Yesterday, the sequel to Red Baron II turned the pretty color gold. This latest version in the Red Baron series contains the two biggest features that gamers found lacking in Red Baron II - 3D graphics support and extended multiplayer options.

　　Dynamix listened and back in April began work on the updated version. The title now supports 3Dfx Voodoo and Voodoo2 through Glide but no other chipset. If you don't have a 3Dfx chipset, you'll be stuck with the software renderer. The development team used Glide because they had been working with the API on other Dynamix titles. New graphic features for the game include reworked textures (in 3D only), better looking cockpits (including one which Dynamix has nicknamed the Wonder Woman plane where you have floating gauges with a plane you can see though), better smoke and haze effects, and explosions.

　　Red Baron II supported only four players in multiplayer mode, and gamers just didn't think that it was enough. So the team decided to support up to 40 or 50 players to make the game more enjoyable. Dynamix's head software engineer, Brian Apar, says that the team has been running up to 16 people on a Pentium 90 without a big performance hit. He said that overall multiplayer performance is more regulated by the network connection than it is by processing power. One other new option comes to the multiplayer front - gamers will be able to set up their own rogue servers so they can host multiplayer games on their own terms. Rather than just having this feature as an afterthought, Dynamix has made the rogue feature very customizable so the rogue master can change several options to crank difficulty up or tone it down.

　　GameSpot News spoke with Dynamix's head software engineer, Brian Apar, who said that, "Red Baron II released with some features that just didn't make it in there." And while Red Baron 3D is packaged as a new edition, it will still remain much like Red Baron II, as it has nothing new in the way of content. Owners of Red Baron II have an option to buy RB3D and after sending in the original RBII disks will receive a 100-percent rebate. For those with good Internet access, Dynamix will also release a 12MB Super Patch for RBII that will upgrade it into RB3D.

　　As with most modern flight simulators, Red Baron 3D ships with support for force-feedback joysticks and will sell for US$39.99 and should be hitting shelves in the next two weeks. To find out what the enhanced title looks like, take a look at some exclusive screenshots of Red Baron 3D.