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                             3D ENGINES ON THE LYNX
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As on every bigger  Atari system, it doesn't matter what system at all, also the
hardcore of  the LYNX scene  is going to  check out what  is possible in kind of
real 3D games on  Atari's handheld. After there  are playable 3d games featuring
texture  mapping on ST, Falcon and Jaguar, finally the LYNX seems to be the last
frontier.

The few tries to give the LYNX a 3d game broke in very early stages, furthermore
all of  them didn't  featured any  real 3d  texturemapping. The  only commercial
attempts  were "Eye Of The Beholder" and "Alien vs. Predator" and  both  brought
blockscrolling bitmap scenarios to the LYNX only.

So it was only a  question of time untill the LYNX underground was going to work
on real 3D engines for that system.

The most known  programmer was  Matthias Domin who already released a first test
screen  of  his 3D engine, called "The Corridor". This  screen  features  just a
corridor or  at least  some routine that  gives the impression to move through a
corridor since you can change the view only a bit but cannot turn around at all.
The whole thing  uses texture mapping  in 4 colours on the walls and plain blue/
purple floor  and ceiling. It runs  in one frame at 5-6 vbls and is fairly fast,
but after all it's just a very first screen and since this one is 4 years old by
now it seems that he stopped the work on this engine.

Therefore he released another texture mapping engine on the multigame ROM called
"S.I.M.I.S" but up to now it wasn't possible  to get an image of that ROM or the
3D engine as stand-alone. So I can just mention it as another  try but can't say
anything about the features and quality of that engine at all.

The next public project is called "3D Lynx" and the only earnest try to create a
texture mapped  3d game on the LYNX. It comes from Nick Christopoulos and Andrew
May. This little thingie features a small intro sequence that shows what kind of
game the programmers have in mind, since it reminds a bit to "Wolfenstein 3D".
"3D Lynx" offers  us a real  3D engine, with  rooms and  corridors  you can walk
through  and  even  some  bitmap  sprites "running"  around  with  NO  animation
sequences, just  zooming  in  and out. While  "The Corridor" seems  to  run in a
noticable  speed this  engine is  awful slow, even if the walls featuring just 2
colours this  time. Therefore the  bitmap sprites featuring about 1o colours and
looking quite ok.
Anyway... since  it is only a "run around" show it shows that the LYNX is really
hard on his  frontiers and you must think that there are still a lot of steps to
a real  game are missing  here, so there  is no sound  and no game action so far
implemented  and I think if  those things  would be  added the whole thing would
stay as slideshow. Even if you kick the HANDY to 2oo % emulation  speed there is
not happening  much and  please remember  that you can't  speed up your original
LYNX like the HANDY...

But that wasn't  all since there is a 4th engine around and in my eyes it is the
most powerful 3D engine on the LYNX at all. It isn't  titled and  surely thought
to show  the possibilities  only. As well as "3D LYNX" it is a "real" engine and
you can move through rooms and corridors and turn around completely.
The most remarkable thing  is that the textures  are using 8 colours and at this
the engine  is as fast  as "3D Lynx", maybe  even a bit faster. But therefore it
doesn't uses  the whole screen  but only about 3/4 of the screen. Anyway, of all
things in that direction  released so  far, this one impressed me most, since it
uses very atmospheric  colours and a quite  reasonable speed, if you can call it
so... and so it shows best how a 3d game on the LYNX could look like.

Hu... what is left  to say? Up to now it seems as the LYNX can't offer the power
for texture mapping  engines that will make  it possible to create games for the
LYNX and I mean -playable- games  and no slideshows. The works done so far shows
that there  are  movements in  that  direction  but  either the  coders have not
optimized  their codes to the  edge or the LYNX  has simply not the power to let
such engines run. The problem is also that the LYNX is a quiet seldom system for
homebrewers in comparison with the Atari computer range and so it doesn't offers
that big bunch of coders forcing their little machines to do marvellous things.
Anyway, even if I  don't own a  LYNX by myself so far, the HANDY emulation on PC
made me  some kind of  curious about  the movements  of the small LYNX scene and
several games  are really fun to play and so I will try to hold my eyes open for
new bits and bytes on that sector...

stay tuned...                                                   moondog . o3/2k2
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