I know you might not see this now, but this is a lot of effort put into this video and I’m very pleased you have done this and I’m sure everyone commends your work!
I remember MW2 in software-rendered mode - so many hours spent looking at untextured polygons. Then I upgraded my rig, the new one had a Mystique, and I was blown away by the fact that now textures were a thing :D good times, good times.
I wish I kept my Geforce 256. I lived in China when I got it, it was some kind of engineering sample or something. I lived pretty close to Shenzhen so it was probably lifted from the production line!
In hindsight I would say just sticking to the DOS version, there are quite a few annoying bugs in any of the Windows versions, like CD tracks messing up when pausing or jump jets not refilling or even worse in Mechwarrior 2 Mercs having shots pass through opponents; The added textures from the GPU versions aint worth it. :( I would seriously suggest googling up "MechWarrior 2 Portable", might not feel as authentic as having a beige box beside you but it's certainly the quickest way to play on Windows10 today.
This video is simply amazing. I just wanted you to know. I played the crap out of MW2, in many of the different editions, back in the day. I consider its soundtrack to be in the top single digits for best video game soundtrack of all time.
the Matrox Mistique version was my childhood, seeing those visuals again put a smile on my face, and after seeing all versions i honestly think the Mistique version is superior, not because of nostalgia, but because it is the only version where the cockpit has textures, the sky textures are just better, and it has a darker contrast depth, that and after seeing some of the sky textures again after 25 years, i can say with absolute certainty that the cloudy textures remind me of the Matrix where Morpheus is explaining to Neo what happened to the Earth, and i honestly think such dramatic sky imagery and colors belong in this game, to remove them or replace them with something else takes away that almost 90's-esque dramatic flare
An excellent, professional presentation of an amazing classic series of unique games made in the 90s. I commend you for all your hard work put into each of your videos. I look forward to more comparisons of my favorite classic games.
I am an avid Mechwarrior Game collector and while I may have all the versions I have been only successful with running 5 versions. I always wanted to see the graphics comparsions and your videos have helped me realize that. You have a well earned subscriber and I hope you get many more views as your videos are professionally made. Matrox Mystique was by far impossible for me to run and yet the environments look the coolest on that card.
Thanks! One change I've been thinking about is if it be more interesting to see the games and cards to run on time correct 1995/1996/1997 systems? Would show the framerate differences better and give a better insight into what gamers could expect back then, but might give other results compared to a Pentium 3 system. For instance with Mechwarrior 2 on a P133 the PowerVR version would probably not run as well compared to 3DFX and Matrox.
If you got a retrosystem and the PowerVR card, go for the PowerVR port. I prefer that. If that is not available go for the 3DFX and Matrox versions. If you are playing on a modern system, then go for 3DFX. With the nGlide wrapper you can play the game at a high resolution if you accept that the colors are a bit off compared to the real hardware.
omg! this brings me back!!!!!!!! my favorite game! Got it with my Matrox Mystique back in the day, blew me away! and the soundtrack...I think it won an award if I'm not mistaken :D I always loved to compare different 3d cards back then heh. Thanks!!!
I can't believe I'm using videos on youtube to compare what 90's video card to use. The Matrox seemed to fair better than the ATI. Thanks for uploading these comparisons.
Mech2 was my first real game and I have very fond memories of playing it on my old P133. A couple of years later I got a P233 that came with a Mystique and, surprise, its own accelerated version. I liked the textures, but wondered why so many levels had such different light. Years later I was misled into buying the Rage version as the one with the best textures, when I should have been looking at the PowerVR version. Thanks for the comparison, it helped make things clear!
Thanks for uploading this. I was watching some play throughs of this game and although nostalgic, i could have sworn that the game i played back in the mid-90s (god i'm old!) was graphically much better and had a lot more textures. These videos are much closer to what i played and remember.
I had a Matrox M3D (PowerVR based) back in 1998. There were very few games that worked well with it, but the ones that did looked and played better than with any other 3D accelerator of that time. Games like Unreal, Ultimate Race and as this video shows Mechwarrior 2.
3dfx was far superior to any other card... i had and matrox mystique before i bought powrvr, which i exchanged for voodoo1 when i saw how it performs... tho i never played this game i can say for lots of others... voodoo1 ftw
Dash even tho i got this game with mistique i never put it into drive, i was more into quake and such... but i understand , voodoos always had some sort of dithering but i looked at it trough fingers since gameplay was sooooooo smooth
PowerVR is still around their chips are commonly used in mobile devices now. Power VR actually did have a few advantages over the Voodoo1 when a game was specifically programmed for it. It used tile based rendering and infinite planes and used ray tracing for hidden surface removal instead of a Z-buffer. Unfortunately the first gen PowerVR chips had issues with scanline rendering like Direct3D and Open-GL used. You can read about it here www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/38/1 it's pretty interesting how these chips worked.
SImething else to note is unlike other competitors like the 3Dfx cards, the PowerVR cards were very CPU-reliant, which meant if you didn’t have a great CPU you would have problems. Luckily, from why I’m seeing in this vid, it was totally worth it.
Thank you ! My first MW game, took me an IT-computer guy back in the day to come to my home and make it work, lol, but it was worth the 100 bucks. Thx dad !!!!
I finally got my hands on an M3D PowerVR. I will say though that based on your video the Mystique actually is the best looking IMO. It's sharper looking than the others without that blur/filtering and the textures on the mech is the best. The PowerVR almost looks as good but the glass on the cockpit/roof doesn't reflect/mirror the sky the way the Mystique texture does!
