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Conflict On Graphic Standards Hurting PC Gaming?

Posted by simoniker on from the ati-vs-nvidia-plus-alpha dept.

Thanks to GameSpot for their editorial discussing graphics card manufacturers, and how their race for revenue could harm PC gaming. The piece discusses the days when "3dfx's Glide standard was the only thing going", and "3dfx even secured deals with retailers to create separate sections for 3dfx-compatible games." However, the author laments: "I thought hardware-specific games were a thing of the past. Then I booted up the demo for Bridge It", an Nvidia-sponsored title which "will not run unless you have an Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti or GeForce FX graphics card installed." The article ends with a hope that "clearer heads will prevail and PC gaming can take new steps toward improving ease-of-use, not balkanizing the platform for business reasons."

6 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. DirectX by CowboyMeal · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Isn't this the whole reason DirectX came along? I remember trying to get games to work in the DOS days, is that what we're reverting to?

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  2. Re:That's obsurd by the+Man+in+Black · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Any developer willing to agree with this kind of needless BS and lock out a whole section of users because they don't have the "preferred hardware", doesn't deserve to have thier crap game played in the first place.

    You mean like developers that won't produce games for the Mac?

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  3. Ummm... by Violet+Null · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's a game that wouldn't exist without NVidia's financing. That is, and I'll speak slowly, it was paid for by NVidia. It's basically an advertisement for them, disguised as a game. What's the big deal?

    NVidia can (and obviously will) do this. ATI can do this. But, really, will any game manufacturer who is not taking money from either ATI or NVidia do this? No. And even if they are taking money from one side, they still won't chop themselves off at the knees in terms of units sold if they've got a marketable game.

  4. Re:The game was developed as an NVIDIA demo. by srmalloy · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The game was made primarly as a graphics demo for NVIDIA cards. It makes sense, then, that it should be for NVIDIA cards, no?

    Given that nVidia has tweaked its drivers specifically to make the drivers aware of when the computer was running 3DMark 2003, in order to use specially-optimized code specific to the 3DMark tests to boost its cards' benchmark scores, I'm not surprised that nVidia decided to bankroll development of software to show off its cards... certainly the benchmarks don't show them in a particularly good light...
  5. How is this any different by Gizzmonic · · Score: 2, Insightful

    from someone developing their game in DirectX, thereby making it Windows-only?

    Let's let gamers decide which game runs for what system...as they did with 3dfx. No need to whine about it here.

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  6. Re:ATI Wrapper by JediSB · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here's some info about the wrapper for the Dawn demo: http://www.rage3d.com/articles/atidawning/