In addition to speeding up the graphics setup and rendering pipelines, NVIDIA has increased the performance of the transform and lighting of the GeForce2 GTS about 50% over the GeForce 256 DDR. While the 50% increase has been a subject of controversy, I felt it would be appropriate at this time to show the increased performance.

The following chart shows the results of the 3DMark 2000 high polygon count test using multiple light sources (1, 4, and 8) and is measured in thousands of polygons per second. The results for the GeForce2 GTS are represented by the blue bar (32-bit color) and green bar (16-bit color) while the GeForce 256 DDR results are the red bar (32-bit color) and yellow bar (16-bit color). In both 16 and 32-bit color, the GeForce2 GTS outperforms the GeForce 256 DDR by 53 and 56 percent respectively.

Additional details of these benchmark results can be found on the 3DMark 2000 page of this preview.

3DMark 2000 - High Polygon Count - 1024x768

While the Whole Experience's Dagoth Moor Zoological Gardens (DMZG) demo was a polygon pumping demo six month ago, the Experience team has upped the ante with their Isle of Morg demo. This exclusive technology demo was designed to showcase the capabilities of the GeForce2 GTS as DMZG did for the GeForce 256.

The Whole Experiences Isle of Morg

With scenes easily approaching a total of 150,000 polygons, the Isle of Morg demo now includes physics, artificial intelligence, and collision detection as well as special effects such as particle systems, dynamic water, environment mapping, bump mapping and dynamic lighting.

Let's hope that the Isle of Morg demo is made avialable to everyone in the near future as it runs great on the GeForce 256 as well.

The Isle of Morg incorporates basic game mechanics with the enhanced features of NVIDIA's hardware to demonstrate what games are capable of doing today. Here are a couple of wireframe screenshots from the demo which will be referred to in the next page as NVIDIA's Shading Rasterizer is covered in detail:

Isle of Morg

Center View	Side View

Now you might be saying to yourself "Sure, the Isle of Morg is only a technology demo. We'll have to wait another year to see this kind of complexity in a game..."

Well, not exactly. There is a custom Quake 3 Arena level that contains a staggering amount of geometry and textures. If you've ever wanted to stress the hell out of a transform and lighting graphics processor, this is the demo to use! This level is appropriately named NV15 - the NVIDIA Bunker and can be download at NVIDIA's web site.

Quake 3 Level NV15

Room Wireframe	Tunnel Wireframe

Oh yeah. While your checking out the level, don't foget to stop by the offices of NVIDIA's Nick Trianos and Chris Donahue and say Hi. And don't even think of trying to nab one of those GeForce chips you see in the fab machine...

Quake 3 Level Area 15

Nick's Office	Chris's Office

Next Page: NVIDIA's Shading Rasterizer