Flash 3D review
by Adam K. "Kamikazie" kabes@golden.net

As hardware 3D acceleration makes it's way rapidly to the PC, a couple things are clear: There's no universal 3D standard yet in effect, and nevertheless, vendors are working hard to differentiate their cards' capabilities.

Realvision get's off to a good start with it's Flash 3D (F3D), based on 3Dfx interactive's Voodoo chipset. The F3D is a add-on PCI card that works in conjunction with your current 2D card. The F3D comes with 4MB EDO of 40ns RAM, which is faster then any other voodoo card to date. The F3D is used when running your games, and then your 2D card is used for the boring windows stuff (word proccessor's, etc.)

As for the card's 3D performance? Awesome, Exhilerating, Mezmorizing, satisfied? You can't just pop any game in and expect the F3D to make it look amazing, the game has to be written to support Glide, Direct3D, or just Native 3Dfx support. There are already a lot of supporting games, and hundreds more on "the list." When you buy the Flash 3D it comes with a CD, and on there is all the drivers you need (DirectX, GLide, etc.) The card comes with a rather thin manual, it gives you the basic instructions for installing the card itself and the drivers, which is all you really need. The manual also comes with a list of current and upcoming games that will and do support the F3D.

How did the card install?? It was a snap! Without a word of a lie, 15 minutes after the UPS guy handed me the card, I had GLQuake going on my machine! You simply find a free PCI slot on your motherboard, and make sure the card fits in nice and snug , then screw it back in. Then with the included passover cable, connect your 2D card to your 3D card, then your monitor cable attaches to the F3D.

Then you start up your system, windows95 recognizes the card, you install the drivers, re-boot, and voila!

The F3D turns any Pentium-based computer into a super gaming machine! I get constant 50+fps (Frames-Per-Second) in POD, an awesome 37-39fps in GLQuake running at 640x480, at least 35fps in Extreme Assault, about 30-35fps in Shadow's of the empire, and the list goes on and on. Not only are the games speedy, the also look a lot better! The F3D makes everything look smoother, better, and everything is filtered (no "blockiness" or pixelation, just like Nintendo64 Games)There is about 200 or so upcoming games that will support the F3D, and most likely, many more in the future.

The only thing the F3D is lacking is software. There is only 2 demos and a few 3Dfx technology demos included with the card. But if you don't really care about the software bundle, then this is the card for you.

Bottom Line: If your looking for fast 3D graphics at an affordable price, the Flash 3D is for you!

Minimum system requirements:
Pentium(tm) PCI system or compatible (60 Mhz or faster)
CD-ROM drive
8MB of system memory (16MB recommended)
22MB of free hard disk space for drivers (more if you install the demos)
DOS revision 6.22 (or higher), Windows 95 or NT 3.51 (or higher)
An unused PCI-slot

Overall rating: 9 stars out of 10 The only thing that held it back from that perfect score is the software bundle.

RV-Flash 3D http://www.hsdirect.com/flash3d/index.html
Price: $69 American, $99 Canadian (prices may vary overseas)

This review was conducted on:
Intel Pentium 150
16MB EDO RAM
2MB Trident 9680 2D card
Flash 3D

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