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powervr-graphics / PowerVR-Series1

Original source code for the PowerVR Series 1 GPUs : Midas Arcade, PCX1 and PCX2
MIT License
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No "PowerVR Extreme" MiniGL driver? #5

Open leilei- opened 2 years ago

leilei- commented 2 years ago

Seems absent. I assume that was a NEC-developed project?

Currently to PCX2-using retrocomputing hobbyists, there's two MiniGLs that get used, the "GLQuake driver" released separately as support patches for Half-Life, Hexen II, and coming with Quake2 and Sin; and the Techland-developed SGL MiniGL driver from Crime Cities. While the latter works with more non-Quake GL games (and really surprising when it does work), it doesn't have any blending function workarounds, paletted texture support or polygonoffset/depthrange/etc.

The missing source of the MiniGL driver isn't that a huge of a deal since there's enough here to start writing a new, possibly better one.

Just wondering. :)

S-Fe commented 2 years ago

I'm puzzled as to where the code for that is. I just did a very grep in the version control repository (searching for minigl or quake*) but couldn't see anything. I don't even recall who worked on it - it might even have been NEC, in which case IMG possibly never had the source.

*The only reference I could see for quake is in "dregion.c"

leilei- commented 2 years ago

The most unique strings I can think of that'd tie to the driver is "glkatana.exe" and "POWERVR_set_global_palette"

S-Fe commented 2 years ago

I've tried those too, but no luck. (I did briefly try "gl" but, no surprises, that doesn't narrow down the field very much). I'll see if any of the other "old timers" at work can recall.

S-Fe commented 2 years ago

Good news and bad news.

GN: I managed to get in touch with an ex-colleague ... BN: ..who said the MiniGL library was not developed in house, but by a contractor, and we only ever had the binary ... GN: ... but he gave me a possible name ... BN: .., but I haven't been able to find any reference to that person online 😢

stu-s commented 2 years ago

Simon - I remember when the MiniGL lib was written. I can email you a linkedin link that I'm 99% sure is the guy.

volkertb commented 1 year ago

@stu-s @S-Fe Any updates on this?

JackintheJungle commented 1 year ago

Any update? Let me introduce myself: I am a graphics card enthusiast, and the Powervr PCX1/PCX2 is definitely one of my favorites, as it was my first graphics card back in 1997/1998. So please, if you have any information about the source code or the person who worked on it, please let us know! The PCX2 deserves more attention! See you soon, Jack

S-Fe commented 1 year ago

Simon - I remember when the MiniGL lib was written. I can email you a linkedin link that I'm 99% sure is the guy.

Many thanks - I've sent a message to him