Thandor wrote on 01.07.13 at 09:33:35: Good job Gary. Does Hardware T&L work on the Rampage? If so I'm wondering what this does with 3DMark2001 and 3DMark2003 scores . Won't run either without locking up. No hardware T&L on Rampage, that is what SAGE was for.
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gdonovan YaBB Administrator Offline Infernal Collector Posts: 2361	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #379 - 01.07.13 at 11:00:32 Running Final Reality DX5 benchmark- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OzhMd2q6Zk&feature=youtu.be Only had time for one pass, will try again in a few days.
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ultima

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Re: Rampage dongle
Reply #380 - 01.07.13 at 11:53:06

gdonovan wrote on 01.07.13 at 10:14:14:

Thandor wrote on 01.07.13 at 09:33:35:

Good job Gary.

Does Hardware T&L work on the Rampage? If so I'm wondering what this does with 3DMark2001 and 3DMark2003 scores

.

Won't run either without locking up.

No hardware T&L on Rampage, that is what SAGE was for.

did the Sage chip ever make tape-out, or what ever that is called? ofcourse there is no rampage 300 board anywhere on which the chip could be soldered Sad

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Loeschzwerg Senior Member Offline AAlchemy PSU maker :-) Posts: 396 Germany -> Bavaria -> Augsburg Gender:	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #381 - 01.07.13 at 12:06:10 Nice new vids Gary Is 3DMark2000 running to some point? (single tests) @ultima: Yes, SAGE made it to tape-out but not to debugging... 3dfx was already closed when they arrived (thats what rumors say). Looking at the driver code there are also some lines that mention "SAGE".
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gdonovan YaBB Administrator Offline Infernal Collector Posts: 2361	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #382 - 02.07.13 at 02:52:44 Loeschzwerg wrote on 01.07.13 at 12:06:10: Nice new vids Gary Is 3DMark2000 running to some point? (single tests) Won't run, states there isn't enough video ram. Anyone have the unlocked version of 3dmax99? The demo version will not allow you to run individual tests but the unlocked version will.
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Loeschzwerg Senior Member Offline AAlchemy PSU maker :-) Posts: 396 Germany -> Bavaria -> Augsburg Gender:	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #383 - 02.07.13 at 06:48:00 Ok. I've got an unlocked version of 3DMark 99 Max, will write you a mail when I'm home from work.
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gdonovan

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Re: Rampage dongle
Reply #384 - 02.07.13 at 10:56:51

Loeschzwerg wrote on 02.07.13 at 06:48:00:

Ok.

I've got an unlocked version of 3DMark 99 Max, will write you a mail when I'm home from work.

Cool beans, at least I can run the individual tests and find out what parts of the driver needs the most work. More data points are always good.

I suspect a BIOS flash in the future, have to have a discussion with Hank about this. I'm fairly sure the cards ram isn't fully being utilized so 3dfx could focus on the core aspects of the Rampage chip. This might even cure most of the cure a number of crash related issues.

FRAPS 1.8 claims to be Opengl, thats awkward as I needed something that will do screenshots in D3D, woops! I'll keep looking..

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« Last Edit: 02.07.13 at 11:00:14 by gdonovan »

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Re: Rampage dongle
Reply #385 - 02.07.13 at 18:26:40

Still having problems with image quality when using the dongle? If you were willing to deploy a setup more elaborate, I guess you could get as close as possible to perfect inverted output like this:
Get a VGA to composite (or s-Video) converter box, something like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PC-Laptop-VGA-to-TV-RCA-Composite-S-video-Converter-Box-...
You will need a second computer, with a tv-tuner card in it, preferably with BT878 chipset (like a VoodooTV 200). Install DScaler tv viewing software with historical plugins.
Connect the converter box with Rampage on the input side (without the dongle) and Composite output on the tv-tuner input. Start DScaler and from the Filters menu choose Colour Inversion.
Thankfully Loeschzwerg has done a great, great job with the dongle, but the option above should also work just fine, with the downside that you need a second computer and the VGA t Composite adapter, but at least the inversion is done in software, so the image quality should be better.

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Loeschzwerg

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Re: Rampage dongle
Reply #386 - 02.07.13 at 19:01:08

I thought about that too giving Gary my "Avermedia HD Video Capture" card (reso from 640x480 to 1080p possible), but the problem is that the image gets captured 1:1.

http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/v/3dfx_collectors/collectors_gdonovan/Rampage/DSCN588...
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/v/3dfx_collectors/collectors_gdonovan/Rampage/DSCN588...
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/v/3dfx_collectors/collectors_gdonovan/Rampage/DSCN589...

If you look at those pictures you will notice some lines. Those would be also inverted => lines are present with inverted colors too.

What the dongle does is an analog inversion of the colors so the display (either TFT or CRT) can handle it. A capture device copies the analog image/signal and inverts it digital.

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« Last Edit: 02.07.13 at 19:03:30 by Loeschzwerg »

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Komponent

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Re: Rampage dongle
Reply #387 - 02.07.13 at 19:17:43

I do know that and I do understand the difference. If the only problem would be that the colors are inverted on the analog output, then inverting its untampered conversion to digital would be just fine.
Yet, I didn't notice those lines. The only times I had such problems were with faulty VGA cables, when there's a ghosting, shadowing effect on the lines where is text displayed, but I doubt this is the case here. Still believe that software inverting might produce a sharper picture, albeit with possible artifacts, like you pointed out.

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« Last Edit: 02.07.13 at 19:21:48 by Komponent »

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Loeschzwerg

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Re: Rampage dongle
Reply #388 - 02.07.13 at 19:43:47

Take a look at my first dongle video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmayyx1C6DU

I inverted the colors to negative with the dongle => You can see those strange lines/artifacts.
Then I inverted the image back using software (Rivatuner) => Lines still present.

In the second video I connected two dongles (Rev A0 and Rev A2) => no lines present
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnCb3_5ncc4

The image will indeed get sharper using the capture device.

Edit: The blurry image of the current Rev A2 dongle either comes from bad shielding or the transistors are too slow to handle the bandwidth.

Bandwidth is calculated this way:
[(Pixel x Hz) /2] x 3

[(640x480x60hz) / 2] x 3 => 27.6MHz
[(800x600x60hz) / 2] x 3 => 43.2MHz

[(640x480x75hz) / 2] x 3 => 34.6MHz
[(800x600x75hz) / 2] x 3 => 54.0MHz

But the dongle needs to handle 3 steps using 100MHz transistors.

Edit 2: So my next step will be about these two possible problems (Bandwidth and Shielding). I also thought about the idea Radu once had, adding variable resistors so the brightness can be tweaked manually.

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« Last Edit: 02.07.13 at 20:27:35 by Loeschzwerg »

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Narmounet Junior Member Offline I Love YaBB 2! Posts: 85 France / Blois Gender:	Re: Rampage dongle Reply #389 - 02.07.13 at 20:26:09 If I remembrer correctly, HyperSnap is capable doing screenshots in D3D, OpenGL and Glide, and works on Win98
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