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Old 21-05-18, 17:27   #21
penguinraider
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Sorry to be refloating this after a couple of months, but I remember being able to switch True Alpha on/off while playing on my PC back in the 90s. Maybe this option is graphics card related?

Enabling True Alpha gave transparent textures as we know them for water, smoke, fire, etc. Disabling it resulted in actually faking this transparency, using textures that were only transparent in alternating pixels on the screen, like a checker board. No alpha channel here, each pixel was either completely unvisible or completely opaque. The difference was most visible when playing at lower resolutions, since pixels on screen were larger. Higher resolutions had practically no visible difference.

I used to turn True Alpha off since it improved performance significantly on my low specs computer.
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Old 21-05-18, 18:27   #22
Kirishima
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So, it used the pseudo transparency effects that older consoles like the megadrive used back in the day. That would make sense, pictures from the matrox mystique version of the original game had Lara's shadow rendered in a similar manner. It probably would've looked okay on crt's.

Last edited by Kirishima; 21-05-18 at 18:28.
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Old 21-05-18, 21:59   #23
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This isn't related to a GPU, but apparently to a CPU. If the game runs on a CPU without MMX extension or is fooled into thinking so, it allows playing only in a special software mode that you normally have no access to.
What does it do? Exactly what penguinraider wrote. But for those who don't believe:
- ON
- OFF
- ON
- OFF
Just look at the vibrant colors! Normally you never get to see these! In fact, playing in software mode has more advantages like loading screens fading to black and then resuming the game rather than resuming it immediately and allowing the garbage-textures glitch to appear.

So how can a mere mortal play like I did? The simplest way to do so is to run TR3 with DXWnd and fooling the game into thinking that your CPU has no MMX extension:
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Old 21-05-18, 23:36   #24
Dustie
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Finally an explanation, after all these years
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Old 22-05-18, 01:40   #25
Defrago
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How do you like this water?

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Old 23-05-18, 19:18   #26
RequiredField
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So much foam

For more fun try editing your config file to force ZBuffer even though this software mode doesn't support it and enjoy the effects!
Spoilers:

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Old 02-06-18, 14:41   #27
TRExpertgamer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RequiredField View Post
This isn't related to a GPU, but apparently to a CPU. If the game runs on a CPU without MMX extension or is fooled into thinking so, it allows playing only in a special software mode that you normally have no access to.
What does it do? Exactly what penguinraider wrote. But for those who don't believe:
- ON
- OFF
- ON
- OFF
Just look at the vibrant colors! Normally you never get to see these! In fact, playing in software mode has more advantages like loading screens fading to black and then resuming the game rather than resuming it immediately and allowing the garbage-textures glitch to appear.

So how can a mere mortal play like I did? The simplest way to do so is to run TR3 with DXWnd and fooling the game into thinking that your CPU has no MMX extension:
NICE! NOW I'M GLAD I'VE FINALLY FOUND A WAY HOW I CAN ENABLE THE TRUE ALPHA FEATURE IN THE FINAL VERSION OF THE GAME!
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