3dfx Interactive

3dfx Interactive was from its foundation in 1994 until the takeover by its competitor Nvidia in December 2000, a company that specialized in the production of 3D graphics cards, 3D accelerator cards and GPUs.

  • 2.1 Graphics Chipsets
  • 2.2 graphics cards
  • 4.1 Emulation of 3dfx cards

History

3Dfx Interactive was founded in 1994 by Scott Sellers, Ross Smith, Gary Tarolli in San Jose ( California). Originally, the efforts of 3dfx concentrated mainly on the market for arcade systems, the nascent market for 3D hardware for personal computers was taken as a second sales channel for the arcade products in the eye.

Equipped with nearly 17 million U.S. dollars of venture capital 3dfx began even in the first year of working on their first product, the Voodoo Graphics chipset. Shortly before its completion in 1996, there was suddenly due to a fall in prices for EDO DRAM memory chips, a market for 3D hardware for PCs, 3dfx rejected the plan for a slow adaptation of technology and chose the Voodoo Graphics chipset from the outset for the PC platform to bring to the market.

The specially developed by 3dfx for the Voodoo Graphics Programming Glide, which offered game developers an easy and powerful interface to 3D hardware, as well as through the support of the established by Silicon Graphics OpenGL standards, the Voodoo Graphics broad acceptance enjoyed now by the game makers; some games appeared then exclusively for the Glide interface, of which a few a 3dfx card even necessarily presuppose without additionally offer an alternative software mode ( a list of 3dfx games is the "Known games with exclusive 3dfx support or 3dfx special features ").

In the shadow of the Voodoo Graphics

Mid-1997, Greg Ballard was appointed as the new CEO of 3dfx, he was the company that was thought to be centered technology, help with marketing activities to build on the overwhelming success of the Voodoo Graphics. 3dfx had at that time on the 3D accelerator cards for home PCs sector with a market share of about 60%, the expectations for the future were correspondingly high.

In the first quarter of 1997, 3dfx announced a partnership with the former console maker Sega announced, Sega commissioned the development of a 3dfx graphics chipset for the planned successor to the Saturn game console. Back in July 1997, this partnership was, however, terminated unilaterally by Sega. The already completed Graphics Chipset 3dfx was never produced. Instead, the choice fell on the graphics chip set of the later Dreamcast console baptized on the PowerVR 2 of NEC. 3dfx defended himself in a trial that ended in mid-1998 with a comparison.

In 1997 the Voodoo Rush appeared, a 2D/3D-Kombination, 1998, the Voodoo2, in turn, as a pure 3D add-on solution. Although the commercially Voodoo2 was a great success, the dominance of 3dfx slowly began to crumble. Competitor Nvidia Riva TNT brought the 1998 chip on the market, which, at about equivalent performance, compared with the Voodoo2 had a decisive advantage: He united 2D and 3D functionality on a single chip. Two graphics cards ( one for 2D and 3D) were not necessary here, which led to a significantly lower price. Starting with this chip Nvidia forced the entire industry a product cycle of only six months, twice a year so new chips were introduced by Nvidia - a pace at which the majority of the industry could not keep up.

3dfx moved at the beginning and presented, albeit slightly delayed, the successor Voodoo2 Voodoo Banshee before, which, although it also represented a 2D/3D-Kombination, the breakthrough did not really succeed. The strong position of Glide was lost because Microsoft Direct3D with the increasingly limited on 3dfx graphics cards Glide displaced.

In 1998, 3dfx led to the Scan Line Interleave ( SLI) a procedure that allowed the coupling of multiple graphics chips like Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo 2 and VSA-100, the calculated image lines alternately.

2004 attacked with the Nvidia Scalable Link Interface this idea again, even if it technically works basically different.

3dfx is still in Germany a registered trademark. This trademark was renewed in 2006 from Nvidia to 10 years.

From the chipset to the card manufacturer and back

During the work on a "real" successor for the Voodoo2 at full speed ran 3dfx precipitated a major strategic decision: In order to provide brands 3dfx and Voodoo a stronger market presence ( so far were Voodoo chipsets on a variety of products from different manufacturers under different brand names been expelled ), it is no longer produced, only the chipsets, but full graphics cards. End of 1998, 3dfx bought for this purpose the American graphic card manufacturer and former customers STB Systems, which had been built 3dfx chipsets on graphics cards and could produce strong connections to major OEM market, for about 140 million U.S. dollars.

Due to the existing infrastructure - STB, at that time already its own production site in Mexico - 3dfx could now establish itself on graphics cards. Immediately stopped the sale of 3dfx graphics chips to other manufacturers and thus lost an important partner in the industry, which now umstiegen on chips of competitors. The decision to abstain from major distribution partners, such as Diamond Multimedia, and Creative Labs was quite taken within the industry and on the stock market with mixed feelings, many see it as retroactively the first step to the final demise of 3dfx.

The end of 3dfx

On December 15, 2000, all 3dfx patents and naming rights were bought by Nvidia. In addition, approximately 100 employees were transferred. 3dfx had around 280 million U.S. $ generates loss in the last two fiscal quarters. In the interests of shareholders Nvidia's offer of U.S. $ 70 million was accepted in cash and $ 42 million in shares.

