Looking for: Radius Thunder 3D driver version 1.0.7

Some previous Nanosaur attempts on early 3D cards. I forget which card the first image is, the second is a Millennium.

20230801_144540.jpg

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I know your channel, good to make the connection :) I have watched all of the mac video card videos. I have... a slightly smaller, but similar collection of odd 90s video cards. Both Matrox Millennium cards, the Radius Vision968 based card, ixMicro TT (big and small), ixMicro ix3D, ixMicro TurboTV, a Formac Proformance II and a pile of early ATI cards from the Mach64 and Rage IIc based stuff onwards.

I see you haven't uploaded a video about the ixMicro ix3D (aka Ultimate Rez) - it is another card you might be interested in. They often sell on ebay as TwinTurbos, because people don't spot the differences. They are capable of QD3D, not as compatible as an ATI card, but more so than many of the older cards. Good enough for stuff like Strata3D and 3DWorld I suspect. I have several versions of the drivers, both Apple and ixMicro.
I have an ixMicro Ultimate Rez but i did struggle to get ANY 3D out of it. I had some luck but i could not successfully reproduce it.
Different drivers for it (all versions) would be quite appreciated.

My Mac 3D cards (sometimes several of them):

  • Formac ProMedia 20 & 40 (Virge)
  • Formac ProVision 4 (Imagine 128)
  • Formac ProFormance 80 (Imagine 128 II)
  • Formac ProFormance II 80 (#9 T2R)
  • Formac ProFormance 40 Lite (#9 T2R) same PCB as #9 Revolution
  • Forman ProMedia 3D Pro (Permedia 2) / flashed PC card
  • Formac ProFormance III (Permedia 3)
  • Phase5 G-Rex 3D (Permedia 2) / flashed PC card, buggy
  • ix3D Ultimate Rez
  • Voodoo 1
  • Voodoo 2
  • Voodoo 3 2000, 3000 generic & Village Tronic
  • ATI Rage II
  • Rage Pro
  • Rage 128 ´
  • Radeon DDR
  • Radeon 7000 SDR
  • Radeon 9250
  • Matrox Millennium
  • Matrox Millennium II
  • Apple QuickDraw 3D accelerator (5x) Im still quite surprised how well the 1995 Apple 3D accelerator compares, especially in a 2 card setup.
  • Radius Thunder 3D

And most likely some others card i don't have on my mind right now...

What im still looking for:
  • *Elsa MacRaver (Glint Delta + Permedia) ... extremely rare - same as Elsa Gloria S (the PC version is on eBay for 999€ atm)
  • *Yarc Screemer (Glint 300SX) ... extremely rare
  • *Village Tronic 3D Overdrive (voodoo 1 8mb with windowed 3D capability) ... extremely rare
  • -Diamond Multimedia 3D card ... maybe does not exist?
  • -ATI Rage 1 based 3D Rave capable card ...

My testing is still in the phase of tinkering around without real structure. I want to be more systematic in the future.


-Jonas
 
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Wow! I could not get the Millennium 1 to work with nanosaur. I got a lot of freezes.
My B&W G3 isn't set up at the moment, but I'll see if I can work out what driver / Nanosaur versions I was using. I know I have several versions of Nanosaur installed because different ones work with different cards.

I have an ixMicro Ultimate Rez but i did struggle to get ANY 3D out of it. I had some luck but i could not successfully reproduce it.
Different drivers for it (all versions) would be quite appreciated.
Interesting - there are at least four driver version in total. At least two ixMicro driver versions, an Apple version and a community hacked version. The performance of each is extremely different. Apple's is optimised for some 2D graphics routines at the cost of others.

Which drivers work depends on the ROM you have - the Apple OEM or the ixMicro ROM. Remember Apple sold these cards as an option in Beige G3s. I believe one of the ROM families (the Apple one??) supports all ROMs.

Are you able to write new ROM chips?

Could you let me know which ROM you have?
 
Diamond Multimedia 3D card ... maybe does not exist?
They apparently do, I've seen reference to them, but haven't been looking hard.

I tend to only pick up sub £20 cards so there is a lot of luck involved, plus just having had things for a long time sometimes.
ATI Rage 1 based 3D Rave capable card
Which chip exactly? The Mach64 GT? Not sure I've seen or heard of a Mac version. I have a Mac Rage IIc, II+ and II Pro, as well as a Mach64 of some kind. And Rage 128 of course.
  • Formac ProFormance 80 (Imagine 128 II)
  • Formac ProFormance II 80 (#9 T2R)
I'd confused these two cards (I have the Imagine 128 card, but my dad has the T2R card I think).

I haven't got my hands on anything voodoo, too expensive lately.
 
My B&W G3 isn't set up at the moment, but I'll see if I can work out what driver / Nanosaur versions I was using. I know I have several versions of Nanosaur installed because different ones work with different cards.


Interesting - there are at least four driver version in total. At least two ixMicro driver versions, an Apple version and a community hacked version. The performance of each is extremely different. Apple's is optimised for some 2D graphics routines at the cost of others.

Which drivers work depends on the ROM you have - the Apple OEM or the ixMicro ROM. Remember Apple sold these cards as an option in Beige G3s. I believe one of the ROM families (the Apple one??) supports all ROMs.

Are you able to write new ROM chips?

Could you let me know which ROM you have?
Never would i have thought that the ixMicro card has so many different setups. When i was testing the UltimateRez, i was very disappointed in the lackluster performance. I can write ROMs (almost any type) as well. To get the version i have, i will get the card out of my cellar and read it out.

