7.27 Detonators to be released Christmas Day?

[OneOfTheseDays]

Rumor is that Nvidia will be releasing these on Christmas Day. Can anybody confirm this?

 

[Skalman]

***CONFIRMED***

 

[Nighthawk69]

Will these be official or beta or leaked?

 

[audreymi]

Will they fix the 16 bit texture fallback problem for 32 bit compressed textures reported on below in the link?

Link to Interesting read about nVidia's hardware bug

How about the limited Z-buffer accuracy, as well ?

 

[miniMUNCH]

The drivers will not "fix" the DXT1 compression hardware flaw, the driver will work around the problem by forcing DXT3 compression for all games/apps that call for DXT1. Changing from DXT1 to DXT3 will cause a performance loss due to memory bandwdith limitations, but probably not too bad and if any card can afford a hit, the GF2 can. DXT3 does not compress textures as much as DXT1; therefore, more memory bandwidth (which is already the bottleneck) is required to pass the same textures under DXT3 than under DXT1.

At any rate, my friends with GF2 ultras will be happy...hopefully this will improve the 3D image quality for them, otherwise they're switching to 64MB DDR Radeons.

 

[BenSkywalker]

"How about the limited Z-buffer accuracy, as well ?"

Twice as good as everyone else isn't good enough? The BS circulating about Zbuffer problems on nV boards is being spread by an ATi employee, and it is completely, and provably false.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Is there any form of compression that works correctly and produces good image quality on the nvidia geforce chips? If id didn't compress lightmap textures or whatever they weren't supposed to compress, would the quality of tc be equal on all cards?

 

[BenSkywalker]

"Is there any form of compression that works correctly and produces good image quality on the nvidia geforce chips?"

Yes, DXT3 DXT4 and DXT5 all look very good, DXT2 looks quite a bit better then DXT1 also.

"If id didn't compress lightmap textures or whatever they weren't supposed to compress, would the quality of tc be equal on all cards?"

id fixed that with the latest patch. The whining that you hear from most non nV owning gamers is the sky in Quake3, and that is it. Out of every game out there, and even in Quake3 itself, the only thing I have seen complaints on are the sky in Quake3(at least, running the latest patch). Switching over to using any of the other DXTC formats aids quite a bit(2 less so then 3, 4, or 5). Pretty major stuff

 

[scottie]

This sounds like good news. Have just purchased an GeForce 2 Ultra now and if this visual issue is fixed, will that make the visual quality equal to a Radeon?

 

[lsd]

<< The whining that you hear from most non nV owning gamers is the sky in Quake3 >>


Amen
Funny how nobody complains about NVDA's s3tc in UT.
If you don't like the ugly sky turn off s3tc, the game is still pretty darn fast with it off.

 

[Doomguy]

Ben: Is MrNSX at ARS the one spreading it?

 

[BenSkywalker]

Doomguy

 

[Doomguy]

I'll take that as a yes. BFG10K seems to be spreading what MrNSX has been saying also.

 

[BFG10K]

Doomguy:

I'll take that as a yes. BFG10K seems to be spreading what MrNSX has been saying also.

Let's get one thing straight here: I said nVidia used a 16 bit Z-buffer first. Then he quoted me and said they used 20 bits.

I am not parroting anyone, but I am in the process of discussing the issue with BenSkywalker to see if it's true or not.

 

[BenSkywalker]

BFG-

When did you first say this? I went around with MrNSX over this quite some time ago, prior to the Det3 6.31s if memory servers. I'm wondering if he is just taking something you had made a comment on and trying to spread it as truth that he has particular technical knowledge about.

 

[AdamK47]

nVidia uses a 16-bit Z buffer for 16-bit color only. For 32-bit color I think it's either 32-bit or 24-bit (can't remember). Either way, the Z-buffer accuracy is the same as a Voodoo 5 and Radeon when using the same color depth.

 

[AdamK47]

I like my Kyro board though.... 32-bit Z buffer in everything (16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit, whatever-bit).

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

No offense Adam, but the KYRO sucks. It was released too late, its too slow, and its game compatibility isn't that good. Why did you buy it?

 

[AdamK47]

<< Why did you buy it? >>


I didn't. I got it for free.

Why don't you close your mind some more. I was commenting on how the Kyro has a 32-bit Z buffer at any color depth. I was not commenting how how it performs. Sheeesh I also own a Radeon, Voodoo 5, and a GeForce 2 GTS.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

sorry about that adam, i didn't know you got it for free. I thought you actually bought the card.

 

[hclarkjr]

so where can you download them at? i just checked 3dchipset and reactorcritical and zoiah nowhere to be found.

 

[pidge]

Who the hell started this stupid rumour? :|

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

well apparently some people are claiming to actually have the drivers. Over on the reactor critical boards a guy named TRUNKS is saying that he has them and that they improve performance in Mech 4 greatly. Apparently he says that the drivers really stabilize directx 8 and give a good perf. boost. He did not comment on hsr or anything of the sort, only direct x 8 and mech 4.

 

[BaTTo]

Please forgive Pidge.
He needs to take his Ritalin.

 

[Atom Ant]

Anyone found out where we get the drivers?? Link?? Rumor?? Information?? Anything??
BTW Merry Christmas for my fellow friends whom celebrate and Happy Holidays to The rest of you!