I'm waiting for those bonus videos either! And I'd like to know more about that torso moving bug in 3dfx version...I noticed it on several Glide emulators on a modern PC, but I was sure this is the emulator-related issue. So, it turns out that the game produces the same bug on a real hardware
The Mystique card had me right off the bat. I love the smooth framerate, but most of all, I love the sharp textures. I *hate* the blurry textures and crappy filtering on the other cards, it looks hideous.
+Dead Pool I personally prefer the PowerVR version, but looking at the comments below alot of people like the Mystique version better because of the reasons you mentioned.
RetroCompaqGuy I dunno, i'm just weird. I'm the guy who always turns anti-aliasing off in games. It might have to do with me wanting my aiming to be pixel perfect, or it may just be something about the sharpness of the image being pleasing to me somehow.
+Chip Tracy Same, I love playing games on a low resolution. but I don't know why people love playing old games on high resolution it just makes it look worse.
yeah i had the 4 mb 2mb 2d/2 mb 3d but i didnt find any games released for it aside the 3 bundled with it including mw 2 which looked amazing for the time with my pentium 166mhz mmx
Me too, Played to death, glad to see that my version was the best looks wise. I have such fond memories of this game and probably why i love MWO so much
I would enjoy those videos if you made them. Day by day these processors are getting older and its really neat to be able to put older processors into perspective.
Wow, this is super-cool. I had the ATI 3D Rage edition and I thought it was absolutely amazing (the skyboxes and reflective cockpits I thought were particularly cool). It was definitely my favorite version of MechWarrior 2. Really really cool to see this video comparison of the other OEM 3D versions. I always liked it over the Titanium editions. One thing a lot of people don't realize if they've only played the Titanium versions is that the game engine used in all three (MW2, GBL, and Mercs) is based on the Mercenaries engine... meaning there's some gameplay differences I don't care for. Differences in the PPC operation, mechs fall down with one leg, etc etc.
L-1011 Widebody Thanks! I agree with you that these OEM 3D versions are preferred over the Titanium. Especially the PowerVR one is a dream to play. Also noticed something else while replying to this. For some reason the HD version of this video have gone missing thanks to RUclips 60fps conversion (all my other videos are fine, but not this one..)
RetroCompaqGuy I have the ATI 3D Rage CD version still laying around... probably don't have the card anymore. It might be fun to build an old rig to play those games instead of using Windows Virtual PC. I remember being tripped up by the different music tracks too, I'd had the missions memorized back and forth and now the music was all weird, my 11 year old brain could not comprehend it. ;-)
Great memories. I actually had MW2 bundled with my ATI All-in-Wonder Rage II. Performance was much better than what's in the video and the graphics weren't half bad. My only issue with it was the clunky controls and propensity for the game to crash all the time. Never finished the game, but always kept it installed on that machine to show off the All-in-Wonder.
I always had 3DFX Voodoo cards back in the day. But anything was better than the standard VGA cards for games. Once these 3D cards came out games got really interesting.
It required a pretty powerful CPU compared to a 3DFX card to use it to full potensial, but the games written for it was often better than the 3DFX versions! Mechwarrior 2 and Tomb Raider are good examples. Also it had an awesome port of Virtual On and it really showed what it could do with Ultimate Race.
Thanks :) There are more videos like this on my channel. I'm currently moving and have stored away my collection of old hardware, but more videos will come!
I think for me PowerVR is the best compromise between visuals and performance. Of course back in the day I just played the software rendered DOS version and was ignorant of all of the OEM stuff. :P
Unfortunately I don't know much about PowerVR, but it does show the best graphics in this video game. What I know for sure is that my jaw dropped when I first saw 3Dfx Voodoo in actions.
Great job as always! :) I have looked the cockpit textures at the Mystique to PowerVR. Not the PowerVR lack but rather Mystique have only textures in that cockpit (S3d not shown but Ati and 3Dfx also have no textures). All other cockpits I have not see any textures even on Mystique.
I had the Mystique+m3D combination. On paper and supported games it looked good. On FIFA 99 and Unreal 1 it looked amazing. But the games that supported it were slim to none. Worse were the things with Mystique working as standalone.
I played Mechwarrior: Mercenaries when it first had acceleration. The ground texture was so pixelated I felt like I was piloting a microbot. It did nothing for my immersion. Acceleration with textures means nothing if it can't serve the visuals. That was the main reason I didn't own a Nintendo 64.
ATI 3D looks nice when it’s fixed, but I’m still shocked how they missed the graphical bugs. It still blows my mind how many versions of this game were made. There’s even one that has Direct3D support. Theoretically this means we can reap the benefits of these 3D card releases without requiring specific graphics cards.
A very well done presentation. I remember the infamous S3 ViRGE all too well. World's first graphic decelerator. Very good in the 2D part, abysmal 3D performance.
The Matrox is quite decent in Mechwarrior 2, but I do feel it is behind the Voodoo and PowerVR versions. Using the Matrox purely as a 2D card along side the Voodoo (and the PowerVR card if you want that too) will give excellent results. Then you can start up any Mechwarrior 2 version of the three you would like ;)
I bought the PVR card and this game came free with it. It's nice to see that it seems to be the best version here graphically speaking. I loved it and live the game for a couple of years. I must have played through it a dozen times and stuck the CD in my steiro to listen the soundtrack all the time. I would kill for a stright remake of this game. MW3 was good but i hated MW4
Great video man, but I doubt that anything can beat Matrox+3dfx set up in most games. I would like to see more videos like this for other PC games. Are you planning on making them?
