Haven't been able to update the news for quite a while because of work. Anyway here's what I have gathered so far. The latest news are in Blue

MAY

Moto Racer
Just played this demo today(22/5). And it is a really really great game. It's the best driving game I've ever played. The graphics is also quite good although it good do with a bit more texture mapping. Very good manuverability and I recommend it to anybody that likes driving game. Get the demo from download.com NOW!

Inside Track on 3D
Meet the 3D Games Developers!

Creative Connection mailed with the following information all you 3D gamers might find interesting:

Creative Zone has a special treat for all gamers. If you are a gamer and interested in 3D Games, INSIDE TRACK on 3D has to be the place to be :

- Read exclusive interviews with our game developers
- Interact with them in an exclusive threaded discussion forum
- Win fabulous prizes including 3D Blaster PCI, Graphics Blaster 3D, Creative T-shirt and other special prizes! (members only)

This month’s featured developer is Core Design, the developer of the award winning game, Tomb Raider.

For more details, check out the Inside track on 3D at
http://www.ctlsg.creaf.com/wwwnew/arcade/insidetrack

Windows NT supports Direct3D
If you own Windows NT 4.0 get the Service Pack 3 which adds DirectX 3.0 and Direct3D compatibility. I've downloaded and installed the service pack and have yet to check it out much further, but I am struggling to find the DirectX 3.0 installation in it. If anyone knows more about this please e-mail me.

Flight Unlimited 2 "Preview"
Next Generation Online has a "preview" about Looking Glass' upcoming Flight Unlimited 2. At the mean time, you can also read another preview from Adrenaline Vault. Flight Unlimited 2 will support Direct3D, FYI.

Interstate 76 update
Got this from The Funk Factor, regarding a mail received from Dan Stanfill (lead programmer of Interstate 76) at Activision, concerning the status of the Direct3D patch, and news that Activision is going to be working on downloadable patches for specific 3d cards. Here's what Dan had to say:

...Here is the current status of the D3D patch.

The game is basically running under D3D, but there are still a couple ofrough spots which are being worked out. We have gotten the frame rate when using 3D cards to be pretty decent, which was our biggest concern. The game should be in an alpha state by the end of next week (Activision is moving to a new building, which is giving us a bit of a delay).

I am in favor of releasing a beta copy to the net, although there is some resistance to that idea (many feel it is better to get people angry at you being late than to risk a bad rep on a buggy product). I will see what I can do on this end.

Even if you have to wait for it to go through quality assurance, it should be available around the end of the month. I know this is a longer wait than people would have liked to have seen, but I can assure you that the time is not being wasted and you will see a quality product.

In addition, after the D3D version is available there will be a number of card-specific versions which will become available to further improve the game for owners of those cards. Those versions will not only be bundled with cards, but (unlike some of our previous games) will be available for download. Also, the graphics interface is being isolated to a DLL so that all versions will simultaneously be able to get any further updates to the game.

MDK Update
Shiny has said they will release the Rendition and 3dfx-versions of MDK before the end of the week. But! you can now download the beta-patches from here, including a new D3D-patch that fixes some things (the nuclear bomb now hs a flash). (Source : Bjorn's 3D World)

News about EF2000
According to a post on usenet by Carl Jackson, EF2000 Grahics+ will be released within the next few weeks : "Hi Bruce. It should be available within the next few weeks. Super (as part of EF2000 v2.0) will be available by the end of May/begining of June. Carl Jackson, DID" (Source : Bjorn's 3D World)

Comanche 3 & 3D Support
Here's a post on Comanche 3, The shipping version Comanche 3 does not support the 3D coding used in the 3D video cards on the market now. Comanche 3 will run on machines with 3D card installed upon them, but the game simply does not utilize the 3D chipset upon the card. At this time, our development department is investigating and working with several of the 3D cards on the market and we expect to provide additional hardware support for C3 through update/upgrade releases. Once new developments become available, they will be accessible and announced on the NovaLogic web site

3D card Support for Actua Soccer 2
Actua Soccer 2 will feature 3D-support. However there are no details on Rendition-support.

New Canopus RRedline drivers
According to Canopus tech-support, they will release new drivers with RRedline-support soon.(Source : Bjorn's 3D World)

Formula 1 reviews
Here are some reviews on Psynosis' Formula 1. Well I hate to report it but F1 is not all that great, IMO. I am running a P166 with an Intergraph Reactor and the RRedline drivers. The frame rates seemed very choppy on my computer when running the Rendition version. The D3D version had bad frame rates as well, and the only difference seems to be that the D3D version does not support bilinear filtering, whereas the 3DFX and Rendition version do.

