Hey now that Nvidia has taken over 3DFX I wonder if they will keep the Glide API going? It would be easy for nvidia based cards to also support Glide. What do you guys think about this Idea. I know that there have been glide wrappers for nvidia cards for a while but now that they have control of the patents and then they can make a version of glide that will work on both the 3DFX cards and Nvida.
3DFX Now owned By Nvidia, How about GLide on there cards
- Thread starter mikeg
- Start date
Glide is dead... 3dfx open sourced Glide a while back and there were no takers. The reasons are simple - it only supported 16 bit color, and small palletized textures. The industry has moved beyond those limitations. Glide provided some of the better gaming experiences I can remember, but it's time to bury the coffin.
Glide stinks. It was an alternative to a stinkier DirectX 3 or somesuch early version. It simply has not been needed for a long time.
MustangSVT
Lifer
- Oct 7, 2000
- 11,554
- 12
- 81
no they use loki's open gl drivers for unreal engine
before i instaled them i could only run 800*600 in d3d 16 bit crappy effects d3d
now i run 1024*768 32bit full detail effects and i get more FPS
although i get some funny anomalies in the game
anyone seen players wearing neon pink translucent safty goggles?
i see them on thereone on my comp
or neon pink translucent towels on peoples heads
im talkin weird sh1t
before i instaled them i could only run 800*600 in d3d 16 bit crappy effects d3d
now i run 1024*768 32bit full detail effects and i get more FPS
although i get some funny anomalies in the game
anyone seen players wearing neon pink translucent safty goggles?
i see them on thereone on my comp
or neon pink translucent towels on peoples heads
im talkin weird sh1t
<< I don't like the 16 bit color.
Glide should be eliminated. >>
You do remember 3dfx's best 16-bit quality in the market? (22-bit post filter?)
I went from the Voodoo3-3500 with high-quality 16-bit, to a Geforce DDR @32-bit and didn't see much difference if any. Downgrading to 16-bit for speed I noticed poorer quality than the V3.
I wish 3dfx tried to stick it out and win that lawsuit.... dang.
Edit: typos. My bad.
Glide is good for Need for Speed II SE which I play every now and then... siilllky smooth on my Duron 900!!
1) the 3500's 16-bit sucks compared to the 5500's 16-bit
2) Glide doesn't "stink", it just hasn't been updated in years. It could easily be updated to support 32-bit color, larger textures, etc. just like any other API, but there is no reason to do that anymore.
3) Glide was specifically written to work with 3dfx's hardware architecture. It wouldn't just "work" on nvidia cards with simple driver updates. The glide wrappers prove this. They suck.
As far as glide being "dead", it is still the most stable and consistently fastest way to play UT, Rune and Deux Ex, 3 of the more popular games out there. The D3d patch for Deux Ex makes it playable on a GTS, but a 3500 will still wax a GTS-U in Deux Ex. Rune doesn't seem to be quite as "glide-dependant", but it still plays much better under glide than D3d.
OGL in UT is still far slower than glide, even with the new patch, and it's not as stable. Small anomalies pop up.
that being said, with the D3d DXTC patch, D3d 32-bit looks pretty damn good with the 5500 using the ocmpressed textures. Not quite as fast or as smooth, but still pretty darn cool. Some weirdness (flags), but pretty good nonetheless.
Glide still rules for racing and flight sims, period. =)
2) Glide doesn't "stink", it just hasn't been updated in years. It could easily be updated to support 32-bit color, larger textures, etc. just like any other API, but there is no reason to do that anymore.
3) Glide was specifically written to work with 3dfx's hardware architecture. It wouldn't just "work" on nvidia cards with simple driver updates. The glide wrappers prove this. They suck.
As far as glide being "dead", it is still the most stable and consistently fastest way to play UT, Rune and Deux Ex, 3 of the more popular games out there. The D3d patch for Deux Ex makes it playable on a GTS, but a 3500 will still wax a GTS-U in Deux Ex. Rune doesn't seem to be quite as "glide-dependant", but it still plays much better under glide than D3d.
OGL in UT is still far slower than glide, even with the new patch, and it's not as stable. Small anomalies pop up.
that being said, with the D3d DXTC patch, D3d 32-bit looks pretty damn good with the 5500 using the ocmpressed textures. Not quite as fast or as smooth, but still pretty darn cool. Some weirdness (flags), but pretty good nonetheless.
Glide still rules for racing and flight sims, period. =)
If you are going to pine for an obscure API for UT better it be MeTaL: full color, hi-res textures and fast. It simply spanks Glide, plus the Savage series always made Voodoo look like poop.
I use OpenGL for UT. D3D is suck.
I'm glad 3DFX is dead. Their cards were starting to look like a bunch of Voodoo 1's plastered together. Heh heh.
I'm glad 3DFX is dead. Their cards were starting to look like a bunch of Voodoo 1's plastered together. Heh heh.
My take on this is fairly simple.
I don't want Glide alive and well anymore than anyone else. It's old and outdated.
However, having said that, there are plenty of games (and not just average ones either) that were written either exclusively or mainly for Glide, and they simply don't run as well under any other API.
For this reason alone I believe that nVidia, and others, etc should write a legacy glide driver for their products, so people can run ALL the software that they might wish to on their machines.
Yes, I know there is such a thing as Glide wrappers, however I have tried just about all of them (certainly all the reccomended ones) on my system and none have been truly satisfactory (and I do have quite a powerful system for them to leverage).
Regards
Greg
I don't want Glide alive and well anymore than anyone else. It's old and outdated.
