Sharky Extreme's exclusive preview of the Metabyte TNT SLI has the scoop on plans to offer SLI-mode TNT accelerators (two cards used in tandem) to offer increased performance, and from the report it sounds like this is a breakthrough that will offer SLI mode for any card they choose to implement this with. Here's an excerpt to give a feel for what this is all about:

Metabyte's engineers have been working on an undercover technology that allows not only nVidia chipsets to be SLI'ed in tandem, but virtually any future chipset from any vendor that hits the market.

The internal code name for the Metabyte project is "Wicked3D Stepsister" (don't ask us, no one we talked to remembers where this name originated from) and it heralds a new dawn as far as linked high-powered video options go. Our Metabyte sources answered "Yes, yes, and yes" when asked if it was possible for the Wicked3D Stepsister program to be adapted to work with the S3 Savage 4, 3Dfx Voodoo3, TNT2, or another brand new chip architecture. Although it's unlikely in Metabyte's mind that they'll do a Savage4 or Voodoo3-based SLI product, the TNT2 is a whole different enchilada. Later in this article we'll break the news on two possible TNT2 SLI solutions, but for now let's look at the Step Sister technology itself.

Here's the way the system will work:

Metabyte is going to sell both PCI and AGP versions of their TNT SLI capable cards separately for between $125 and $150 for each 16MB card. Much like the Voodoo2 SLI setups that we all know and love, the Metabyte TNT SLI system works similarly but differs with two possible SLI combos: 1 AGP TNT + 1 PCI TNT 1 PCI TNT + 1 PCI TNT

The AGP + PCI version of the Metabyte SLI rig will offer slightly faster performance (about 5 to 10%) than the 2 TNT PCI cards when linked together. This is due to the way that Metabyte has chosen to implement SLI, to maximize their driver's capabilities. Instead of rendering each 3D image's odd or even lines in succession the way 3Dfx's SLI system works, Metabyte's process separates the entire 3D image into two halves: The top half of the on-screen image, and the bottom half of the on-screen image. This supposedly reduces the CPU overhead versus the odd/even 3Dfx approach while making the whole operation smoother and more seamless.

The Coming has posted an interview with Michael "Saxs" Persson talking with this Shiny programmer (as opposed to the grubby type) about their upcoming third-person action adventure, Messiah.

There are a few new screenshots from Drakan: Order of the Flame on Drakan.Net, and two more new shots on The Flamelands.

Gangland.org has posted six new screenshots from Kingpin:Life of Crime, Xatrix Entertainment's upcoming gangster-inspired Quake II-engine game.

id Software's Tim Willits made a rare .plan update with word on how to order hockey-style Quake III Arena Jerseys like you can see the id guys wearing in the photos in the recent print edition of Next-Generation.

A chunk of new Quake III Arena footage was unveiled as part of a piece on the Pentium III launch. Verbatim sent along this copy of the Quake III Arena footage (3.9 MB) in QuickTime format, FTP mirror courtesy of Walnut Creek CDROM, and it can also be seen with the accompanying report in this ZDNN Silicon Spin report (in RealPlayer format), where the Quake III Arena footage begins just past the 1:30 mark. Thanks fRy.

Two cool new screenshots from Activision's Charlie Hill showed up in my mailbox, both from their upcoming Heavy Gear II. I'll thumbnail them here, and if anyone is concerned about the spoiler aspects of posting thumbnails on the news page, I'm interested in hearing from you, otherwise I'm going to assume it's okay to post shots occasionally like this. These 32-bit color shots are from one of the game's outer space levels, "asteroid shipyards" showing off a new weapons effect on the Light Particle Accelerator:

Ritualistic has word from Ritual programmer Scott Alden that barring any unforeseen problems, they would be releasing a 1.03 patch for Sin sometime this week. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

3DNews.Net continues its big ole interview with a bunch of folks in the industry, asking the panel of Adrian Chmielarz from Metropolis, Scott Herrington of Shiny, Robert Stevenson of Interactive Magic, Paul Steed from id Software, Raven's John Scott, Paul Butterfield of Monolith, Legend's Glen Dahlgren, and ElectroTECH's Alan Gassanov their opinions about 3D sound, and eye candy.

GameFan Online has posted an Aliens vs. Predator feature that offers 65 screenshots, as well as mpegs and artwork showing off each character class.

Soldier-of-Fortune.com has a new screenshots section up with all the known shots that have been released from Raven's upcoming Quake II-engine game, with a couple more new shots thrown in to get the whole thing kicked off right.

There are some new screenshots on The Wheel of Time site. Thanks Tal Rhen.

There's a preview of Oni, Bungie's upcoming action game on MacAddict. Thanks Scandalon.

If you missed it yesterday, here's my Voodoo3 Preview. There's an ATI Xpert 128 review at Fast Graphics. Thanks Tzeng.

The link was down quite a bit yesterday, presumably because of heavy interest, but there's still time to enter that 3Dfx contest where you can win a Voodoo3. This year's ACM Quakefest has been announced, the event formerly known as the Purdue Quakefest.

• Version 1.1 of Wadtool, the texture management tool for the Mac is now available...
• Heatsink-guide.com can help you cool your burning Celeron. Thanks Tzeng...
• Birdman's Lair has files to support Turok2 and Blood2 on the SpaceOrb 360 controller. Thanks 3dAddiction. Word there is that Thief Sporb support is a possibility in the future...

Happy belated birthday to Raven's Jake Simpson, subject of a special birthday Q&A on Raven-Games. I'll be out during the day today and tomorrow, today's absence due to what is hopefully the last lengthy visit to my Dentist, the able Dr. Toothy, so expect some of those special pain-killer influenced postings from me upon my return.

As soon as I said it was no longer a beta, it turns out there are a couple of bugs in Blammo, most vexing is that the link to "previous 2 days" is skipping the previous day (or at least is was yesterday). If the problem persists, hopefully you can use this stuff to find what you need, conveniently located under today's LoD, provided by Lithium:

Link of the day: Apparently at one time this was an actual e-bay ad.

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