The 3D Game News page has another update from Randall (and a copy of this reply below to my concerns on the 565 pixel format issue with the Voodoo3)

The author of the earlier post on Mac Voodoo3 drivers asked his source about my comments on the 565 Pixel format issue (which is still present in the Voodoo3 as I suspected)

"Hi Mike !
Iasked the guy about the Banshee/Voodoo 3 problem :))

A: "This is correct. Banshee and Voodoo3 only understand how to use a 565 RGB desktop display mode, and don't understand how to do a 1555 mode that MacOS expects. However, with some creative CLUT programming, you can effectively get an RGB 455 mode out of it (you lose the lower red bit). This is unfortunate, but at least the mode is mostly usable. The other problem then is that Banshee and Voodoo3 can only do 3D rendering in 565 mode, so you can't really do 3D in a window. (Full-screen 3D is okay though since MacOS isn't allowed to play with the screen in that case, or at least we prevent it from doing so).

If we ever release drivers for Voodoo3, then we will explain this problem to users, as well as the problem with doing 3D in a window. In my case I just run the desktop in 32-bit color anyway, so the thousands problem doesn't really matter to me. However, I would not want people to buy a Voodoo3 and expect it to work as well as it does on a PC, because that would be almost impossible to do. However, if users just wanted a 2D/3D board that was good for fullscreen games and don't mind the thousands problem, then I'd say that Voodoo3 would be an okay board for them."

Q: Are you working on a fix for that problem ? A: "Yes, this will be fixed in the future, but not for Banshee or Voodoo3. That is all I can say right now."
Lolo"

Keith Gugliotto replied to today's reader request for info on beige G3 DVD/Plaintalk compatibility:

"Hey Mike, I own one of the G3/266/DVD boxes so I'm up on what's down...

The DVD Personality card only samples sound input at 44.1KHz, so the hardware was incompatible with PlainTalk before version English Speech Recognition 1.5.4. 1.5.4 doesn't get installed with the MacOS 8.6 update, so your reader needs to download it at http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11400.

As a side note...the MacSpeech iMac PlainTalk Enabler, which was later modified to work with the Blue & Whites [noted on my first B&W G3 info page earlier this year-Mike], also worked for my beige G3/266/DVD when I hacked the extension to look for a machine Gestalt ID of 510 (instead of whatever the iMac's ID is), so whatever the extension patches in the system is the same on all three boxes. "

PowerBook Central has a short review/initial impressions of the 400MHz PB G3.

I just updated the 3D Game News page with info on 3Dfx working on a Mac driver and bios for the Voodoo3 2000 PCI card. My last post on the Voodoo3 was a report that mac specific silicon would not be done until the fall, to address the 565 pixel format issue mentioned in my Q&A with Villagetronic last year on their Banshee card.

Notes from this weekend's testing:

• Contrary to some recent reports of problems burning CDRs with a TurboMax PCI card, I burned a CDROM at 4x speed fine from 550MB of files on an IDE ORB drive connected to the Turbomax in the 9600. Toast 3.5.6 was used, 8MB Cache (Toast) setting, Yamaha 4416S CDR drive as the only external device. 550+ MB CD burned with no errors (never a bad Toast burn yet).

• Intech's SpeedTools works with the IDE ORB drive and was a bit faster according to ATTO Tools tests (11MB/sec reads vs 9.x MB/sec) but writes were still at the 2.5MB/sec rate. The low write speeds are probably due to verification being done on data written to the disk but that's only a guess.

• Intech's Speedtools v2.1B3 (now v2.1.1) driver solved the WD Expert data corruption issue in my first rev B&W G3. ATTO Tools rates were over 15MB/sec sustained on reads and writes, with peaks just over 20MB/sec. The peak rates were lower than DS 1.7.2 with the Turbomax card, but sustained rates were about the same. As reported previously, Drive Setup 1.7.3 failed miserably in that combo. A 31MB SMI file was used to verify data integrity (passed with SpeedTools 2.1b3 and DS 1.6.2). Performance with Drive Setup 1.6.2 was a few MB/sec lower on R/W than SpeedTools. Note they told me they are working on an update to their CDROM SpeedTools that will hopefully have a CVGS fix for the TrueX CDROM drive.

