Difference between revisions of "BRender"

Latest revision as of 15:57, 9 May 2022

BRender

BRender is the Blazing Render engine created by Argonaut Software.

BRender Development

The PDF versions were created by converting FrameMaker/FrameReader versions from the BRender v1.2 SDK, and may have some text glitches due to missing fonts.

BRender research

I've been trying to contact people who worked on BRender, to see if they can provide an SDK. Current progress:

Sam Littlewood (u/samelittlewood) (sam in the BRender strings). Contacted on reddit, he followed up a bit later to say he no longer had any documentation or SDKs.
Dan Piponi (@sigfpe). Only has the manual, which we already have.
Jez San: Contacted, doesn't have any SDKs but did give approval to open source the BRender SDK.

BRender SDKs

We know of at least THREE existing examples of the SDK, with possibly two more existing but not yet confirmed.

IBM Developer Connection for OS/2 Volume 12, disc 3 under TOOLKITS\WARPTKV3\TOOLKIT\BETA\BRENDER: Contains an OS/2-only version of the BRender SDK, with docs in an OS/2-only format, and is limited to the floating-point only version. The internal file dates point to March 1995.
Best Of Internet July 1996. This warez CD includes a copy of the SDK called "BRender x86 1.1.2". Mainly for DOS, but includes a sample file running BRender in a Win32s app. Dates point to September 1995.
3rd source: A leaked (and confidential at this point) game source library contained an original and a modified version of the BRender SDK, complete with source. This became the v1.3.2 and "1997" source releases.
BRender SDK v1.2 (aka BRENDER25.ZIP): This version is from March 1996, and was found on January 15th, 2022.
Unfound version: Another warez CD, this one "CD-147" (I'm not sure of the name) includes "The Brender Development Toolkit V1.4" (WPNBRDT1.ZIP, 1442825 bytes).
BRender-3DMM: The version used by 3D Movie Maker. Dating to May 1995, this version is only 3 pre-compiled LIB files.

Open Sourced BRender

On May 3rd 2022, the BRender engine was open sourced by Jez San. Two versions of the source were released on this day, with a 3rd hopefully coming soon. These first two versions come from the leaked SDK mentioned above.


Version	Date	Github	Archive	Notes
v1.3.2	1998-11-17	BRender-v1.3.2	brender-v-1.3.2	Appears to be unmodified
v???	1997-08-??	BRender-1997	brender-1997	Modified to be used in a game, which has been redacted out of the source
v1.1.2	1995/09/07	BRender-v1.1.2	brender-v-1.1.2	Unmodified (or very lightly modified), originally used with the game Privateer 2
N/A	N/A	CrocDE-BRender		The version used by Croc: Definitive Edition. A modernized version of the source with OpenGL rendering

Games using the BRender Engine


Name	Year	Developer	Publisher	Platforms
3D Movie Maker	1995	Microsoft	Microsoft	Windows
Alien Odyssey	1995	Argonaut	Philips Interactive	DOS
Arena AD (cancelled)	N/A	Stainless Software	?	Windows
Bondurant High Performance Racing (Unreleased/in-house?)	N/A	Fathom Pictures	?	?
Bundesliga Manager 97 / Total Football Management	1996	Software 2000	Software 2000	DOS
Bundesliga Manager 98	1998	Software 2000	Eidos	Windows
Carmageddon	1997	Stainless Software	Interplay, SCi Games	DOS, Windows, Macintosh
Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now	1998	Stainless Software	SCi Games	Windows, Macintosh
Croc 1: Legend of the Gobbos	1997	Argonaut	Fox Interactive	Windows
Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors	1997	Studio Fish	BBC Multimedia	Windows
F1 Manager	1996	Software 2000	Software 2000	DOS
F1 Manager Professional	1997	Software 2000	Software 2000	DOS
Freelancer 2120 (cancelled)	N/A	Imagitec	?	DOS
FX Fighter	1995	Argonaut	GTE Entertainment	DOS
FX Fighter Turbo	1996	Argonaut	GTE Entertainment	Windows
Hasbro Xscape/Rush/Toaster (cancelled)	N/A	Hasbro	?	?
Hotwheels project (cancelled)	N/A	Stainless Software	?	?
Independence War	1998	Particle Systems	Infogrames	Windows
I-War: Defiance	1999	Particle Systems	Infogrames	Windows
Motor Mash	1998	Eutechnyx Limited	Ocean Software	DOS, Windows
Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker	1996	Microsoft	Microsoft	Windows
Pete Sampras Tennis '97	1996	Codemasters	Codemasters	DOS, Windows
Play with the Teletubbies	1998	Asylum Entertainment	Knowledge Adventure	Windows
Privateer 2: The Darkening	1996	EA Manchester	Electronic Arts	DOS, Windows
Queen: The eYe	1998	Destination Design	Electronic Arts	DOS
Search and Rescue (SAR)	1997	Interactivision	Intense Entertainment Interactive	Windows
Sensible Soccer '98	1997	Sensible Software	GT Interactive	Windows
Sensible Soccer '98: European Club Edition	1998	Sensible Software	GT Interactive	Windows
Surf and Destroy (demo)	N/A	Grolier Interactive	?	Windows

