"The unabashed performance leader of the group was the Intergraph Intense 3D Pro 2200S" BYTE March 1998
In keeping with a long established precedence for graphics leadership, the Intense 3D Pro 2200s has pushed Intergraph up against Silicon Graphics' entry and mid-range systems. The newest addition to Intergraph's TDZ 2000 series (which has offerings that dominate the chart in every category, including price / performance and feature set) is setting new sites on mid-range performance highs.The Intense 3D Pro 2200S is priced competitively for its class, at $2387 (£1491), and is fully compatible with any industry-standard Intel / Windows(R) / Windows NT(R)-based PC or workstation.
The Intense 3D Pro 2200S boasts workstation class 3D graphics performance for mainstream CAD and 3D animation. It is ideal for graphics professionals who want to supercharge their current systems with top-performing 3D graphics technology. Listed below are it's features and specifications:
| Vertex level interface | OpenGL, RenderGL and Heidi acceleration | Scaling |
| Trilinear Texture Mapping | YUV-to-RGB colour conv. | |
| 32-bit Textures | PCI Bus | Anti-aliasing (vector only) |
| 24-bit Z at full resolution | Stereoscopic viewing | Fast Clear |
| Pixel-mode double buffering | Stenciling | Dynamic contrast mapping |
| Synchronous DRAM | Sub-pixel accuracy | Hardware cursor |
| On-bound VGA | Fog | Four colour lookup tables |
The Intense 3D Pro 2200 has a full-size PCI
card using Intergraph's RealiZm chipset and its own higher-performance
RAMDAC. A metal chassis supports the texture RAM daughtercard
as well as acting as a huge heat sink, keeping the card cooler
than the Diamond or AccelEclipse. Therefore eliminating the need
for a fan.
The Intense 3D Pro 2200S has an upper resolution limit of 1,280 by 1,024 and a refresh rate of 75Mhz, although Intergraph have stated that they will attempt to improve this figure in later driver versions. Despite poor results in some demo tests (specifically OpenGL DX viewset, where it was beat by some boards costing as little as £105), the 2200S came out on top overall. It shone above all the competition in Advanced Visualizer Viewperf, Softimage, and LightWave 3D tests.
Intergraph have included additional circuitry on the Intense 3D 2200S to heighten its 2D capabilities. This also allows it to utilise PCI bandwidth more efficiently and, together with the TDZ 2000's graphics-tuned system architecture, these additions squeeze out many of their competitors in benchmark tests.
With the use of Trilinear Texture Mapping, the Intense 3D Pro 2200S is able to create more realistic images and animations. Generating photorealistic images requires the use of :
- True Colour - 24 bits per pixel
- Alpha Blending to represent the translucent effects associated with transparent materials,
- Double-Buffering for smooth motion,
- Z-Buffering, using at least 24-bits per pixel to accurately model images with substantial depth
- Other features such as atmospheric fogging.
There are various methods used
to apply texture to a 3D image. The most common technique used
is taking a 2D image and "draping" it over the 3D object.
This process can be used for various textures, take these two
images on the left, we have a regular texture - the brick wall,
and we have an irregular texture, the clouds. The trick lies in
translating a 2D texture map to a 3D object. Although before we
go any further, here is some terminology that helps us understand
the relationship between objects in the 3D world and objects in
the 2D world. In our 3D world we have pixels (picture elements)
on the VDU, and we have texels (texture elements) in a texture
map.
Tri-linear interpolation
Tri-linear interpolation involves the use of texture sub-maps known as MIP maps (each MIP-map is half the size, quarter the area of the preceeding map). The final MIP-map only contains a single texel. With the use of filtering these MIP-maps can be automatically generated from the main texture map. Hence the meaning of Tri-Linear Interpolation is "linear interpolation in three dimensions". Thus making it possible to create some great effects in game playing.
There is currently a large number of MIP-mapping techniques, of which tri-linear interpolation is the most sophisticated. Due to the amount of processing required by tri-linear interpolation, many graphics cards on market today cannot generate these high-quality images. Those cards that are able to generate these high quality images can only do so by sacrificing speed colour, double buffering, and other key features. The Intense 3D Pro 2200S does not require these tradeoffs - it can support true-colour, tri-linear interpolated, double-buffered textures on displays as large are 2.5 megapixels. Although it is diffcult to appreciate the benifits of Tri-Linear Interpolation without being able to see the differences first hand.
An optional geometry accelerator is available for the OEM version of Intense 3D Pro 2200 which further increases the performance of the add-in.
Conclusion
The Intense 3D Pro 2200S is a compelling add-in for performance driven, cost conscious users of mainstream 3D graphics. Being significantly ahead of the entire mid-range throng in terms of performance, it is well worth the £1491 for those who can afford it. The launch of this card has effectively strengthened Intergraph's standing as the graphics workstation leader for Windows NT.