Warp3D v2
Welcome to the release of the version 2 of Warp3D. Again the AMIGA can take a huge step forwards and can demonstrate,
that the AMIGA is capable of providing a top power in 3D graphics.
The most important innovation in Warp3D V2 is the support of the Permedia2 based graphics boards (CVisionPPC /
BVisionPPC). Thanks to the high speed of the Permedia2 chip, Warp3D applications can now achieve unbelievable performance.
Prior to the official release of Warp3D V2 there was an intensive beta testing phase, which showed, that there
are a lot of external factors which might influence Warp3D in a negative way. Thanks to the fantastic help of many
people in the 3DWorld mailing list, we are able to provide solutions for almost every problem.
The hardware independent concept of Warp3D has again shown its strength, since almost every Warp3D application
runs nicely with both currently supported 3D chips. Of course every 3D chip has also disadvantages, so that the
requirements of some demos can be satisfied always, which is often the case for OpenGL demos. But even then it
is possible to run these demos after proper configuration at good quality with the currently supported graphics
boards.
Warp3D V2 also offers more features asides the support of the Permedia2 chips:
- Support of CGFX V4 for CyberVision3D and also for the Permedia2-based boards.
- Warp3D allows developers to open screen mode requester, which only provide those modes, which are supported by
the installed hardware.
- Some new functions have been added to the Warp3D API which should ease programming Warp3D software.
Together with the release of Warp3D V2 there is also a new version of StormMesa (version 3.1). This new version
was especially optimized to take full advantage of the Permedia2 chip, by assembling the graphics primitives in
a very optimal way from the Permedia2's point of view. StormMesa 3.1 achieves a much higher performance with Permedia2-based
hardware than StormMesa 3.0 did.
Problems with Warp3DV2 and the solutions
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When the first beta version of Warp3D V2 came out, it almost didn't run anywhere. We discovered, that there were
several problems in CyberGraphX, which didn't allow proper working of Warp3D. The problems have been fixed meanwhile,
but this also means, that very new CyberGraphX files have to
For the Permedia2-based graphics boards we recommend the following CyberGraphX versions (eventually slighly older
files might also work):
For CyberGraphX V3:
cgxsystem.library 41.21beta1
CVisionPPC 2.7 beta 3
For CyberGraphX V4:
cgxsystem.library 42.0
CVisionPPC 4.0 beta 4 (for CyberVisionPPC hardware)
BVisionPPC 4.0 beta 4 (for BVisionPPC hardware)
The configuration of CyberGraphX plays an important role. The following tooltypes have to be set as follows:
DRAGGING=NO
BITMAPCACHE=YES
These tooltypes have no effect only for the combination CV3D / CGFX V3.
Some demos only work with 15 bit modes (i.e. the 'Engine'). CGFX resp. P96 (for CV3D) have to be configured accordingly,
so that the 15 bit modes are presented to the user.
A lot of demos use V39 compliant multibuffering for displaying their animation. Some ASL patches (like MagicASL)
have a negative effect on V39 multibuffering, therefore you should disable these patches to see, if it solves the
multibuffering problems.
Patches like MagicMenu have a negative effect on the menus, which are displayed for V39-multibuffering-compliant
demos, please disable these patches to see, if the problems get solved.
In general, if you encounter problems, please temporarly remove any patches and try the W3D software again.
Then we encountered some cases during the beta testing, where the demos seemed to work at the beginning, but very
soon a complete system deadlock occurred (more likely in high resolutions). It was proven definitely, that such
problems can be caused by hardware overheating. We suppose, that the cooling situation in a lot of AMIGA's with
turbo board and attached graphics board is completely insufficient. Some people have solved their deadlock problems
by installing an additional fan.
To make the PPC version Warp3D/StormMesa working you need a perfectly working WarpUp installation. Make sure to
have the following env variables set:
powerpc/gfxaddr $e0000000 (for CVisionPPC/BVisionPPC)
powerpc/force 1 (for CVisionPPC/BVIsionPPC)
powerpc/terminator 2 (for BlizzardPPC boards)
Sometimes setting powerpc/memprot to 0 might also solve some problems.
If all this doesn't help, please try out the powerpc.library, which is located in the 'libs' directory. It's basically
the powerpc.library from WarpUp 3.1 with additional workarounds for some problems.
If there are still problems afterwards, it might help to ask questions to the 3D-World mailing list, or to ask
those questions to the Warp3D authors by eMail.