Interview with Richard Huddy @ DH

[T2k]

"[Zardon] Could you please tell us about the time when you and the co-founders of the Code Mafia left NVIDIA? Especially in the light of Nvidia's last 8 months problems and current disappointment? Did you see the forthcoming problems, wrong management decisions at the time when you left?

[Richard Huddy] NVIDIA used to be a technology company pure and simple but has recently allowed its-self to become led by marketing. To give two straightforward examples of things it has done wrong, it produced a product called the GeForce 4 MX, which is clearly a GeForce 2 class piece of hardware, and it spent almost a year too long producing the GeForce FX. The first costs the trust of buyers everywhere, and the second cost them the lead in a very competitive race.

Yes, all the Code Mafia guys could see this kind of thing happening at NVIDIA. We fought these errors from inside NVIDIA but the management didn't agree with our judgement about what was wrong - so we agreed to part company. We actually left on really good terms - but I admit that they weren't too pleased when we signed up with ATI!"

Full interview here: http://www.driverheaven.net/display.php?page=richard_interview

 

[Mariner]

Wow - lots of stuff in there - a good read.

I get the impression that this particular interview wasn't fed through PR-bots as so many seem to be these days! The answers seem to be the Huddy's honest opinion but it is unusual to see somebody so openly stating their views of the goings-on at a competitor!

 

[JD]

Yeah, richard was pretty pro nvidia. There were some skirmishes with him and tom forsyth(back then 3dlabs driver guy turned into game dev.) so I too was rather shocked he left nv. I do give him respect though, as I too had to fight politics in a company and won, but I shouldn't have to in the first place. Sometimes the best decision is to just leave and find a happier place. It was my understanding that nv was composed of ex-sgi folks who wanted to create great new things, somehow bad business practices got in the way from the look of things.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Huddy was 3Dlabs prior to moving to NV.

 

[dominikbehr]

shameless plug:

"
[Zardon]Regarding X1, is there a chance in the foreseeable future that we will see in some shape or form VPU-based rendering plug-ins for Maya and 3dsmax? Has this been dropped?

[Richard Huddy] We're working with a number of the DCC (Digital Content Creation) companies to solve this kind of issue. The DCC apps are the first link in the chain, which takes the vision of the games designer or the artist and brings it to the games player on a CD in a box. If we don't make sure that every one of those links of the chain are in place and rock solid then games won't look as good as they should.
"

https://www.cmpevents.com/GDx/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=906

 

[demalion]

Oh my god, just as I feared...one of my questions got compared to Bill Gates!!!

hides in the corner and searches his pockets for gobs of money.

 

[JD]

Dave, thanks for the heads up. I did not know that.

 

[Pete]

Good reading. Though he did swing to tooting ATi's horn more and more as the interview progressed, overall there was more meat and less marketspeak than most.

 

[Luke Philpot]

Really interesting reading. Thanks

 

[PSarge]

Yeah, richard was pretty pro nvidia.

Richard is pretty pro whoever he is working for at the time. Basically he's a good guy, and a professional.

There were some skirmishes with him and tom forsyth(back then 3dlabs driver guy turned into game dev.)

<Pollically Correct Mode On>
Tom's style has allways been his own, and I think you'd find a lot of people have problems with it, not just Richard.
<Pollically Correct Mode Off>

I believe Tom's story was more "Game Dev, turned 3Dlabs Driver guy (working with Richard), who returned to Game Dev where he could get people to listen to him."