XGI has strived to set the Volari 8300 apart from any card in its price range, and many cards considerably more expensive, by including various video enhancing features that are usually only available in high-end competing products. As a result, the Volari 8300 includes embedded hardware features which are not present in competing products, such as high quality scaling, 3:2 pull-down correction and inverse telecine.

Volari 8300 runs at 300 MHz with its memory running at 600 MHz using a 64-bit interface, just like the Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory and many versions of the GeForce 6200 TurboCache.

Below are some pictures taken from our board sample. This engineering sample uses a “normal-sized” PCB and comes with a small cooling system whereas the final version is expected to be entirely fanless and in low profile format (half the size).
Main features of the Volari 8300

- TruShader™ SE Graphics Engine

According to the specifications, the chip features two pixel pipelines (2×2 configuration) each with 8 texel samples, 4 Pixel Shaders units, 2 vertex units and 8 depth/stencil outputs. The Volari 8300 graphics processor supports extended DirectX 9.0 specifications with features such as MET/MRT, up to FP32 texture formats, non power of 2 textures and 8Kx8K texture size support.

Interestingly, the TruShader engine works with 32-bit precision throughout the pipeline thanks to its hardware 32 bit floating color buffer and support for 32 bit floating texture formats. This becomes especially important when we start using effects such as subsurface scattering, soft shadows and global illumination since developers can now apply more translucent effects.

- TrueVideo Engine

XGI has strived to enhance video playback quality for a cinematic home entertainment experience. The Volari 8300 has an integrated hardware video processor, the TrueVideo engine, with native support for the following features in hardware:

• State-of-the-art pixel based motion and edge adaptive de-interlace (5 Field-based Motion & Edge Adaptive)
• Inverse 3:2 pull down
• Adaptive edge smoothing
• Overdrive technology for Ultra Clear TFT LCD image quality
• HDTV resolution up to 1280x720p
• Provides cubical interpolation with edge recovery
• Hardware Motion Compensation and IDCT
• 10 bit high precision gamma correction

The Volari 8300 uses a third generation advanced de-interlacing (five field based motion and edge adaptive de-interlacing). Edge enhancement improvement is supported, and is 7×2 pixel window based. Basically, all these features make videos look much sharper, clearer, without any jagged lines, and produce a better quality image.

As for outputs, the Volari 8300 supports a wide array of options ranging from the traditional S-Video to HDTV resolutions up to 720P/1080i. It is important to point out that the Volari 8300 can support multiple displays at the same time. Yes, you read that right, it is possible to connect up to three displays (two computer monitors and a television) at the same time!

- CoolPower II Management

CoolPower is XGI’s unique power management technology originating from their partnership with top OEM notebook customers and significantly reduces both active and standby power consumption.

CoolPower employs a combination of software and hardware techniques which permit the end-user to select either highest performance or longest battery life while running their applications of interest. Below are the main features of the CoolPower technology :

• Unified software & hardware architecture for power management
• Dynamic clock gating, frequency scaling, work load balancing
• Supports INTEL-defined Device Performance States (DPS)
• Supports PCI Express Active State Power Management (ASPM)
• Optional battery optimizer under user control

Video playback

As we mentionned previously, the 8300 is not meant to be a card for gaming, it is rather designed to provide high quality HD playback. As a result, the quality of the TV output is one of the 8300′s strong points, and the card supports HDTV outputs 720P and 1080i. Needless to say that the 8300 can also output through the “ordinary” S-Video/Composite cables.

XGI took great care to make sure that the 8300 offers the best video playback quality, and they did so by implementing into the hardware interesting new features that you don’t see in competing cards (actually, as far as I can tell, XGI is the only existing card to use a 5-field based motion and edge adaptive de-interlacing).

These fuzzy lines appear in videos with objects in motion. However, the Volari 8300 takes care of these lines and makes the edges clearer and more pleasant to see

On the Faroudja demo disc, the 8300 produced outstanding high-definition pictures : the waving flag’s stripes are very smooth and clear. I was also impressed with the red stripes’ accurate crimson quality and the absence of “jaggies”, a far cry from the “blurrish” edges produced by other video cards.

As for CPU utilization while viewing videos on the 8300, it usually ranges from 0 to 4% for DVD movies and 7 to 15% with high definition movies in the WMV9 format.

XGI’s deinterlacing technique does not require any special software or anything, it works out of the box with any media player, be it Power DVD, Win DVD, Zoom Player, etc. All you need to do is make sure you enable “Hardware video acceleration” in your media player.

Final thoughts

The Volari 8300 is a very interesting piece of hardware for the value market. It may not be the fastest mainstream card available, but then again it does not make much sense to look for the “fastest card” when looking at entry level cards. Talking about pricing, XGI suggested price for this product is only USD 49.95, below the current market price of both the Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory and the GeForce 6200 TurboCache. The Volari 8300 performance is good, and is more on less on par with the X300 SE.

A point which is very important is image quality, and the Volari 8300 did not disappoint. Image quality is excellent, 2D and videos are surprisingly clear and sharp even in high resolutions, better (clearer and crispier) than the X300 SE in my opinion.

Video playblack certainly is one of the strong points of the Volari 8300, not to mention it has an ace up its sleeve which makes it a very tempting option for home theater PCs : the TrueVideo engine for hardware accelerated video enhancement. The video quality obtained is impressive, making the card ideally fitted for home cinema PCs. The card also provides native support for HDTV content up to 1280x720p. The home theater crowd will certainly benefit from the 8300′s video engine.

In comparison, neither ATI nor nVidia offers such video enhancements in their entry level product, leaving the 8300 without any competitor. Radeon X300 doesn’t have this feature at all, only the new Radeon X1300 (but this video card is in the $100 USD range, double the price of the 8300) and upwards have these important features. The Geforce 6200 has some of these features, but it lacks features like 3:2 Pulldown bad-edit correction and Inverse Telecine. More importantly, to enable support for video enhancements on the Geforce 6200, you need to buy a decoder software from nVidia that costs between USD 19.95 and USD 49.95, depending on the version.

At the end of the day, XGI has produced a very capable and competitive value offering in the Volari 8300. It may not be the fastest low-end gamer on the block, but is certainly the only one that will offer the best video image quality and HDTV display right out of the box.

This interview was conducted through telephone by KillBill.

Q. Hi Jeryuan, how are things going?

A. Very good and very busy. How are you, KillBill?

Q. Great, thanks. I have some questions to ask about XGI.

A. I will answer them the best I can.

Q. Are you satisfied with the acceptance of the Volari cards in the market place?

A. First of all, I have to say that I’m not too sure about the exact numbers; however XGI holds 1.8% of the market place in VGA and around 5-7% in the targeted areas. Our target is to reach 10% in 2006 with the entry level VGA cards.

