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3Dfx employee interviews (vintage 1997)
- Thread starter camineet
- Start date
I was only 12 at the time, I only remember the awesome that was Expendable and Quake 2.
"Edit" What is funny my friends PC broke the other day, so he got his old computer out, I checked the hardware and it was rocking a Voodoo 3 "Edit"
"Edit" What is funny my friends PC broke the other day, so he got his old computer out, I checked the hardware and it was rocking a Voodoo 3 "Edit"
The first good, decent, consumer PC 3D accelerator chip that actually worked, providing a decent 3D gaming experience? Rendition Vérité V1000.
Cards that made use of Vérité:
*Canopus Total 3D
*Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI
*Sierra Screamin' 3D
*Intergraph Reactor aka Intense 3D 100
Vérité came out just before 3Dfx Voodoo launched.
Even John Carmack said Vérité would be the 'premier platform for Quake'. But almost nobody remembers Vérité , because soon after, Voodoo stole all the limelight, support, mindshare, sales, etc.
Cards that made use of Vérité:
*Canopus Total 3D
*Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI
*Sierra Screamin' 3D
*Intergraph Reactor aka Intense 3D 100
Vérité came out just before 3Dfx Voodoo launched.
Even John Carmack said Vérité would be the 'premier platform for Quake'. But almost nobody remembers Vérité , because soon after, Voodoo stole all the limelight, support, mindshare, sales, etc.
If i remember well the Voodoo 1 was a repackaged arcade board :lol i remember the only one who could hold a candle against the voodoo 1 and 2 was VideoLogic and PowerVR, before the advent of nVidia. S3 never managed to make a noteworthy 3D accelerator card, even when it was the king in first half of the nineties with its old 8xx and 9xx 2D accelerators, and sold an amazing number of low budget 3D deccelerators with the Virge series. I'm still proud of my old little Number Nine card, still working on my pc for vintage games 
Those were the times.
Those were the times.
I do remember the day I upgraded from a Voodoo 3 to a Geforce 2 for Half-Life, It was a beautiful experience to play Half-Life with a smooth frame rate, also helped with Team Fortress as playing that with a low framerate and high ping was not a very nice experience.
If the Lockheed Martin Real3D/100 card had come out in 1996 for $180 ~ $200 or even $299, it would've wiped the floor with 3Dfx Voodoo1 because it was 2 to 3 times more powerful in real-world performance, and would not have required a fast CPU because it had its own geometry engine.
I was drooling over this baby for years.
http://i41.tinypic.com/30bz8s3.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/1z1vl15.jpg
It's too bad that the only consumer Real3D chip/card that made it, the i740 / StarFighter, came out in early 1998. It was much weaker than the Real3D/100, it could only compete with the original Voodoo at a time when Voodoo2 was out.
I was drooling over this baby for years.
http://i41.tinypic.com/30bz8s3.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/1z1vl15.jpg
It's too bad that the only consumer Real3D chip/card that made it, the i740 / StarFighter, came out in early 1998. It was much weaker than the Real3D/100, it could only compete with the original Voodoo at a time when Voodoo2 was out.
Schrade said:
Like the other poster said, it wasn't until the TNT2 pulled away from the Voodoo3 line that things got bad for 3Dfx. Buying out STB and becoming an OEM wasn't the best decision in hindsight.
As someone who used AMD gear back then, nVidia's compatibility / stability with non-intel chipsets was god-awful. They knew it too, but didn't do anything to fix it or even make consumers aware of it. You had to spend time on various boards to figure that out. Took me a long time to get past being burned by them in that regard before I purchased another nVidia product.
Schrade
Member
No, not pretty much. The Riva TNT dominated all Voodoo cards picture quality wise and was just slightly slower. It was far worth it to me to have scanline-less video (yeah, remember that Voodoo quirk?) and no need for a passthrough cable.KHarvey16 said:
The Riva TNT started the takeover, it didn't take over in speed.. just quality. The TNT2 was nails in the coffin.
I actually disagree. Owning both cards back in their prime, I thought the Voodoo3 produced the best mix of image quality and speed. It's 16-bit rendering was nearly as clean as the 32-bit rendering produced by the TNT. The TNT, however, could not handle 16-bit very well at all (it produced an extremely dithered image in 16-bit mode).Schrade said:
I also found that the TNT caused a lot of additional hard disk access (AGP, perhaps?) on all of the machines I tested it on. On those same boxes, the Voodoo3 never produced those results. The TNT could produce cleaner visuals overall in 32-bit mode, but it wasn't worth the speed hit. The Voodoo3 nearly matched the 32-bit video quality with faster performance across the board.
It should also be noted that the V3 produced a VASTLY superior image to the previous Voodoo cards. That "scanline" artifact was quite ugly on the older Voodoo cards and it was reduced to almost nothing with the V3.
Alex
Member
All I had played on my PC until like 99 were 2D titles. Blizzard games, UO, Baldur's Gate, etc. It was Tribes that pushed me into my first card, which was a TNT2 like many others here.
As a not very nostalgic person, I still consider Tribes the best multiplayer shooter ever made. Of all fucking brands to die off...
