Release of Warp3D
and StormMesa 3.0

The first version of the hardware independent 3D driver system Warp3D is available. Finally there exists a way to use the power of 3D graphics boards, as it is done on other platforms for a long time.

The version version of Warp3D comes with a driver for the CyberVision3D graphics board. Owners of other 3D graphics boards should have a bit more patience until the corresponding drivers are finished.

Basically Warp3D works with CyberGFX and with Picasso96. At the moment there is a problem in CyberGFX concerning V39 multibuffering, so that the OpenGL demos can't be used in full screen mode yet. The problem should be solved soon, and then the CyberGFX users should download the latest CyberGFX version. Picasso96 users need at least V1.40 of the Picasso96 software (it is recommended to install the latest version).

3D hardware in a window is currently restricted to Picasso96 users. At the moment Warp3D does not utilize the advanced possibilities of CyberGFX V4. As soon as this is done, it might also be possible to use 3D hardware in a window with CyberGFX. But you should note, that it doesn't make much sense to use 3D hardware in a window for boards like CyberVision3D, because there is not much graphics memory available (a 15 bit workbench consumes quite a lot of free
space). With the 8MB graphics boards things look a lot better.

At the same time as Warp3D, a new version of the StormMesa software is released. StormMesa is a almost fully OpenGL compatible graphics library. OpenGL is one of the most important 3D standards and is more and more also used in games (some famous games of the company id software have forced this trend).

OpenGL makes extreme demands on the available hardware. What is correct on other platforms is also correct for the AMIGA: without a fast 3D graphics board it is almost impossible to achieve an acceptable performance. The fastest CPU has absolutely no chance against an advanced 3D Chip. If textures and bilinear filtering are switched on, then even the Virge outperforms the fastest PowerPC easily.

Up to now the combination of OpenGL and 3D hardware was not available for the AMIGA. Until today. StormMesa 3.0 contains a driver for 'Warp3D' and so can use existing 3D hardware for drawing. If a powerful 3D chip is installed, then it is possible to achieve a performance which is simply not imaginable for AMIGA software. This also means that such 3D games (for example those of the mentioned company) can also run on the AMIGA in 800*600 completely smooth (which is totally impossible without 3D hardware due to the bottleneck CPU->Buster->Z3). But, as already mentioned, the 3D chip has to be powerful, at least a chip of Permedia2 level is needed for good OpenGL performance. Optimal for OpenGL are the 3D chips of the company '3dfx', since they meet the OpenGL requirements most completely.

Now it's time for the software developer to use these possibilities.
Let's go!