I guess the comparison between Voodoo cards and Nglide Wrapper (as shown as 'coming soon' at the end of the video) never happened. Good video regardless, thank you.
It got put on hold due to several RL reasons, but I hope to do them at some point :) Most likely I'll do a 1996 performance comparison first to see which card had the highest framerate.
the matrox mystique was before 3dfx to mw 2 that cam with it was amazing of course i cant think of any game except the 3 include that was made for it like all cards before 3dfx
Im not sure if I played the original release on my S3 Virge or my older hardware. I do know I bought a Monster 3D 3Dfx card to add to my Virge later because it's 3D was so slow and I got a copy of this game in 3D so replayed it on the 3Dfx hardware. Also loved GLQuake on it.
Yep, that`s right; the PowerVR required a very powerful "ninja" CPU to show its potential (no need to wonder why Sega used the PowerVR with the Dreamcast console). About the Tomb Raider, could you upload a video comparison please?
one thing that puzzles me a bit is some of the differences in cockpit/hud design between versions. For example, specifically, the Timber Wolf's cockpit in this video with the accelerated versions (and the ATI version i grew up with) is circular but on the original DOS and Titanium, it looks more "squarish", like the Summoner's. Is there a way to change/mod/swap that into the DOS version? Because that's what I'm stuck playing nowadays, and I'd like to think it's possible. I know it's minor, but it is something that bugs me
I use to play this game a lot, i had the 3dfx version, but i was running a 3dfx voodoo 3 2000 on a pentium 166mhz (later a pentium 200mhz mmx), i havent played that game on that system in quite a while, i cant remember if it displayed the same issues as in this video.
You can use any other 2d/3d card. The Geforce 2MX will work fine. The crossover cable you can buy on Ebay very cheap. If you have a regular VGA cable laying around you can use that and only buy a female to male VGA plug converter.
mmm I remember playing this game on my AMD K6-2 266mhz whit 128mb of ram and a Riva TNT 2 32mb a excelent game I wish that pc was still alive for be able to play this game and other excelent 98's games.I still have the titanium collection of this game
I have essentially that same machine sitting in my garage but with the S3 Virge. Bought it a number of years back when you could still find complete systems laying around on Craigslist.
I haven't tested it, but I believe so. You will have to run it on Win 95/98 with the actual hardware installed in your computer though. The S3 Virge is playable with the S3 GX2, but I wouldn't even try to play it the slower cards, like the 325/DX/VX/GX. Some missions have slower framerates,but here some details can be turned down. The video were captured with every graphical setting set to maximum.
I originally had a S3 Trio based card 1MB edo ram lol...sucked had to run everything on software. Bought a 4mb powerVR pcx2 and voila! Gaming bliss ❤️.
Almost got the Matrox version working. Silly monitor doesn't know how to display 640x400. Hoping to hunt down some video cards to try the PowerVR and other versions.
I've actually started on Tomb Raider, but I'm not sure the route I started on is the proper way. There are way less graphical differences between the Tomb Raider versions. The only one that really stands out are the Matrox version with the lack of bi-linear filtering. The rest almost look the same with minor differences and the S3 Virge version running on lower frame rate. I think it would be more interesting to run TB on an early 1997 setup to also show the performance differences more clearly.
By the looks of it, only the PowerVR and possibly the Matrox Mystique perform subpixel-corrected rendering, giving better stability and a smoother overall look.
You can see how the S3 Virge GX2 is performing in the video. It was the card used to capture the S3 Virge version of the game. It is an OK card for DOS games and 2D, just don't expect to do much 3D on it (but here you have your 3DFX card). When you tried the cable switching, did you make sure to run a 3DFX only game? That is the easiest way to tell. If you have more problems with this and/or want more advice on old computer hardware I suggest joining vogons.org. It is the biggest forum for it.
Just wow. This game is like the peak of how much your GPU affected video game graphics back in the 90s. Imagine if nowadays when you play Assassins Creed your character would have no head or the armour customizations would not be visible if you play with an older video card. :D
@@sebastiankulche Okay? :D I did not say anything about this game being better looking than Quake or better looking than any other game either. Furthermore you cant really logically compare the two games like that either as Mechwarrior 2 is more of a simulation game with advanced AI(for the time) and huge levels that stretch for miles instead of being a simple run'n gun shooter like Quake 1 that has a lot smaller levels and simpler AI and thus less stuff to process for the computer. But if we are really thinking about visual merits then I have to mention that Mechwarrior 2 was also one of the first games to have sky reflections on ice.
@@tyomies6168 You said this was the peak of GPU on PC which isnt true. Most of the map polygons are very flat colours. This could be running on the Atari Jaguar or an early 90s PC. Even in terms of open areas and first person, Doom or Jumping Flash are superior graphically. Quake maps arent by any means small.
@@sebastiankulche I did not say that this was the peak of GPU or something. I said that this was the peak of how much the GPU you had affected the visuals you see on the screen. Which it totally was. On certain cards you do not even get the textures correctly. Please read more carefully. :D Even still. Mechwarrior 2 was praised for its graphics on release. Again I have to point out that those games you mention are totally different kinds of games. It is weird to compare them to this. They have much smaller environments, a MUCH smaller view distance and less complex AI etc. you can render much more detailed environments in a Quake 1 kind of FPS-game where you have a very limited view of the map itself and also Quake 1 came out a whopping two years(Mechwarrior 2 was originally planned to be released in 1994) after this so yeah. Also wtf. Doom is not superior graphically to this. :D Not by a long shot. Doom is not even true 3D and all the objects and enemies are 2d sprites.
