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Dronez is an OpenGL
game currently in development by
Zetha Gamez. Dronez uses the advanced
shader capabilities of the GeForce 3. Here is
an excerpt of what features are actually used...
- High polycount
featuring extremely smooth characters, objects and
detail of the environment
- Exploiting of
four texture units for custom lighting effects
combined with multitexturing and custom, glossy
bump mapping w/texture shaders and special
effects.
- Use of (a big
amount of) Vertex Programs not only to achieve
better performance on the usual tasks like
skinning and animation, but also to help achieving
our unique custom illumination system
- Texture-Shaders
for high quality per-pixel, per-light bump-mapping
There is also an
optimized software only pipeline for older GPU's
that don't have the same capabilities of the GeForce
3.
The first batch of
Dronez numbers were run using the "GeForce 3 Bump"
setting, all other options were set to default.
DRONEZ
The Dronez benchmark
requires 256MB of system RAM to run and loads a
massive amount of high-quality textures.
All of the scenes
throughout the demo are filled with fully animated,
high-poly models such as the ones clickable above.
For the sake of
comparison, we ran the same demo using the "GeForce
2 Bump" setting on both the GF3 and GF2 Ultra...
As you can see in the
first chart, the performance of the program is
enhanced greatly when using the advanced features of
the GeForce 3. Performance doesn't come close
in the "GeForce 2 Bump" test above...
We also enabled FSAA at
1024x768x32 using all methods...
With 4X FSAA enabled we
see performance drop to "unacceptable" levels in
Dronez. Remember though, the new Quincunx
method produces images similar to 4X quality with
far better performance.
Hopefully we've shown you what kind of performance
to expect from the GeForce 3, and in particular the
Gigabyte GV-GF3000. There is no denying that
nVidia's new flagship is a powerhouse of a chip,
offering not only new features, but better
performance. With some developers already
showcasing products that take advantage of these new
features, and many others indicating that their
future products will also utilize them, there is
little doubt that your next video card purchase
should have these capabilities. With price
points already in the $370 range, we're fairly
certain many hardcore gamers will immediately
purchase GeForce 3's, with other markets sure to
follow. We'll hold of on rating the Gigabyte
GV-GF3000 until we see final "retail" product, but
if our pre-production model is any indication of
what they have in store, Gigabyte will have a winner
on their hands.
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