Q. How many cards does XGI produce monthly?

A. I cannot reply at this time.

Q. Why was Europe targeted first for the V8 Duo release in 2003 but left out in 2005 with the release of the 8300 VGA?

A. We released the most suitable product for that part of the world first. For the 8300 we chose to launch in China first as we believe this card is best suited to the Chinese market. Then we will move on to Eastern Europe, Middle East, South Asia and North America and Europe afterwards. It will be up to the distributors to further release in the areas not considered as strong.

Q. Can you explain to us what kind of relations XGI has with SiS?

A. They are one of our biggest investors and we have their old 3D team here at XGI. (Are you going to ask about IGPUs?)

Q. No I will leave that subject to another date ….laugh

A. …..laughs

Q. What do u think about your competition?

A. Both ATI and NVIDIA are very strong – They have occupied the market for a very long time. XGI looks at their products and does something different than what they offer. ATI had a very good launch with there latest GPU – its benchmarks were great but in gaming we believe it’s a different story for this product. You will see more competition from XGI in 2006 with our entry level cards as we are focusing on low power – low heat consumption VGAs – we know the strengths of XGI and we release new products every year after 2005.

Q. We have seen both Power color and Abit cards based on your GPUs which are not common in the market place. Can u tell us about your relations with 3rd party manufacturers?

A. We are engaged in talks with some of the top VGA makers in Taiwan. It has been hard as most have very close relations with ATI and NV as well as Intel. At this point of time ChainTech is our major partner. XGI is still in contact with Abit and Power Color for the 8300.

Q.The V3 (XP5) has Anisotropic filtering up to x 8 and is considered the one of the best Volari cards (without user errors) to hit the market. Will XGI ever deliver extra advance settings for this GPU as the public has asked for over a year (and beta testers) for more options but XGI has failed to deliver considering the drivers for it have improved more so then the XG40.

A. This is the first time I have heard about this?

Q. I’ve emailed XGI many times asking for new features by public request only to be let down time and time again.

A. XGI’s first role for the V3 (XP5) is to have the most stable driver suport – We are currently considering more options in future driver release. So yes there will be more options.

Q. Some samples of the 8300 used Hynix 2.8ns GDDR ram – Rumer has it XGI will use Samsung 5ns DDR SD DRAM? – why isn’t XGI adopting DDR2 or GDDR3 Ram to its new products as the price is very competitive and costs less than DDR. Many including myself believe that DDR is a thing of the past and is out-dated. Why take a step backwards?

A. The 8300 could have been launched in 2003 or 2004 but we held back due to our new technology and the change in architecture of the card to enable newer Ram models to be placed on the PCB in a stable working environment with the GPU. We used DDR for its low cost and power consumption. We are working on bringing GDDR 3 and GDDR 4 to our new VGA cards.

As for the 8300 it will be up to XGI partners on what Ram they will improvise on their XGI cards.

Q. What was the main cause of postponing your next generation products?

A. As your know XGI did not show any new products for over a year (2004-05). Our strategy is different to what is was back in Sept 2003. We had a new product (8300) that is based on Low power and heat consumption – We needed to test it and iron out any faults and make sure its Driver software was very stable.
We tested over 300 products and over 200 games with the 8300 before we released it in China and will further develop this product.

Q. Can you tell us about the availability and pricing of your latest cards worldwide.

A. For some areas it has been difficult for XGI to get a distributor. So China is first followed by East Asia then the Middle East and North America and Europe.

By the release of the XG50 we will see it in almost every country around the world.

Q. Is it true that the 8600 (XG45) has been replaced with the XG50 also known as the 8900? And it may not be released at all into the market place?

A. First of all the 8600 had a architect design change for the use of 296-bit (I don’t know what this meant) and GDD3-4 Ram. The GPU went from 130mm design to .90mm design and will be on the market in the 3rd quarter of 2006.

Q. Do you play 3D games and if so, which games do you play ?

A. I play Half Life 2 – it’s very ATI based, I have noticed, but other then that I’m a console guy! I like baseball games and follow the Major League so yeah give me a BaseBall title any time!!!! Or any sport game.

Q. Do you have anything you wish to add?

A. Yes – We have some great news. The XG60 design is done and will follow up soon after the release of the 8600 cards. It has 16 true pipes and will use GDDR 4 Ram, expect to see it in the 1st Quarter of 2007.

Well, it looks like Zuxxez / Reality Pump had the same idea in mind when developing their latest real-time strategy game, EARTH 2160. To set the record straight, Earth 2160 is the official sequel of the fairly popular Earth 2140 and Earth 2150 series.

With its massive tech tree, rich story line, customizable armies and awesome 3D eye candy, Earth 2160 looks set to be one of the year’s best RTS titles. Could it be that the new King of Real Time Strategy is finally arriving?
Well, let’s start from the beginning. Earth 2160′s plot starts off after where Earth 2150 left us: only a few thousand humans managed to escape from the Earth before its collapse in 2150 A.D. They then spent the next few years building up their civilization on Mars and conquering new planets (therefore, the game is no long based on planet Earth…).

Each of the three human factions “Eurasian Dynasty”, “United Civilised States” and “Lunar Corporation” did this independently and separately from each other, resulting in them having different basic technologies and abilities.

The fourth and last group is, as you may have already guessed, the Aliens who are seeking to take revenge on all of the non-Martian inhabitants occupying their planet. Needless to say that it is up to the player to take control of a faction and to become the sole ruler of Mars, if possible.

At first, the basic gameplay may seem to be the same as most real time strategy titles: collect the 3 main material types (water, metal and silicon), build the biggest army possible and send them off to the enemy’s camp. However each faction has technological differences which add a twist to the game by providing very different game styles.

For instance, the Lunar Corporation’s buildings are built one on top of the other, similar to a skyscraper, whereas the Eurasian Dynasty’s base is a large building comprising of smaller variable parts. In other words, you will have to plan your defence and attack strategies accordingly.

Regarding unit types, they are virtually unlimited as units are customisable. Each unit can be created by a mix and match of various modular parts such as chassis, armour, engine, boosters, cannons and shields. All this certainly adds a much appreciated variety to the battles. Best of all, designs can be saved and used both in the single player mode and online.

There are also a dozen hero characters, called virtual agents, with special abilities (help with research, unit commands, increasing mining efficiency, spying out enemies, stealing technology, etc.) that can be hired. Hiring agents is done during an auction where different players can make their bids for the desired agent. This opens the door to multiple opportunities, such as the ability to economically defeat an opponent by raising the price of the agent he strongly wants to hire.

In terms of visuals, Earth 2160 deserves praising all the way. As surprising as it may seem, the impressive cut scenes are actually displayed by the game engine and rendered in real time. It is obvious that the developers tried very hard to create an RTS game that can compete with the latest first-person shooters in terms of eye candy – needless to say that this game will certainly push your hardware to the limit. Magnificent water effects, great looking explosions and gunfire, top-notch zoom modes, and detailed environments make this game a real joy to look at. In fact, per-pixel shading has been so extensively used in the game that the windows of your buildings will dynamically reflect the sky and you can even view the passing clouds roll over the beautiful landscape.