@@tyomies6168 You are so wrong at so many levels that you are 💩 The video says 1996. How much it demands the GPU /=/ Impressive graphics. Nowadays PC games really wastes a lot of resources for nothing when console games have a fraction of a power and can do almost the same thing if not better at least with companies like Naughty Dog. Critics at the time also praised the graphics of Wrath Of Cortex even though any one who played that game know is one of the most outdated ones in terms of graphics in existence. Those games i mention didnt had small maps Jumping Flash had draw distance as good as this and it was on a much more limited hardware and Quake 1 did had big maps just on a more "maze" kind of type. Even Mario 64 or Bubsy 3d which i never though they were groundbreaking in terms of visuals had more things going on. Im a bit sick of repeating this but Doom is 3d. Maybe limited but 3d. Dont say anything if you dont know the game code because you clearly dont. The truth is that Doom uses x, y and z coordinates for all of the enemies, players, proyectiles and some enviroment things like the barrels. If Doom wasnt 3d it would been impossible for fireballs or missiles to go above a players or enemy head. The fact that you cannot see up and down doesnt make it any less 3d, as well as the PS1 not having z buffer doesnt mean isnt true 3d. You dont know anything about technology at all.
I had the Matrox version back in the day. I wish someone would just do a MW:2 Remake instead of a new part. This game had so much soul and one of the best soundtracks and atmospheres of all time.
Is it possible to mod MechVM Mechwarrior 2 and incorporate these 3d-accelerated graphics into your installation? Also, is there any way to tweak mouse deadzone and force certain keybindings? I'm trying to have W and S acceleration/deceleration and A/D turning, with mouse turret rotation.
1. No, sadly. These graphics are coded for certain versions only. 2. There *should* be, try digging around in files INPUT. MAP, INPUTW.MAP, and GAMEKEY.MAP for configuration settings. Note that this is a manual way of doing it so you'll have to fix key conflictions yourself.
The music in this video is really nice, where is this on the MechWarrior 2 Soundtrack? Edit: 3:45 "Umber Wall". Found it! MechWarrior 2 In-Game Soundtrack - 01 - "Umber Wall"
About the small window when you start the game: I was about to pull my hair out because It forcibly ran in a 640x480 window without maximise option. After 30 minutes of searching for a solution I just tried to play a game and it went fullscreen automatically. /facepalm. Don't do the same mistake.
Are you sure you played the 3DFX version of Mechwarrior 2 on the Voodoo 3? It's not compatible. Maybe you were playing the Mechwarrior 2: Titanium edition? That version supports newer Voodoo's.
In Glide games, no. In Direct3D yes. You need to specify which Direct3D device to use in those cases (Voodoo or Geforce). The cable or female to male plug converter only costs a few dollars so it is not like you are risking much of your hard earned money. If you want to test the 3DFX card to see if it is working right away you can start the computer with your 2D/3D card, then start a Glide game and plug the VGA cable into your 3DFX card. You should then get picture on your monitor.
I know you might not see this now, but this is a lot of effort put into this video and I’m very pleased you have done this and I’m sure everyone commends your work!
I remember MW2 in software-rendered mode - so many hours spent looking at untextured polygons. Then I upgraded my rig, the new one had a Mystique, and I was blown away by the fact that now textures were a thing :D good times, good times.
7 years later and I'm still anxiously waiting for those bonus videos... ;)
10 years :)
Should have kept my old hardware, damnit. Didn't seem important back then.
Good Old Days ...
I kept my Voodoo 3 3000, Voodoo 5 5000, Ati Radeo 9800 Pro, and my GeForce4 MX440 :)
I wish I kept my Geforce 256. I lived in China when I got it, it was some kind of engineering sample or something. I lived pretty close to Shenzhen so it was probably lifted from the production line!
In hindsight I would say just sticking to the DOS version, there are quite a few annoying bugs in any of the Windows versions, like CD tracks messing up when pausing or jump jets not refilling or even worse in Mechwarrior 2 Mercs having shots pass through opponents; The added textures from the GPU versions aint worth it. :(
I would seriously suggest googling up "MechWarrior 2 Portable", might not feel as authentic as having a beige box beside you but it's certainly the quickest way to play on Windows10 today.
This video is simply amazing. I just wanted you to know. I played the crap out of MW2, in many of the different editions, back in the day. I consider its soundtrack to be in the top single digits for best video game soundtrack of all time.
Thanks! I also agree that the soundtrack is simply amazing.
the Matrox Mistique version was my childhood, seeing those visuals again put a smile on my face, and after seeing all versions i honestly think the Mistique version is superior, not because of nostalgia, but because it is the only version where the cockpit has textures, the sky textures are just better, and it has a darker contrast depth, that and after seeing some of the sky textures again after 25 years, i can say with absolute certainty that the cloudy textures remind me of the Matrix where Morpheus is explaining to Neo what happened to the Earth, and i honestly think such dramatic sky imagery and colors belong in this game, to remove them or replace them with something else takes away that almost 90's-esque dramatic flare
I do have original CD with this Matrox version and freshly bought Mystique P220 ... I need to return to P90Mhz times again :-)
I had this Matrix Mistique too! My first use of a graphic card in my built PC with SoundBlaster CD-ROM and audio card. It will soon be 30 years old...
An excellent, professional presentation of an amazing classic series of unique games made in the 90s. I commend you for all your hard work put into each of your videos. I look forward to more comparisons of my favorite classic games.
