3dfx technology glossary/Spectre info

[Leon]

Here

3dfx deleted all glossary items, and all posts at TMF, but Shugashack was able to grab some....


- M-Buffer? : "M" stands for multi-sample. ... in the multi-sampling method, used by Spectre, only one texture lookup per *pixel* (so that all subsamples use the same texture lookup value) is required. ...it reduces the amount of texture lookup by a factor of 4 compared to the VSA-100 method...
- Recursive textures : Texturing flexibility by supporting N (8 for Spectre) independent, unique textures applied per pixel in a single rendering pass... Also reflection on water.
- Overbright (52-bit color) : Increased internal precision of 52-bits (signed 13-bits per RGBA color component), generating rendered images of substantially higher quality. The higher dynamic range reduces darkening resulting in more vibrant and realistic images.
- Perlin Noise :
- Vertex cache :
- Natural cubic spline :
- Higher Order Surfaces (HOS) : Curved surface maps representing textures. Includes Bezier, B-Spline, Catmull-Rom spline patches
- Curved patches : A curved surface created from two or more curves.
- B-Spline :
- Catmull-Rom spline patches :
- Bezier :

 

[Czar]

YESS bezier

Seems nice though.

 

[BFG10K]

B-Spline, Catmull-Rom spline patches, Bezier

It looks like 3dfx are going to support curved surfaces natively in hardware. Interesting...

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

Nvidia has curved surfaces and multisampling also.

Overbright sounds like a video quality method simular to Matroxes. Nice.


What, though, is the Vertex cache? THAT sounds interesting.

<edit> What is spectre, also? Is that the codename for the chip itself on Rampage? I'm confused... </edit>

 

[ElFenix]

8 textures per pixel per pass! nv20 is rumored to only do 4... 3dfx wants that texel king title bad!

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

ElFenix - I don't like that statement. They want that title BAD? No, they are just making a better product.

3dfx is going to be king again folks, just watch... And thats not being a zealot, that is just what i see.


Dave, will you comment on any of these features, or are we going to have to make wild innaccurate speculations?

 

[DaveB3D]

I like wild speculation myself...


I will confirm one thing though. &quot;3dfx is going to be king again folks&quot; is entirely accurate.

 

[Zeeliv]

Things that were taken directly from 3dfx's web site are &quot;wild speculation&quot;? yeah, ok...

Seph, Rampage is the chip's codename. Spectre is the board name.

 

[Soccerman]

hmm.. maybe these are features in the upcoming fear chipset? they're all quite interesting..

I wonder, maybe they were made by 3dfx before, however with the acquisition of Gigapixel, they have shown up to have the same thing, and 3dfx doesn't want others to get any ideas?

EDIT: nevermind! he just hasn't posted for a while!

 

[DaveB3D]

&quot;wild speculation&quot; is in response to &quot;are we going to have to make wild innaccurate speculations?&quot;

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

<< Things that were taken directly from 3dfx's web site are &quot;wild speculation&quot;? yeah, ok...
>>

No ZEELIV - i was talking about the features. We dont know what they all mean, so we will have to speculate.

Thanks for the info too, btw.

 

[Deeko]

I knew Rampage would be sweet lol...anyway, anyone pick up any rumors on the price?

 

[Zeeliv]

Seph, the wild speculation comment I made was to Dave.

Dave, I'm an idiot

 

[ElFenix]

ummm... yeah... generally in the 3d accelerator industry having the highest speed is a good thing... how about, they want that title really bad? that better? thats a good thing for 3dfx if they can pull it off... i'll buy one.

is naming the rampage product spectre wild speculation? voodoo spectre, or just spectre? i would think the brand voodoo would be kept because it is so well known.

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

It could be, but it is a new architecture. I say just keep the boxes looking the same.

 

[Soccerman]

I don't think the Voodoo name should be kept, though 3dfx has AMAZING power in that name.. Voodoo Spectre would be ok though..

 

[PCResources]

<< will confirm one thing though. &quot;3dfx is going to be king again folks&quot; is entirely accurate. >>



So you know this? you usually do not state any opinions only what you know, and you alwayst state it as if it was a fact, oh well, so do i, and i take pride in that....

So do you know? Really know that the future 3Dfx (in the same pricerange) will beat the future nVidia?

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[DaveB3D]

Knowing is half the battle... that doesn't just go for GI Joe.

If I didn't feel that way, I never would have come to work for 3dfx.

 

[PCResources]

Oh, man am i tired of this...

Dave, you think 3Dfx has got some big secret, well you are wrong, if you know as much as i do about Rampage and NV25 (the ones that will be competitors) then you should know that the Rampage would not perform as well as the NV25.

The Rampage has some pretty impressive specs, however only half of them would be used by anyone, but the NV25 has all of those pretty features baked into it's chip, and has HW support.

The only thing the GP drivers did for anyone was to make this or that game unplayable at high resolutions, and at 1024/768 resolutions or less, any old nVidia card would beat that V55 anyway.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

PC - quit being a Nvidia Zeal. These drivers are BETA BETA BETA. They just came out as beta for christs sake!

 

[Deeko]

Umm...isn't Rampage competing with NV20? There you go again....

 

[Deeko]

THERE someone else said it! And you told me that you didn't sound biased. I win

 

[DaveB3D]

sigh....


I think that speaks for itself.

 

[PCResources]

<< PC - quit being a Nvidia Zeal. These drivers are BETA BETA BETA. They just came out as beta for christs sake! >>



Oh, well, every 3Dfx man has been complaining about these crappy drivers released by nVidia...

I have something to tell you all, and you will not like it, but i do believe that the more knowledgeable people, like Dave would agree with me.

Here we go: The drivers released for the V5 will always have these probs, if you do not slow the drivers down yo will have these kind of flickering, where you can walk through walls and move from one side of a room to the other without seeing anything but a black screen in between.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Soccerman]

all I can say, is this. I'm looking forward to the NV20 vs RAMPAGE..

both look to be sweet products, Rampage will be sweet because of it's scalability, and kickass driver set.

nV20 will be sweet, becuase it incorperates SOME of those bandwidth/fillrate saving techniques into it's architecture, as well as a nice increase in raw speed.

it's gonna be an interesting year!

&quot;The drivers released for the V5 will always have these probs, if you do not slow the drivers down yo will have these kind of flickering, where you can walk through walls and move from one side of a room to the other without seeing anything but a black screen in between.&quot;

please tell me why u think that BETA drivers will always be the same as when they become WHQL certified. do you think they don't have bugs, and that the techniques that 3dfx uses in here will always end up like this?

they're beta's for a reason, they have BUGS in them to be cleared up.
I have a feeling that if nVidia impliments any of the same techniques as 3dfx does in these drivers, then they'd have similar trouble..