Rage 2 Tweaker Development
--------------------------

You should turn wordwrap on to read this document.  Please read ALL of this document before continuing.

I would like feedback on what effect these options have.  Please e-mail me with your results.   The e-mail address is wblinds@hotmail.com  Please state Rage 2 Tweaker somewhere as this e-mail address is usually used for Window Blinds (http://studenti.lboro.ac.uk/~conb/wblinds) and it may not be easy to work out which you are using)

Important Information
---------------------

There will be a proper version which includes all the options in Version 1 as well as a few other options which I have not included in this (2D options for example)  The release date for this will depend on the feedback I get from this so the quicker I get feedback, the sooner the proper version is released.  This can be used as well as the Rage 2 Tweaker v1.0  There is no overlap in features.  I.e. this program does different things to v1.0

This version is an experimental one.  It contains some options which either work fine on a Rage II and I would like to know how they work on a Rage Pro, or do not appear to have any effect on a Rage II so I would like to know the result on a Rage Pro.  Different versions of the drivers may make a difference.

For example Texture ReadBack only appeared to have an effect on the Rage II drivers supplied with DirectX 5.  The effect is to reduce 3D transfer rate by a couple of MB/s.  These drivers also have the interesting side effect of achieving 30MB/s 3D transfer time anyway.  This is 3X the normal rate.  The effect of this is games like GLQuake (Using S3 wrapper achieve much better framerates as it takes less time to transfer textures.  An example is 18 fps in 320x200 on a Rage II - But as I have only got a 2MB board (slighly limiting!) it has to have picmip = 1.  512x384 stalls due to lack of ram - Gets wrong textures and hence speed drops. - With more ram I would expect 14fps in 512x384)

However, the MS drivers also come with a very poor ati_d3d.dll which totally removes the advantage of the faster rate.  But by taking atid3d.dll from the latest drivers (or better still from 13/05/97 - Version 4.03.2621) you can get the best of both worlds.  The Fillrate on a Rage II increases by about 30% and the Polygon throughput also goes up by a lot (In fact upto 43 KPolys/s - On Pentium 150)

So it seems later is not always better.  

Some of the new options are not present in older drivers (Like the MS one) so the later drivers would be better (Plus the MS ones do not support ATICIF)

The options relating to atid3dr3.dll do nothing on my computer as this file is never used.  It may be for TV output or for the Pro chips.

If you want to impress your friends add the following to win.ini

	In the [DirectDraw] section add the line DisableGetDC = 1

Then run Final Reality.  Your 2D transfer rate should be HUGE!  This is not true of course, but the benchmark does not realise something is wrong.

Disable 32bit colour modes in directdraw makes the 2D transfer rate increase by a few MB and the 2D tests run slightly faster using Final Reality test (http://www.finalreality.com)

Disclaimer
----------

As usual I do not take any responsibility for any problems caused.  I.e. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

You are advised to backup system.ini & win.ini before using this.

Distribution
------------

If you need the support files you can get them from the homepage which is 
http://studenti.lboro.ac.uk/~conb/rage/index.htm

DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM WITHOUT MY PERMISSION (This includes by the web, on disk, cd etc). 

You MAY provide a LINK direct to the zip on my site IF you do the following

	1) Also provide a link to my page

	2) Put the usual dislaimer about Use at your own risk

	3) The link should NOT be in a list of overclocking / tweaking utilities for other cards

	4) It should not be implied it is written by anyone else

	5) The site should be ATI related

	6) AND the site is NOT run for Profit! - So no commercial sites (Toms Hardware etc)


If you DO meet these criteria then it is ok to add the link to the file itself.

If you do NOT meet these criteria then you should e-mail me to check first.  Failure to do so could lead to legal action.


Neil Banfield

31/05/98
