Paradise Tasmania 3D - any info, heard of it
R. G.
I found a reference to this card on the web - Paradise Tasmania
3D, made by Phillip's Electronics.
It's a 3D card add-on card (2meg DRAM, PCI) that adds 3D to you
system without replacing your current 2D card.
The controller chip is a Yamaha RPA2
- see http//:server4.pa.hodes.com/paradise for the info.
Anyone have any experience or knowledge about the card or chip?
Jean Salvati
There is a review of the Tasmania at http://www.dimension3d.com
Best regards,
Jean Salvati
R. G. <graha...@ic.gc.ca> a écrit dans l'article <57ju7n$6...@crc-news.doc.ca>...
Dave Glue
R. G. <graha...@ic.gc.ca> wrote in article
<57ju7n$6...@crc-news.doc.ca>...
> I found a reference to this card on the web - Paradise Tasmania
> 3D, made by Phillip's Electronics.
> It's a 3D card add-on card (2meg DRAM, PCI) that adds 3D to you
> system without replacing your current 2D card.
>
> The controller chip is a Yamaha RPA2
>
> - see http//:server4.pa.hodes.com/paradise for the info.
>
> Anyone have any experience or knowledge about the card or chip?
It's dead. It was released ages ago, got no support, and has no
performance. You may find it at a garage sale near you.
Karl Kilian
In article <57ju7n$6...@crc-news.doc.ca>, "R. G." <graha...@ic.gc.ca> wrote:
>I found a reference to this card on the web - Paradise Tasmania
>3D, made by Phillip's Electronics.
>It's a 3D card add-on card (2meg DRAM, PCI) that adds 3D to you
>system without replacing your current 2D card.
>
>Anyone have any experience or knowledge about the card or chip?
>
Got one "on sale" for $40 -- and it wasn't worth it!
It acts like the current crop (Righteous 3d, etc.) of "add-on" boards, in that
it goes in a PCI slot, you plug the output of your current 2-D card into it
with the provided cable, and plug your monitor into the output of the 3D card.
No need to change the drivers on your 2D card. Switches to 3-D mode when
software calls for it. Okay so far...
There are several BIG problems with it, though:
1) The 3D performance is not good at all! The Yamaha chipset it uses puts out
a MAXIMUM of 300,000 Gourad-shaded polygons per second, compared with
1,000,000+ for any current board. The poor performance really shows in the
provided games, which are pretty low in terms of frame rate.
2) Lacks many of the 3D features found on current boards. No bilinear texture
mapping, for example. So, accelerated games will never look as good on it as
they do on other accelerators.
3) Lack of game support under DOS. It comes with only two games: F/X Fighter
and Tank Commander (note: the former has trouble with some sound cards,
including mine unfortunately, and the latter tends to lock up). Paradise
supposedly added three more games (some MiG-29 sim, etc.) in later packages,
but I never saw 'em. At any rate, none of the "hot" 3D games like Quake
support this card; which wouldn't be so bad, except:
4) No real Direct3D support. Direct3D (DirectX) 2.0's install program never
recognized my card, nor did DirectX 3.0. No drivers are available at their
Web site, either. This, despite a press release that said the card supports
Windows 95 and Direct3D.
5) Little, if any, support. The support website (http://www.paradisemmp.com)
has been "dead" (no updates) for months now. The drivers library (which is
only available from the website, not FTP) has no updates. And, they never
answered any of the email inquiries I sent them.
Insofar as I can tell, Paradise itself is almost dead, inasmuch as it was
purchased by Philips (from Western Digital), but has received little attention
from the parent company. I doubt I'll ever buy another Paradise product. If
I'm lucky, I'll be able to unload the Tasmania 3D on some poor schmuck for $10
at a hamfest or flea market; if not, maybe I'll give it to a friend for
target practice...
Just goes to show... you really do [don't] get what you (don't) pay for.
Karl
P.S. -- All I want is a single video card with great 2D acceleration, hot 3D
rendering (fullscreen OR windowed) at 30+FPS with all the bells-and-whistles,
lots of bundled games, real Direct3D support, all for $250 or less. Is that
***really*** too much to ask for???
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Karl ("Mad Dog") Kilian | Web: http://online.dct.com/~kkilian/
kki...@online.dct.com | BBS: The UPS Depot, 414-339-9377
mad...@depot.netnet.net | or telnet to depot.netnet.net
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