Copyright: Copyright (c) August 1998 Creative Technology Ltd.
Citation: Copyright (c) August 1998 Creative Technology Ltd.  Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT Help version 1.00.


Introduction

Congratulations on your decision to buy Graphics Blaster(TM) RIVA TNT(TM).

Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT offers industry-leading 2D and 3D performance, meeting all the requirements of the mainstream PC graphics market and Microsoft’s PC’98 and DirectX 6.0 initiatives.  Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT delivers the industry’s fastest Direct3D(TM) acceleration solution and also delivers leadership VGA, 2D and video performance, enabling a range of applications from 3D games to DVD and video conferencing.

Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT is the first integrated, 128-bit 3D processor that processes 2 pixels per-clock-cycle, thereby enabling single-pass multi-texturing and delivering a mind-blowing 190 million pixels-per-second fill rate.  Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT’s (twin-texel) 32-bit color pipeline, 24-bit Z, 8-bit stencil buffer and per-pixel precision delivers unsurpassed quality and performance allowing developers to write standards-based applications with stunning visual effects and realism.

To help you get the most out of your graphics card, your computer and your monitor, we include three user-friendly utilities, Creative BlasterControl, Sonnetech 3Deep, and Sonnetech Colorific.

Notes

To find out more information and instructions on how to use Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT, read this online Help.

For more information on the graphics features and software support, see the Related Topics below.

For more information on how to use Creative BlasterControl and Creative SoftMPEG, read the topics under their respective help files.

Creative SoftMPEG is available only for Windows 95 and Windows 98.

  Related Topics


To specify performance settings for Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT

1	Right-click your desktop, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu.

2	In the Display Properties dialog box, click the BlasterControl tab.

3	On the BlasterControl tabbed page, click the Tweak icon.

4	In the Tweak module, select the desired settings.

5	To specify additional settings for Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT, click the Advanced Settings button.

6	To reset all the options to their default settings, click the Restore Defaults button.
Otherwise, click the OK button.

Tip

To display a brief description of an option or a check box in the BlasterControl Tweak module, right-click the item, and then click What's This.


3D Features

Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT has a rich list of three-dimensional features including:

Texture mapping
Adds realistic textures to the 3D objects and environments in your games and renderings.

Anisotropic filtering
Smoothens out the "blockiness" of textures.

Perspective correction
Reduces any distortion on the textured objects and environment.

Fogging
Creates more natural atmosphere by blending objects into environment.

Anti-aliasing
Smoothens out jagged edges of diagonal and curved lines.


Software Support

Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT supports the following:

DirectDraw and Direct3D drivers
With these drivers, you can enjoy the new wave of 3D and 2D games designed for Windows in high-quality display and speed.


2D Graphics and Windows Support

Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT accelerates your 2D graphics in Windows and also supports the following:

MPEG-1 video playback and assisted MPEG-2 decoding
MPEG-1 is the standard for Video CD playback.

Color space conversion and filtered image scaling
Smoothens out full-screen video display and any jitters in high-frame video playback.

Note

Refer to your Installation Guide for a list of display resolutions and refresh rates.


Glossary

Anti-aliasing

Direct3D

DirectDraw

DirectX

Texel

Texture Anti-Aliasing

Texture Mapping


Anti-aliasing

Removes the appearance of jagged edges on diagonal and curved lines by cleaning and smoothing out abrupt and jagged changes in a picture. There are other forms of anti-aliasing such as texture anti-aliasing.


Direct3D

An Application Programming Interface (API) for manipulating and displaying three-dimensional (3D) objects developed by Microsoft. Direct3D allows 3D applications and games to use whatever graphics acceleration card is installed in the system. Most 3D accelerator cards for computers in the market, such as Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT, support Direct3D.


DirectDraw

A software interface standard for transferring video processing from a computer's central processing unit (CPU) to the video adapter. The standard was first developed by Intel and was called the Display Control Interface (DCI). DCI is now supported by Microsoft with the name DirectDraw as a registered trademark. DirectDraw can also provide applications, such as games, with direct access to the features of a particular display adapter.


