Velocity9x 0.48.0: see-through textures on Gen4, and a native 1280x800 panel

Velocity9x 0.48.0 is out. Three changes, each measured on the machine named:

Intel GMA X3100 and GMA 4500 family: see-through textures that write depth

Half-Life’s grates, fences, ladders and some doors, and parts of Incoming, were missing on the Gen4 chips. They are alpha-tested textures that also write depth, a combination that once hung the GMA X3100. They now draw in two passes, the same way colour-keyed draws have since 0.44.0, with the same limit: something drawn later behind the see-through part of such a texture can be hidden there.

Half-Life is confirmed by its reporter in every renderer on a GMA 4500MHD, and the GMA X3100 draws the case through OpenGL and Direct3D without a hang.

The GMA X3100 laptop’s own 1280x800

The laptop’s video BIOS describes its panel’s mode as 1024x768 and stretched that across the screen. The driver now writes the panel’s timing into the BIOS’s mode table at boot, so 1280x800 is offered and set unscaled. Measured on one HP laptop (GM965); other chips are not enabled.

Every package: surfaces wider than the screen

DirectDraw and Direct3D refused surfaces wider than the screen, which Direct3D 8 reported as an internal driver error. 3DMark 2001 SE’s Advanced Pixel Shader test asks for one.

Get it

Pick your card’s family on the downloads page. Installed copies from 0.15.0 on can update through Check for updates on the Velocity9x tab. The full changelog has the records behind each change.