BTW, i just recently found out the the Matrox Mystique PCI had been available for the mac through some Mac clone company (i think power computing?). The Matrox G400 was available for the Mac as well (there was a japanese nib G400 available on eBay some time back), including 3D capabilities. Even the G450 was available as part of the Matrix RTMac grabber although i think 3D was not available in that setup. Those are some other cards i like to experiment with...

I have a nice collection of Formac ROMs and drivers. The ProMedia 20/40 3D got broken in later ProGA releases. I had begun to test around which driver gave the best result but got fed up and stopped. The same goes for the ProMedia 3D Pro but with different effects.

-Jonas
 

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Even the G450 was available as part of the Matrix RTMac grabber although i think 3D was not available in that setup. Those are some other cards i like to experiment with...
I have the RTMac stuff, the weird thing is that it requires you to also have another video card, I think it leans on another card for some functions.

BTW, i just recently found out the the Matrox Mystique PCI had been available for the mac through some Mac clone company (i think power computing?). The Matrox G400 was available for the Mac as well (there was a japanese nib G400 available on eBay some time back), including 3D capabilities.
We need to find some Mac ROMs for these :) Matrix cards seem to be fairly easy to flash.
i was very disappointed in the lackluster performance.
Between various driver versions, the ix3D has absolutely insane levels of performance in some 2D operations... I font drawing and image drawing spring to mind. Here is a text benchmark with one driver :
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and here is "Draw Picture"

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This is cherry picking, I think each benchmark is a different driver version (Apple / ixMicro) and other functions are slower.

These are old benchmarks from a while back. Looks like they were run on my 9600 by what disks are mounted in the second image.
 
I have rom Version 1.01 on both of my ixMicro UltimateRez.
The drivers i tested were 1.02 and 2.0

-Jonas
 
9600 Graphics... Is the Apple Driver. The ix3D ones should be the ixMicro ones. Note one version works with both ROM families, the other doesn't. I forget for certain which way around it is.

Some of the attached are probably duplicates, but these are the files I have saved on my phone.
 

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Do you have a photo of the ROM?

Version 2 is the community hacked version, I had trouble with it.
The loose Rom is defective. The card will not work with it. I could not get 3D working in 16bit, only 32bit graphics mode. I tested the driver 1.02,1.05 and 2.0
 

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The loose Rom is defective. The card will not work with it. I could not get 3D working in 16bit, only 32bit graphics mode. I tested the driver 1.02,1.05 and 2.0
Did you try the apple Driver? Out of curiosity.

Your cards are ixMicro ROM versions. I think I have one of each, I should have a copy of the ROM ripped somewhere. I think I remember having more luck with the Apple ROM.
 
Did you try the apple Driver? Out of curiosity.

Your cards are ixMicro ROM versions. I think I have one of each, I should have a copy of the ROM ripped somewhere. I think I remember having more luck with the Apple ROM.
I would like to try another rom version. I think i could rip the two ROMs tomorrow, just for fun. We just finished our family Christmas eve movie, this year: "Love Actually"🤮 ... my choice was "Krull" ... why do i never get any votes.
 
I would like to try another rom version. I think i could rip the two ROMs tomorrow, just for fun. We just finished our family Christmas eve movie, this year: "Love Actually"🤮 ... my choice was "Krull" ... why do i never get any votes.
I'm recommending my favourite to everyone :

Muppet Christmas Carol

;)
 
I have a nice collection of Formac ROMs and drivers. The ProMedia 20/40 3D got broken in later ProGA releases. I had begun to test around which driver gave the best result but got fed up and stopped. The same goes for the ProMedia 3D Pro but with different effects.
Morning @stynx are you able to rip the ROM from a ProMedia 40 for me?

I'm curious if I can flash a generic PC card to work as one and get some cheap RAVE 3D PCI fun. I have one on the way.

It's getting harder to find interesting Mac cards for reasonable prices, but there isn't much love for the S3 Virge :)

Did any of the Formac cards use the Virge DX?

Everyone else - same goes for anyone else reading if you have a ProMedia 40 or a 20?
 
Morning @stynx are you able to rip the ROM from a ProMedia 40 for me?

I'm curious if I can flash a generic PC card to work as one and get some cheap RAVE 3D PCI fun. I have one on the way.

It's getting harder to find interesting Mac cards for reasonable prices, but there isn't much love for the S3 Virge :)

Did any of the Formac cards use the Virge DX?

Everyone else - same goes for anyone else reading if you have a ProMedia 40 or a 20?
That would not be very fun. The Formac Virge driver is not well implemented for Rave and has a lot of bugs.
I have flashed a PC Virge (325) 4Mb card successfully but as i said, the results are very lacking.

You should try GA 4.5.0 first, then 5.2.2. The 3D acceleration extension may end up in your system folder instead of the extension folder, disabling 3D acceleration. That is a bug in the GA-driver that got fixed later on. The later GA-control panels may have problems using 3D with the Virge. You can think of it as Virge 3D support being dropped from GA 5.4.0 onwards since many games and programs will either not detect the Virge or have graphics glitches.

>>>>>>>

Formac did not do a Virge DX card or any other Virge variant. The ProMedia 3D was the only Virge card for the Macintosh (as far as i know).
The similarly named ProMedia 3D Pro is a Permedia 2 based card. A Permedia 2 (nov 2v) 8Mb card can be flashed and will be detected (i have tested this with ELSA branded card but it should also work with Diamond, Hercules and others).
The ProMedia 3D Pro will have a solid performance for everything up until 1998. It will work great in a G3 as well. A Rage Pro might be similar or a bit slower in terms of performance.

-Jonas
 

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