I am an avid Mechwarrior Game collector and while I may have all the versions I have been only successful with running 5 versions. I always wanted to see the graphics comparsions and your videos have helped me realize that. You have a well earned subscriber and I hope you get many more views as your videos are professionally made. Matrox Mystique was by far impossible for me to run and yet the environments look the coolest on that card.
The conversion files are available for download (see description). If you want the original disc itself, yes, it is a bit hard to find.
Thanks! One change I've been thinking about is if it be more interesting to see the games and cards to run on time correct 1995/1996/1997 systems? Would show the framerate differences better and give a better insight into what gamers could expect back then, but might give other results compared to a Pentium 3 system. For instance with Mechwarrior 2 on a P133 the PowerVR version would probably not run as well compared to 3DFX and Matrox.
If you got a retrosystem and the PowerVR card, go for the PowerVR port. I prefer that. If that is not available go for the 3DFX and Matrox versions. If you are playing on a modern system, then go for 3DFX. With the nGlide wrapper you can play the game at a high resolution if you accept that the colors are a bit off compared to the real hardware.
omg! this brings me back!!!!!!!! my favorite game! Got it with my Matrox Mystique back in the day, blew me away! and the soundtrack...I think it won an award if I'm not mistaken :D I always loved to compare different 3d cards back then heh. Thanks!!!
I can't believe I'm using videos on youtube to compare what 90's video card to use. The Matrox seemed to fair better than the ATI. Thanks for uploading these comparisons.
Mech2 was my first real game and I have very fond memories of playing it on my old P133. A couple of years later I got a P233 that came with a Mystique and, surprise, its own accelerated version. I liked the textures, but wondered why so many levels had such different light. Years later I was misled into buying the Rage version as the one with the best textures, when I should have been looking at the PowerVR version. Thanks for the comparison, it helped make things clear!
Thanks for uploading this. I was watching some play throughs of this game and although nostalgic, i could have sworn that the game i played back in the mid-90s (god i'm old!) was graphically much better and had a lot more textures. These videos are much closer to what i played and remember.
Thank you for your work. You are doing a unique and outstanding job! your videos are a bliss to watch!
Had this game along with matrox mystique card - very good memmories. Games like that doesn't exist anymore....
I had a Matrox M3D (PowerVR based) back in 1998. There were very few games that worked well with it, but the ones that did looked and played better than with any other 3D accelerator of that time. Games like Unreal, Ultimate Race and as this video shows Mechwarrior 2.
Wow, PowerVR I would say was the best, now I see why Sega chose that for their new Dreamcast hardware. I thought 3dfx would've won.
3dfx was far superior to any other card... i had and matrox mystique before i bought powrvr, which i exchanged for voodoo1 when i saw how it performs... tho i never played this game i can say for lots of others... voodoo1 ftw
Cauda Miller Don't get me wrong, Voodoo was the most powerful in terms of performance, PowerVR just looks a little better...at leasts in this game.
Dash even tho i got this game with mistique i never put it into drive, i was more into quake and such... but i understand , voodoos always had some sort of dithering but i looked at it trough fingers since gameplay was sooooooo smooth
PowerVR is still around their chips are commonly used in mobile devices now. Power VR actually did have a few advantages over the Voodoo1 when a game was specifically programmed for it. It used tile based rendering and infinite planes and used ray tracing for hidden surface removal instead of a Z-buffer. Unfortunately the first gen PowerVR chips had issues with scanline rendering like Direct3D and Open-GL used. You can read about it here www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/38/1 it's pretty interesting how these chips worked.
SImething else to note is unlike other competitors like the 3Dfx cards, the PowerVR cards were very CPU-reliant, which meant if you didn’t have a great CPU you would have problems. Luckily, from why I’m seeing in this vid, it was totally worth it.
Thank you ! My first MW game, took me an IT-computer guy back in the day to come to my home and make it work, lol, but it was worth the 100 bucks. Thx dad !!!!
Good Old Days ! that Fly really fooled me lol
Really enjoying these videos, seeing the comparison of older technology.
Sooooo epic to see modernized Marauders roaming the battlefield, with that epic music. 10/10!!
I finally got my hands on an M3D PowerVR. I will say though that based on your video the Mystique actually is the best looking IMO. It's sharper looking than the others without that blur/filtering and the textures on the mech is the best. The PowerVR almost looks as good but the glass on the cockpit/roof doesn't reflect/mirror the sky the way the Mystique texture does!
Thanks for sharing!
Once again very nice trip to memory lane :D
Really great video! So crazy to think how fragmented the market was back then. Nightmare for devs.
I'm waiting for those bonus videos either! And I'd like to know more about that torso moving bug in 3dfx version...I noticed it on several Glide emulators on a modern PC, but I was sure this is the emulator-related issue. So, it turns out that the game produces the same bug on a real hardware
The Mystique card had me right off the bat. I love the smooth framerate, but most of all, I love the sharp textures. I *hate* the blurry textures and crappy filtering on the other cards, it looks hideous.
+Dead Pool I personally prefer the PowerVR version, but looking at the comments below alot of people like the Mystique version better because of the reasons you mentioned.
RetroCompaqGuy
I dunno, i'm just weird. I'm the guy who always turns anti-aliasing off in games. It might have to do with me wanting my aiming to be pixel perfect, or it may just be something about the sharpness of the image being pleasing to me somehow.
+Chip Tracy Same, I love playing games on a low resolution. but I don't know why people love playing old games on high resolution it just makes it look worse.
yeah i had the 4 mb 2mb 2d/2 mb 3d but i didnt find any games released for it aside the 3 bundled with it including mw 2 which looked amazing for the time with my pentium 166mhz mmx
This lists all the MSI accelerated games I think: voodooalert.de/board/index.php?page=Thread&postID=393160#post393160
Had this game on my PowerVR bundle with a few others and it was pretty awesome.