BRender Versions

See BRender versions used by games

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ==BRender Development==
-*[https://rr2000.toshiba-3.com/R4/BRENDER/TEBK_1.HTM BRender Technical Manual]
+*[https://rr2000.toshiba-3.com/R4/BRENDER/TEBK_1.HTM BRender Technical Manual] (HTML version)
+*[https://archive.org/details/brender-technical-reference-manual BRender Technical Manual v1.2] (PDF)
+*[https://archive.org/details/brender-tutorial-guide BRender Tutorial Guide v1.2] (PDF)
+*[https://archive.org/details/brender-x-86-install-guide BRender x86 Install Guide v1.2] (PDF)
+The PDF versions were created by converting FrameMaker/FrameReader versions from the BRender v1.2 SDK, and may have some text glitches due to missing fonts.
 ==BRender research==
@@ Line 11: / Line 17: @@
 *Sam Littlewood ([https://www.reddit.com/user/samlittlewood u/samelittlewood]) (sam in the BRender strings). [https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2o2bh2/17_year_old_carmageddon_debugging_symbols_file/cmjni9n Contacted on reddit], he followed up a bit later to say he no longer had any documentation or SDKs.
 *Dan Piponi ([https://twitter.com/sigfpe @sigfpe]). [https://twitter.com/Foone/status/662067352247242752 Only has the manual, which we already have].
-*Jez San: Not yet contacted. I have a possible email address to follow up on.
+*Jez San: Contacted, doesn't have any SDKs but did give approval to open source the BRender SDK.
-<br />
 ==BRender SDKs==
@@ Line 20: / Line 24: @@
 *[https://archive.org/details/IBMDeveloperConnectionForOS25CDs IBM Developer Connection for OS/2 Volume 12], disc 3 under TOOLKITS\WARPTKV3\TOOLKIT\BETA\BRENDER: Contains an OS/2-only version of the BRender SDK, with docs in an OS/2-only format, and is limited to the floating-point only version. The internal file dates point to March 1995.
 *[https://archive.org/details/boi-jul-96 Best Of Internet July 1996]. This warez CD includes a copy of the SDK called "[[BRender x86 1.1.2]]". Mainly for DOS, but includes a sample file running BRender in a Win32s app. Dates point to September 1995.
+*3rd source: A leaked (and confidential at this point) game source library contained an original and a modified version of the BRender SDK, complete with source. This became the v1.3.2 and "1997" source releases.
-*Unknown 3rd source: There's a leaked version of the SDK that has been shown in some places (but kept confidential), and seems to be a later version than the other two.
 *[https://archive.org/details/brender25 BRender SDK v1.2] (aka BRENDER25.ZIP): This version is from March 1996, and  was found on January 15th, 2022.
 *Unfound version: Another warez CD, this one "[http://hassoft.freeservers.com/proglist/Cd-147.txt CD-147]" (I'm not sure of the name) includes "The Brender Development Toolkit V1.4" (WPNBRDT1.ZIP, 1442825 bytes).
+*[https://github.com/foone/BRender-3DMM BRender-3DMM]: The version used by 3D Movie Maker. Dating to May 1995, this version is only 3 pre-compiled LIB files.
+==Open Sourced BRender==
+On May 3rd 2022, [https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1521574394761383936 the BRender engine was open sourced by Jez San]. Two versions of the source were released on this day, with a 3rd hopefully coming soon. These first two versions come from the leaked SDK mentioned above.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|+
+!Version
+!Date
+!Github
+!Archive
+!Notes
+|-
+|v1.3.2
+|1998-11-17
+|[https://github.com/foone/BRender-v1.3.2 BRender-v1.3.2]
+|[https://archive.org/details/brender-v-1.3.2 brender-v-1.3.2]
+|Appears to be unmodified
+|-
+|v???
+|1997-08-??
+|[https://github.com/foone/BRender-1997 BRender-1997]
+|[https://archive.org/details/brender-1997 brender-1997]
+|Modified to be used in a game, which has been redacted out of the source
+|-
+|v1.1.2
+|1995/09/07
+|[https://github.com/foone/BRender-v1.1.2 BRender-v1.1.2]
+|[https://archive.org/details/brender-v-1.1.2 brender-v-1.1.2]
+|Unmodified (or very lightly modified), originally used with the game Privateer 2
+|-
+|N/A
+|N/A
+|[https://github.com/crocguy0688/CrocDE-BRender CrocDE-BRender]
+|
+|The version used by Croc: Definitive Edition. A modernized version of the source with OpenGL rendering
+|}
 ==Games using the BRender Engine==
-<br />
 {| class="wikitable sortable"
 |+
@@ Line 84: / Line 123: @@
 |[https://www.mobygames.com/game/croc-legend-of-the-gobbos Croc 1: Legend of the Gobbos]
 |1997
-|Argonaut
-|Fox Interactive
-|Windows
-|-
-|[https://www.mobygames.com/game/croc-2 Croc 2]
-|1999
 |Argonaut
 |Fox Interactive
@@ Line 208: / Line 241: @@
 |Windows
 |-
-|[https://archive.org/details/surfdestroy_demo Surf & Destroy (demo)]
+|[https://archive.org/details/surfdestroy_demo Surf and Destroy (demo)]
 |N/A
 |Grolier Interactive

Difference between revisions of "BRender"

Latest revision as of 15:57, 9 May 2022

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