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

To: Greg S. who wrote (7592)	9/23/1998 3:37:00 PM
From: Simon Cardinale	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Greg S.: Accelerator support for OpenGL 3D accelerators in the high end graphics market have supported OpenGL for years and years. Those that didn't used GLint, a GL derivative just like GLide. These APIs are really all very similar - I've never programmed in it before but from what I hear Glide is very much like a castrated version of OpenGL, optimized for the stuff that mainstream 3D processors are capable of nowadays. Don't underestimate the influence of OpenGL in the industry, directly or indirectly. The OpenGL accelerators you are talking about are geared toward a different kind of acceleration than 3D games require. You can take a $2000 OpenGL accelerator and not be able to play Quake2 with it as fast as a $60 Voodoo Graphics card. You're right that Glide is similar to OpenGL, or how would 3Dfx have whipped up a wrapper to translate glQuake's calls into glide calls so quick? I'm sure it does have an important influence on the industry, which will only grow as it is incorporated into DX. However, not many developers are writing for straight OpenGL, nor will they in the near future. I was responding to an earlier poster who asserted developers were moving toward OpenGL, and if they are there's been no evidence of it in released products. Simon