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

To: Joe Pirate who wrote (10402)	1/30/1999 10:32:00 PM
From: Jeff Lins	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 16960

So, 32 bit color produces a better quality image thanks to a much larger palette. The ability to transition from one color to another, say in the sky or in an explosion is cleaner in 32 bpp, whereas banding is clearly visible in 16 bit. Now, will resolution not offset a great deal of this banding? Wouldn't dithering with a finer pixel do wonders for this? If so, wouldn't 16 x 12 look awesome and clear, even at 16 bit? If so, shouldn't TDFX's mantra be "60fps at max resolution" vs "60 fps"? Should TDFX not be countering the "lack of 32 bit color" argument with the "16 x 12" argument? --------------- Next topic: anybody expect q1 revenues to exceed a thousand dollars? Seriously, Q1 has GOT to suck. Any guesses as to what revs will be?

To: Joe Pirate who wrote (10402)	1/30/1999 11:02:00 PM
From: Jeff Lins	Respond to of 16960

I have seen the future and it ain't pretty. The future is a CGW in which a bunch of cards are reviewed. And the majority of them use nVidia chips. Our old luxury of free press, and lots of it, is beginning to dissipate, and nVidia will be happy to take our place in as many places as possible. ---------------- A strategy plus article on Falcon 4 advises the use of a "reputable" 3D card. In the good old days this would have read "...looks awesome on my xxx system with a 12mb Voodoo2" ------------- Strategy plus also has an article on the merger, which includes the following statement: "One thing is almost certain, though. This decision for 3Dfx to acquire STB and become the sole producer of 3Dfx graphcis cards in the future effectively kills the fast-fading Glide API. More than a few developers have said, "who's going to support an API for a card made by a single vendor?" So 1) this is a stupid statement. Why develop a software program which only works on one operating system? Cause you can sell millions of copites! I think the key here is if TDFX sells a gazillion cards, and Glide can make a difference in quality, compatibility, fps, etc developers will do it. If EVERY gamer buys a STBI TDFX card, I'd be willing to bet developers would write to glide. If every card maker made a Savage board, but only 63 boards were sold to the public, well...Count the cards, not the card makers. And B) The statement makes no reference to the real reason for Glide's existence (ability to support new features immediately, without asking for Mr. Bill's permission). NOTE: we are predicting that Rampage or whatever will be out in mid to late Q3. If so, and if it is as revolutionary as Ballard says, it will probably have on board geom acceleration of some sort. If so, a new Glide SDK should be making the rounds eventually, and we should start to see developers talking about some revolutionary new features/visuals they will be supporting in their next game. We should all be on the lookout to see if these features imply a new level of hardware, or any kind of reference to TDFX's next generation chip.

To: Joe Pirate who wrote (10402)	1/30/1999 11:35:00 PM
From: Jeff Lins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16960

Hi, its me again :) After reading about the latest real-time voice over internet gaming developments, a few things came to my mind. TDFX needs more proprietary stuff. More reasons for people to choose TDFX over everybody else. H3D? Should they have bought them out? Would this have been a decent marketing move? Could they not make their own shutter glasses, or make such glasses work with any glide game? Could they not buy the drivers off of Wicked, and incorporate this into Glide? How about working real-time voice into Glide? Maybe that is just stupid, but if they bought out these guys at Battlefield commander and included it with Glide, then maybe they would again be able to insulate themseves with new features that other cards don't have. Perhaps they could just give the software out with each TDFX card, but it wouldn't run without detecting TDFX drivers in use... I don't know...neither of these things would have been remarkably expensive, yet would continue to entrench TDFX as the gamers choice (particularly the first person shooter's game of choice). You could certainly argue that these things don't have anything to do with TDFX's core competency, and would take away from TDFX's focus, but that would suggest that they are only a chip company, not an entertainment company, which is what they would have us believe. They need a "gamers department" at TDFX where they can expand their name and market. Any particular reason that the joystick port is on the soundcard? (Yeah, I know, MIDI...not a very good reason :) What if some engineer could make a new joystick port that would work with 4 gamepads. The port would poll more frequently than current ports, and would configure super easily (hmm...sounds like USB). It would be especially great for sports games, and would provide console-like ease of use. Games would support this port specifically, it would be supported in Glide, and the port design would be a proprietary TDFX design, so ya gotta buy a Voodoo to get the support. I don't know. Maybe these are stupid ideas, but the point is that we need more to differentiate ourselves. We need to innovate.