Distribution of ex-3DFX and SGI engineers between IHVs?

[_xxx_]

You mean it was PVR?

 

[Nite_Hawk]

Afaik verite had antialiasing modes with the V1000.

Nite_Hawk

 

[Simon F]

Afaik verite had antialiasing modes with the V1000.

Nite_Hawk

But was it of the type that simply did an alpha blend on the edges of triangles and thus required all triangles to be sorted from back to front?

 

[Fox5]

The original voodoo had edge anti aliasing, and some games even supported it.
There was also an option in later 3rd party drivers to force edge AA in all games, I don't know if it worked though.

 

[Simon F]

The original voodoo had edge anti aliasing, and some games even supported it.

I have a feeling that it may have been a software hack whereby fat translucent lines were drawn over the edges of the polygons.

 

[Mariner]

The only game I remember seeing the Voodoo provide an AA option for was the 3Dfx Tombraider patch. It slowed down performance quite a lot if I remember correctly but you could turn it on and off instantaneously using one of the function keys. I think you could also do the same for mipmapping too?

I know it's a few years back now but can't remember any other games with this feature. Didn't vQuake for the Rendition chips offer edge anti-aliasing as well?

 

[rashly]

AFAIK, PVR may have gotten some ex-3dfx employees (I am 90% sure that a rumor of a working rampage prototype ending up there is true). I am almost 100% sure that Q3D got a working rampage prototype, but I don't know how many employees flocked there.

Of the 3dfx Belfast driver team, only one is currently working in the graphics industry (he went to PVR). Others have gotten unrelated jobs as carpenters, etc.

Btw, A large part of the nv30's 2D engine was from 3dfx engineers/tech.

 

[ondaedg]

As stated there was no "link" at all there--so the question remains as to why anyone might think there was--and that was the subject of my reply. If you want to disagree, that's fine--but I'd advise against letting your emotions turn you down a blind alley...

- Some of Rampage's engineers went to ATI as I said, but I haven't got the slightest clue of the real proportions between NVIDIA and ATI. The only real influence I can see from Rampage in the R300 is the anti-aliasing technology, which does share many common points, although it is obviously improved in the R300 (mostly by doubling the number of ROPs per pipeline, I believe)

wow. I never realized reading a post was this tough. as stated by sireric, there was not a link between Rampage AA and R300 AA. Uttar had pretty good justification for believing that there was, especially considering similarities between R300 and Rampage AA, so either you're not reading posts before you decide to reply to them or you're just ignoring anything that doesn't support your "NVIDIA is evil" viewpoint.

If you thought that was tough, you should try to figure out Walt's dual Hummer to dual gpu analogy. I still can't figure that one out...

 

[Arun]

Sireric: Thanks for the clarification. And I'm amazed by this FSAA debate... I thought I had quite clearly said "anti-aliasing technology", not "anti-aliasing quality". I wasn't even talking of the sample grids - ATI's and 3DFX's technologies for this are completely different - but rather quite simply of the loopback scheme. I guess it is kind of an obvious idea though, and a very natural evolution of "basic" MSAA, although NVIDIA didn't even bother to incorporate this in the NV40 (which explains the 4x MSAA limitation)

AFAIK, PVR may have gotten some ex-3dfx employees (I am 90% sure that a rumor of a working rampage prototype ending up there is true). I am almost 100% sure that Q3D got a working rampage prototype, but I don't know how many employees flocked there.

Yeah, what I had heard is that Q3D got all of the most "die-hard" employees, but once again I have no clue about proportions.

Of the 3dfx Belfast driver team, only one is currently working in the graphics industry (he went to PVR). Others have gotten unrelated jobs as carpenters, etc.

Btw, A large part of the nv30's 2D engine was from 3dfx engineers/tech.

Actually I heard Rampage's 2D engine was integrated in NVIDIA's products as of the NV25, replacing NVIDIA's old one.
I didn't know PVR most likely had a working Rampage prototype though - interesting. I wonder how it even got to the UK.

Uttar

 

[Simon F]

.
I didn't know PVR most likely had a working Rampage prototype though - interesting. I wonder how it even got to the UK.
Uttar

????? ?????

 

[Xmas]

I guess it is kind of an obvious idea though, and a very natural evolution of "basic" MSAA, although NVIDIA didn't even bother to incorporate this in the NV40 (which explains the 4x MSAA limitation)

NV40 does loop once, R300+ twice. But without a programmable sampling pattern on a bigger grid, there would be no use for more loops.

 

[_xxx_]

.
I didn't know PVR most likely had a working Rampage prototype though - interesting. I wonder how it even got to the UK.
Uttar

????? ?????

It's so secret that even the employees know nothing about it!

 

[rashly]

Just a rumor, as are most things regarding that card.

Btw, anyone know where the Rampage card that 3dfxzone.it has came from?