Benchmark fetishists might want to take a look at the interview with Nicklas Renqvist and Patric Ojala of Futurmark featured at HomeLAN. TCFKAMO (the company formerly known as Mad Onion) is currently working on the latest version of their 3DMark series which is said to be released this quarter.
HL: How closely are you working with Microsoft, NVIDIA, ATI and other companies to insure that all the new graphical features in the latest cards are included in the test?
PO: As you can read on our website, AMD, ATI, Intel, NVIDIA, and Microsoft are all our Beta Members (check the site for a complete list). So they all get our beta builds and work very closely with us to ensure the quality and relevance of the benchmark. Our work starts by research of hot and up-and-coming technologies used in games now and in the future. Then, we look at where the hardware industry is heading. We then proceed and make an initial proposal for specification, which is then reviewed by the Beta members and they give us their feedback on it. After we have closed the specification, we then start the actual programming. Our Beta members receive development versions with which they can perform compatibility testing to ensure that there are no glitches and they also inform us of any bugs there might be. This process takes a lot of resources, but we think that it is the only way to make a solid and relevant benchmark.
HL: What new graphics tests will be incorporated into 3DMark03?
NR: We have a wide variety of new tests in 3DMark03. I can't spill the beans just yet, but we will of course introduce the new PixelShader 2.0 and VertexShader 2.0.