The downside is that depending on your hardware, you may have to lower the graphics settings in order to have an acceptable framerate. That said, even with the lowest graphics details, the game looks astonishing with very detailed and sharp textures and great lighting effects. It is impressive to see the level of detail the developers managed to squeeze into the game even on low end systems.

If you have a high end system, get ready for a visual treat as the game supports the latest graphic technologies (such as Shader Model 3.0), so if you own such a card (Geforce 6 or higher) or are planning to get a next-generation hardware (such as XGI’s upcoming Volari 8600), the game will look even more spectacular, making the whole thing almost look like a “playable technological demo”.

The sound effects are very good and the soundtrack is catchy and truly immerse you into the action of the game. The control system is very simple to use thanks to the use of simple keyboard combinations.

To sum up, Earth 2160 is shaping up to be an excellent real-time strategy game that any RTS fan should definitely look at. It is already distributed in Germany by Zuxxez Entertainment and getting rave reviews from both Germany’s online and paper press.

It certainly looks like the new King of Real Time Strategy has arrived.

Gameplay 92
Graphics 94
Sound 92
Impression 93
Final Score 93

Since XGI launched its own branded graphics processors in last year September, XGI has established a well structured distribution plans in just six months. Major well-known partners in various regions included ASK Corporation in Japan, EagleTEC Trading in Europe, D&H Distribution and ASI Corporation in US. Furthermore, XGI’s graphics chips have already been adopted by manufacturers such as Dell, ECS, Chaintech, Club 3D and Link King Electronics Ltd.

Enter the Volari 8300 : More Power for the Value Market

XGI’s current solution for the value market, the V3XT, boasted pretty advanced technical specifications, such as full DirectX 9 support, low power consumption, a fanless card design and YPbPr (HDTV) signal output format support, making it an excellent solution for multi-functional multimedia PCs and home entertainment systems.

The Volari 8300 is XGI’s PCI-Express solution for the Value market and boasts a number of attractive features going beyond competing solutions. We will discuss them more in detail in this preview, however I would like to present first the main technical specifications of the new Volari 8300 :

• Performance 3D graphics solution for low-power PC
• Native PCI Express Interface
• Up to 300MHz engine and 350MHz memory clock
• 2×2 pixel pipelines, 4 independent Pixel Shaders and 8 depth/stencil pipelines
• 2 vertex processors
• Shader Model 2.0 support
• Texture size up to 8Kx8K and non-power of 2
• Bi-linear, tri-linear and anisotropic texture filtering
• High order texture filtering up to 8×8 kernel
• Linear sRGB color format
• MET and MRT
• Floating color buffer (up to 32 bit)
• Floating texture formats (up to 32 bit)
• Full anti-aliasing support for texts, lines, scenes
• Special multi-resolution depth buffer
• Special hardware bandwidth reduction via compression
• Supports eXtreme Cache Technology
• Supports HDTV resolutions up to 1080i
• Four simultaneous outputs: TFT, CRT, DVI and TV out
• Integrated dual-channel LVDS for interface to TFT up to 2048×1576
• 420 MHz RAMDAC up to 2048×1536
• Multi-display configurations support
• 64-Bit DRAM Interface DDR
• CoolPower™ management (7.5 watts maximum dissipation)
• Power supply: 1.0/1.2v, 1.5v, 1.8/2.5v and 3.3v
• 40 million transistors in 0.13um CMOS process
• Standard 696 PBGA package (31mm x 31mm)

As you see, the Volari 8300 boasts interesting features although it belongs to the value/entry level solutions. Its major technical specifications, such as the frequency and number of pipelines correspond to those of the ATI Radeon X300.
However, unlike the ATI product, the Volari 8300 boasts a number of additional attractive features, such as MET/MRT support , up to FP32 texture formats and even 8Kx8K texture size support!

The Volari 8300 (XG47) will feature an engine clocked at 300MHz engine and a memory clock of 350MHz memory clock. It would be available in 256MB, as well as 128MB and 64MB versions. With its very low power consumption (7.5 watts maximum dissipation), the card will require no active cooling and will be completely fanless).

There would also be versions with 32MB and 16MB of onboard memory available, with up to 128MB of graphics memory thanks to dynamic memory management (eXtreme Cache Technology) – we will come back on this point later.

A closer look at the XG47 Architecture

– Native PCI Express Interface

Products based on the XG47 architecture will employ a native PCI Express support. The main improvements of the PCI Express structure over AGP are the higher transfer rates (PCI Express transfer rates are 4 times higher than AGP) and bi-directional transfers.

The following charts illustrate the difference between AGP and PCIE

- SmartTile Memory architecture

SmartTile is XGI’s memory interface architecture which improves bandwidth utilization by storing pixels in 4×4 rectangular tiles instead of traditional scan lines. Since these tiles can be cascaded to cover the entire display area, memory bandwidth efficiency up to 90% can be achieved.

One of the new technologies introduced in the XG47 is the eXtreme Cache Technology. Its working principles are very similar to NVIDIA’s TurboCache, the main idea behind this technology is that the graphics adapter uses a combination of local memory on the graphics card and PCI-E bandwidth to render frames.

The eXtreme Cache technology promises to bring a performance boost, but more importantly, it drastically lowers the price of a graphics card, as it can now be outfitted with less onboard graphics memory.

As mentioned the PCI-E bus is used to deliver the needed bandwidth, but in order for this to be really effective, you also need an efficient way to distribute the load between the local memory and the system memory accessed through PCI-E. To enable this, XGI uses the RUMA (eXtreme Cache) architecture which dynamically allocates memory from the system memory to maximize performance. Simply put, the onboard memory is used to cache data and to deliver peak performance when needed whereas all other data is allocated to main memory through the PCI-E bus. This will allow cards with 64MB, but also 32 MB and even 16MB models to be manufactured using up to 128MB of main memory.

As shown above, the XG47 could also have no onboard graphics memory. However, this would also affect the graphics performance and therefore is not recommended by XGI. However, they have added this possibility as some clients may be interested in this option, such as notebook manufacturers since the XG47 will also be available for mobiles.

- DirectX 9 Shader Power

According to the specifications, the chip features two pixel pipelines (2×2 configuration) each with 8 texel samples, 4 Pixel Shaders, 2 vertex units and 8 depth/stencil outputs.

The XG47 graphics processor supports extended DirectX 9.0 specifications with features such as MET/MRT, up to FP32 texture formats, non power of 2 textures and 8Kx8K texture size support.