Nvidia acquired so that all trademark and patent rights ( so that completed some litigation ), including the first on 27 March 2000 added purchased gigapixel technology and the DirectX 8 graphics chips (in development) Rampage / Sage.

3dfx kept the plant in Mexico and all ( final ) card stocks. These were then but soon also settled it. 3dfx Interactive filed for bankruptcy on October 15, 2002.

List of announced and published 3dfx products

Graphics Chipsets

  • Voodoo Graphics (SST -1) ( 1996)
  • Voodoo Rush (SST -96 ) (1997 )
  • Voodoo 2 (SST -2) ( 1998)
  • Voodoo Banshee ( Banshee ) (1999 )
  • Voodoo3 & Velocity ( Avenger ) (1999 )
  • VSA -100 ( Napalm ) (2000 )
  • VSA -101 ( Daytona ) ( 2000) ( never officially released )
  • VSA -200 ( Rampage ) ( 2001) ( never published )
  • VSA -300 ( Fusion ) (?? ) ( Never published )
  • Mojo (? ? ) ( Never published )

Graphics Cards

  • Based on the Voodoo2 family Voodoo2 1000 ( 1998)
  • Voodoo3 1000 ( 1999)
  • Voodoo3 2000 ( 1999)
  • Voodoo3 3000 ( 1999)
  • Voodoo3 3500 TV (1999)
  • Velocity 100 (1999)
  • Velocity 200 ( never published, prototypes exist)
  • Voodoo4 4000 ( never published )
  • Voodoo4 4400 ( never published )
  • Voodoo4 4500 (2000)
  • Voodoo4 4800 ( never published, prototypes exist)
  • Voodoo 5 5000 ( never published, 30 prototypes exist, 15 are still known)
  • Voodoo 5 5500 (2000)
  • Voodoo 5 5800 ( never published )
  • Voodoo 5 6000 ( never published, about 1400 prototypes existed, about 80 are still known)
  • Voodoo4 -2 4000 ( never published, prototypes exist)
  • Voodoo4 -2 4200 ( never officially released, prototypes exist)
  • Voodoo4 -2 4800 ( never published, prototypes exist)
  • Specter 1000 ( 1 Rampage chip, never published, 20 prototypes existed, 4 still known)
  • Specter 2000 (1 Rampage 1 Sage- chip (T & L), never published )
  • Specter 3000 ( 2 Rampage 1 Sage- chip (T & L), never published )
  • Specter 4000 ( 4 Rampage 1 Sage- chip (T & L), never published )
  • Fear 1000 ( never published )
  • Fear 2000 ( never published )
  • Fear 3000 ( never published )
  • Fear 4000 ( never published )
  • No plans by 3dfx

Model data

Known games with exclusive 3dfx 3dfx support or special features

Games that at least one other 3D accelerator ( Direct3D, OpenGL or proprietary)

  • Equivalent or better
  • Innately or by patch

Support, are not listed here.

3dfx card is absolutely required, otherwise the game will not start, ie there is neither a software nor a mode support other 3D graphics cards, not via patch

  • Pandemonium 2

Exclusive 3dfx support in addition to software mode, ie neither support Direct3D or OpenGL, nor any direct support for other graphics cards, not via patch

  • Lead and lead foot 2 foot Rally (required in the former 3dfx patch )
  • Blood ( 3dfx patch required)
  • Carmageddon ( 3DFX patch required)
  • Extreme Assault ( 3dfx patch required)
  • Grand Theft Auto ( DOS version only )
  • I-War (originally 3dfx patch required, which later appeared in American version had integrated support. The 3dfx version additionally offers even more detailed models )
  • Incubation: Battle Isle Phase Four
  • MiG- 29 Fulcrum
  • Need for Speed ​​II SE
  • NBA Live 98, NHL 98
  • Longbow 2 (one out later given Direct3D patch was not working properly )
  • Red Baron 3D (there was also a patch to Red Baron 2)
  • Creep speed (transparency effects, 3dfx patch required)
  • Shadow Warrior ( 3dfx patch required transparency effects for explosions )
  • The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
  • Uprising

Support for other cards or interfaces but with 3dfx exclusive features

  • Wing Commander: Prophecy ( lens flares only at 3dfx, they were enabled later by an unofficial patch for the Direct3D mode )
  • Descent 2 (transparency effects, 3dfx patch required first there was a patch for S3 chip;. They can be emulated by virtualization programs like Virtual PC and DOSBox, the programs were not designed for the emulation of a 3D hardware acceleration)
  • Unreal had water effects, which looked far better under Glide as Direct3D.

Emulation of 3dfx cards

Since a number of well-known games support only 3dfx cards, some even necessarily presupposed, and for others only with 3dfx all effects were represented, were so-called " Glide Wrapper" wrote that represent the commands of Glide on standards such as Direct3D or OpenGL. This makes it possible to run such games in their original quality, even on modern graphics cards that do not support innately Glide. The resulting projects like this OpenGlide for OpenGL, Direct3D and dgVoodoo Glidos ( for DOS games, both standards ) can free ( OpenGlide, dgVoodoo ) or as shareware ( Glidos ) download

Types of business entity Video game arcade cabinet Glide API Settlement (litigation) Byte Pandemonium (video game) Red Baron (1980 video game)
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