G-News

[01/18/2000]
What?
DiabloII.com has posted a news bit. It is so ridiculously ignorant that I allowed myself to copy it and paste it here. Read it yourself.

Macintosh 3D Acceleration Danfell@1/12/00
Recently, there has been some question as to how Blizzard will support 3D acceleration for their Macintosh version of Diablo II. As we all know, the PC version currently supports the Glide and Direct3D APIs. Of the major 3D APIs, Macintosh computers support only OpenGL, as Microsoft has not provided any DirectX support for Macs and just about the only video cards for Macintosh are made by ATI. (However, Macs will have Glide support soon, as 3dfx will be making Mac versions of their Voodoo4/Voodoo5 cards.) Anyway, that left the question as to how, if at all, 3D would be supported by Blizzard.

So I asked Tony Gervase, Blizzard PR Guru, if he could clear up this matter for us and being the good sport that he is, mailed me a prompt, concise reply. It is as follows:

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your email.
Mac Diablo II will support the following modes: Software, OpenGL and Glide.
Take Care,
Tony

Well, that clears that up. Spooky, I've actually got a real name. Shocking isn't it? (If you're wondering how I picked my ingeniously clever handle, I was thinking of a good one in a pinch, tripped, and fell.)

Yeah, and I'm Santa Claus!:)

For those of you who really don't know: Glide was present on the Mac since late 1996/early 1997 when Techworks introduced the Power3D Voodoo1 card. Ever since and up to Voodoo3, all 3Dfx chipset besides VoodooRush have been supported somehow.
Diablo 2 will support OpenGL, Glide and DirectX, as well as a software mode. Since the Mac version will support OpenGL, I doubt that the PC version wil lack this feature, as pointed out by DiabloII.com. I actually heard the PC will support OpenGL on other sites already (was it Blizzard?)...
Please DO NOT flame this guy now, he just didn't know. I have already contacted him and he admitted some absence from Macs for quite a while. He'll ask me next time he is uncertain. Still, this is really goofy:))

[01/18/2000]
85/9500 caution!
xlr8yourmac.com notes that there is a high risk of damaging parts of the motherboard when upgrading 8500/9500 machines with RAM or Cache Modules. Some capacitors seem to be in the way. He points out this issue because you might have to fiddle with the RAM modules when installing a G3 or G4 upgrade card.

[01/18/2000]
Intel's unannounced chips
the register notes that Intel has unconciously released some info on upcoming chips and chipsets on their website. I wonder how happy Intel will be about those news...

[01/18/2000]
Transmeta's announced Crusoe
MacWEEK has first time comprehensive news on what Crusoe actually might be. The chip will feature a new design that allows it to run almost any code through strongly combined work of hardware and software. Even running PPC code should be no problem. But sources indicate that Crusoe is not aiming at chips such as the Pentium, Athlon or PowerPC, but is rather aimed at mobile units and appliances. Therefore rather threatening the StrongARM chip. (as seen in Apple's Newtons for example).

[01/18/2000]
ProFormance and 3D-goggles
MacCentral has a sneak-peak on Formac's developing 3D Goggles technology for their ProFormance3 video card. With OpenGl and Rave support, this card supports two major 3D APIs and performance is fairly good too. And 3D glasses are cool of course. Formac now also offers CPU upgrades and other stuff. Have a read.

[01/18/2000]
Canvas 7 gets Altivec support
MacCentral also notes that Deneba has released a tool for Canvas 7 to support the Velocity engine found in all G4 Powermacs (aka Altivec). Performance boosts of up to 25% can be gained, according to Deneba.

[01/18/2000]
Hot G4 news
MOSR summarizes the rumors and facts on upcoming G4 machines. Next will be a revised Sawtooth G4, with G4 2.8 CPUs and some minor motherboard issues fixed. This might allow for support of ATI's Rage Fury MAXX card and MHz will rise over 500MHz with those machines finally.
Then there are still the Mystic G4s hanging somewhere in the labs which will feature at least dual G4 configurations. Obviously Apple wants to release them together with Mac OS X (to allow for SMP benefits)
And last but not least they also have some news on the next generation UMA2 "Shark" G4. His specs are so f****ng cool that I can only say: read it yourself.

I have summarized the rumors around "Shark" for quite a while now, head over to DreaMaCH for more.