DirectX

A set of Application Programming Interface (API) developed by Microsoft that enables programmers to write programs that provide access to the hardware features of a computer without knowing exactly what hardware will be installed on the computer.

DirectX achieves this by creating an intermediate layer that translates generic hardware commands into specific commands for particular pieces of hardware. In particular, DirectX lets the multimedia applications take advantage of hardware acceleration features supported by graphics accelerators. Some of DirectX components include DirectDraw and Direct3D.


Texel

A colored dot in a texture map. Texture mapping operates by assigning texels to the corresponding pixels of an object.


Texture Anti-Aliasing

If a pixel is in between texels, the texture anti-aliasing colors the pixel with an average of the texels' colors instead of assigning it the exact color of one single texel. Without this form of anti-aliasing, the texture appears very "blocky" when viewed close up. Texture anti-aliasing is also known as bilinear filtering or sub-pixel positioning.


Texture Mapping

Takes a bitmapped image, for example, like a brick surface or the wood grain surface, and maps them into a 3-dimensional surface. This makes the object look more realistic.


Restores all settings to their default values.

Tip: Clicking the OK or Apply button immediately after clicking this button clears all changes to settings made by BlasterControl Tweak, thereby forcing the display drivers to use their default settings.


This option is used to turn fog table emulation on or off.  Direct3D specifics that a display adapter capable of D3D hardware acceleration should be able to implement either vertex fog or table fog.  Some games do not correctly query the D3D hardware capabilities and expect table fog support.  Choosing this option will ensure that such games can be run with Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT.

Fog table emulation is enabled by default.


Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT automatically generates mipmaps to increase the efficiency of texture transfers across the bus.  Some games do not display correctly with the default settings.  To correct any problems, reduce the number of automatically generated mip maps until the game’s images are properly displayed.  Reducing the number of mipmap levels can often eliminate texture misalignment or “seaming” (at the expense of some performance).


This allows Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT to utilize up to the specified amount of system memory for texture storage (in addition to the memory installed on the display adapter itself).

Note: For performance reasons, this utility will not allow you to set the value to more than one half of the available system memory as reported by Windows.


A list of the custom Direct3D settings (or “tweaks”) you have saved.  Selecting an item from the list will activate the setting.  To apply the setting, click the OK or Apply button.


Lets you save the current Direct3D settings (including those set in the Advanced Settings dialog box) as a custom “tweak”.  Saved settings will then be added to the adjacent list.

Once you have found the optimal settings for a particular Direct3D game, saving the settings as a custom tweak allows you to quickly configure Direct3D before starting the game and eliminates the need to set each of the options individually.


Deletes the custom setting currently selected in the list.


Displays a dialog which allows you to customize advanced settings for Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT.


The memory wait state is the delay between two consecutive memory fetches.  If you select this checkbox, the wait state will be shortened to accelerate the performance speed of Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT.


Move this slider to adjust the speed of the SDRAM memory chips on Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT.


These options allow you to control the anti-aliasing features of the drivers.  Anti-aliasing is a method used to smooth edges of 3D objects to eliminate jagged appearance.  Note that enabling anti-aliasing will not automatically cause all Direct3D programs to render anti-aliased images.  Anti-aliasing must be supported by the application in order for it to work properly.

You can select from the following options:

Enabled: Enables Direct3D support for anti-aliasing in the drivers.  This is the default setting.

Disabled: Disables all anti-aliasing support.


If you select this check box, Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT will wait for the screen to refresh before drawing the next frame.


Allows you to adjust the image quality of textures displayed in OpenGL applications.

If you want textures to be rendered with the highest image quality available for the best appearance, select Optimize For Best Image Quality.

If you want textures to be rendered with reduced image quality to improve application performance, select Optimize For Best Performance.

If you want to use a combination of the above two features, select Blend.  This is the default setting.


Allows you to specify the maximum size of the PCI texture map.

Increasing this value on PCI systems with sufficient memory may significantly improve the performance of some OpenGL applications.

Note: For performance reasons, this utility will not allow you to set the value to more than one half of the available system memory as reported by Windows.

This setting has no effect on systems equipped with an AGP display adapter.