This card is so mythic it's still alive decades later. I already ran Linux in 1998, playing Unreal with Wine with a Voodoo 1 and 233 MMX @ 290 MHz :) Unreal is supposed to run better, with the usual tweaks like PCI_READ.
Making new 3DFX Voodoo cards is so funny to me but I like it, legendary silicon. I remember that ad, it still makes me laugh. 90s edgy advertising was something else.
You underestimate the use of 90s hardware in modern day. Most common in industrial and machining situations. A lot of machines still run on 90s tech. The mechanical parts were meant to last 40-50+ years while the computers controlling those machines die out much earlier
@@reecebower9934 Well, there are developing countries and fully developed countries like Japan or S. Korea. I think many software/hardware solutions achieved this status in the 90's. After some point the need to change a working platform is just marketing... :)
Nice video! I'll investigate the HDMI capture card compatibility issue and post an updated bitstream. I tested with around 5 different HDMI monitor models and an Elgato 4k60 Pro MK2 capture card, all worked fine. Btw, the 2x TMU card is actually a 12MB card, just like the 12MB Voodoo2 cards. The FPGA doesn't convert analog to digital, it is connected directly to the FBI->RAMDAC digital bus, and generates HDMI from that. It's digital to digital only.
@@O_mores I mean, it's a digital signal, so technically it should look the same on any capture card or display (ignoring scaling methods). 😉 Cool video, btw.
@@THU31 Yes, it's digital but it not compressed. "The higher the resolution, color depth and frame rate, the more bits need to be transmitted until the maximum bandwidth is reached. Then, the only way to transmit more bits is to add more lanes to the cable or compress the signal." At 640x480 I think these tiny adapters are doing great... but try to capture a full HD resolution at 120FPS and things will get ugly. That's why some capture cards are very expensive.
@@miregoji2959 I'm sure I know what's the difference. My point is that you can't recreate on a FPGA the exact same circuits like on a real Voodoo chip - you have do some emulation.
@@roberto88958 In addition to an imperfect emulation of the graphic effects specific to the analog signals of a CRT, agree with you 3dfx original will always be better than in FPGA, we lose graphic effects in Descent for example, that we cannot have on a Geforce 1 to 4xxx ... The best is to use the latest 3dfx cards by dedicating certain tasks to the gpu's, the advantage of the 3dfx multigpu in its time (which has its limits to basic 2D and 3D). I think it would be time to develop new 3D game cards with multi gpu's, in order to dedicate certain tasks, but for that it is necessary that the development of the games is in function to take advantage of them, compared to our current powerful single gpu, but whose architecture makes drops fps. Which was not the case for some arcade games of the time, which cannot be emulated identically, at least in their fluidity. We also see on N64 games, which the new Mister is not able to emulate everything, I also think that it loses some graphic effects like the reflection in mario kart (to be confirmed during development). But for 3dfx cards with its multi gpu's it is even more complicated, it is also the case for the emulation of the Neo Geo AES and its 2 68000 processors (fpga not ready). These old hardwares are also better suited for low resolution.
The Voodoo 1 with 2 TMUs and 8 mb should have a performance in between the standard 1 TMU Voodoo 1 and the Voodoo Banshee. In Quake 2 640x480 it should get around 40 fps.
With a faster CPU there will be more FPS, but on a Pentium 200MMX with a Voodoo 1 with 2 TMUs we get 40FPS in Quake 1 and 25FPS in Quake II. A Voodoo Banshee operates at 100Mhz/1600MB memory bandwidth vs 50Mhz/800MB, it's way better than a Voodoo 1. Actually Voodoo Banshee was slightly better than a Voodoo 2 in games that didn't use multi texturing.
I still have it on my PC, but also on my phone. Check it out if have Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stainlessgames.carmageddon&hl=en
Those cheapo HDMI capture devices are a godsend these days. Lower latency than an original Elgato for way less and with better output. And as you’ve seen they’ll take almost any input and spit out an image. You can even use them on iPads to turn them into portable monitors!
actually, its great for capturing as decent VGA capture devices are expensive, but what I noticed it that when I plug in my Voodoo into my 28" Asus I get a clean picture as well. I see it only a matter of the scaling, if the hdmi chip has an integrated scaler to use verious scaling methods then I can really see the benefits of these custom cards. Otherwise, just use a decent vga monitor on a regular voodoo.
I agree, the HDMI is more like a gimmick, unless if you have only one big gaming monitor with DP/HDMI ports. In this scenario it's better to get HDMI signal from your Voodoo rather than using a VGA to HDMI converter. I have two such converters and they are rather bad: one is outputting some analog garbage, and the other one has better image quality but is getting very hot.