However, having said that, there are plenty of games (and not just average ones either) that were written either exclusively or mainly for Glide, and they simply don't run as well under any other API.
For this reason alone I believe that nVidia, and others, etc should write a legacy glide driver for their products, so people can run ALL the software that they might wish to on their machines.
Yes, I know there is such a thing as Glide wrappers, however I have tried just about all of them (certainly all the reccomended ones) on my system and none have been truly satisfactory (and I do have quite a powerful system for them to leverage).
Regards
Greg
Gstanfor, the glide wrappers are essentially glide drivers. That's as good as it'll get, unless someone gets some serious genius to them and figures out how to run a hardware-specific API on the "wrong" hardware.
Glide was really cool for old games (Outlaws, I-war, etc...) It would be nice if Nvidia did some kind of "official" glide wrapper??? I still haven't tried the D3D wrapper on my Radeon, I just use my 333mhz with my old Voodoo3 But it would be nice to have a working wrapper just the same....
For all of you stating "glide sucks... good riddens" Look how many revisions of D3D it took to even get close to GLIDE! I can rmember DX5 on WCropecy vs. 3dFX Glide... no contest. Most games that support glide still look best in Glide (albiet many were written originally in Glide, then ported to D3D or OpenGL). I think if Glide were updated, it would still be on the forefront. Still, I'm just as glad it isn't... having competing hardware specific APIs was a nightmare for developers and consumers (unless you always had the latest and greatest). At least now with a modern D3D/OGL card you will get acceptable representations of what the game developers intended.... but you still have to buy the latest and greatest to get all the bells and whistles with a desent frame rate
The Voodoo3 was a hell-of-a card... too bad we won't be seeing 3dFX around anymore... I'm tempted to grap a V4 5500 just for the nostalgia value
Does anyone know where someone can pick up a VooDoo2 card for cheap??? I would think they would be $10 by now. I'm tempted to stick one in my P133 for the hell of it
Brad
But it would be nice to have a working wrapper just the same....For all of you stating "glide sucks... good riddens" Look how many revisions of D3D it took to even get close to GLIDE! I can rmember DX5 on WC
ropecy vs. 3dFX Glide... no contest. Most games that support glide still look best in Glide (albiet many were written originally in Glide, then ported to D3D or OpenGL). I think if Glide were updated, it would still be on the forefront. Still, I'm just as glad it isn't... having competing hardware specific APIs was a nightmare for developers and consumers (unless you always had the latest and greatest). At least now with a modern D3D/OGL card you will get acceptable representations of what the game developers intended.... but you still have to buy the latest and greatest to get all the bells and whistles with a desent frame rate The Voodoo3 was a hell-of-a card... too bad we won't be seeing 3dFX around anymore... I'm tempted to grap a V4 5500 just for the nostalgia value
Does anyone know where someone can pick up a VooDoo2 card for cheap??? I would think they would be $10 by now. I'm tempted to stick one in my P133 for the hell of it
Brad
Yes I know that glide is an old API and that it does not have all the new features that are now available on the new video card but you do have to say that there are still a lot of old games that support it and run better under it also. I just wanted to know that if they will make a driver set that has support of the older games that is
Mike
Mike
BFG10K
Lifer
- Aug 14, 2000
- 22,709
- 3,001
- 126
Proprietry APIs suck because they stifle the gaming industry. If every video card vendor had their own API and Direct 3D and OpenGL didn't exist, we'd most likely only have a fraction of the 3D games that are available today.
Also I see people whining that Glide is dead yet those same people don't even bat an eyelid when another proprietry API (S3 Metal) dies, despite it having more features than Glide.
The whole reason that Glide came about was to circumvent the old Voodoo's architectural limits. Since those limits no longer exist (neither do the boards for that matter) there's little point in updating it. Updating it would just basically turn it into a Direct 3D or OpenGL copycat and would be a total waste of time.
Also I see people whining that Glide is dead yet those same people don't even bat an eyelid when another proprietry API (S3 Metal) dies, despite it having more features than Glide.
The whole reason that Glide came about was to circumvent the old Voodoo's architectural limits. Since those limits no longer exist (neither do the boards for that matter) there's little point in updating it. Updating it would just basically turn it into a Direct 3D or OpenGL copycat and would be a total waste of time.
<< Also I see people whining that Glide is dead yet those same people don't even bat an eyelid when another proprietry API (S3 Metal) dies, despite it having more features than Glide. >>
I'll make it simple for you:
Draw up two lists like so and fill them up
Glide
game name, copies sold
Metal
game name, copies sold
The results will speak for themselves.
Regards
Greg
I think the combined copies sold for:
Quake 1
Quake 2
Quake 3
Half Life
MDK2
Speak for themselves. I know I'm missing about 3 other major titles that sold large numbers of copies but its nearly 4 am and things are starting to blur a bit.
Half Life alone probably kicked all 4 titles combined.
Quake 2 sold what, 2 million copies?
OpenGL doesn't suck. Its needed to keep the Evil Empire in line
I'm sorry to have heard Farenheigt die. Why the heck didn't they call it Heat? Now thats a cool name
Quake 1
Quake 2
Quake 3
Half Life
MDK2
Speak for themselves. I know I'm missing about 3 other major titles that sold large numbers of copies but its nearly 4 am and things are starting to blur a bit.
Half Life alone probably kicked all 4 titles combined.
Quake 2 sold what, 2 million copies?
OpenGL doesn't suck. Its needed to keep the Evil Empire in line
I'm sorry to have heard Farenheigt die. Why the heck didn't they call it Heat? Now thats a cool name
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