Here is the list of the 3D features of the card :

• Hierarchical pixel tiling for page based rendering
• Texture size up to 8Kx8K and non-power of 2
• Bi-linear, tri-linear and anisotropic texture filtering
• High order texture filtering up to 8×8 kernel
• Linear sRGB color format
• MET and MRT
• Floating color buffer (up to 32 bit)
• Floating texture formats (up to 32 bit)
• Full anti-aliasing support for texts, lines, scenes
• Special multi-resolution depth buffer
• Special bandwidth reduction hardware via compression
• Multi-level caches
• Fully OpenGL-compliant blending including fog & depth cueing

One of the most noteworthy features of the XG47 architecture is MRT, multiple render target, which allows the graphics processor to apply the lighting in a scene after all of the geometry is rendered, thus effectively canceling extra rendering passes by avoiding valuable processing time to calculate the lighting for pixels which do not contribute to the visible portions of the rendered image.

Another worthwhile new feature is that the XG47′s BrightPixel engine works with 32-bit precision throughout the pipeline thanks to its hardware 32 bit floating color buffer and support for 32 bit floating texture formats. This becomes especially important when we start using effects such as subsurface scattering, soft shadows and global illumination since developers can now apply more translucent effects.
Last but not least, the increased texture size (up to 8Kx8K) allows developers to use even bigger and more realistic textures.

- UltraClear quality

While the current Volari series have often been praised for the good 2D image quality, XGI has strived to improve the display image quality.

The XG47 uses an ultra sharp 420 Mhz RAMDAC pumping out high quality analog output signals to ensure flicker-free displays and legible text at ultra-high resolutions and at the highest color depths (i.e. 2048 x 1536 @32bpp). As far as I know, the XG47′s RAMDAC speed is higher than any other competing product out there, ensuring a superb output with a high-quality image. Of course, the card supports multi-monitor configurations too.

It also incorporates XGI’s UltraClear technology in order to provide an ultra sharp image quality on LCD displays. UltraClear helps eliminate typical “ghosting” effects in watching DVD on a LCD screen and produces a clearer and sharper image.

Below are the supported output displays of the XG47 :

• Four simultaneous outputs: TFT, CRT, DVI and TV out
• Integrated dual-channel LVDS for interface to TFT up to 2048×1576
• Integrated TMDS for interface to DVI up to 1600×1200
• Integrated NTSC/PAL encoder up to 1024×768
• 420 MHz RAMDAC for CRT up to 2048×1536

- TrueVideo Engine

As though all this was not enough, the XG47 features a built-in High Definition TV encoder with the following video features :

• Integrated HDTV Encoder
• State-of-the-art pixel based motion and edge adaptive de-interlace
• 3:2 pull down for film mode recovery
• Motion and object based adaptive edge smoothing
• LCD Overdrive
• Supports HDTV resolutions (1080i/720p)
• TrueVideo® provides cubical interpolation with edge recovery
• Microsoft’s DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA)
• Includes both Motion Compensation and IDCT hardware
• Hardware Real-time playback (30 fps) of 9.8 Mbps MPEG-2 video bitstream

The hardware video processor built into the XG47 should definitely appeal to home cinema fans, with its hardware de-interlacing and built-in Motion Compensation and IDCT. The advanced Shader Model 2.0 support will also come in handy to enhance video playback with the help of special pixel shaders through DirectShow’s Video Mixing Renderer9 (VMR9). Last but not least, the card’s low power design allows the card to be completely silent (fan-less solution). According to XGI representatives, a low profile version is also in the works.

Due to this broad functionality in terms of video playback and processing, the XG47 definitely turns out to be an excellent solution for home entertainment systems using Windows Media Center Edition operating system.

- CoolPower Management

CoolPower is XGI’s unique power management technology originating from their partnership with top OEM notebook customers and significantly reduces both active and standby power consumption. CoolPower employs a combination of software and hardware techniques which permit the end-user to select either highest performance or longest battery life while running their applications of interest.

Below are the main features of the CoolPower technology :

• CoolPower™ management (7.5 watts maximum dissipation)
• Unified software & hardware architecture for power management
• Dynamic clock gating, frequency scaling, work load balancing
• Supports INTEL-defined Device Performance States (DPS)
• Supports PCI Express Active State Power Management (ASPM)
• Optional battery optimizer under user control

Preliminary Conclusion

According to the above discussed technical data we can draw a pretty simple conclusion. The Volari 8300 (XG47) looks like an appealing alternative to the Radeon X300 in terms of features and performance, according to XGI. It seems the card’s pricing would be lower than the X300 too.

The card definitely looks tailor-made for a multimedia or home theater use with unique features such as HDTV 1080i/720p output formats set this card apart from the others in its price range. The processor runs cool enough to only need passive cooling, and the silence is ideal for an HTPC situation where the faintest hum of fans may interfere with video or music playback.
It’s in the mobile market that the XG47 would prove even more interesting, with its low power consumption (7.5 watts maximum dissipation) and the eXtreme Cache technology, making it ideal for thin notebooks.

Right now we feel confident to say that this is a very interesting chip with a number of truly unique features, making it a very good choice for your needs.

We have put up below some coverage pictures of CeBIT.

Let’s start off with a picture of Creative Labs booth over at CeBIT:

Gigabyte also has a nice lineup of products:

SiS booth:

Let’s take a look at FIC’s booth:

Taking a closer look at FIC’s booth, we can see… an XGI V3 and a V8 :

Now let’s see Club3D’s booth :

Club3D had an interesting lineup of products displayed, including the Club3D Volari series :

Finally, we have some pictures of XGI’s booth :

Last but not least, we have some pictures of the upcoming XG47

My name is Danny Lee & I am the new Corporate Marketing Manager with XGI. I am handling media relations, corporate branding, & all corporate marketing related activities.

Could you please give us a brief overview of XGI’s current products and how are they positioned against competing products?

What can we expect from XGI regarding driver support and releases?

XGI fans can expect new driver/beta releases every 2-4 weeks. XGI software team is working overtime to provide the most synchronized drivers with the most games compatible on the market.

Can you tell us more about Linux drivers?

XGI foresees the rapid growth in Linux market. Thus, we are working hard on meeting demands for this market sector. Currently, XGI supports REDHAT, Mandrake, & SuSE with 3D acceleration. Furthermore, XGI provides 2D-only open source for Linux Developers.

XGI recently had a major design win with Dell for the Inspiron 5160 notebook. Can you tell us more about this and what we can expect for the future?

Dell Inspiron 5160 is using our XP5 because of the following reasons:
– optimized for low power consumption notebooks
– low thermal requirements
– higher performance with less power needed
– Integrated Digital Display
– TrueVideo Accelerator

XGI fans can expect other big name design-ins in the mobile market. Dell Recognition means Top-of-Line Quality Assurance, and trust from global notebook industry leader. Thus, XGI shall have more opportunities with other big names.

Will XGI licence IGP solutions in the near future?

Not at this moment.

Can you tell us what you think about PCI-Express?

XGI Foresees PCIE to be the main market trend next year. Thus, our products next year are all PCIE native.