As a not very nostalgic person, I still consider Tribes the best multiplayer shooter ever made. Of all fucking brands to die off...
plagiarize
Banned
why are their no gifs of the young child and man pulling serious faces from around 28 seconds in the first video. can't stop watching them...
plagiarize
Banned
i had a riva 128 for a while.Forsete said:Same.
I upgraded from a Riva 128 which came with my DELL Pentium II 400MHz. The difference between the Riva 128 and TNT2 Ultra Gamer 32MB was night and day, especially in UT99 and Half-Life (which looked all washed out on the Riva 128).
eurgh. that thing couldn't handle the static effect in AvP. instead of it just being an element it over powered everything making it basically impossible for me to cloak as a predator or to use my night vision as a marine.
damn did i ever get good at using flares though...
I had so many different video cards back then. I don't even remember how I obtained all of them, to be honest.
I've owned...
Matrox Mystique
Rendition Verite V1000
PowerVR PCX2 (add-in card)
ATI Rage3D Pro
Voodoo 1 (add-in card)
Intel I740
Vodooo 2 (add-in card)
Voodoo 3
Riva TNT
Riva TNT2
GeForce DDR
GeForce2
Radeon 8500
Radeon 9700 Pro
GeForce 6800
GeForce 8800GT
GTX260
I've owned...
Matrox Mystique
Rendition Verite V1000
PowerVR PCX2 (add-in card)
ATI Rage3D Pro
Voodoo 1 (add-in card)
Intel I740
Vodooo 2 (add-in card)
Voodoo 3
Riva TNT
Riva TNT2
GeForce DDR
GeForce2
Radeon 8500
Radeon 9700 Pro
GeForce 6800
GeForce 8800GT
GTX260
plagiarize
Banned
no GeForce 3? that was a great carddark10x said:
PuppetMaster
Member
These videos are amazing.
Truly an amazing story how they got started. They literally started from ZERO and created a billion dollar industry. Too bad they themselves went out of business in just a few years. Live fast, die young I guess.
Truly an amazing story how they got started. They literally started from ZERO and created a billion dollar industry. Too bad they themselves went out of business in just a few years. Live fast, die young I guess.
Flying_Phoenix
Banned
Dreamwriter said:
Holy Shit! That game runs circles around anything the N64 and PSX ever did visually outside of Conker's Bad Fur Day. For it's time it must have been unbelievable. Was it the "Crysis" of 1997?
Harumph.
The only two cards that I ever really liked were the Radeon 8500 with its awesometastic never-used features like tesselation that got stripped out of later revisions, and the Kyro 2. God I loved the Kyro chipsets. Truly a beautiful architecture.
The only two cards that I ever really liked were the Radeon 8500 with its awesometastic never-used features like tesselation that got stripped out of later revisions, and the Kyro 2. God I loved the Kyro chipsets. Truly a beautiful architecture.
pr0cs
Member
I remember buying my first new PC out of college (that wasn't an Amiga) and putting a Voodoo1 in the order for parts thinking it was a waste of money. Then I played Shadows of the Empire which used the card perfectly and the first mission flying the snow-speeder I almost shit myself. I honestly got motion sickness and thought "shit man, this is the future".
This was after wasting 2 years at university learning 3d programming all via software and never ending up to be all that impressed.
This was after wasting 2 years at university learning 3d programming all via software and never ending up to be all that impressed.
CTLance said:
Yeah, the Kyro cards seemed really cool with their tile-based rendering. I actually came close to buying a Kyro when my TNT2 broke, but supposedly the drivers were really bad, so I never did. A friend bought a Kyro II card and he had serious compatibility issues with later games. Also it lacked HW T&L iirc, causing it to really under-perform in some games.
Too bad they never succeeded.
Awesome, Its good to see tributing the 3Dfx's greatness. They had a terrific project with the Voodoo Graphics cards, I remember the founders of the company answered to the users request on the official usenet 3dfx groups. I think they've kickstarted a new pc gaming era with the voodoo line
I still have at home the brochure with the 3dfx accelerated games illustrated which they sent me (I live in Europe)
I still have at home the brochure with the 3dfx accelerated games illustrated which they sent me (I live in Europe)
letsbereasonable
Member
My last 3dfx card was the Voodoo3 3500 TV. The dongle that card shipped with was massive.
metsallica
Member
Is it possible to be a video card fanboy? If so, CANOPUS PURE3D represent!
jon_irenicus
Member
Other titles that screamed on my Voodoo1:
MechWarrior 2
Powerslide
Screamer 2
Sub Culture
Ultim@te Race Pro
MechWarrior 2
Powerslide
Screamer 2
Sub Culture
Ultim@te Race Pro
BravoSuperStar
Member
Haha, I still have an original 4mb monster 3d add-in card. Remember playing Quake 2 on that bad boy. Also owned a voodoo 3 card. 3DFX was awesome.
NinjaMouse
Member
I remember buying my Diamond Monster 3D card in college and being in complete awe at how good Quake looked. I moved to a Voodoo Banshee card and then to a Voodoo3 when Quake III came out. I wish I could have all the hours back that I logged playing Quake III on that card.
I was heartbroken when the Geforce cards came out and pretty much destroyed my Voodoo3 (even though it was clearly a far superior card).
I was heartbroken when the Geforce cards came out and pretty much destroyed my Voodoo3 (even though it was clearly a far superior card).