• I tested the IXMicro Game Rocket (3dfx Banshee) for hours in the 66MHz PCI Slot of the B&W G3. So far so good, with good image quality in games and speed that seems as good as the original Rage128 in Quake. A head to head against the Rage128 (old and new) and tests in older Macs will be part of the review. Currently there are no RAVE or OpenGL drivers for the card.

• IDE ORB drive. I've got all the photos and timed/benchmark tests done in the 9600/350. Boot times were slower than the stock HD but which is to be expected I guess from a removable drive connected to a PCI card. The drive seems to go to sleep after several minutes and can make the system unresponsive at times until it spins up. On the PC their tools disk has a utility to set longer spindown delays, but no mac version yet. Not a bad drive but I'd suggest waiting for a SCSI version due to the disk mounting issue when you change cartridges (requiring a reboot or running Drive Setup to mount the new disk). Next tests are in the B&W G3 but note that a reader reported best results using it there with a Turbomax IDE card. The drive seems to prefer (often require) being a Master not slave. I could not get the drive to be recognized when it was a slave to the IDE CDROM as noted by another owner.

Paul J. Taylor wrote with a long series of tips and experiences with USB CDROM recording that I've added to the FAQ CDROM and USB topic areas. Gene Steinberg wrote that the reader question on making bootable CDs with a USB Que! CDR drive is covered on pages 6-5 and 6-50 of the Que drive Manual.

Superscape has a press release on their Interactive 3D e-business workshop at the Internet World show in Chicago on July 22nd.

A reader reports he's still seeing Rage128 problems (lines in the display, loss of video, etc.) even after the Video Update 1.0 and Firmware updates on his new B&W G3. I've had no such problems here but he reported Apple's forums have similar problem reports.

Several readers have asked for info on opening the 64/6500 case. Last night a reader had found the URL to the original reader mail from Sean Fitzpatrick back on December 1997 with the answer. I've added this info into the FAQ How-To topic area and link it on the Systems page to make it easier to find in the future.

Thad Brown sent Issue 43 of our Mac Audio Column covering the latest Audio industry news, MP3.com, comments on Apple's sound support and the G4. The latest issue and links to back issues are always at www.xlr8yourmac.com/audio/

Ryan Tokarek sent an illustrated article on the risky business of Voltage Boosting a G3 CPU. This is the second article on the subject posted here but Ryan provides some photos of the modifications.

A reader from Germany sent pictures of his 'Yosemite' label from the *inside* flap of the box that listed 'speed bump video card' (faster Rage128). His label does not look like any US model B&W box label I've ever seen. He also sent a picture of the new CMD IDE controller chip. Both of these have been added to my new B&W G3 features page.

There was an error in the post on 10X ratio G3 CPUs by Michiro Isobe in the weekend news. The PLL Configuration table is on page 37 (not 33) of the IBM pdf document. As Michiro said, note 6 at the bottom of the table mentions a 10X ratio will be in the next revision of the G3 CPU design. Michiro sent a note later on the typo and commented the same error was seen in posts later at other Japanese sites that apparently had copied the story.

Arno Bosse sent links to G4 CPU news at the register (UK) web site. His links were to large (400KB+) gif file scans (here and here from a data sheet on the 450Mhz G4 (10.5 Million transistors!).

Matt Snider reported the latest beta of SoftRaid solved a problem he had previously with formatting/RAID striping of Quantum Atlas IV drives,

Barney Buoy wrote with the latest in the continuing saga of Kodak CDRs, indicating the latest batch are gold again and seem to work fine in the Yamaha burners that had problems with previous disks. The new disks are called "Gold Ultima".

