3DNow!
Drivers for Quake 23DNow!
Drivers for Quake 2Q. What is the Quake2 - 3DNow! patch?
A. The Quake2 - 3DNow! patch is a SW patch used to update a specific version of Quake2 to allow for the use of 3DNow! optimized drivers when using a Voodoo 2-based video accelerator. When AMD was originally looking to demonstrate the speed improvements possible with the 3DNow! instructions, they wisely choose a demo based on Quake2. Quake2 is obviously an extremely popular game and one where the AMD processors have traditionally been soundly beaten by the FPU strength of the Intel processors.
AMD is responsible for writing this patch and is the only company offering any support for it. They don't want anyone calling ID software or Activision for help. Visit the AMD Quake 2 - 3DNow! page for the drivers.
Q. What version of Quake2 is required for this patch?
A. A fully licensed Quake2 (version 3.14) is currently the only version the patch works with. When I install freshly from the shrink wrapped version of Quake2, I get version 3.04 (your version of shrink wrapped Q2 may differ). This needs to be updated to 3.14 in order for the patch to work. To figure out what version your currently at, initiate the loading of Quake2 and once it loads up, press the ~ (tilda) key to bring up the console mode. The version of your Quake2 will be shown in the lower right hand corner.
Q. How do I update to Quake2 version 3.14?
A. The version 3.14 patch can be downloaded at Activision's Support page. Pull down the patch listing and choose Quake 2. You'll need the full patch if you are upgrading from the shrinkwrapped SW version. The mini-patch will only work if your version is very close to the 3.14 version. Get the full patch if you have any doubts.
Q. What are the HW requirements needed to support the Quake 2 - 3DNow! patch?
A. Can you say Voodoo 2? The big payoff for increased FPS (frames per second) performance requires a K6-2 processor and a Voodoo2 3D accelerator card. Obviously running the K6-2 in a 100MHz FSB motherboard is also a big plus (not required, but the performance boost is significant).
Voodoo 1 or Voodoo Rush video cards are not compatible with the patch. I tried the original Monster 3D board (Voodoo 1) and it was a definite no go. Theoritically other cards that support OpenGL like the Riva128 would benefit from this patch, but I didn't get them to work with my Viper V330. I'll update this info, if I make some progress.
Q. Why is this patch extremely limiting?
A. This patch is limiting because you've got to love Quake2 and have a Voodoo 2 card before you can have any fun. The benchmarks show that 3DNow! is definitely an exciting technology, but not everybody has a Voodoo2 card (although this may be a compelling reason to get one).
Limiting the patch to version 3.14 won't make network players happy, since 3.17 is the latest version going and many sights appear to require that version for compatibility sake. Quake fanatics live to play in multiplayer environments, so if the 3DNow! enabled 3.14 version isn't supported, why bother.
My feeling was AMD was desparate to have some SW released that made the K6-2 with 3DNow! technology seem like a Pentium 2 killer. So AMD spent some time and turned a demo into a playable release. I doubt they would of bothered if there was a number of 3DNow! enabled titles on the market when the K6-2 was released. This patch is meant as a mouth-watering appetizer to tide the hardcore gamer over until some real titles get released.
Q. What do the benchmarks look like?
A. After some consideration, I decided to benchmark a system running a K6-2-300MHz processor (100MHz FSB) at two resolutions and changing between three video settings inside Quake 2 (SW emulation, 3dFX OpenGL and 3dFX 3DNow!). My goal was to show how well a standard K6-2-300 can run without 3D acceleration, with a single Diamond Monster 3D ll (12MB) and then with the enhanced 3DNow! drivers. Each addition obviously gives a sizeable increase. This data is no surprise to many people who've seen similar marks. I just took the data so I figured I'd show it to you.
My test system uses my trusty Epox EP-58MVP3C-M motherboard running a K6-2-300. This was setup for 100MHz FSB with 64MB of SDRAM. My video cards were the Diamond Viper V330 and the Diamond Monster 3D ll (12MB). My hard drive is a 6.4GB UDMA Western Digital. Windows98 is my OS of choice.
I had VSYNC disabled and ran the marks without sound. Don't loose sleep trying to duplicate my exact numbers, just notice how nice 3DNow! kicks butt.
Q. Conclusions after using this patch.
A. This 3DNow! patch for Quake 2 gets a real thumbs up from my testing. It significantly and noticeably improved my processors' ability to crank out impressive frame rates. Under actual play, it was smoother and noticeably more responsive. This means nothing if you don't like or have Quake 2, but most gamers will be excited. I just wish more software was available today so that my K6-2 can take advantage of other titles. AMD's big challenge will be to get some more titles out like "Trespasser", before the Intel KNI enabled chips arrive. This so-called "technology demo" proves the value of 3DNow!, we just need more flavors of fun beyond Quake 2. I just got Microsoft's 3DBaseball which supposedly uses 3DNow! instructions.....I'm going to go load it now.
I need feedback. Please send me email and tell me if this information was of assistance and how I can make it better.