Could you tell us more about the new features of the next generation (XG45 and XG47)?

The only specs we can release at this time is PCIE Native and Shader Model 3.0 for XG45, and Shader Model 2.0 for XG47. Also, the new driver interface has been redesigned. The new interface is redesigned for better usage of customers.

Could you tell us more about the XG45/XG47 specs? (pipelines, TMU, HSR, overdraw reduction, Broadbahn, etc.)?

The only specs we can release at this time is PCIE Native and Shader Model 3.0 for XG45, and Shader Model 2.0 for XG47.

Will XG45 and XG47 be 0.13nm or 0.9nm?

0.13nm

Can you tell us what type of shader improvements we can expect from the XG45 over the current generation?

XG45 is Shader Model 3.0 and XG47 is Shader Model 2.0. This design is to satisfy the mainstream/higher market vs the value market.

What are the differences betweeen the XG47 and the current generation of cards?

XG45 & XG47 have totally redesigned cores. So the customers can anticipate better performance, new core technology, and the right products satisfying their true needs.

Will the XG45/47 cores be available in DUO flavors?

DUO technology is always behind our engineers minds. However, depending on market needs and cost-effective calculation, we will decide whether to include DUO technology when we launch next generation product.

Will XGI be using DDR3 Ram or DDR2?

Actually XG45/47 will be using DDR1. XGI design our solutions to best target our customers’ needs. Though DDR2 & DDR3 will be in trend starting next year, they are more expensive. Thus, our goal is to provide cost-effective solutions with same level, if not better, performance. After careful market analysis, we decided to use DDR1 to best satisfy our customers’ true needs: to provide cost effective graphics solution that is competitive in mainstream and value markets.

Can we expect some type of AIW or Personal Cinema cards from XGI in the near future?

Not at this moment.

Could you tell us what to expect after the XG45/47 ?

After XG45/47, there will be better performance & Longhorn Advanced Scheduling Support.

Would it be possible for the XG45-47 to give the users more options to configure in the drivers?

We will tune the drivers to best performance for next generation. This is to save our customers trouble of having to tune every time or for different games. To save our customers trouble and provide best performance, we have tuned our drivers to give the best performance based on different games.

Thank you for your time and patience. Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?

XGI will continue our RD & Designing efforts to satisfy customers’ true demands. Unlike companies who drive customers to buy into expensive but not practical products, XGI provide products that are most cost effective for customers. At the same time, these products have the similar high performance. In the future, XGI will create extremely high end products that are more affordable than our competitors.

We had the opportunity to learn about some of the products that will be unveiled to the Chinese market and wanted to let you have a sneak peak at what will be showcased. It also is the occasion for us to look more in detail at the Volari cards, especially the Volari V8 model.

XGI Technology’s product line consists of three discrete GPUs : the Volari V8, the Volari V5 (both of which are also available in a higher-clocked ‘ultra’ version) and the Volari V3 entry-level desktop GPU (which is available in two flavours : V3 and V3XT).

Volari V8

The Volari V8 is XGI’s high-end graphics solution. Clocked at 300Mhz, this 90-million transistor Directx 9.0 chip can support up to 256MB of DDR or DDR2 memory.
XGI’s Volari V8 board will come with 256 MB DDR memory and will ship with Volari Reactor 1.06.50 drivers.

It seems Lian Guan will be unveiling at their Volari V8 Ultra card which will be clocked at 350 Mhz instead of 300 Mhz.

As you can notice from the pictures above, the card does not require any external power supply, whereas the version supplied last year required an external power supply. This goes to show that the core has been heavily tweaked since and can now be powered only through the motherboard.

Volari V8 features :

- Extreme High performance 256-bit 3D engine
- Full Hardware DirectX9 support : hardware support for Pixel and Vertex Shaders 2.0
- 8 pixel pipelines, 2 Vertex Shader (2.0) units and 4 Pixel Shader (2.0) units
- BroadBahn Memory Architecture : Volari V8 processors take advantage of XGI’s proprietary BroadBahn memory architecture, which makes use of compression algorithms
- V-Drive : automatic overclocking feature
- Reactor Unified Driver: The Reactor unified driver works across all graphics boards incorporating Volari V8 and V5 processors, that makes driver management virtually effortless.

- ColorAmp Engine : The Volari V5 features XGI’s cutting-edge ColorAmp Engine – driven by a proprietary algorithm that analyzes on-screen environments and automatically optimizes color intensity and gamma levels to provide the most accurate on-screen color and display brightness.
- Cipher Video Processor : Volari V5 processors feature XGI’s Cipher video processor. This advanced de-interlacing technology makes video playback smooth, flicker-free and fluid. And unlike competing video processors, the Cipher video processor converts both incoming and outgoing video feeds, ensuring that all your videos are displayed with the highest possible on-screen quality.
- Intelli-Vision Engine : The proprietary Intelli-Vision Engine makes calculated adjustments to display brightness when entering 3D mode, providing clearer and sharper graphics display.
- Support for High definition TV output (HDTV) up to 1080i/720p
- Support for dual monitor configurations – CRT/DVI/S-Video/YPbPr outputs

Let’s take a look at the performance of the Volari V8 now.

Testing System:

Intel Pentium4 CPU @ 3.2 GHz (HT Enabled)
512MB DDR-400 memory
XGI Volari V8, XGI Volari V8 Ultra, GeforceFX 5700 Le, ATI Radeon 9550
Windows XP SP2 Pro and DirectX9.0c

All tests were run twice.

Test results:

The benchmark results clearly show the superiority of the Volari V8 over the GeforceFX 5700 LE, both in Direct3D and in OpenGL. The difference is the most obvious in Call of Duty where the Volari V8 outperforms the FX 5700 LE by nothing less than 20 fps!
As for the Volari V8 Ultra, we can see it outperforms the Radeon 9550.

Volari V5

The Volari V5 is functionally identical to the V8 chip with the exception of its pixel pipelines and shaders. The V5 uses only four pixel pipelines and two pixel shaders. In all other respects it is equivalent to the V8.

Volari V5 features :
- Extreme High performance 256-bit 3D engine
- Full Hardware DirectX9 support : hardware support for Pixel and Vertex Shaders 2.0
- 4 pixel pipelines, 2 Vertex Shader (2.0) units and 2 Pixel Shader (2.0) units
- BroadBahn Memory Architecture : Volari V5 processors take advantage of XGI’s proprietary BroadBahn memory architecture, which makes use of compression algorithms
- V-Drive : automatic overclocking feature
- Reactor Unified Driver: The Reactor unified driver works across all graphics boards incorporating Volari V8 and V5 processors, that makes driver management virtually effortless.

