The percentage change in resolution you ran the games at was also absolutely mind blowing too.
For the most part we went from running the game at 320x200 or 320x240 to 640x480 in that first round of acceleration. I think in terms of % change it is a bigger leap than anything we've really had since, or certainly after 1920x1080.
So you suddenly had super smooth graphics, much better looking translucency and effects, and the # of pixels quadupled or more and you could just see everything so much more clearly.
Yeah that's true. Software rendering at low resolution is not a good sight to look at.
I remember back in 1997, when Quake 2 was just out, I sit in a net bar (where you pay to use a computer) and played an hour of Quake 2 in software rendering. The game was interesting, but I felt a bit sick, half due to the resolution, half due to the almost infinite brownish colour. A girl behind me murmured, "This is not as half fun as Duke Nukem", and yeah I completely agreed with her.
I think I still agree with her somewhat. Quake 2 is a great game, but Duke3d is a fun one.
Where Quake2 really shined was in multiplayer, especially mods like q2ctf.
Quake2 was released at just the right moment to take advantage of both 3D acceleration and broadband Internet access. Playing a game of q2ctf, in 3D-accelerated 800x600 mode, with 60 ms ping was just fucking amazing.
For the most part we went from running the game at 320x200 or 320x240 to 640x480 in that first round of acceleration. I think in terms of % change it is a bigger leap than anything we've really had since, or certainly after 1920x1080.
So you suddenly had super smooth graphics, much better looking translucency and effects, and the # of pixels quadupled or more and you could just see everything so much more clearly.