Ati Truform wrapper/emulator?

Apocalypsee

Apocalypsee

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The title does makes it like year 2000 isn't it? :D Well I was looking for is there anyone who is making any sort of wrapper/emulator for Truform? There is one for GLide API so I don't think it will be too difficult to emulate what was basically just a primitive tessellation. Is Humus still around to ask him regarding this?

The reason why I ask is because its very hard to get my hand on Truform capable card, the driver stops supporting after Catalyst 5.8 so anything beyond X8x0 series is a no go. I purchased Radeon 9100 (basically 8500LE rebaged because only R200 chips done it in hardware) but it isn't fast enough for high resolution gaming so I bought X800 cards, but this old ATi card is fragile. I bought two of them, one AGP and one PCIe and both of them died prematurely so I'm hoping some kind soul who could make a wrapper for it.
 
I thought this was a revived thread :lol:

I would like to run some of the old demos in a modern setup so this interest me as well :up:
 
I've always wondered about this, as the feature was supported on later hardware in software. So it should be possible to do the same outside the driver level? Could make it easier to make an old engine game with support look a little nicer.(Allot of UE2 games out there with the n-patch option in the configuration ini files)

The Morrow Wind FPs Optimizer mod made use of it. Even allowed you to specify what to tessellate and what to not tessellate. Allowing you to make the game look nicer without having to replace the models or deal with the balloon effect on models that it didn't work well with it.

*late edit*
This site is in russian, but if you can translate in chrome or just scroll down to see the pictures. Can make a MASSIVE difference.
https://elderscrolls.net/docs/fps_optimizer.php
 
I had to google-fu this feature as i totally forgot what it actually did.

Early proprietary tesselation that had the funny side effect of actually balooning items if the teslellation value was too high
 
Trunks0 said:
I've always wondered about this, as the feature was supported on later hardware in software. So it should be possible to do the same outside the driver level? Could make it easier to make an old engine game with support look a little nicer.(Allot of UE2 games out there with the n-patch option in the configuration ini files)

The Morrow Wind FPs Optimizer mod made use of it. Even allowed you to specify what to tessellate and what to not tessellate. Allowing you to make the game look nicer without having to replace the models or deal with the balloon effect on models that it didn't work well with it.

*late edit*
This site is in russian, but if you can translate in chrome or just scroll down to see the pictures. Can make a MASSIVE difference.
https://elderscrolls.net/docs/fps_optimizer.php
Click to expand...
Yep FPS optimizer for Morrowind loos great, as I tested it before my X800 is dead. I have few screenshot but I don't know where to upload it. I managed to do some screenshot on two games, Return to Castle Woldenstein and C&C Renegade. The character models looks amazing :)

While searching for this wrapper, I found another wrapper. Apparently to play original Tomb Raider wrapper to play on modern machine called glrage. So I know it is possible to do this

https://github.com/ata4/glrage


EDIT: Here is some screenshot in-game Truform off and on in C&C Renegade. Open in new windows both of them and compare one after another
without
B4cPcA8.jpg

with
q3jmrJH.jpg
 
one game that i remember really benefiting from it was Rainbow Six 3 the heads on the character models were so pointy without it, i wish i could find the old screenshots i had with it on/off
 
I swore that Truform was accidentally forced in NFS: Porsche Unleashed. It ballooned the car in such a way you couldn't see the gauges in 3rd person. It only turned off for a split second after you clicked "yes" to exit.

I made a gif in 2006. Maybe one day I'll reinstall that gem and see if the issue still exists.

nfsanim.gif


Sorry this may not help the point of the OP, but thought it might be interesting to post.
 
necropimp said:
one game that i remember really benefiting from it was Rainbow Six 3 the heads on the character models were so pointy without it, i wish i could find the old screenshots i had with it on/off
Click to expand...
If you find the pics please do share.

Crawdaddy79 said:
I swore that Truform was accidentally forced in NFS: Porsche Unleashed. It ballooned the car in such a way you couldn't see the gauges in 3rd person. It only turned off for a split second after you clicked "yes" to exit.

I made a gif in 2006. Maybe one day I'll reinstall that gem and see if the issue still exists.

Sorry this may not help the point of the OP, but thought it might be interesting to post.
Click to expand...
Cool find, its ok to share here or it'll be a dead thread rather quickly.

Someone actually did ask this question back in 2003, but only one reply. And he is quite active back then regarding Truform. But it seems like a lot of people here quit a long time ago
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33707885

EDIT: I found another thread saying Truform can be forced in Serious Sam but it isnt
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33723279
 
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necropimp said:
one game that i remember really benefiting from it was Rainbow Six 3 the heads on the character models were so pointy without it, i wish i could find the old screenshots i had with it on/off
Click to expand...

I remember it worked in old Counterstrike.
It was merely on/off and not implemented based on character model so alot of them ended up looking like it was inflated with helium.

the CT pistol with the silencer, the silencer addon just ended up looking like a baloon with the truform level set high lol.

I think it worked in Serious Sam....i dont think it actually made a huge difference.
 
It worked in SeriousSam (FE & SE) but had the same effect. Any game that had the feature, but didn't take it's effect into consideration ended up allot like Counter-Strike with the balloon effect on some objects/models.

Solder Of Fortune 2 had it all well, but it apparently was only applied to terrain I think? There are plenty of examples from the era where it looked pretty awesome. So it would be great to be able to use it now.
 
Another idea for your Retro computer. You could try getting a FireGL 8800. Uses the same R200 GPU, they are usually clocked a little higher and are a bit cheaper to purchase. I've read about the OpenGL side for gaming not performing well on these, but for D3D it should be a little faster :)
 
Trunks0 said:
Another idea for your Retro computer. You could try getting a FireGL 8800. Uses the same R200 GPU, they are usually clocked a little higher and are a bit cheaper to purchase. I've read about the OpenGL side for gaming not performing well on these, but for D3D it should be a little faster :)
Click to expand...
That's right, the FireGL 8800 is the fastest R200 that can do Truform in hardware. I already have Radeon 9100 and it can play Truform games at 1024x768 so maybe I need CRT for it :D

All other GPU after it can do it via vertex shader emulation or some sort and really depandant on CPU speed. So if you coupled it with X800 you really need a fast CPU. Someone at Vogons already did the test

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=66382
 
dgvoodoo now supports truform :D

https://old.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/phrzxh/dgvoodoo_now_supports_ati_truform_a_predecessor/

This is a new feature that was added to dgVoodoo just few days ago and it still needs testing. Developer "dege" is active on Vogons forums, if you tested it out you can report there. You need the "WIP80" version or newer available in the second link.

https://www.vogons.org/viewforum.php?f=59

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=996742#p996742
Click to expand...
 
Awesome!

dgVoodoo's ATI TruForm thread

Dege posted video of messing with it in Morrow wind. Flipping on/off
[yt]x3dPkxzCQk4[/yt]
The tree branches do the classic balloon error thing. Should be able to use The Morrow Wind FPs Optimizer mod to prevent that.

Thanks for the heads up Seyiji :D
 
OMG that's awesome find Seyiji, I haven't logged in for quite some time now and this is great news for me :)

EDIT: Okay I tried it for C&C Renegade and it freaking worked! This is amazing!! I can't take screenshot of it though RTSS doesnt seems to work
 
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