What was the nv1 again?

[ragejg]

I'm having trouble remembering the lineage... was (nv1) this the Sega Saturn's video subsystem? Or an actual video card?

And if so, does anyone know if the Saturn was powerful enough (if the code was more flexible for game developers) to parallel the original Playstation HAD IT BEEN PROPERLY OPTIMISED?

And, what was eveyone's fav. Saturn game? What were it's most graphically impressive game?

...

Well, while we're on the subject of Sega, does anyone know what DX/GL level the DREAMCAST's's gfx api was equiv. to? I still find the gfx to be very impressive, and there's some features which appear to be sega specific...

...does the dreamcast have LAN or just a dial up? If so, I'd buy one just to run Q3 on it and go head to head w/my pc... I've heard of the quality of the dreamcast port (as well as the error free multiplayer capabilities with PC's) of this game, and would love to do something interesting like this (not to mention hooking the dreamcast up to my isp and use it as a secondary browser)...

-r-a-g-e-j-g-

[sytaylor]

/me cracks knuckles

yes nVidia made the graphics hardware for the saturn and i believe it was the nv1 or something to that effect, and it didn't use polys!!

as for the second question... pffffft! did you ever play quake or duke on both systems? if so you'd see what a little time with the saturn could produce, the thing was a BEAST, both in terms of power and difficulty to program for :rolleyes:

yeah the "api" used by the dc wasnt ogl or d3d so sega hand picked the features they wanted. I know the dc ran at resolutions of 640*480 and supported lots of texturing and lighting effects that were new to consoles at the time.

there was an ethernet adapter released in the US i believe, but not in very large numbers, not sure if there was ever any server software though

[de><ta]

yes the first card nvidia made was the nv1. It did not use poly's since poly's where not the fundamental back then. It used quadratic texture processing. Had much smoother graphics, uses a power series of vector images hence the graphics are very very smooth.

That card did not need to be optimised. It had everything in it even a more than decent integrated sound and game ports which supported multiple types of console game pads. Only reason OEM's refused it was due to the fact that it did not comply with direct 3d which was released by MS shortly after the cards release and which most software company's took as their standard..

Most proggy i have spoken to quiver at the thought of implementing a game in anything apart from ogl right now but the japanese folks are fairly competent and that is one reason they strayed away from the mainstream dx.

What do you mean dx/gl was equivalent to? Dreamcast has its own set of native api based from ogl. I think it does use open gl. I am not sure though, have not read any where about what api it exactly uses.

Can you elaborate more on your last paragh... kinda lost about the idea of using a dreamcast as browser.

As for favourite games on Saturn and the dreamcast all invlove a blue hedgehog:D
I always found the concept of Sonic the hedgehog a lot easier to understand and grasp than mario or luigi eating mushrooms and being plumbers etc.

[Smokey]

I played Quake2 on my brother inlaws Saturn :D his fav game was panzar dragon saga or something. Im not a console person, although I did buy a Sega Master System II when it came out :p

[StealthHawk]

i think the Saturn chip nvidia made was NV3.

NV1 was a video card, i'm pretty sure. i remember seeing advertisements for it in old magazines.

[thcdru2k]

yup the nv1, was a videocard and soundcard in one. not to mention the sound was actually impressive at the time. it was sold as the diamond edge 3d. manufactured by diamond of course. you could also plug in saturn controllers.

[PsychoSy]

Originally posted by sytaylor
the thing was a BEAST, both in terms of power and difficulty to program for :rolleyes:

And the reason why it was so hard to program for was because Sega's AM2 division knew all the secrets, had tons of documentation and libraries, but wouldn't share them with other developers. If only they would've forked over those libraries, third-party devs would have had a base to work with and could chose on whether or not to use those libraries or hack their own and the end results would've cut their dev time by a good margin either way.

[StealthHawk]

SDKs can make or break a system...supposedly on advantage that was to help out Xbox :p

[sbp]

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/features/nvidiahistory/
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/features/nv2/