- ColorAmp Engine : The Volari V5 features XGI’s cutting-edge ColorAmp Engine – driven by a proprietary algorithm that analyzes on-screen environments and automatically optimizes color intensity and gamma levels to provide the most accurate on-screen color and display brightness.
- Cipher Video Processor : Volari V5 processors feature XGI’s Cipher video processor. This advanced de-interlacing technology makes video playback smooth, flicker-free and fluid. And unlike competing video processors, the Cipher video processor converts both incoming and outgoing video feeds, ensuring that all your videos are displayed with the highest possible on-screen quality.
- Intelli-Vision Engine : The Volari V5 processor’s proprietary Intelli-Vision Engine makes calculated adjustments to display brightness when entering 3D mode, providing clearer and sharper graphics display.
- Support for High definition TV output (HDTV) up to 1080i/720p
- Support for dual monitor configurations – CRT/DVI/S-Video/YPbPr outputs

Volari V3

Volari V3 features :

- Hardware support for DirectX 8.1, Software compatible with DirectX 9.0
- BrightPixel graphics engine based on hierachical pixel tiling for rasterization : 200 MHz engine clock with two independent pixel pipelines (256-bit wide) capable of 2 pixels/clock with 2 tri-linear textures/pixel
- SmartTile 128-bit memory architecture with 200 Mhz memory (400MHz DDR)
- Provides the multiple CRT/DVI/S-Video/YPbPr screen to output
- Thema Video Engine : State-of-the-art video de-interlacing (beyond Bob-and-Weave).
TrueVideo provides bilinear interpolation with proprietary edge recovery scaling
Includes both Motion Compensation and IDCT hardware as well as Microsoft’s DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA)
- UltraClear TFT image quality at UXGA panel resolution (1600×1200).
Integrated TMDS drivers for TFT and DVI display
- CoolPower power management technology

The Volari V3 supports DirectX 8.1 in hardware and is software compatible with DirectX 9, whereas the Volari V3XT fully supports DirectX 9 in hardware.

There are 2 models of the Volari V3 : the Volari V3 and the Volari V3XT.

Volari V3XT features :

- Extreme High performance 256-bit 3D engine
- Hardware DirectX9 support : hardware support for Pixel Shaders 2.0 and full Vertex Shaders 2.0 compliance
- 2 sets of high performance pixel rendering pipelines
- BroadBahn Memory Architecture : Volari V3XT processors take advantage of XGI’s proprietary BroadBahn memory architecture, which makes use of compression algorithms
- V-Drive : automatic overclocking feature
- ColorAmp Engine : The Volari V3XT features XGI’s cutting-edge ColorAmp Engine – driven by a proprietary algorithm that analyzes on-screen environments and automatically optimizes color intensity and gamma levels to provide the most accurate on-screen color and display brightness.
- Cipher Video Processor : Volari V3XT processors feature XGI’s Cipher video processor. This advanced de-interlacing technology makes video playback smooth, flicker-free and fluid. And unlike competing video processors, the Cipher video processor converts both incoming and outgoing video feeds, ensuring that all your videos are displayed with the highest possible on-screen quality.
- Intelli-Vision Engine : The Volari V3XT processor’s proprietary Intelli-Vision Engine makes calculated adjustments to display brightness when entering 3D mode, providing clearer and sharper graphics display.
- Support for High definition TV output (HDTV) up to 1080i/720p
- Support for dual monitor configurations – CRT/DVI/S-Video/YPbPr outputs

As for performance figures and more in detail info of the Volari V3XT, I recommend reading our in-depth article of the Volari V3XT

The Volari V3 XT card comes equipped with 128MB of DDR memory. The V3XT GPU is clocked at 250Mhz. Let’s take a look first at the specifications of the card then get right into it..
Specifications

Blazing-fast PCI Bus Interface
- 32-bit PCI local bus standard Revision 2.2 compliant
- True AGP2.0 & AGP3.0 Compliant configuration setting
- Hardware auto detect for AGP1.0, AGP2.0 or AGP3.0 mode support

Extreme High performance 256-bit 3D engine
- High order surface tessellation
- Optimized hardware geometry transform/lighting/setup engine
- Compatible with Direct3D 9.0 Vertex Shader ver. 2.0
- Fully compliant with Direct3D 9.0 Pixel Shader ver. 2.0
- 2 sets of high performance pixel rendering pipelines
- Supports Bump Mapping, Mipmapped Cubic Mapping and Volume Texture supports flat and Gouraud shading
- Supports 2-side stencil
- 2X/4X full scene anti-aliasing(FSAA)

Ultimate Performance 2D Engine
- Hardware command queue
- High-speed Direct Draw Accelerator
- Hardware GDI 2000 Accelerator
- Source read-buffer to minimize engine wait-state
- Built-in destination read-buffer to minimize engine wait-state

High Definition TV-OUT Solution with XV301PAL and NTSC Systems – Composite, S-Video, and Component RGB Output Signals
- Macrovision Copy Protection Process Rev. 7.1.L1
- HDTV 480i/480p/1080i/720p YPbPr Output Signals
- A single link TMDS transmitter with excellent scaling capability for TFT LCD panel display

MPEG-2 Video Decoder
- MPEG-2 MP@ML standards compliant
- Supports up to 20 Mbit/sec bit rate decoding
- True hardware VCD, DVD and HDTV decoding

Video Accelerator
- YUV-to-RGB color space conversion
- Bi-linear video interpolation with integer increments of 1/2048
- Complete graphics and video overlay function
- Hardware video decoder interface
- Independent VBI capture
- Supports DVD sub-picture playback overlay
- Built-in independent Gamma correction RAM

Proprietary Cipher Video Processor
- 5 fields per-pixel motion detection de-interlace function, video sources from MPEG decoder, Video capture and AVI interfaces
- Down scaling function and scaling vector as 1/2, 1/4
- Next generation de-interlaced and 1/2 down scaling function

Display Memory Interface
Supports DDR SDRAM upto 128MBytes memory

High Integration
- 24-bit true-color RAMDAC up to 400 MHz pixel clock
- Built-in VIP interface
- VESA Plug & Display for PanelLink Interface
- Built-in Thermal Diode for GPU Security-Update

Miscellaneous
- Supports 32K/64K/128K Bytes ROM decoding
- Supports 20MHz SPI ROM interface 720-balls 31mm x 31mm PBGA package

The Volari V3 XT certainly seems to have some very interesting features (namely full HDTV support!), especially for a mainstream card (the card should cost about $50 USD only).
A good point to note is that the Volari V3 XT is the only mainstream card to feature a built-in thermal diode, ensuring the card runs properly at all times. As far as I know, ATI and nVidia only offer this feature on their high end solutions.

We’ll now go more into detail of the main features of the Volari V3 XT

Features

True Hardware DirectX9  

TruShader™ 2.1 Engine
TruShader™ Engine takes vertex and pixel shading to a new level of realism. With Trushader technology, 3D environments come alive with lush renderings that make your 3D game scene with haunting realism. Users can enjoy advantage of programmable DirectX9 effects that will turn your display imagery into a true work of art.

