VideoLogic Limited UK - Press News - Coming Soon Magazine

VideoLogic Announces Second Generation 3D
Accelerator Card - Apocalypse 3Dx

Special Upgrade program Launched for Existing Customers

VideoLogic, the international PC multimedia and 3D graphics company, has today launched its second generation high-end dedicated 3D graphics accelerator card for the PC market called Apocalypse 3Dx. Apocalypse 3Dx is based on the recently introduced NEC PCX2 3D processor, designed by NEC Electronics and VideoLogic Technology Division.

The new Apocalypse 3Dx card delivers 50% more performance, supports higher display resolutions and has a substantially improved 3D image quality, through the inclusion of bilinear and adaptive bilinear texture filtering, over the original PCX1-based Apocalypse 3D card. In addition, the new Apocalypse 3Dx pack has an expanded games bundle, with four full version, PowerVR-designed games, including: WipeOut 2097 from Psygnosis, ULTIM@TE RACE from Kalisto, Resident Evil from Capcom and Mech Warrior 2 from Activision. The new card is also fully backwards compatible with all existing PowerVR and Direct 3D drivers and games.

The price for the new Apocalypse 3Dx pack (including the PCX2-based card, four full version PowerVR games, PowerSGL and Microsoft D3D drivers) remains unchanged at 159.00 Pounds RRP, with an estimated street price of 139.00 Pounds. The card is sampling now to PC OEMs and Systems Integrators, and will be available to the retail market this summer through VideoLogic's existing network of distributors and resellers. Recommended system requirements for Apocalypse 3Dx is a Pentium 133, with 32Mb of RAM.

"With the recent launch of the NEC PCX2 and now Apocalypse 3Dx, VideoLogic Systems is finally closing the debate on the best 3D accelerator on the market," said Kevin Dale, European sales and marketing manager for VideoLogic Systems. "Apocalypse 3Dx is a full 40% faster than its nearest 3D rivals based on 3Dfx, and unlike all conventional 3D accelerators, will continue to improve in performance with newer and faster CPUs."

Excluding the new PCX2 processor upgrade, the board design for Apocalypse 3Dx remains identical to the first generation card, being a single slot half length PCI card for Pentium based Windows 95 PCs. The card is compatible with DirectDraw-enabled 2D graphics cards or controllers. Apocalypse 3Dx is supplied with 4Mb of high performance SDRAM texture memory on board.

VideoLogic Systems Apocalypse 3Dx Upgrade Program

In conjunction with the launch of Apocalypse 3Dx, VideoLogic has also introduced a special upgrade program for all existing customers of the original NEC PCX1-based Apocalypse 3D. VideoLogic Systems will offer all registered customers an upgrade path to the new Apocalypse 3Dx pack. The upgrade pack will be available directly from VideoLogic Systems and will contain the two new PowerVR games titles plus a PCX2 based accelerator card. This special Apocalypse 3Dx upgrade pack will be priced at 59.00 pounds (exc. VAT and delivery).

Second Generation NEC PCX2 Processor

The new NEC PCX2 3D graphics accelerator offers significantly better performance than competing products in its price range, outperforming the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics processor by up to 40 percent and the S3 ViRGE processor by 10 to 20 times, according to independent tests using Microsoft Direct3D benchmarks.

The PCX2 enhancements include significant increased performance as a result of integrating floating to fix point formatting and parameter scaling functions into the PCX2 hardware setup. Offloading such processing-intensive tasks from the system CPU enables more processing power to be dedicated to Geometry setup. This performance increase also enables higher frame rates and resolutions, such as 800x600 and 1024x768 in 16-bit and 24-bit color. These features are key elements to more realistic game play with more clearly defined images.

The new PowerVR processor also has other features to improve 3D image and display:

Bilinear and adaptive bilinear filtering eliminates blocky pixels, leading to smoother, more realistic images.
Diterhing from 24-bit, or "true color", to 16-bit color provides the true color look on standard 16-bit PC graphics systems, giving a more photo-realistic image on mainstream PCs.
Compositing 2D and 3D on the PCX2 accelerator significantly reduces system overhead, giving more cycles for 3D polygon processing.

New Games Bundle for Apocalypse 3Dx

The new Apocalypse 3Dx pack has an expanded games bundle, with four full version, PowerVR-designed games, including: WipeOut 2097 from Psygnosis, ULTIM@TE RACE from Kalisto, Resident Evil from Capcom and Mech Warrior 2 from Activision.

All four games are certified according to the new PowerVR Ready Games Program. Resident Evil and ULTIM@TE RACE are certified as PowerVR Extreme games. This is the ultimate PowerVR certification, reserved for games with the highest quality game play and market appeal. Games in this category must achieve a frame rate and resolution of 30 fps at 800x600.

3D Games Available for PowerVR

PowerSGL	D3D
Ultim@te Race, Kalisto Entertainment	Die Hard Trilogy, Fox Interactive
Mech Warrior 2, Activision	Hyperblade, Activision
Bio Hazard/Resident Evil, Capcom	Hellbender, Microsoft Home
Revolte, Virtuality KK	Monster Truck Madness, Microsoft Home
A Train No 5 (Japan), ArtDink	Terracide, Eidos Interactive
Flight Unlimited, Looking Glass Tech.	Descent 2, Interplay
	Independence Day, Fox Interactive
	Dark Rift, Vic Tokai

# # #

VideoLogic, founded in 1985, is a leading international supplier of PC mulimedia products. The company develops highly-integrated advanced multimedia semiconductors, software and multimedia PC add-in cards, with distriubtion in more than 50 countries through OEMs, value added resellers, retail channels and directly from VideoLogic offices. The company has its corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom, its US headquarters in San Bruno, California, and offices in Frankfurt, Germany. VideoLogic has development agreements with Compaq and NEC, and is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (FOOTSY:VDL). Product details, news, technical support and the latest software are all available on the VideoLogic web site at www.videologic.com.

[Homepage] [Back issues] [Feedback]