First available: ~Mid June 1996 (This was the first 3D version to be released and alsi appears to be [by far] the most highly produced. The Rage version was first previewed to the public in May of 1996 at the E3 Show in Los Angeles.) Format: Win95 PC Minimum System Requirements: Pentium 100MHz Processor, 12mb RAM, 256 color SVGA, PCI video, 58mb of uncompressed hard disk drive space, 2x CD-ROM, mouse, Win95, & an ATI RAGE video card. 3D API: 'C' interface for 3D Rage (CIF)
Video cards
the ATI 3D Rage edition was bundled with:
1) 3D Xpression 2) 3D
Xpression+ 3) 3D
Xpression+ PC2TV 4)
All-In-Wonder 5) 3D Charger
(mainly for OEM overseas) Desktop systems the ATI 3D Rage edition was bundled with: 1) Sony VAIO PCV 90
(P200 w/ 2mb ATI Rage [II?] card ) 2) IBM
Aptiva Stealth Series: S64 (P166), S66
(P166), S74 (P200), & S78
(P200) 3) NEC
PowerPlayer 2020 (P200 w/ a 2mb ATI Xpression+
card) 4) Viglen
Awesome PC's (w/ ATI 3D Xpression+ or ATI 3D Charger cards) 5) Toshiba Infinia 7202 (P200 w/ 2mb ATI
Rage II+ card) 6) Probably several others as well, due to the ATI's OEM volume. Labeled as: "ATI 3D Rage Edition" + additional text for desktop system versions. Full Installation Size: 130 mb Resolutions: 538x384. I occasionally came across a post in Usenet over the years that indicated that there might be two different versions, one with higher resolutions, but everytime I looked into this it would end up being the same 512x384 version. The versions I have offer no option for resolution change on the "Combat Variables" menu in the shell (like the S3 ViRGE version) nor on the "Main Options" screen in the sim under "Graphics". The following ATI tech bulletin seems to verify this. In-Game Graphics Options: 1. Monitor Brightness 2. Textured Sky: Turns on/off the texture mapped graphics of the sky. 3. Textured Ground: Turns on/off the texture mapped ground. 4. Filter Textures: This option filters out the texture mapping of objects in the distance, smoothing them and creating a more realistic image. Performance/Appearance: When this version was first released, there was a lot of praise for its appearance, but also a bit of criticism for its slow frame rate. This criticism seemed to mainly come from P100's and PC133's, and while those systems met or exceeded the games stated requirements, a P166 with 24mb (or more) would have been more realistic. The problem was that the 3D performance of the Rage and Rage II series was being pushed beyond their limits, trying to run an open environment SIM with texture mapping and a high (for the time) polygon count. Moving forward to present day, the 512x384 resolution leaves something to be desired on a large screen monitors, but can be a nice option for MW2 fans with an ATI Rage Pro powered PII 266MHz [or higher] laptop/notebook (the Rage II would run it, but the performance probably would not be acceptable on a laptop). My brother has run this version on his Dell PIII 366MHz Inspiron laptop (w/ an 8mb ATI Rage Pro AGP videocard) and it runs smoothly. Unfortunately, his mech kept bouncing up and down in Netmech and we could never figure the cause for that, so multiplayer was useless on his system. (If you have experienced this and have any info on how to fix it, please let me know!). I need to check with First of One for his opinion on this... From the little I have seen of Rage Netmech, I'm guessing that this would not have been a viable league platform at the time it was being put out (1996-97) and not until later, when used with a Rage Pro (or maybe a Rage II on a PII 266 or higher) would have it yeilded acceptable performance to have a high enough fps. Hopefully I'll have some more input on this soon. Videocard Compatibility: According to ATI ,"The ATI3DCIF.DLL is supported by ATI's ATI 3D RAGE I, 3D RAGE II, 3D RAGE II+, 3D RAGE IIc, 3D RAGE PRO, and 3D RAGE LT PRO based products." This should include any of the laptop/notebook videocards based on these chipsets as well, as long as they have the correct ATI drivers installed, so that the ATI3DCIF.DLL file is present. Products based on the Rage 128 and beyond are not compatible, though the right person probably could probably create a 3D CIF wrapper/translator pretty easily, by translating the 3D calls into OpenGL or D3D. This has yet to happen and at this point it is very unlikely to ever happen. OS Compatibility: All the MW2 Win95 based versions only seem to install and/or run correctly (or run period) on Win9x based systems. As for hardware, it is very unlike that an ATI3DCIF.DLL driver is available for anything beyond Win9x and [maybe] NT. Basically, you're going to need a Win9x partition for OS and driver compatibility for the 3D Enahnced versions of MW2. Tweaking: The ATI, Matrox & S3 cards are much more limited than the 3Dfx and PowerVR cards when it comes to variable tweaking, but there are some utilities available that may help. I've never seen a listing of ATI3DCIF specific variables or how they can be adjusted via the registry, autoexec.bat,or other convential method. ATI was pretty secretive with their native, so I guess that's not much of a surprise. There are some chipset specific tweakers, such as the Rage II Tweaker and Rage Pro Tweaker, both which can still be found at many file download sites. Additionally, Entech's Powerstrip is an excellent utility that not only allows you to overclock, but also adjust many other video features. ATI Rage support sites: I recommend the forums @ Rage3D or Rage Underground Netmech: I've only seen Rage Netmech when I was trying to get it to work on my bro's notebook, so my experience with it is very limited. First of One may be able to offer some insight, so I'll have to bug him about this issue at some point. Cheats: The Cheat codes are the same as the regular Win95/Pentium version, though I don't believe the "bounding spheres" works on these versions. Bugs: The music track resets when you go into the Game Options menu and then reenter into the SIM. Apparently the torso twist is not a full 180 degrees. I haven't been able test the armor bug on this one. Misc. Notes: One small difference from the other enhanced versions is that the ATI Rage edition had both color and B&W CD case booklets. Activision 3D artist J.J. Franzen posted some of the first ever MW2 3D screenshots [using of the 3D Rage version] in late April of 1996 in the alt.games.mechwarrior2 newsgroup. ATI Screenshot Gallery: First of One has a nice ATI Rage gallery w/ commentary at the MechWarrior 2 Arena
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