New ICD release when?

[rickn]

I agree with cpld006. If matrox releases drivers and hardware based on quality, then they should have not released the G400, because the openGL ICD is not of very good quality. And sure kruzin, you dont care when they release drivers since you get to get every new beta and release candidate they make. You might feel differently if you were on the other side of the fence and had to play openGL games with vsync problems and textures turning rainbow colors. I had a tnt2 card, and every leaked release improved upon something or fixed some type of bug. Nvidia does not offer end user support, so if those drivers were flakey they were not responsible nor do they offer any solution. Of course you can email the head openGL guru, nick triantos, and he will respond to questions or bugs you may encounter. I think nvidia is one of the only 3d chip maker who really knows what they are doing when it comes to drivers, especially openGL

[This message has been edited by rickn (edited 08-21-1999).]

[This message has been edited by rickn (edited 08-21-1999).]

[Shreek]

I have to take a little bit of issue with this one. My original post was referring to a new OpenGL ICD, and not necessarily harping over the fact that I thought the 5.13 drivers sucked, which I don't think they do at all. I have zero problems with the 5.13 D3D drivers or 2D display drivers.

If you say they shouldn't have released the OpenGL drivers because they're not top-quality, I have disagree. They aren't top quality, but they work, albeit with some bugginess. I have yet to have an OpenGL driver-related crash with them. In my experience with 3D cards, I have yet to see OpenGL drivers from ANY company that didn't need some improvement somewhere, whether the fix some tearing or just get some better framerates in a new release. And this is true for the ICD included in the 5.13 release.

[Kruzin]

I have been there. I was a regular G200 owner, and got drivers along with everyone else. I lived through the lack of OGL, through the wrappers and up to 4.51 and the beta ICDs before I became a beta tester. I agree that when I was there, I wanted drivers whenever I could get them, and was often there bitching with everyone else during the long wait for 4.51.

But it has not been 7 months (like with 4.51). It's only been a couple months. IMO quaterly driver updates are what I would consider reasonable.

And trust me, you're not missing much by not having beta drivers available to you. Yea, they may benchmark faster, but many of the early 5.2x builds had major problems. It would be more of a black eye than anything else to Matrox if they released something as bad as some of the builds I've used (even with a beta label). Websites would get the betas and disect them, making sure to point out every little flaw. It would look worse for Matrox than the less frequent updates do.

You think you've seen rainbows...I could show you some snapshots I turned in with bug reports that would blow you away Then there where the builds that would crash in OGL if you tried to switch res...or the builds that would lock up Halflife, but only on-line, and only with analog modems (those builds particulary sucked for me, since HL on-line over my modem is my favorite game ). Beta drivers are not the treat some of you seem to think they are...and how would it look for Matrox if those beta bugs where plastered all over the net? (all above mentioend bugs where squashed some time ago)

That's not to say that I don't think they should have a more open beta program. I think they should make some builds of the beta drivers available in an unsupported form. But we have no say in that decision. I'm just saying that beta drivers are not for most people. Most people would rather have a reliable system than one that runs benchmarks a little faster, and has stability problems...

[ALBPM]

I have to agree with Kruzin. As I slowly climb in my asbestos suit. We Beta testers must take the Good with the Bad. Most of the users out there would not like the experiences that we've had over the last few months. When you pay good money for a card you expect good drivers, you don't want to deal with a new beta every few weeks which may or may not work well on your system. We are the ones that get to play the Disco versions of Q2, Q3 and HL or get booted out of games, so you guys don't.

Paul

[M Ragsdale]

I thought Disco was dead, Did I miss something???? I thought Bruce Springstein and Van Halen burnt disco down a long time ago.

Rags

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Some people call me the Space Cowboy.....

[Kruzin]

Do the Hustle!

http://xplorenet.com/~hti/TFC-1.jpg

(From a very early beta of the 5.2x drivers. See those 5 lights on the wall...every time one changed, so did all the disco lights. The other players musta thought I was crazy standing in that room dancing )

No...I don't think Matrox shoulda made that build a public beta

[ALBPM]

Here's another from an early Beta imagine playing like this all the time and then getting booted out of the game.



Cool, I feel another Flashback coming on!!

Paul

[violentg]

i agree with most of what the beta testers are saying about better drivers less frequently but i also think that matrox has a greater commitment to the end user of the g400 we bought this card on "faith" knowing full well that the opengl icd was weak.now i think that matrox should work overtime to provide this first release that puts the card up to par like was promised by every reviewer and poster on this forum.we bought the card without it really ready to compete well and thats ok im happy with mine but i think they need to step it up on this first
big increase and give everyone the ammunition we need to convince people that the matrox g400 is really the best all round card on the market.then they can start their quarterly releases!

just my thoughts

[KvHagedorn]

Ha. Maybe we should get Bruce and Eddie to serenade Matrox and drive those Disco Blues away

Kind Regards,

KvH

[Himself]

Aha, so that's the term for what you are as an NVIDIA card owner, a beta tester! What you guys describe is exactly the kind of thing I saw with my TNT regarding the "reference" drivers and the "release candidate" drivers. Trouble is, there were only 2 official driver releases in the 10 months I owned the card. I think that is rather too slow to update drivers.



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"putain qu'est-ce ça rame!!!"

[Slartibartfast]

Hey Merchant,

1. You probably shouldn't post your password to the dev. rel. site... ya know?

2. It doesn't work anymore anyway (HEHE).

- Ash

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Portions of this message may have been Copyright 1999, Jorden van der Elst. All rights (and lefts) reserved.
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Specs? You want specs? Yeah. Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This is my boomstick! It's a twelve gauge double barreled Remington, S-Mart's top-of-the-line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop Smart. Shop S-mart. Ya got that?! Now I swear, the next one of you primates, even touches me...

[Kruzin]

I don't know when, but the beta boiz are currently testing a release candidate, so it can't be too far off...

[cpld006]

Matrox driver support just sucks period, Have to wait forever it seems for new drivers to come out. The only reason why i'm bitching about it now and I wasn't before is that I recently discovered Quake II on-line and the G400 just can't cut it when the going get's rough, these new drivers are supposed to take care of that, But i'm tired of waiting so I went back to my Voodoo3 and low and behold I found new drivers for it something Matrox seems unable to deliver on a timely basis. Come on now the 5.13xx have been out almost 2 months now.

[Byock]

Why the Fuss? WHen the drivers are stable, Matrox will release them. Remeber the G200 Open GL Beta (Or Alpha) ICD? Matrox released them and all people did was complain..
I agree with the big M, Release them when they are done.

Okay, I am off my soap box now...

[chuck]

It's worse than that!
Software is NEVER done. Deciding when to release it is purely art & opinion.
If you don't like the way Matrox decides, the answer is simple - get a job there, work your way up to manager and make the decision yourself
chuck

ps This does not reflect on Shreek, he asked a reasonable question to start out this thread.
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(erstwhile cjolley) celery 333@500mz 2.2V, Abit BH6, 128meg@cas2 gh, 10gig IBM 7200rpm UltraStar, Princton EO75, SB Live Value, V3 2000 PCI (still waiting on my MAX!)




[This message has been edited by chuck (edited 08-22-1999).]