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A 3DFX Voodoo FPGA Core is in Development! It's a BIG Deal

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


It's MiSTer FPGA NEWS AND UPDATES time! except NOT really...as there is a new 3DFX Voodoo FPGA core in development on the Terasic De-10 which is the same board used FOR MiSTer FPGA...but this is different! and its why retro gaming is making a comeback!
  • (00:01–00:22)
    A developer is working on a full FPGA reimplementation of the classic 3dfx Voodoo 3D accelerator, which is described as a major and exciting breakthrough for retro gaming and hardware preservation.
  • (00:22–01:05)
    The Voodoo chipset is praised for its unique visual style and nostalgic "look" that differs from modern GPUs, making it especially beloved among retro PC and arcade gamers.
  • (01:24–01:40)
    Voodoo hardware wasn't just for PCs—it powered arcade systems like Konami and Midway boards, often delivering graphics that rivaled or exceeded home PCs at the time.
  • (01:40–02:13)
    Some arcade boards used dual Voodoo chips in SLI configurations, showcasing how powerful and widely adopted the technology was in high-end arcade machines.
  • (02:13–02:47)
    The FPGA core (being developed on a DE10-Nano / Cyclone V chip) is already capable of running demos like Quake, and most core components are nearly complete.
  • (02:47–03:20)
    Only minor features (like stipple effects or chroma key details) remain unfinished, indicating the project is close to functional completion.
  • (03:20–04:08)
    Despite progress, this won't run on current MiSTer FPGA setups due to hardware limitations—existing FPGA chips lack the power needed for full Voodoo + CPU emulation.
  • (04:08–04:54)
    The real potential lies in the future: pairing a Voodoo FPGA core with a Pentium-class FPGA CPU could recreate a full late-90s PC environment in hardware.
  • (05:48–06:28)
    The Voodoo architecture is complex and unique, using custom hardware pipelines (not standard APIs like DirectX), making this FPGA recreation technically impressive.
  • (06:28–07:16)
    While current hardware can't handle it, future FPGA platforms (a hypothetical "MiSTer 2") could make fully functional Voodoo-based systems viable.
  • (07:16–09:06)
    The project is open-source and already ~95% of the foundational work needed, meaning it could significantly accelerate future developments in FPGA-based retro PCs and arcade preservation.
  • (09:06–10:06)
    Long-term vision: FPGA cores could replace fragile, rare arcade hardware (like Konami or Midway boards), offering a more reliable and accessible way to preserve gaming history.
 
If it doesn't do this then I don't want any part of it.

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As modern gaming continues to go down the shitter (and get prohibitively expensive for more & more people), I'm expecting continued growth in renewed interest of retro games and systems, and doing more new stuff with what's came before.

A lot of those older games are still very playable, and can be made new again with mods & texture packs, plus new community content, translation patches, fan games etc. And the old hardware is just infinitely more interesting to study and learn for hobbyists, so it's good to see new efforts in preserving or replicating the function of that hardware as accurately as possible.

Good to see that attention now shifting to the PC graphics accelerator space; it's kind of the last untapped bastion in that regard (both IBM-compatible and non-IBM compatible).
 
Have any Glide wrappers been seeing any more work towards compatibility today? I've been using the same old ones for Diablo 2 and maybe Unreal games although to be fair those games have perfectly fine DX9 renderers that do everything Glide did and more so it doesn't really matter there.
 
I absolutely love Glide. The games that used it have such a distinctive look and feel to them. Great piece of tech, and I'd like to see this project evolve.
 
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