Quake was the first time I remember hardware actually gave you an advantage vs. other players. Those with 3dfx cards could see into water vs those without, having a texture on top you couldn’t see into.
Unreal took all of that to a whole nother level.
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2 days ago
Iirc any 3D card capable of running Q2 (ie you weren’t rendering it on your CPU) would display the transparent water (unlike Quake 1), so something like Riva 128 or Voodoo 1 at the time Quake 2 launched.
Later cards (Voodoo 2 and onwards) gave you the advantage of a significantly higher frame rate and resolution.