2001.03.09, Speed Test: SMTerrain, Individual triangles vs. Tristrips

Machine: single P3 @ 800 MHz, 512 MB SDRAM, 133 MHz bus
Card: GeForce 2 GTS with 64MB
Enviro Hawai`i demo as of 2001.01 distribution
Configuration: release mode, 4K*4K terrain, 2K*2K texture, SMTerrain, no culture, no ocean, no sky
Display: 32-bit, 800*600 window

Style vp1 vp2 vp3 vp4 vp5 vp6
individual triangle 27.7 30 28.5 31.6 32.2 27.6
triangle strips (fans), average length ~3 31 35 32 37 37 30.5
improvement 12% 16% 12% 17% 14% 10%

2000.08.11, Speed Tests: GeForce2 vs. Intense3D

Machine: single P3 @ 600 MHz, 256 MB RDRAM, 133Mhz bus
Card 1: NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS, with 64MB
Card 2: Intense3d Wildcat 4110
Enviro Hawai`i demo as of 2000.04 distribution
Configuration: release mode, 4K*4K terrain, 4*4@1K*1K texture, SMTerrain, full culture
Display: 1280x1024@32-bit, windowed

Card vp1 vp2 (buildings) vp3 (roads) vp4 vp5 vp6 (trees) average
GF2 22.2 1.80 6.48 10.6 24.2 4.15 11.6
4110 19.9 2.84 7.50 11.3 19.7 4.59 11.0

Conclusions: The Wildcat did significantly better on scenes with more triangles and more state changes (roads, trees, buildings).  The GeForce did better on the less complex scenes (vp1, vp5).  Roughly it's a draw.  Should test again with a faster CPU to reduce system impact.

2000.03.02, Speed Tests: Quadro vs. Oxygen GVX1 vs. E&S Tornado

Machine: Micron Millennia w/single P3 @ 667 MHz, 384 MB DDR SDRAM
Card 1: ELSA GLoria II (nVidia Quadro, a GeForce with 64MB and an ELSA driver)
Card 2: 3dlabs Oxygen GVX1
Card 3: E&S Tornado (RealImage 3000)
Enviro as of 00.03.02, configuration: release mode, 4K*4K terrain, 4*4@512*512 texture, SM terrain, 10000 triangle target, average of 6 viewpoint

Culture Quadro GVX1 Tornado
Y 47 44 31
N 63 55 40

Conclusions: The more expensive cards ran slower.

2000.01.12, Speed Tests with Large Textures: GeForce vs. Quadro

Machine: Micron Millennia w/single P3 @ 667 MHz, 384 MB DDR SDRAM
Card 1: stock GeForce included with the Micron
Card 2: ELSA GLoria II (nVidia Quadro, a GeForce with 64MB and an ELSA driver)
Enviro as of 99.12.29, configuration: release mode, 1K*1K terrain, 4*4@1K*1K texture, LK algo, 2 pixels error, viewpoint 4

MipMap Texels plain GeForce GLoria II with
32-bit display		 GLoria II with
16-bit display
N 24-bit 1.90 1.63 46
Y 24-bit 1.38 1.21 46
N 16-bit 3.35 46 46
Y 16-bit 2.60 46 46

Conclusion:

  1. Framerates are abysmal if the entire texture map does not fit into the card's RAM.  This is made even worse by Mipmapped textures.  A 4K * 4K texture consumes 48MB w/24 bit texels, and 32MB w/16-bit texels.  Neither fit in the stock GeForce, and only the 16-bit texture map fit in the Quadro's 64MB RAM.
  2. When the display was set to 16-bit, the Quadro apparently forces all texture maps down to 16-bit.
  3. When the texture did not fit in the card's RAM, the Quadro produced an even worse framerate than the stock GeForce.

Comparison to some other virtual terrain projects, as of 1999

  current Hawai`i project MetaVR database built by the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization SGI's Yosemite demo RIVA parallel
rendering, Death Valley
Land area 130 * 150 km 71 * 54 km ~16 * 16 km? 513 * 292 km
Terrain resolution 10 to 60 meters 30 to 480 meters 30 meters 30 meters
Texture resolution 16 to 32 meters (SPOT) 5 to 40 meters 0.5 meter (aerial) 30 meters (LandSat)
Total texture database 64 MB (560 potential) 1.4 GB around 3 GB around 500 MB
Trees around 30,000 - 100,000 2.2 million none none