Me too, Played to death, glad to see that my version was the best looks wise. I have such fond memories of this game and probably why i love MWO so much
I would enjoy those videos if you made them. Day by day these processors are getting older and its really neat to be able to put older processors into perspective.
Wow, this is super-cool. I had the ATI 3D Rage edition and I thought it was absolutely amazing (the skyboxes and reflective cockpits I thought were particularly cool). It was definitely my favorite version of MechWarrior 2. Really really cool to see this video comparison of the other OEM 3D versions.
I always liked it over the Titanium editions. One thing a lot of people don't realize if they've only played the Titanium versions is that the game engine used in all three (MW2, GBL, and Mercs) is based on the Mercenaries engine... meaning there's some gameplay differences I don't care for. Differences in the PPC operation, mechs fall down with one leg, etc etc.
L-1011 Widebody Thanks! I agree with you that these OEM 3D versions are preferred over the Titanium. Especially the PowerVR one is a dream to play. Also noticed something else while replying to this. For some reason the HD version of this video have gone missing thanks to RUclips 60fps conversion (all my other videos are fine, but not this one..)
RetroCompaqGuy I have the ATI 3D Rage CD version still laying around... probably don't have the card anymore. It might be fun to build an old rig to play those games instead of using Windows Virtual PC. I remember being tripped up by the different music tracks too, I'd had the missions memorized back and forth and now the music was all weird, my 11 year old brain could not comprehend it. ;-)
Amazing video!! The internet needs more content like this :D
Had a 3Dfx card version and it was incredible looking. All those mech pieces going flying when you destroyed an enemy was so fun.
Great memories. I actually had MW2 bundled with my ATI All-in-Wonder Rage II. Performance was much better than what's in the video and the graphics weren't half bad. My only issue with it was the clunky controls and propensity for the game to crash all the time. Never finished the game, but always kept it installed on that machine to show off the All-in-Wonder.
I always had 3DFX Voodoo cards back in the day. But anything was better than the standard VGA cards for games. Once these 3D cards came out games got really interesting.
this was amazing to watch, specially with the music
Ironic how PowerVR is still in business and 3Dfx is gone.
I loved the music at the beginning of this video
It required a pretty powerful CPU compared to a 3DFX card to use it to full potensial, but the games written for it was often better than the 3DFX versions! Mechwarrior 2 and Tomb Raider are good examples. Also it had an awesome port of Virtual On and it really showed what it could do with Ultimate Race.
I had an ATI Rage Pro back in '01. Awesome.
Best game ever made .I used my Thundermaster Joystick with this game oh man Loved it.
SideWinder Joystick FTW ... those where the Days XD ...
Thanks :) There are more videos like this on my channel. I'm currently moving and have stored away my collection of old hardware, but more videos will come!
I think for me PowerVR is the best compromise between visuals and performance. Of course back in the day I just played the software rendered DOS version and was ignorant of all of the OEM stuff. :P
It's funny I swear that fireball explosion effect was first in Command and Conquer and used in a lot of games of the era. An old school asset flip.
Thanks! More videos are coming when I'm done moving. Hopefully you will find some of it interesting :)
Unfortunately I don't know much about PowerVR, but it does show the best graphics in this video game. What I know for sure is that my jaw dropped when I first saw 3Dfx Voodoo in actions.
moving sky is cool...I love those oldshool-titles that have that feature.
Classic man I haven't played this is decades
I'm sure you won't see this. I see there's an ati rage specific disc, but what about the other cards? Is a basic version ok for voodoo play?
Great job as always! :)
I have looked the cockpit textures at the Mystique to PowerVR. Not the PowerVR lack but rather Mystique have only textures in that cockpit (S3d not shown but Ati and 3Dfx also have no textures). All other cockpits I have not see any textures even on Mystique.
I had the Mystique+m3D combination. On paper and supported games it looked good. On FIFA 99 and Unreal 1 it looked amazing. But the games that supported it were slim to none. Worse were the things with Mystique working as standalone.
I just came to this video for the music. I forgot how much I liked it..
I played Mechwarrior: Mercenaries when it first had acceleration. The ground texture was so pixelated I felt like I was piloting a microbot. It did nothing for my immersion. Acceleration with textures means nothing if it can't serve the visuals. That was the main reason I didn't own a Nintendo 64.
ATI 3D looks nice when it’s fixed, but I’m still shocked how they missed the graphical bugs.
It still blows my mind how many versions of this game were made. There’s even one that has Direct3D support. Theoretically this means we can reap the benefits of these 3D card releases without requiring specific graphics cards.
Well, Matrox has struggled with 3D performance, but their image quality has always been top-notch.
A very well done presentation.
I remember the infamous S3 ViRGE all too well. World's first graphic decelerator. Very good in the 2D part, abysmal 3D performance.
The Matrox is quite decent in Mechwarrior 2, but I do feel it is behind the Voodoo and PowerVR versions. Using the Matrox purely as a 2D card along side the Voodoo (and the PowerVR card if you want that too) will give excellent results. Then you can start up any Mechwarrior 2 version of the three you would like ;)
PowerVR looks to be the best version @0:47
I bought the PVR card and this game came free with it. It's nice to see that it seems to be the best version here graphically speaking. I loved it and live the game for a couple of years. I must have played through it a dozen times and stuck the CD in my steiro to listen the soundtrack all the time.
