We're working very closely with NVidia now to deal with the Unreal TNT slowdowns. Since the last public beta, I've optimized the Direct3D code quite a bit (around 20% frame rate boost in Direct3D on TNT). The texture management slowdowns (when you walk into a room or see a new player, and the game drops to 5 fps for a frame or two)are the big remaining issue, and we're working with NVidia's driver engineers to find a good solution. If it's humanly possible to improve this, we'll do it! NVidia is being very helpful with code and suggestions on this.

Comment: It seems that Unreal and TNT are no friends at all. In the latest benchmarktests I made for a big graphic card review a S3 Savage4 was a lot faster than TNT2, using the S3 MeTaL renderer driver. Itīs also interresting that a Voodoo3 is faster in Unreal Direct 3D than a TNT2 although the TNT2īs are faster in all other Direct 3D Benchmarks - seems to be something fishy here.

I got new information about the ASUS VR 100 3D Shutter Glasses. The newest drivers include new features for the glasses, like the possibility to access an Onscreen Display during gameplay to change the 3D-glasses settings - as you can find it with the ELSA 3D Revelator glasses:

In contrast to ELSA, ASUS is using the line flipping technology to produce the 3D effect. The different images for every eye are seperated by the odd and even lines here. The disadvantage: You loose image quality because you can see horizontal lines (Interlace effect) in the image. But it seems that the performance lost is not as large as with page flipping technology. ELSA is using the page flipping technology in 3D Revelator glasses. Here the front- and backbuffer of the graphic card is used to seperate the image for every eye. There is no lost in quality here. ASUS told me that they are working to include this technique in future drivers so users can decide what technique they want to use!

Line Flipping

Iīll review the ASUS glasses as soon as final drivers are available. Weīll have to see if ASUS can beat ELSA 3D Revelator I reviewed a few days ago (still working on the english translation :-()

I was a bit surprised to see a new RIVA TNT2 chipmodel in the latest NVIDIA reference drivers: The RIVA TNT2 Model 64. The main difference is the reduced 64Bit memory-buswidth on the card (TNT2: 128Bit). The performance is between VANTA and TNT2. This sheet was send to me by NVIDIA:

A graphicscard with this chipversion is available by the taiwanese manufactorer Pixelview: Riva TNT2M64 VGA

• AGP-V3800 (Entry) - Pure VGA/Combat ; 16MB 7-8ns SDRAM - Default Core/Mem => 125/150
• AGP-V3800 TVR (Mid.Range-High) - TV-& VR-I/O -opt.Shuttergl.; 32MB 6-7ns SGRAM - Default Core/Mem => 125/150 up to 150/183 +
• AGP-V3800 TVR Deluxe (High Range) - TV-& VR-I/O + Shuttergl; 32MB 6-7ns SGRAM - Default Core/Mem => 125/150 up to 160/183 +
• AGP-V3800 ULTRA Deluxe (High - Hyp.Range:-)   - TV-& VR-I/O + Shuttergl.; 32MB 5.5ns SGRAM - Default Core/Mem => 150/183 up to 175/200 +

The ULTRA Deluxe version is equiped with a more powerfull fan than the other versions. The difference between TVR and TVR Deluxe is the shutter glasses which are included in the Deluxe version.

The suit asserts claims for copyright infringement and breach of contract. 3dfx claims that Creative breached a licensing agreement and infringed 3dfx copyrights by incorporating 3dfx Glide(R) source code into Unified, its recently announced technology designed to run "Glide-only" software titles on Creative TNT and TNT2-based graphics accelerator products. The license agreement prohibits the use and modification of any 3dfx source code to operate with non-3dfx acceleration technology. 3dfx also asserted a claim against Creative Technology for unpaid amounts owed for 3dfx products.

The Glide API was developed by 3dfx Interactive to provide a simple and fast method for developers to write 3D game titles and software specifically to run on 3dfx accelerators. Currently, nearly 200 popular software titles have

GA-Source made a n interview with Creative about that:

Please tell us how Creative Labs feels about this lawsuit, and does 3dfx even have a case here?
It is baseless and they have no case. John added and explained, that the wrapper's code is completly different than 3dfx's and their is no copyright infringement issues involved.

Why do you feel 3dfx has gone through with this lawsuit, even though, by the look of it, they have no chance to actually win?
Probably to shore up their marketing campaign (and perhaps stock price) now that they are being faced with more advanced technology from thier competititors.

How long have you known about this lawsuit? or is it as new for you as it is for us and our readers?
It was served this morning. We knew yesterday afternoon that it was likely headed our way.

Do you plan to continue to develop and distribute the wrapper?
Yes.

3dfx set to take over S3

S3, the company with mighty patents, is set to be taken over by 3dfX, reliable sources told us today. When we asked where the money could come from, the source told us it was a consortium dead interested in all of the S3 patents. It would be a hostile bid. S3 is being wooed and UMC stuck $42 million into it, as reported here this morning.

ThanX to Planetriva

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