@@O_mores it's not a gimmick, the HDMI signal from the card on an LCD screen is just perfect, with no loss whatsoever. Many LCD monitors have crap VGA input, and even the good ones aren't perfect, and they can never be. VGA signal was intended for CRTs, not LCDs. It doesn't carry any resolution information, it's just an analogue waveform, there will always be some "guesswork" and quality lost when displaying it on an LCD panel.
According to HWiNFO the chip is produced by MacroSilicon Technology with the following Hardware ID: USB\VID_534D&PID_2109 | When searching the hardware ID this shows up on google: www.magewell.com/static/tech-specs/USB_Capture/USBCaptureHDMIGen2EN.pdf
Well, some bad business moves and competition killed 3dfx. First 3dfx wanted a business model like Apple - to produce and sell their own hardware. For this they acquired STB and and they made their own cards by late 1998. By doing this many Taiwanese producers like MSI, Asus, Gainward etc. sold more nVidia cards instead, this diminished 3dfx market share and they were eventually bought by nVidia.
If you did this with a Banshee could you just bypass the DAC altogether and pipe it direct to the HDMI transmitter inputs? Or was the DAC embedded in a chip?
Actually this is the way it was done - the FPGA chip steals signal from the FBI chip. Analog to digital was my assumption..., but Daniel from sdz-mods.com made it all clear here in the comments section.
Yes, CRT adds a "beautify" filter... I was planning to show some CRT footage from my Samsung 755DFX 17 inch flat screen (the one on the thumbnail) but the built in VGA cable is broken and everything is yellowish now. For a while it worked correctly if I wiggled the cable... Not anymore.
6:19 does this scanline cutscene problems from your HDMI port or from your capture card?? I never found this a thin line cutscene even with nGlide mod or even GOG version for RE1.
RE1 will switch back to 2D card to show the cut scenes. I know for sure since I didn't use a VGA pass through cable. The S3 Virge DX card that I used is outputting some analog garbage, more visible on certain resolutions and refresh rate.
512x384 it's not a standard HDMI resolution.(every resolution has a predefined ID code) Even if the card is sending signal - the HDMI receiver (monitor or capture card) in most cases won't be able to handle it. Daniel from sdz-mods.com told me that 512x384 might work with some capture devices that are more tolerant... I guess the solution is to convert on the fly 512x384 to 640x480 using the FPGA logic.
Well, PCI-E Voodoo 2 is doable. Right now, you can use a PCI-E to PCI adapter and a Voodoo 2 will work on any modern configuration. In the same time is not practical with Voodoo 1... simply because V1 cards don't like high speed CPUs. After 1Ghz they will output some garbage on the screen and that's it. Even under 1Ghz there are some problems with 133Mhz FSB.
More surprised the fpga wasn't just pulling the still digital from before it reaches the DAC on the voodoo cards to work with. Granted, More annoyed and surprised that someone hasn't tried to emulate a Voodoo on a raspberry pi or fpga by now.
Not sure if I understand your comment, the FPGA taps into the digital bus between the FBI and the RAMDAC. If you were to remove the RAMDAC, assuming the FBI/TMUs would still be clocked, the HDMI output would function.
@@sdz-mods The description made it sound like the FPGA was taking the resulting analog video signal that would have gone out via the output VGA connector, presumably to a CRT monitor. _Most_ console HDMI mods usually try to intercept or tap into the digital signal _before_ it reaches the DAC so that it can have the cleanest, unfiltered source to work from and yield the bespoke output quality a modder implementing such would be trying for.
Grabbing analog signal was my assumption, I mean I would have done it this way since I'm more familiar with analog to digital conversion... I didn't ask Daniel (from sdz-mods) how the HDMI part was implemented.
There's no logical reason to do it that way. It's more likely to be a digital to digital converter - probably for creature comforts like better upscaling.
Which one? :) adjective: dense; comparative adjective: denser; superlative adjective: densest 1. closely compacted in substance. "as the storm cleared, a dense fog came down" 2. informal (of a person) stupid. "Am I being dense? I don't quite understand"
As far as a Voodoo card with HDMI goes, that's impressive. As far as that capture device that you think works well enough, Wow, it looks like your video signal stepped in shit. Blurry as all hell, color fringing on everything, random streaking artifacts all over the image. Gross. Throw that thing away and buy something better.
You have to take in consideration that we are dealing 640x480 footage that gets upscaled to 1920x1080. Won't look very crisp even with a 1500$ capture card. First, the original bitstream gets compressed by the capture software, the video editor will also degrade the image to some degree, and finally RU-vid compression will introduce more degradation. I guess, the only way to enjoy 640x480 full screen resolution is on a CRT.