I would kill for a stright remake of this game. MW3 was good but i hated MW4
Wow, the powervr clearly has the advantage here
Great video man, but I doubt that anything can beat Matrox+3dfx set up in most games. I would like to see more videos like this for other PC games. Are you planning on making them?
I guess the comparison between Voodoo cards and Nglide Wrapper (as shown as 'coming soon' at the end of the video) never happened. Good video regardless, thank you.
It got put on hold due to several RL reasons, but I hope to do them at some point :) Most likely I'll do a 1996 performance comparison first to see which card had the highest framerate.
RetroCompaqGuy Dude, by the time you release a new video I'll be 80 years old :)
I've been delaying to play this game forever... But this is my 1st impression... These are DAMN GOOD graphics for 1994 holy shit 😮😮
the matrox mystique was before 3dfx to mw 2 that cam with it was amazing of course i cant think of any game except the 3 include that was made for it like all cards before 3dfx
Im not sure if I played the original release on my S3 Virge or my older hardware. I do know I bought a Monster 3D 3Dfx card to add to my Virge later because it's 3D was so slow and I got a copy of this game in 3D so replayed it on the 3Dfx hardware. Also loved GLQuake on it.
Yep, that`s right; the PowerVR required a very powerful "ninja" CPU to show its potential (no need to wonder why Sega used the PowerVR with the Dreamcast console). About the Tomb Raider, could you upload a video comparison please?
one thing that puzzles me a bit is some of the differences in cockpit/hud design between versions. For example, specifically, the Timber Wolf's cockpit in this video with the accelerated versions
(and the ATI version i grew up with) is circular but on the original DOS and Titanium, it looks more "squarish", like the Summoner's.
Is there a way to change/mod/swap that into the DOS version? Because that's what I'm stuck playing nowadays, and I'd like to think it's possible.
I know it's minor, but it is something that bugs me
+sana__6 No idea, but I know it's possible to mod alot of the settings.
I use to play this game a lot, i had the 3dfx version, but i was running a 3dfx voodoo 3 2000 on a pentium 166mhz (later a pentium 200mhz mmx), i havent played that game on that system in quite a while, i cant remember if it displayed the same issues as in this video.
Would love to see the same comparison for Hexen II or Quake II :)
the powervr is nice - is it possible to emulate this like how one can with 3dfx now using nglide?
PowerVR and S3 wow! Best two!
This gives me an existential crisis about what version / setting is the most ideal.
You can use any other 2d/3d card. The Geforce 2MX will work fine. The crossover cable you can buy on Ebay very cheap. If you have a regular VGA cable laying around you can use that and only buy a female to male VGA plug converter.
Also, i wanted to see real glide footage of Tomb Raider since all the videos today of the glide version are usually just wrappers or emulated...
Damn, Mech Warrior Online has come a Loooooooong way since this..... hats off to the guys coding this back then....
mmm I remember playing this game on my AMD K6-2 266mhz whit 128mb of ram and a Riva TNT 2 32mb a excelent game I wish that pc was still alive for be able to play this game and other excelent 98's games.I still have the titanium collection of this game
I have essentially that same machine sitting in my garage but with the S3 Virge. Bought it a number of years back when you could still find complete systems laying around on Craigslist.
I haven't tested it, but I believe so. You will have to run it on Win 95/98 with the actual hardware installed in your computer though. The S3 Virge is playable with the S3 GX2, but I wouldn't even try to play it the slower cards, like the 325/DX/VX/GX. Some missions have slower framerates,but here some details can be turned down. The video were captured with every graphical setting set to maximum.
I originally had a S3 Trio based card 1MB edo ram lol...sucked had to run everything on software. Bought a 4mb powerVR pcx2 and voila! Gaming bliss ❤️.
Alpha + Blending seems to work really well on 3dfx
that music is giving me flashback, spend so much time with this game (did have a Matrox Mystique)
The soundtrack to MW:2 is one of the best ever created in my opinion.
@@vetzRetro i agree with that
Very informative. Too bad only the glide version can be run on modern hardware... Now if only someone could do a video like this for Tomb Raider.
Almost got the Matrox version working. Silly monitor doesn't know how to display 640x400. Hoping to hunt down some video cards to try the PowerVR and other versions.
*sniff*...
Ah graphics...during its infancy stage.
Time flies.
Not really. If you want to see computer graphics in their infancy stage you have to go another 25 years back.
I've actually started on Tomb Raider, but I'm not sure the route I started on is the proper way. There are way less graphical differences between the Tomb Raider versions. The only one that really stands out are the Matrox version with the lack of bi-linear filtering. The rest almost look the same with minor differences and the S3 Virge version running on lower frame rate. I think it would be more interesting to run TB on an early 1997 setup to also show the performance differences more clearly.
By the looks of it, only the PowerVR and possibly the Matrox Mystique perform subpixel-corrected rendering, giving better stability and a smoother overall look.
Yes, on PowerVR, vertex coordinates were (in effect) given in floating-point, not clamped to integer coordinates.
You can see how the S3 Virge GX2 is performing in the video. It was the card used to capture the S3 Virge version of the game. It is an OK card for DOS games and 2D, just don't expect to do much 3D on it (but here you have your 3DFX card). When you tried the cable switching, did you make sure to run a 3DFX only game? That is the easiest way to tell. If you have more problems with this and/or want more advice on old computer hardware I suggest joining vogons.org. It is the biggest forum for it.