The feeling I get is that I am running the game without any hardware 3D acceleration at all. The frame rates feel like they are about 8-12 fps, which is unacceptable for me. I heard that the 3DFX version was significantly better, but I don't know for sure. It seems like considering the graphic quality of the game (pretty good but not stellar), the frame rates should be 3 times as fast as they are.

I can only assume that either the game was poorly programmed, or the rendition port is totally unoptimized. BTW, I was running the game in 640x480 mode. I hear it runs significantly faster in lower res modes, but there is no reason to have to accept running in that resolution to get a good frame rate. - Tom

"Conor from Creative Labs in France has passed on his impressions of F1, running on a 3DBlaster PCI.I have been playing with the new F1 from PSYGNOSIS and I can tell you now, it is DEADLY, the rain effects are incredible, so much so that I leave Weather On all the time, I haven't had the time to check frame rates etc as all I've been doing is beating Michael Schumacer or Damon Hill. The Direct 3D version is, well, crap compared to the Verite running RedLine Drivers contained on the CD. When I replaced the 3D Blaster ones with these, the result is incredible, whopping frame rates, beautiful colours - JUST SCREAMING!!!" - Found on http://www.allgames.com

RREDLINE DRIVERS FROM CREATIVE
Creative has released new 3D-Blaster drivers with RRedline-support!! These RRedline drivers are BETA drivers that are currently undergoing testing at CL. Read this page: http://www.cle.creaf.com/wwwnew/tech/ftp/ftp-beta.html to fully understand the Creative Labs Betatester Program .

Intergraph Driver News
Latest news from Intergraph regarding their recalled Win95 drivers.
Last month we said we were working very hard to provide you with updateddrivers. Customer Support (Intergraph Computer Systems Solutions Center) has completed an independent evaluation of the latest beta driver for Windows 95 and we are now in the process of conducting a limited customer beta test. We hope to complete this round of testing in a few weeks. As soon as the test is complete, we will post the updated driver to this page."

Moto Racer Demo
Download a demo of Moto Racer. Get it from download.com. Watch out though it's 17.3 Mb big.

Interstate '76 update
If you like Interstate '76 you'd be real interested in this.
"The Status of the Direct3D Patch. I just received an email from Dan Stanfill at Activision on the status of the Direct3D patch. Apparently the patch has just reached a functional alpha status, the frame rates have been increased to an acceptable level, and the patch is on time for a release by the end of the month. Dan also indicated that there is some possibility that a beta of the patch will be released early, although many at Activision are reluctant to release a buggy product. There will also be specific patches made for particular cards for native support (in addition to the Direct3D patches). Work on the card specific versions will begin after the Direct3D patch is available; although no specific cards were mentioned, I think we can infer that the voodoo and verite cards would be at the top of the list. Both the Direct3D and native patches will be downloadable for free off the net. Apparently, the graphics engine is being isolated to a .dll file so that the graphics engine and interface can be patched independent of own another."

Rendition POD available soon
According to Gamecenter the Verite-patch for POD will be released in June.

Interview with LucasArts' Lawrence Holland
Lawrence Holland (maker of X-Wing vs Tie Fighter) was interviewed in PC Gamer. On the question about support for rendition and 3dfx he said. "Those are hot cards, they're great, and we want to support them, so we will. ". But on the question of a timeframe for 3D-support he said : "About 60 to 90 days, hopefully sooner."

Beta NT drivers from Creative
Creative has finally released beta-NT-drivers. They are however *not* accelerated. You can get them here.

Hardcore 4x4 to support Rendition
Bjorn received a mail from Phil at Gremlins. He said that Hardcore 4x4 should be a native Rendition-version. He has promised to get back to me with more info on other games. (Source : Bjorn's 3D World)

Falcon 4 Newsbr> Next Generation has a preview of Falcon 4. It's due out in the end of 1997 and they plan to support all major 3D-cards including the Rendition.

NATIVE RENDITION SUPPORT FOR MDK
Here's what Shiny boss David Perry says about it.
"This week we have added support for custom Rendition & 3DFX code. This makes these cards perform roughly twice as fast as Direct 3D in our performance tester. These updates are now in test"

Outlaws to have D3D support
According to The Accelerator, Lucas Arts are planning on starting working on a D3D-patch as soon as they have finished the D3D-patch for Outlaws.

Mechwarrior 3
Next Generation Online has a preview of FASA and Microprose's upcoming Mechwarrior 3. They also have 2 screenshots available. Here's what they said.

Work will continue throughout the development process to make the game compatible with all available 3D accelerators. Barring any unexpected events, MechWarrior III will be enhanced for all existing cards when it arrives in September.

