If they are smart...
by Matt Fairfax · in General Discussion · 02/27/2001 (9:09 am) · 3 replies
I am really excited about the capabilities of the GeForce 3!! From the interviews and quotes I've read it looks like a lot of developers are really excited also. To me it feels like this is the first major step towards allowing game develoeprs to not have to count polygons anymore and make games exactly how they want them without having to worry about the technology. It worries me though that developers are not going to be able to truly use the power offered by the GeForce 3 for many years b/c they will have to still be concerned about supporting all of those people with their Voodoo 3's and ATI 3D Rage 128's. Some games may go out on a limb and say you have to have a video card that is fully Directx 8.0 compliant or support hardware vertex shaders but that could be very risky anytime soon. What I would love to see is the game developers and chip manufacturers rallying to get a cheap version of the GF3 chipset built directly into the chipset of the motherboards manufactured for the next couple of years. The would require support and deals between nVidia, Intel, AMD, and Via. If this were to occur then in 3 years time or less a developer could make a game with the low end specs being that of a GF3!! It would bring a level of compatibilty and stability to the PC reserved only for the console market now. I think that if enough game developers were to push for this it could happen! Keep in mind it doesn't have to be the GF3, it could easily be ATI's next product just so long as it supports all the same features and speed as a GF3.
About the author
I am a Game Designer at PopCap who has worked on PvZ Adventures, PvZ2, Peggle Blast, and Bejeweled Skies. I am an ex-GarageGames employee who helped ship TGE, TGEA, Torque 3D, and Constructor.
#2
02/27/2001 (9:33 am)
Oh I agree that there will not be enough raw horsepower for a long time to come! Seeing the Doom models in action though make me feel like the GF3 is the first true step down the path towards this goal. It looks as though with a GF3 the modellers will be able to move from being low-poly modellers into areas formerly only done by CG modellers. Not true to life modelling but certainly a big leap up. And of course technology doesn't make a good game! There are many, many other things that have to go into a game to make it good. I just think that in 5 years most game makers won't have to worry nearly as much about technology as we do nowadays. 
#3
The title was "Is there life beyond 25 MHz". If you put yourself when it was first written, you can see their point. But these days... (I just hope things keep advancing this rapidly, it's great fun) :)
02/28/2001 (11:05 am)
This sort of reminds me of this interesting article I once read arguing that technology had reached it's peak. If it went any higher we would not be able to utilize it, etc...The title was "Is there life beyond 25 MHz". If you put yourself when it was first written, you can see their point. But these days... (I just hope things keep advancing this rapidly, it's great fun) :)
Torque Owner Jeff Tunnell
Bottom line. For the next ten years, we will never have enough memory, processor power, GPU power, texture space, or bandwidth. Anybody that gets lazy will get killed. Until games are like the "holodeck" in Star Trek, gamers will not be satisfied. Real life is difficult to similate:)
Jeff Tunnell GG