The tree demo Nvidia used to show off GeForce is available for dowload.

[SteveC]

GPF in the G200ICD.DLL ?!?! This is an opengl application?!? And there I was thinking that the OGL implementation of the G400 was crap...

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Cheers,
Steve

[Cloudy]

About 3dfx naplam, there are rumors that all this fancy stuff it does works mainly in GLIDE... eh eh eh ...
GeForce does have bump mapping, only it's not embm (Glaze3D will have embm since they invented it in the first place and they also have accumulation / "T" buffer).

Check this out: http://www3.sharkyextreme.com/hardwa...oys_interview/

The tree needs so many polygons for the branches...
I still bet Savage 2000 will be the real kick ass.

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Cloudy
Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Celeron 400@75Mhz, 128Mb Ram, Xitel Storm Platinum,
2 x IBM 4.3Gb scsi, Pioneer DVD rom scsi, ati rage fury.

[This message has been edited by Cloudy (edited 09-07-1999).]

[wizz]

SteveC,

Hi mate, i was also madly enthusiastic about embm when Matrox anounced it, simply because i want to create racing game that looks photorealistic, but what i found was that embm would give realism but without depth, to have photorealism would require a huge number of polygons with possibly bumpmapping done in software not hardware which the geforce 256 can do. I was told i would have to wait until a card came out that could handle the required mount of polygons for such a game (cue Geforce 256). EMBM is good, but i feel this technology may become surpassed, especialy by the Savage 2000 with its texture compression in dx7.

Tony

[Nuno]

Wizz: so you are willing to write a game that would only run properly in 1% of systems? Not very comercially wise. I wonder if game developer really think most of the people out there owns even a voodoo3. They seem to forget all the rage pro that still are around.

[wizz]

Nuno,
Yes absolutely, the funny thing is that people would still buy it because its way ahead of its time. Those who look ahead will reap the rewards, imagine Quake 3 looking realistic, no matter how good it looks now, its just a tarted up cartoon, but the minute it has photorealism, you bet it would become the best selling game ever. I believe the next gen cards and the ones after with higher memory, typicaly 128Megs and higher will allow games of visual realism that would blow you mind. Lets put it this way, did you watch Toy Story when it was around, film was okay but the graphics were amazing, and watching Antz and Its a Bugs life awesome, it makes me think of what we can do next, a photorealistic racing game is nothing, just my 2 cents.

Tony

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To understand life we should remove complexity and find simplicity.
Tony 1999

[franksch3]

It's perfect commercially wise. People see how good looking realistic the game looks and buy a new T&L accelerator and the game. Two companies have profit instead of one. ;-)

[Cloudy]

Think about adventure games (quests and other games involving creatures)...
Think about the porno industry, once they have truely photorealistic figures, the porno industry will be a geek zone instead of a slut zone. Hey, M$ might even become the new porno industry

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Cloudy
Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Celeron 400@75Mhz, 128Mb Ram, Xitel Storm Platinum,
2 x IBM 4.3Gb scsi, Pioneer DVD rom scsi, ati rage fury.

[SteveC]

Hmm, Cloudy, you've just told us more about you than you realise...

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Cheers,
Steve

[SteveC]

Back to the topic...
Wizz - I was not madly enthusiastic, but I am now bloody impressed. Surely from a developer's point of view, for the next 6 months at least you are not going to write games that work on 1 graphics chipset? Nuno's right - every other card on the planet, including the Rage Pro (shudder when I remember those...), can't handle the number of polygons the geforce256 can. Not even the TNT2 which until the other week was the best card on the planet. So, for now, you can get a very similar effect to what the geforce can do using a limited number of polys and bump mapping them.
Don't get me wrong - the geforce is an amazing piece of kit, but we don't need it now. And I'll be suprised to see a huge take up in software writen for it.

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Cheers,
Steve

[This message has been edited by SteveC (edited 09-07-1999).]

[This message has been edited by SteveC (edited 09-07-1999).]

[Cloudy]

Steve, you'll see. Game developers won't be able to ignore 8 dynamic light sources in hardware just like that, think about all the dungeon based games with dynamic lightning coming off the torches. Think Diablo III with real looking people and monsters, darker dungeon with realistic light flickers. Your lightning bolts / flaming arrows will also be considered lighting sources so you'll see spells and flying by illuminating the surrounding... Wow, I can't wait for it to happen !

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Cloudy
Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Celeron 400@75Mhz, 128Mb Ram, Xitel Storm Platinum,
2 x IBM 4.3Gb scsi, Pioneer DVD rom scsi, ati rage fury.

[SteveC]

Yeah, I know, but you cannot write games that work on just one graphics card! You'll go bust!

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Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)

[Cloudy]

One ?!
Why one ???
GeForce 256, Savage 2000, Glaze3D
1 + 1 + 1 = 3

Steve ? You should drink something strong, you see everything 1/3 times !!!
Do it b4 taking a leak or you might see something that'll scare the hell out of you

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Cloudy
Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Celeron 400@75Mhz, 128Mb Ram, Xitel Storm Platinum,
2 x IBM 4.3Gb scsi, Pioneer DVD rom scsi, ati rage fury.

[This message has been edited by Cloudy (edited 09-07-1999).]

[SteveC]

OK, when will these three all be on the shelves in stores? Even then, three cards out of how many? To do well, a game has tro work on anything since around a year ago at least. Since then, there's been the G200, G400, G400 MAX, TNT, TNT2, Ultra TNT2, SiS have something, S3 Savage, Savage4 or whatever they're called, Voodoo3 - various kinds, Ati Rage 128, Ati Rage Fury & whatever, intel's cards, need I go on? I still think it will be crazy to release games that work on less than a handful of cards.

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Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)

[Cloudy]

In this case I guess they'll make a few features optional through an option menu.
You can't stop progress.

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Cloudy
Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Celeron 400@75Mhz, 128Mb Ram, Xitel Storm Platinum,
2 x IBM 4.3Gb scsi, Pioneer DVD rom scsi, ati rage fury.

[SteveC]

I know I can't. But the users at large can if they have just bought something like a TNT2 or a G400MAX, they will not be willing to go out and buy a geforce256, will they?

I don't want to stop progress! Anyone know how to build a T&L add on for the G400, now that would be so cool!

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Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)