Andy Watters email at 3:45 AM last night made me realize that I'd missed the 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' movie. I was upstairs working on tests and email and forgot all about the movie. I see its going to be on again at 11PM tonight. Andy's mail had a note on where the protest scene was filmed:

" I just thought I'd point this out- the student protest scene in "Pirates of Silicon Valley" was shot at UCLA's Dickson Plaza, despite the implication that it was at Berkeley. Attached is a frame from the movie clearly showing the Plaza. I know this because I walk through Dickson Plaza all the time and recognized its signature center walkway. The Homebrew Computer club meeting is in Haines Hall room 100- a large lecture hall near Dickson Plaza. I liked the movie's last 30 minutes, but it was slow to start. Wyle turns in a convincing performance as Jobs, in my opinion.
- Andy Watters "

Reader Request: If anyone can answer this one please contact me.

" Mike-
I need some advice. I have a great opportunity to purchase a beige mini-tower G3 DVD-CD-ROM unit to put into my beige 266 desktop cheap. However, upon perusal of the Apple DVD installer read me that came with the 8.5 CD installation disc it states that "PlainTalk speech recognition software is not compatible with the Apple DVD Video and Audio/Video card." Hmmm. Now this installer puts in an older version of the DVD extension to an older version of PlainTalk. The question is: since 8.6 installs a newer version of both the DVD extension and a newer version of PlainTalk, is this compatibility problem a thing of the past or does it still not work?
Matthew "

MacsOnly has some first impressions of Teac's USB Floppy Drive on their front page as well as some info on what's new in Japan.

X Appeal has a mention and link on the final version of OmniWeb, the exclusive web browser for OS X Server.

Excuse any typos in today's news as I'm posting this after another all-nighter overdose of tech support email :-)

If you don't check every day's daily news (updated several times a day normally) you might miss something valuable. Check the summary list below for highlights of the last two days news and the archives page for older new page links. For a blast from the past, read what was on the news page here exactly a year ago.

Other Net News:

• Dueling Chips: AMD names new K7 Chip, delays on Intel's coppermine CPU (News.com)
• Should Security Flaws Be Posted? (ZD/Net)
• What You Must Know About Digital Cameras (ZD/Net)

Weekend News Summary

• 10X ratio G3 CPUs confirmed in IBM Document
• VT MP850/750 Driver Updates Soon?
• RealPC/VPC/Orange Micro CPU cards added to the Game Review options
• Note to AOL users on email links
• Barefeats has more Orion comparisons
• Rate Your Mac Games database entries wanted
• Warning to B&W G3 Buyers on mixed stock in the channel
• QD3D Layoffs at Apple?
• MSNBC confirms Apple PB manager departure
• 10X ratio G3 CPUs tested in Germany
• Comments on IXMicro Game Rocket (3dfx Banshee)
• ATI Video Update 1.0 contained only 3 new extensions
• ORB drive mounting of swapped disks
• Reminder on VT's Glide 1.1 drivers for MP850/750
• BeOS 4.5 available
• 3D Game News updated
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Other Net News Links

Friday's News Summary

• CDW has under $600 PCI Expansion Chassis
• Mactell lowers prices on some G3 CPU upgrades
• OEM Rage128 performance in 9600/350
• New vs Old B&W G3 hard drive brackets
• More IDE ORB Comments
• ZIF Upgrades in a B&W G3
• 3D Game News updated, includes Falcon4/Rage128 tips
• New B&W G3s have taller heatsink fins
• More reader comments on mixed feature B&W G3s
• Tip on how to use Apple's ATI Video Update 1.0 with RagePro PCI Cards
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Other Net News

For other recent site news/features links, see the Sidebar to the right and the Recent Site Features page.

If you own a G3/300 or faster Mac, you might want to get our PPC Checker utility that will report if your CPU is copper or aluminum based.

Considering a G3 Upgrade? Check the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The database is being updated daily for new reports. Also make sure you ask your dealer about any issues with your particular mac model as I have gotten several reports of issues with certain G3 upgrades in some Mac models (Mach 5, PowerBase, 7300). I urge any owners that have had problems to report this via the Survey Form. Always give the most weight to recent owner reports (dated in the listing).