Where 3dFX engineers went?

Actually this thread is made just to keep this separate from quegyboe thread who has nothing to do with 3dFX, so here it goes:

Someone said "There isnt really any "3Dfx technology" in the GeForceFX. It was mostly all just wishful thinking by nVidia fans trying to shoot down the 9700 pro"

well i`m not an nvidia fan and that`s what i thougt, all this cinematic thing of the gffx seems to be like the ones in the last voodoo line, motion blur, depth of field, t-buffer...

And the company who has the rights for the vsa-100 is Quantum 3D but it did`t have to buy them because the president of quantum is the same guy who use to own 3dFX, i know that he owns the vsa-100 but i really don`t know what nvidia actually bought with those 70.000.000 in assets

I read somewhere (don't remember where, and don't have time to look) that the FX in GeForce FX was there to show that 3dfx technology was used, or something along those lines.

Tygur said:

I read somewhere (don't remember where, and don't have time to look) that the FX in GeForce FX was there to show that 3dfx technology was used, or something along those lines.

Click to expand...

The FX is there as a tribute to 3Dfx, nothing more (and thats what nVidia said)

FACT: the new GeforceFX has a new feature that the other Geforces' done have: If you have seen a pic of the internals of the FX GPU... you will see an area called "HSR". All of the Voodoo people know what this is. "Hidden Surface Removal" Voodoo5 was capable of using this but it was far too buggy at the time and was never taken seriously. I'll get a pic of what I'm talking about if there are too many people telling me otherwise.

Evnas said:

The FX is there as a tribute to 3Dfx, nothing more (and thats what nVidia said)

Click to expand...

If it was just a tribute, then why didn't they do it with the GeForce4?


I know for a fact that the GeForce FX includes technology from 3dfx. This quote is cut and pasted from a nVidia press release:

“The NVIDIA GeForce FX GPU is the result of ten years of passionate effort by the best 3D graphics engineers in the business and includes technologies invented at NVIDIA and 3dfx,” Huang continued. “The GeForce FX GPU delivers unprecedented 3D graphics performance and the NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture ensures the reliability and quality that has become the hallmark of NVIDIA GPUs.”

Click to expand...

Funny, I remember an interview w/ an Nvidia engineer who seemed insulted at using 3dFX tech in the NV30. Why, he asked the interviewer, would Nvidia want to use 3 year old technology in their state of the art GPU..

And btw- HSR has been around for years, since the Geforce2 and original Radeon1...

That's what the Z-buffers are....

OverclockNStein said:

FACT: the new GeforceFX has a new feature that the other Geforces' done have: If you have seen a pic of the internals of the FX GPU... you will see an area called "HSR". All of the Voodoo people know what this is. "Hidden Surface Removal" Voodoo5 was capable of using this but it was far too buggy at the time and was never taken seriously. I'll get a pic of what I'm talking about if there are too many people telling me otherwise.

Click to expand...

yes, the hidden surface removel. once perfected, as hopfully nvidia has done, without quarks. would definatly cut back on the GPU processes, giving u very hefty performance advantage! looking forward to the new card. but i don't think i want to be the ginny pig. i am going to wate till the chipset is out for atleast 3 to 4 months, so the card makers can get the bugs out....


z buffer. ... The z buffer is a 2D plane, representing the front surface of the
3D viewing cube (the volume in which the graphics image will appear). ...


and that is not hidden suface removal!

HSR acually does what it says, removes the hidden surfaces that canot be seen in 3d rendering. the z-buffer pastes the actual picture over top of these unseen runders in the background that are being rendered. if you could find a way to only render the actual pisture shown and do away with the unseen renders (that go on in the backgroud behind what you are seeing) this would give a performance advantage of atleast 40% if not more!

Just one small comment... Even though the FX uses rendering techniques and ideas and engineers from what used to be 3dfx I would never call it 3dfx technology!
The FX is engineered by nVidia engineers (which maybe worked for 3dfx before) and no others...

crotale said:

Just one small comment... Even though the FX uses rendering techniques and ideas and engineers from what used to be 3dfx I would never call it 3dfx technology!
The FX is engineered by nVidia engineers (which maybe worked for 3dfx before) and no others...

Click to expand...

I agree, 3dfx is a thing of the past. nvidia through and through.

the only card that can make full removal of hidden surfarces si the kyro right???

Darkseid said:

the only card that can make full removal of hidden surfarces si the kyro right???

Click to expand...

if you mean tile based rendering, yes i believe the KyroII was the last mainstream card to use it

Tygur said:

If it was just a tribute, then why didn't they do it with the GeForce4?

Click to expand...

Lets look at it like this....it takes roughly 2 - 3 years to get a video card from design, to the store...how long ago did nVidia buy 3Dfx? mmm hmmm. It was the first card that 3Dfx engineers actually helped design from scratch, to retail

funnyperson1 said:

if you mean tile based rendering, yes i believe the KyroII was the last mainstream card to use it

Click to expand...

All of videologic's videocards used it. They were kinda the first to do it right and fast enough. Since the Neon250 days anyways.

To bad there`s no kyro 3 that would be a good card for budget

Evnas said:

Lets look at it like this....it takes roughly 2 - 3 years to get a video card from design, to the store...how long ago did nVidia buy 3Dfx? mmm hmmm. It was the first card that 3Dfx engineers actually helped design from scratch, to retail

Click to expand...

i c..
you did catch my previous post with the quote from nvidia, right?

I'm not saying that nvidia copied these 3dfx technologies verbatim and just threw them in. I'm sure they were worked on and perfected over time. All I'm saying is basically what that quote I got from that press release said. It uses technologies invented at 3dfx. I certainly hope nvidia enhanced them over time.