Just wow. This game is like the peak of how much your GPU affected video game graphics back in the 90s. Imagine if nowadays when you play Assassins Creed your character would have no head or the armour customizations would not be visible if you play with an older video card. :D
Quake 1 looked miles better than this.
@@sebastiankulche Okay? :D I did not say anything about this game being better looking than Quake or better looking than any other game either. Furthermore you cant really logically compare the two games like that either as Mechwarrior 2 is more of a simulation game with advanced AI(for the time) and huge levels that stretch for miles instead of being a simple run'n gun shooter like Quake 1 that has a lot smaller levels and simpler AI and thus less stuff to process for the computer.
But if we are really thinking about visual merits then I have to mention that Mechwarrior 2 was also one of the first games to have sky reflections on ice.
@@tyomies6168 You said this was the peak of GPU on PC which isnt true. Most of the map polygons are very flat colours. This could be running on the Atari Jaguar or an early 90s PC. Even in terms of open areas and first person, Doom or Jumping Flash are superior graphically.
Quake maps arent by any means small.
@@sebastiankulche I did not say that this was the peak of GPU or something. I said that this was the peak of how much the GPU you had affected the visuals you see on the screen. Which it totally was. On certain cards you do not even get the textures correctly. Please read more carefully. :D Even still. Mechwarrior 2 was praised for its graphics on release.
Again I have to point out that those games you mention are totally different kinds of games. It is weird to compare them to this. They have much smaller environments, a MUCH smaller view distance and less complex AI etc. you can render much more detailed environments in a Quake 1 kind of FPS-game where you have a very limited view of the map itself and also Quake 1 came out a whopping two years(Mechwarrior 2 was originally planned to be released in 1994) after this so yeah.
Also wtf. Doom is not superior graphically to this. :D Not by a long shot. Doom is not even true 3D and all the objects and enemies are 2d sprites.
@@tyomies6168 You are so wrong at so many levels that you are 💩
The video says 1996.
How much it demands the GPU /=/ Impressive graphics. Nowadays PC games really wastes a lot of resources for nothing when console games have a fraction of a power and can do almost the same thing if not better at least with companies like Naughty Dog.
Critics at the time also praised the graphics of Wrath Of Cortex even though any one who played that game know is one of the most outdated ones in terms of graphics in existence.
Those games i mention didnt had small maps Jumping Flash had draw distance as good as this and it was on a much more limited hardware and Quake 1 did had big maps just on a more "maze" kind of type. Even Mario 64 or Bubsy 3d which i never though they were groundbreaking in terms of visuals had more things going on.
Im a bit sick of repeating this but Doom is 3d. Maybe limited but 3d. Dont say anything if you dont know the game code because you clearly dont. The truth is that Doom uses x, y and z coordinates for all of the enemies, players, proyectiles and some enviroment things like the barrels. If Doom wasnt 3d it would been impossible for fireballs or missiles to go above a players or enemy head. The fact that you cannot see up and down doesnt make it any less 3d, as well as the PS1 not having z buffer doesnt mean isnt true 3d.
You dont know anything about technology at all.
I had the Matrox version back in the day. I wish someone would just do a MW:2 Remake instead of a new part. This game had so much soul and one of the best soundtracks and atmospheres of all time.
Is it possible to mod MechVM Mechwarrior 2 and incorporate these 3d-accelerated graphics into your installation? Also, is there any way to tweak mouse deadzone and force certain keybindings? I'm trying to have W and S acceleration/deceleration and A/D turning, with mouse turret rotation.
1. No, sadly. These graphics are coded for certain versions only.
2. There *should* be, try digging around in files INPUT. MAP, INPUTW.MAP, and GAMEKEY.MAP for configuration settings. Note that this is a manual way of doing it so you'll have to fix key conflictions yourself.
Must admit I hadn't noticed the windows missing environment mapping until you mentioned it. What kind of cockpit textures do you mean?
Off colors? Maybe this happens because nGlide renders at 32-bit, compared to the Voodoo's 16-bit dithering?
The music in this video is really nice, where is this on the MechWarrior 2 Soundtrack?
Edit: 3:45 "Umber Wall". Found it!
MechWarrior 2 In-Game Soundtrack - 01 - "Umber Wall"
About the small window when you start the game:
I was about to pull my hair out because It forcibly ran in a 640x480 window without maximise option. After 30 minutes of searching for a solution I just tried to play a game and it went fullscreen automatically. /facepalm. Don't do the same mistake.
Where did you get the music! Brings back so many memories! Any links?
I'm about to try this right now with the 3dfx version. Is there any equivalent to get 3dfx working for MW2 Mercenaries? Even crazier, GBL?
i lay awake at night and wish for this to come to gog, maybe even with some updates done to it. only then can i finally die.
Are you sure you played the 3DFX version of Mechwarrior 2 on the Voodoo 3? It's not compatible. Maybe you were playing the Mechwarrior 2: Titanium edition? That version supports newer Voodoo's.
If you have Voodoo 1 or Voodoo 2 make sure you have a 2D video card installed as well.
shame the powervr version lacks the environment mapped windows and some cockpit textures.
Thanks :)
In Glide games, no. In Direct3D yes. You need to specify which Direct3D device to use in those cases (Voodoo or Geforce). The cable or female to male plug converter only costs a few dollars so it is not like you are risking much of your hard earned money. If you want to test the 3DFX card to see if it is working right away you can start the computer with your 2D/3D card, then start a Glide game and plug the VGA cable into your 3DFX card. You should then get picture on your monitor.
It is a shame that other than outright running these versions in original hardware, there is no way to emulate the proprietary API in modern hardware.