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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew Fenic who wrote (7033)	9/10/1998 3:15:00 AM
From: Simon Cardinale	Respond to of 16960

Glide here to stay. I'm starting to get a warm fuzzy feeling about Banshee. Stellar benchmarks, great early reviews, and some strong signs that Glide is here to stay [EA, Diablo II announcements]. Glide has no reason to go away. It's not like the competition between Netscape and Microsoft IE. It's not Betamax vs VHS. It's apples vs. oranges. Their both fruit and they can compete for the fruit buying dollar, but neither is likely to replace the other. Here's why Glide will stick around: 1) D3D has to work with every 3D card, with card manufacturers having an awful lot of leeway to implement features or ignore them. When you write a game in D3D you don't know what the consumer is going to see when they try to run it. They might see almost anything. For many games this is no big deal. Many possible features are not being implemented, or it's using an engine that is known to work on the majority of cards. But for some games... 2) Game developers like to innovate. Whether for show off factor, or to discover the next big leap in gaming, game developers are going to produce games that push the boundaries. Though small in number, they're important, because they will guide the industry in the next few years, and having a head start is important. Glide makes innovation easier in several ways: a) The set of features is more consistent, more complete, and more predictable. b) Features are added to the API as they are added to the hardware. c) 3Dfx adds features requested by developers faster than anyone else. d) Glide is closer to "the metal". This means greater speed which in turn allows the use of more features, to create a more impressive game. Of course it's obvious why D3D will stick around. Everyone is able to use it (though not very consistently) and Microsoft won't let it go. Simon Jesus am I long winded or what? I hope you all don't mind. It's just easier for me to think by organizing things and writing them down. As often as not I discover new things as I'm writing. Some left/right brain thing, I guess.