BeOS PowerPC Video Carda

[_AP]

Hi. If anyone here has experimented with video cards that work both in MacOS and BeOS, can you share which card and how well it worked in BeOS.

- does it break any applications?
- Can you adjust resolutions and refresh rates in the Screen setting?
- Boot Screen?
- Any other weird graphical artifacts/glitches.

I tested:

IMS Twin Turbo 128/m8:
Works well, currently some dots appear on screen in a vertical line or a grid at boot screen or other full screen apps. New issue so may need to reinstall card or may be issue since it happened when I changed CPU. Makes BeSphere demo crash.

Built in ATI Rage 3D II:
Idk how this is 3d accelerated in MacOS It doesn't seem to be. Works with no issues in BeOS, but only allows thousands of colors at 1280x1024.

Vision3D Pro II (same as proformance ii?):
Boots into BeOS, but can't adjust resolution or refresh rate from 640x480@60hz

ATI Rage 128 GL:
Same as the Vision3D card.

I have a Millennium II I will test. I'm curious what experiences all of you had with cards in BeOS PPC.

 

[lolo799]

I'll add some later.
What are you using to try the full screen mode?
I suggest the Dominoes demo in BeOS 4.5 or Doom in 5.0

 

[_AP]

I actually don't notice the issue in Doom. The boot splash screen shows dots down the screen. Actually I don't think it's BeOS fault, because on the Mac, I see a grid of dots. I either didn't insert the card correctly when replacing the cpu, or the cpu changed something.

 

[Byrd]

The Millenium I allows for a boot screen while the Millenium II does not, however hard to find cards for Mac

 

[_AP]

Is the millennium ii better than the twin turbo, worse, same?

 

[Byrd]

In terms of better both cards are fast 2D accelerators, but acceleration under BeOS is far below that of an equivalent MacOS, so probably similar in performance.

 

[lolo799]

Tested some cards, here are the results:
-ati mach64
animated belogo
doom fullscreen error
8bit 640 800 1024 1152 1280
32bit 640 800 1024 1152

-ati ragepro
animated belogo
doom fullscreen works
8bit 640 800 1024 1152 1180 1600
32bit 640 800 1024 1152

-ati radeon r6 109-77700-00
animated belogo
doom fullscreen colour problem
8bit 640

-twinturbo 128m/m2
no animated belogo
doom fullscreen works
8bit 640 800 1024 1152 1280 1600
15bit 640 800 1024 1152 1280 1600
32bit 640 800 1024 1152

-twinturbo 128m8
no animated belogo
doom fullscreen works
8bit 15bit 32bit
640 800 1024 1152 1280 1600

-ix3d ultimate rez
animated belogo
doom fullscreen error
8bit 800 75Hz

-matrox mil2p mac8m
animated belogo
doom fullscreen works
8bit 15b 16b 32b
640 800 1024 1152 1280 1600
The frequency is autoset at 60.1Hz and if changed to something else the cursor becomes a white square, sometimes...

 

[LightBulbFun]

for what its worth, I briefly tried BeOS with a Radeon 9200 Mac edition, with a 1080p monitor, ya get some interesting results!

PowerSurging to Mac OS X 10.5.8: Power Macintosh 9600 fun

yeah it chest-bursts its way out of MacOS like BootX does, but Linux under BootX never did report the 1MB of inline cache sadly speaking of BeOS tho, I did a bit of experimentation with it regarding Video cards, System 7 at 1920x1080 never gets old :) BeOS will actually boot with a Radeon...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[_AP]

Nice. Nice work getting it working on a newer 9600. The refresh rate being stuck at 60hz for the most part is annoying when you are dealing with CRTs. I want to read through that thread when I have more time.

 

[Ortho'sDeli]

I can confirm a self-flashed 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000 will work, albeit only in minimal resolution and color with no option to change either. I recall Doom working fine though. I'll have to get you specifics later.

 

[_AP]

That seems to be a lot of cards. It's nice I suppose that they have some sort of failsafe. x86 BeOS allows for choosing the failsafe resolution and color though.

 

[lolo799]

I can confirm a self-flashed 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000 will work, albeit only in minimal resolution and color with no option to change either. I recall Doom working fine though. I'll have to get you specifics later.

There is a 3rd party ppc driver for the Voodoo 3, could you try it?
At the bottom of this page:

Voodoo3 Drivers

 

[Ortho'sDeli]

There is a 3rd party ppc driver for the Voodoo 3, could you try it?
At the bottom of this page:

Voodoo3 Drivers

I only have R4.5 installed on mine but I'll still give it a try. Might not be until later tonight though.

 

[Ortho'sDeli]

Not gonna lie, I never even considered there was a Be driver for the Voodoo. That said:

BeOS r4.5.2
-3Dfx Voodoo3 3000 PCI
animated Be logo
Doom fullscreen flawless
Doom pixel doubled at ~25-30 FPS
all resolutions at all colors (except 15-bit)

 

[_AP]

that's great. What does the demo 3dmov do? What happens when you switch to sphere?

 

[Ortho'sDeli]

Each of the 3dmov demos run flawlessly by themselves. Running all 4 simultaneously 800x600 @32bit results in ~65% normal performance for each

 

[_AP]

Nice.

 

[lolo799]

Not gonna lie, I never even considered there was a Be driver for the Voodoo. That said:

BeOS r4.5.2
-3Dfx Voodoo3 3000 PCI
animated Be logo
Doom fullscreen flawless
Doom pixel doubled at ~25-30 FPS
all resolutions at all colors (except 15-bit)

Thanks for the test!
What framerate do you get in the teapot demo?

 

[Ortho'sDeli]

At default size, ~17FPS.

 

[_AP]

I have a PowerCenter Pro 210. I flashed a Voodoo 2000 in it and it works with the BeOS drivers. It seems like the sound in BeOS doesn't work anymore, does anyone else have this problem?

Also when I switch the VGA to the Twin Turbo, it is stuck on splash screen. This worked pre-voodoo. Any reason I shouldn't take the twin turbo out and leave it out? I also have this set up for MacOS 7 and 8.