D3D Heavy Gear
Heavy gear will support D3D. The director of Heavy Gear said this in an interview with Adrenalin Vault

Heavy Gear will feature the next generation of our simulator engine. Direct3D support will be built in, allowing users with 3D accelerator cards access to 16-bit color, smoother texture maps, hardware fogging, and higher frame-rates. Our software-only engine is being completely Pentium-optimized for users without accelerator cards. We've got rolling terrain implemented in the engine, and a more articulate animation system that lets users do some new moves during combat.

Jedi Knight News
Jedi Knight is expected to be released sometime in June. You can be either use the Force, also you can use some of the weapons in Dark Forces, along with some new toys.

APRIL

Winter Race 3D Problems
If you have problems with the Winter Race 3D-demo? then run the"wr3d_rnd.exe" file. It seems that Rendition boards are having trouble picking up transparencies which are used in the Winter Race 3D trees. This .exe file does not include the trees in the scenery.

Interstate 76 D3D Patch
Doug Pearson, Associate Producer, Interstate '76 said this in Allgames Network
We are also still working very hard to complete the D3D patch. When I have a better estimate as to when it will be released I'll let you know. We are working very hard to have the optimization done on the D3D patch by the 2nd half of May.

New ZD 3D Benchmark
ZD Benchmark Operations has released their 3D benchmarking program, 3dwb97.exe (20 MB). Here's the quote from their website:

3D WinBench 97® measures the performance of a PC's 3D subsystem, which includes the Direct3D software, the monitor, the graphics adapter, the graphics driver, and the bus used to carry information from the graphics adapter to and from the processor subsystem. You can use 3D WinBench 97 to test hardware graphics adapters, drivers, and the value of such enhancing technologies as MMX. What you can't test is Windows NT, because it doesn't support 3D hardware acceleration; 3D WinBench 97 only runs on Windows 95. 3D WinBench 97 aims to measure both the current and future state of hardware 3D accelerator performance. Head over to ZDBOp and find out more.

GameCenter 3D Card Review
GameCenter has taken a look at a number of the 3D accelerators out there on the market. Here's the article.

Creative SoftMPEG Update
Creative has released a new update to their SoftMPEG. You can get it from their FTP site

Redline Screenshots
New game from Accolade which supposedly supports powerVR, Voodoo and Verite. Here are some screenshots

Shadows of the Empire
LucasArts has confirmed the PC port of Shadows of the Empire, a popular title on the Nintendo 64. Shadows of the Empire will support Direct3D. Read the press release.

Test Drive : Offload
In an interview with All Games network, Steve Allison the associate producer of Accolade's Test Drive: Offroad has said that the Rendition Patch will be the first 3D patch to be developed.

GoMan D3D Demo
A demo of GoMan, which supports Direct3D, is now available. Three versions are available: one for those without a Direct3D-compatible 3D accelerator (poor souls!), one for those with a 2MB D3D-compatible card (poor souls!), and one for a 4MB D3D-compatible board (lucky souls!). For all the relevant download information, head to the GoMan download page.

Verite and OpenGL QuakeWorld
John Carmack has updated his .plan, and in it he discusses the upcoming Quakeworld client, which will have both Verite and OpenGL (meaning 3Dfx) support. For the full story, head over to the 3D accelerated Quake news section.

EF2000 Graphics + and other news
Digital Image Design will shortly be releasing EF2000 V2.0 in North America. EF2000 V2.0 will contain the following items: DOS version of EF2000 V2.0 (known in Europe as EF2000 Evolution)Enhanced Windows '95 version of EF2000 V2.0 (complete with TEN compatibility) Graphics+ upgrade for 3DFX and Rendition cards (this upgrade will take full advantage of users who have a 3DFX or Rendition chipset on their video card. It can only be used with the DOS version of the game) A comprehensive 350-page manual A detailed strategy guide written by Sim-Tech European customers will be able to download the Graphics+ upgrade from the web site once the EF2000 V2.0 pack has been released in North America. The Graphics+ upgrade will only work with DOS versions of the game that have the TACTCOM upgrade already applied.

Winter Race 3D
The Adrenaline Vault has a preview of Winter Race 3D and an interview with its creator, Steve Fielding. Winter Race 3D is an upcoming winter sports game from Fielding Productions and will support Direct3D.

Wild Ride!
There's a new demo of Wild Ride!, a surfing game that includes Direct3D support from RunandGun.

Heavy Gear Screenshots
Next Generation has some screen grabs of Activision's upcoming mech-game, Heavy Gear. These few accelerated screenshots ones at NG are amazing. Check out the RealAudio interview at AllGames Network with Chacko Sonny, Producer of Heavy Gear.

Formula 1 Screenshots
Here are some screenshots of this really cool racing game. Full screen shots available only at the moment.

Wipeout XL screenshots
This game will really give POD a run for money. here's some screenshots, Full screen shots available only at the moment.