The XGI Volari V3 XT offers full DirectX 9 support, giving you better support for all the latest games. Needless to say that you are going to get the best performance and image quality from a card that offers true DirectX 9 support, compared to competing solutions which do not offer such support.

V-Drive
Not all processing environments are created equal. The blistering demands imposed by full screen 3D applications will tax your GPU for all it’s worth, leaving weaker processors in the dust. When it’s time to pour on the muscle, V-Drive is like a short of pure adrenaline in the heat of the battle. V-Drive™ ratchets up processing power in perfectly timed response to computational demands, effortlessly delivering full frame graphics with flawless execution. Shift in to V-Drive™ and experience the ultimate in high speed performance.

V-Drive gives you the ability to get the absolute most out of your graphics card through an automatic overclocking of the card. This enables you to get the most performance out of your graphics card, without any hassle. While we’re talking about overclocking, it is important to note that the drivers have their own little setting for overclocking under the 3D settings area : in other words, you don’t have to go hunting around for a tool like Powerstrip to overclock manually.

Overclocking in action (the V-Drive button is located on the same window)

The XGI Volari V3 XT comes with quite a nice heatsink cooling the GPU without any noise, making the card silent. This makes the card a very good choice for those of you looking for a cool and quiet graphics card. Not to mention the fact that the card is pretty small in size.

On Screen Performance

Cipher™ Video Processor
Volari™ V3XT processors feature XGI’s legendary Cipher™ video processor. Leveraging this advanced de-interlacing technology means video files play with a smooth, flicker-free and fluid motion that amazes even industry professionals. And unlike competing video processors, the Cipher™ video processor converts both incoming and outgoing video feeds, ensuring that all your videos are displayed with the highest possible on-screen quality.

ColorAmp™ Engine
The Volari™ V3XT processor also feature XGI’s cutting-edge ColorAmp™ Engine – driven by a proprietary algorithm that analyzes on-screen environments and automatically optimizes color intensity and gamma levels to provide the most accurate on-screen color and display brightness.

Intelli-Vision™ Engine
The Volari™ V3XT processor’s proprietary Intelli-Vision™ Engine makes calculated adjustments to display brightness when entering 3D mode, providing clearer and sharper graphics display performance ideal for today’s 3D gaming.

Next to being a value DirectX9 solution, some high-quality video features have been included in the Volari V3 XT. The 2D image quality of the Volari V3 XT is surprsingly crisp and clear, and video playback is excellent.

XGI’s ColorAmp Engine is an on-the-fly color and brightness optimizer for 3D and 2D, providing extra saturation for onscreen colours and brightening 3D images to increase viewability. This is done through a set of custom settings for various sources, such as DVDs and games. Of course, user customization is possible as well.

The Volari V3 XT features the Cipher Video Processor which uses an advanced proprietary pixel-based deinterlacing algorithm for rendering high-quality video.

Even more impressive is the complete HDTV support, up to 1080i/720p! You can even use the TV-Out of the card for HDTV as the TV-OUT supports HDTV resolutions. and benefit from the high quality This is great as this is the only card in the $50 USD range with HDTV support! Hopefully this will help HDTV to be adopted more massively. We so need HDTV support here in Europe…

Reactor™ Unified Driver
Harness the superior power of the any Volari™ V3XT processor with XGI’s Reactor™ unified driver. Packed with useful features and fully compatible with Direct3D and OpenGL APIs, the Reactor™ unified driver allows an advanced level of processor-tuning that easily meets the demands of today’s avid gamers. The Reactor™ unified driver works across all graphics boards incorporating Volari™ V3XT processors, making driver management virtually effortless.

It is a good surprise to see that XGI has adopted a unified driver system : no matter which XGI card you have, you won’t run into any problems hunting down the right driver as there is only one. Also, if you already own an XGI card, you simply need to take out the card and pop in the new card without having to go through installation again. How easy can things get? This is definitely a bonus for the consumer and reseller as it reduces customer confusion.

The Reactor drivers offer much more than just an excellent gaming
experience; they also include a host of other features within the driver which maximize the use of XGI graphics boards. The following features are included in the latest Reactor driver suite:

PowerManager – PowerManager provides real-time GPU temperature detection and monitoring : this allows you to check at a glance the temperature of the GPU as well as the voltage of the GPU and the memory. Rotech – Rotech (which stands for “Rotation Technology”) offers you the ability to rotate your desktop with your monitor. This is interesting for those of you who own a monitor which can be tilted.

Desktop Plus – Desktop Plus allows you to customize multiple virtual desktops. You can add or delete desktops as well as customize display settings for each desktop. Each desktop also can have its own shortcuts and applications. Needless to say that this can have some interesting practical use : you can for instance create a “Work” Desktop and a “Enterainment” Desktop, and easily switch from one to the other by a quick click (for example when the boss is coming!!! Oops, did I just say that?)

Navigator – Navigator unleashes the possibilities of small monitors : it allows you to zoom in on any part of the screen you want. It shows the position of the current physical screen in the entire virtual desktop area. You can also use this application to move the physical screen to wherever you wish.

Let’s take a look now at the performance of the Volari V3 XT.

Testbed Setup

Here are the specs of the test rig:
Intel Pentium4 CPU @ 3.2 GHz (HT Enabled)
512MB DDR-400 memory
Windows XP Pro and DirectX9.0c
XGI Volari V3XT 128 MB DDR
ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128 MB DDR

A note on testing: the only card available from ATI which is about the same price range is the Radeon 9200 SE, that is why the card was chosen to compare with the Volari V3 XT. The Geforce MX 4000 is in the same price range as the Volari V3 XT, but its performance is much lower than both the V3 XT and the 9200 SE. Also, the Geforce MX 4000 lacks DirectX 8 support (no pixel and vertex shader support).

All tests were run twice.

Performance Testing Results
In 3D Mark 2003 and Aquamark 3, the card shows its power thanks to its DirectX 9 support and outperforms the slightly more expensive Radeon 9200 SE.

In 3D Mark 2001 SE, the card is neck to neck with the ATI Radeon 9200 SE. The Final Fantasy Benchmark and X2-The Threat result shows the Volari V3 XT falling slightly behind the Radeon 9200 SE only.

The gap between the two cards seems to widen a bit in OpenGL, as shown in the Quake 3, RTCW and Enemy Territory. It seems the Volari V3 XT could use some extra driver tweaking, especially for the OpenGL driver, to catch up with the 9200 SE.

Final thoughts

The Volari V3 XT is a very interesting piece of hardware for the maistream/value market. It may not be the fastest mainstream card available, but then again I don’t think it makes much sense to look for the “fastest card” when looking under $50 USD / 50 euros price range. Those looking out for pure performance would be looking at higher end models. Nevertheless, the Volari V3 XT performance is good, and it came very close to the 9200 SE.

