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Is Fahrenheit Graphics A Load Of Vapour?

Posted by Cliff on from the standard-microsoft-operating-proceedure dept.

Gerald asks: "It's been three years since Microsoft and SGI announced that they were jointly developing Fahrenheit, the new 3D graphics API that would be better and more cross platform than both OpenGL and Direct3D. The dates indicated on the press release have all passed, and there has been no mention on it anywhere. I haven't even been able to find a Fahrenheit home page. So what's happened? Was Fahrenheit a decoy to get the graphics industry off the back of Microsoft when it first came out with Direct3D?"

2 of 11 comments (clear)

  1. Fahrenheit by Snowfox · · Score: 3

    In talking to the SGI crew at Siggraph, SGI already took their last developer off Fahrenheit, and Microsoft only ever had two guys dedicated to the project.

    I won't guess at Microsoft's motives, but I'll submit this: At the point where Fahrenheit was announced, OpenGL was the defacto standard for 3D. If Direct3D hadn't taken off, the Fahrenheit alliance would have put Microsoft in the perfect position to embrace and extend.

    Today, and as of Direct3D 5, all major chip makers are designing 3D hardware to match the functionality of Direct3D. nVidia's new hardware is DirectX 8. From Microsoft's standpoint, there wouldn't be much to gain by relinquishing control.



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    My opinions are mine.
  2. It's dead by mperham · · Score: 3
    I believe two things killed it:

    • SGI moved toward Linux and commodity hardware
    • D3D gained critical mass

    Why would MS promote a pseudo-open API when their proprietary API is the standard in gaming now?