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The 3dfx Voodoo Worked So Well Nobody Saw the Problem (playstationcouch.com)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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The 3dfx Voodoo wasn’t the first 3D card, or the most complete. It was the first that made games feel smooth. Four years later, Nvidia bought what was left of the company. What went wrong? #Voodoo #Gaming

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[–] 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Nice! Did that work with all games too? (in general, not perfectly)

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Yes, it was api & driver level iirc (you adjusted the "difference between the eyes"/two different fov points), basically anything polygonal 3D worked I think.

    But your PC also needed to produce twice the fps (for each eye a separate set ... so if your monitor could do 120Hz (I had a Samsung 959NF) & your card could do 120fps you got 60 frames per eye), ... so there was a limited number of games that had a playable fps even with a top pc (with home-made water loop!).
    And this is "3D effect within the physical monitor" (unlike VR goggles that fake the 3D perception from close to your eyeballs) & most games dont really have 3D objects displayed close to you, eg in fps like Quake 2 the gun was noticeably 3D, but the rest (correctly) much less simply bcs of the fov/the distance.

    Also CRTs weren't extremely bright & the glasses (with the LCDs "open") were still kinda dim so it was like playing with uncomfortable sunglasses.

    Fun as a gimmick, still remember it fondly.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    Yeah, the shutter hz/fps halving. I was on the 60 -> 30 route I think, which was still bearable to me, at least at that time.

    But all in all until now I accepted that "3D" output will always be niche for a lot of reasons. But it pops up every 10 years or so.

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