Flight Unlimited 2 screenshots
Flight Unlimited 2 WILL be rendition accelerated, here are some screenshots for you to take a look at.

Nascar 2 V1.02 Patch
New patches to update your Nascar 2 to version 1.02. It seems that people are having problems installing the patch (which may be caused by installing the wrong file) and that a number of bugs are still not fixed, so proceed with caution. Here are the instructions from Sierra.

Please make sure you are using the correct patch for the version of NASCAR Racing 2 installed on your system. To find out the version of Nascar 2 that you have please read the following instructions. At a MS DOS PROMPT:

1.Insert the CD into your CD Rom drive (usually D:) 2.Type that drive's letter and press enter (e.g. D:[enter]) 3.Type DIR and press enter. 4.Look for the SETUP.EXE file and check the date to the right.

If you have version 1.00, the date will be 11/6/96. If you have version 1.01, the date will be 11/27/96.

For version 1.00 please download nas2pat0.exe 687k, posted on 4/24/97

For version 1.01 Please download nas2pat1.exe 680k, posted on 4/24/97

Note: The patch installation may not work properly if you have previously installed any utilities that are not supported by Sierra. We recommend that you delete and reinstall NASCAR2 before applying the patch.

New Sierra Drivers
Sierra has released new drivers (1.3 MB) for their Screamin'3D video card.

Direct X 3.0b
Microsoft has released the Direct X 3.0b. Here's the quote from their website:

The only difference between DirectX 3a and DirectX 3b is the file dsetupj.dll. If your platform is the Japanese version of Windows 95, and your application calls the DirectXSetup API, you will see incorrectly positioned Japanese characters in the Setup dialog box. This may be only a cosmetic problem, but it's an unattractive one, so we fixed it. This problem does not happen on Windows 95 versions other than Japanese.

Mechwarrior 2 D3D screenshots
Screenshots of the D3D version are available here.

Moto Racer
Motorcycle D3D game that is coming out sometime End Fall. Check out the moto racer page for more details

MDK D3D Patches
Shiny has officially posted their MDK patch page. Yes. MDK is in stores May 6th. The US release includes the save patch & D3D features.

Mechwarrior Mercenaries
Mercenaries is not 3D accelerated in any form. Here's what the FAQ@Activision has to say on the subject of forthcoming 3D support for the game.

What's the story on 3-D card support for Mercenaries? We haven't announced 3-D card versions of Mercenaries yet. It's fair to assume we're working on something, but for now stick to the standard version. Writing a well optimized Direct-3D version or a version tailored for a particular 3-D card would take some time.

LucasArts
For those who might be interested, LucasArts have announced the release dates for Outlaws -April 11th and X-wing Vs. Tie Fighter April 29th New Rendition Cards
Rendition has announced that there will be three more manufacturers will use the Verite-chipset. These three are DataExpert's ExpertColor, miro's miroCRYSTAL VRX, and Prochips' Dream View 3D Plus!!

New Intense updates
New Intense 3D drivers and bios Ver. 79 are available now!!

3DB & EA Games
Do you have any problems with the 3D Blaster and EA-games? Well, Creative Connection has said that you should select the right monitor or, in case you are uncertain of the model, a 640x480 or higher SVGA monitor in Win95. They are talking with EA about this problem.

New 3D Blaster Blaster Control
Get the new 3D Blaster Control from Creative Labs.

EIDOS releases 4 new Rendition games
Eidos is releasing 4 new Verite games. Team Apache, Flying Nightmares II, Terracide and Deathtrap Dungeon will all Rendition Ready

Rendition Intiative
The Rendition Initiative has reached C|Net's Game Center. Click here for the full story Games Domain has also written about the Rendition Initiative. We are getting popular aren't we?

Intergraph removes their NT drivers
Intergraph have removed their latest beta NT-drivers. They said this "There were some unanticipated problems on some systems and we have decided to delay the release of the Windows NT driver until we have these problems resolved." The Rendition Initiative has been a great sucess so far.

Formula 1
Psygnosis' Formula 1 is out of the box Rendition Ready Apparantly it will be available in the UK on 25th April.

New Intense 3D drivers
Intergraph have released a new bios and new Windows drivers for the Intense 3D.

New Creative drivers
Creative has just released new drivers, download it here now!

Criterion (Source : Bjorn's 3D World)says their upcoming games Sub Culture and Aqua'Tak will both both support the Rendition. I read about Sub Culture in PC Gamer and it looks nice.

Quake Updates
New Quake updates are available now. Beta 5 of VQuake 1.07. It supports the Rogue and Hipnotic level packs.
Click here to download.

Graphics Blaster 3D
Creative's new Graphics Blaster 3D is retailing for $99! Read the Press Release here

MARCH

New drivers from Creative
Creative has just released new drivers, download it here now!