Ho fatto una rapida ricerca e mi sono accorto di aver sbagliato sigla: il primo chip S3 a supportare il triangle setup è stato l'evoluzione del GX2, cioè il Trio3D (GX3).
I dati presi da
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~duane/b0000004.htm sembrano confermare che il Virge originale e le versioni DX/VX/GX/GX2 non supportino in hardware la fase di triangle setup:
- S3 ViRGE
Virtual Graphics Engine. 64bit, 2D + 3D
The ViRGE 64-bit DRAM-based accelerator combines a 135MHz RAMDAC and clock synthesizer with the multimedia capabilities of S3's Trio64V+. Additionally, ViRGE is SVGA-compatible, so as to support legacy DOS applications and games, and provides high-performance 2D GUI acceleration support for resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 x 256 colors at 75Hz. Supports all major 3D APIs, including OpenGL, Microsoft's Direct3D and RealityLab, as well as Argonaut BRender and Criterion Renderware.
- S3 ViRGE/VX
Virtual Graphics Engine. 64bit, 2D + 3D
The ViRGE/VX product offers all of the same features as the DRAM-based ViRGE, but supports VRAM and WindowsRAM (WRAM), and increases the integrated RAMDAC performance level to 220 MHz. Resolutions up to 1600x1200x16 million colors @ 75Hz are supported and higher memory bandwidth is enabled by the block write feature.
- S3 ViRGE/DX and ViRGE/GX
Virtual Graphics Engine. 64bit, 2D + 3D
ViRGE/DX - DRAM support
ViRGE/GX - SDRAM support
Features are SmartFilter technology for higher performance and higher quality texture mapping; and a parallel processing perspective engine for increased throughput. When combined with the following ViRGE capabilities, the ViRGE DX/GX are designed to deliver software and hardware customers with the next level of 3D acceleration for gaming applications:
1. MIP mapping and trilinear filtering to deliver images that are free of annoying visual artifacts such as "sparkle" and "jaggies."
2. Transparency to enable realistic rendering of glass, water and plastic objects.
3. Atmospheric effects such as fog and depth cueing to enable the rendering of real-world environments.
4. Z-buffering to speed the removal of hidden surfaces for improved performance and visual quality.
The ViRGE/DX and ViRGE/GX provide an easy upgrade path from S3's widely accepted ViRGE accelerator.
- S3 ViRGE/GX2
Virtual Graphics Engine. 64bit 2D + 3D
The ViRGE/GX2 accelerator provides support for Intel's AGP standard. Has a full set of 3D rendering features including MIP mapping, trilinear filtering, transparency, atmospheric effects, Z-buffering, and perspective correction of textures.
Qui c'è una discussione sul forum di Beyon3D in cui viene attestato che il ViRGE (non si specifica quale versione) aveva capacità di triangle setup:
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21811
Il problema nel raccogliere informazioni è che si parla di chip così vecchi che non ci sono più le specifiche ufficiali dei produttori...
Altri link interessanti:
http://clonline.infoservizi.it/daniel/chip3di.html
http://graphics.stanford.edu/~bjohanso/descrip.html
http://www.inecs.com/techinfo/svga/3d-gif.htm