A point which is very important is image quality, and the Volari V3 XT did not disappoint. Image quality is excellent, 2D and videos are surprisingly clear and sharp even in high resolutions, slightly better (clearer and crispier) than the 9200 SE in my opinion.

Video playblack certainly is one of the strong points of the Volari V3 XT, not to mention the V3 XT has an ace up its sleeve which makes it a very tempting option for home theater PCs : full HDTV support.
As we mentionned, the Volari V3 XT is also able to display HDTV resolutions through the card’s TV-Out. This explains why the card’s TV-Out quality is simply excellent and far better than any competing solution.
Given that ATI’s HDTV component adapter required for HDTV costs $30 USD all by itself, HDTV display could become Volari’s domain. The home theater crowd may also appreciate Volari’s shader-powered video engine. I certainly did as it greatly enhanced video playback quality.

At the end of the day, XGI has produced a very capable and competitive value offering in the Volari V3 XT. It may not be the fastest low-end gamer on the block, but is certainly the only one that’ll do HDTV display right out of the box.

We were lucky enough to be allowed to play a test version of the game and were very impressed with what we saw…

This is the basic storyline behind Alpha Black Zero : Intrepid Protocol :

The year is 2366, and the Solgov federation faces turmoil. Lieutenant Kyle Hardlaw, leader of specialized commando unit ‘Alpha Black Zero’, stands accused of multiple illegal assassinations against his own
government.

In the courtroom on Qahira, the politically influential planet formerly known as Mars, a military tribunal asserts Hardlaw killed numerous Solgov officials during a secret mission on a rebellious world. Many local populations are hostile to Solgov, having been indoctrinated for years by ultra-right separatist groups.

Olympus City, the Qahiran capital brims with intrigue and suspicion. Hardlaw’s work is always dangerous, but what actions have resulted in his trial? Behind the courtroom drama, a series of missions are played out that reveal a sinister story of counter espionage and treason in an explosive climate. Hardlaw must fight through a military and political minefield to clear his name. Unravel the conspiracy, and he wins his freedom. Fail, and his team will be silenced forever…

Let’s start off with the graphics. The game is top-notch : the maps are very large (just look at the screenshots, you can really see thousands of kilometers in the distance – the maps really deserve to be called “extensive”) and the graphics are realistic indeed. For the record, we have to mention the game uses a tweaked version of the Serious Sam engine. The game ran very well on my system with all settings on maximum (AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and XGI Volari Duo).

One of the first things I noticed was the impressive AI of the game. The squad members reacted surprisingly well in all occasions and actively cover you. For instance, when I was ambushed by some opponent characters, my team swept in and took card of the enemy before I had time to reload my weapon. When my character was injured, I could even “hide” behind some of my team members while they took care of the enemies for me. I was really surprised how well they reacted. To be honest, I half expected them to be sitting ducks (as in many other game titles), but they did not.

As for the enemies, they will retreat when attacked, try to find cover when a shootout takes place and then counterattack. It was really refreshing to see the characters react intelligently. Surprisingly, path-finding was reliable too. The squad team reacted well even though the maps were full of long drops and steep slopes. It seems as though the game’s AI is not scripted at all.

ABZ uses a system of keyboard shortcuts to command the squad members individually or as a group. For instance, the Regroup command will have them follow you, you can order them to hold position, to hold fire or to fire at will. It’s too bad though you cannot tell them to fire at a particular target or to start firing only when you begin. It is possible however to switch between team members.

We mentionned earlier that the game is a team-based tactical shooter, but you do not need to play as a team if you do not want to. Nothing prevents you from playing like in a first person shooter and be a lone gunman. Only one person is required to accomplish mission objectives so you can choose how you want to play.

One thing I would have liked is a map in order to know exactly where I am. As we mentionned, the maps are pretty huge, and it is not obvious to find your way around : you can’t just walk straight without paying attention to the terrain especially since it is very mountainous and riddled with high cliffs. On the other hand, adding a map would probably make things too easy and there would be no surpise element left.

Last but not least, I found the difficulty level of the preview version that we tried not easy at all, quite challenging in fact. Granted, I’m just an average player, but I don’t think many people will find finishing the game a piece of cake.

All in all the game looks and sounds great. It definitely looks like a promising tactical shooter. Kudos goes to GMX Media for their great work and kudos to Khaeon as well, a company which seems set to become be a serious threat to other FPS developpers in the near future.

I’ve had a unique opportunity lately to try out an early version of an upcoming MMORPG called “The Saga of Ryzom” which I found very interesting indeed.

Paris-based Nevrax is currently working on The Saga of Ryzom, a fantasy MMORPG that adds in science-fiction elements to create what could very well be an exciting game world.

The Saga of Ryzom is an immense story that takes place in the future, our future. It begins on the living planet of Atys, which grows and evolves on its own, sending tendrils into the sky and covering the lands with new life. Explore this lush and vibrant world and work towards unlocking its secrets. The Saga of Ryzom is the mystery of a forgotten past and an unknown future, history has yet to be written in this world, so it could very well be you doing the writing.

First you start by creating your character : you select one of four races (three are currently available in the open beta), then your sex, body type, facial features, and skills. The character customization system really allows you to create your very own character, which explains why every character in the game looks different.

What is interesting is that your skills are not limited right from the start : unlike other RPGs, you don’t have to choose at the beginning you want to be a warrior or a magician and be stuck later with that decision. Want to be an expert animal slayer? All you have to do here is kill many animals and you will become one. Skills are increased simply through use, just as in Morrowind for instance. You also start off in a different location depending on the character you choose.

The Saga of Ryzom takes place in the future on a planet called “Atys”, with its deserts, lakelands, forests, and jungles.

Even in the desert, the graphics details are very rich : trees, vegetation, wild animals ready to pounce on you once your back is turned (yes, I know what I’m talking about, some of those beastly, overgrown scorpions attacked and killed my character).

Since we are talking about graphics, I would like to point out that all the screenshots on this page were of course taken on a XGI Volari Duo card.

There also is a rather nice looking oasis. If you look closely at the screenshot below, you will see a female character which is supposed to be a “Welcomer” : this is absolutely not true, I tried to talk to her and ask for some help and directions and did not get ANY reply, not even a mere “hello”. Some welcome, huh…

As you can see from the screenshots, the game uses some neat 3d effects such as Pixel shaders for the water rendering. Great water effects, high resolution textures, high polygon count, Ryzom offers a real visual treat. It’s great to see such attention to detail in an online game.

Below is a screenshot from one of my fellow companions. As you can see, the character faces are quite detailed

There are also some training rooms where you can learn how to master skills like magic or sword fighting

Look at the monsters that I have slain by myself – my trophees. They were certainly no match for someone like me, lol.

All in all, I truly enjoyed Ryzom (and I don’t usually like MMORPG!) : great graphics, nice online experience, good gameplay. Definitely a refreshing breath of fresh air in a world filled of Everquest clones.