I find it a little worrying that so much of the work that has gone into the GeForce3 has been implementing unprecedented new features such as these vertex shaders, rather than improving more general stuff such as fillrate or transformation and lighting.
Vertex shaders are a more general implementation of T&L. They will eventually replace it and are a huge improvement over it. Pixel shaders are similar, they replace the fixed function blending modes. They are both supersets of the older stuff which will still be accelerated just fine.
This leads me to believe that Nvidia's goal with this chipset is not to improve the 3D gaming experience of their customers, but rather to lure developers into using these (admittedly excellent) new features.
How is this a bad thing, I hear you ask? Well, it looks to me like an "embrace & extend" tactic.
Wrong. The API's for accessing these new features are well documented and well defined. If you had bothered to check up on what exactly these features are you would know this. That's not "embrace & extend". Noone is prevented from implementing these features themselves.
Of course, NVidia could concievably whack a patent claim on anyone who does implement them (assuming they've got the patents, I haven't got time to check today), but as that would prevent anyone but NVidia implementing the complete DX8 API Microsoft probably wouldn't be too happy.
Witness ATI's Radeon - they added some very innovative features (like all the z-buffer accelerating) tricks but they were all dedicated to improving performance with current software.
Read the previews, GF3 includes a lot of features like this. You might also remember something called T&L. Fully backwards compatible... and NVidia were the first to introduce it in a consumer chip.
Is it just me or is any sort of innovation at all these days getting slapped with the "embrace & extend" label just because (horror!) using it requires dropping some backward compatibility?
Rust has plenty of links for getting started (follow the Content link at the top).
I'd recommend Worldcraft or Qoole to begin with. The 'professional' tool that id uses, QE/Q3Radiant, is a little unfriendly for the beginner.
Unreal and Unreal Tournament both come with a level editor on the CD if you have it.
I believe there's a.dfx/.3ds to.map convertor around, but I don't have a link handy.
You might also be interested in this (under CNID3) as yet incomplete rendition of Chartres Cathedral in Q3.
Re:It's not the broken mods that piss people off..
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New Q3A Patch And Mods
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I find opinions like this in the majority of less experienced players. I can find no explnation other than envy and ignorance.
Er, the changes are applied equally for everyone
Exactly. id has removed or weakened two skills that require practice and intelligence to use effectively. This is equivalent to, say, limiting all serves in tennis to under 100mph. It flattens the learning curve. It makes it harder to differentiate between two players of similar but not equal skills. I fail to see how this can be considered a good thing, unless you enjoy games where no skill is involved and wish to see q3 head further down this route.
Here's a hint: if your m@d skilz depend on exploiting cheats in the game, you're probably not that good.
These 'cheats' are present in the retail game and require no special soft/hardware to exploit. They are known to pretty much everyone except the very inexperienced, who in any case would be largely incapable of taking advantage of them. I think that it is safe to say that strafe-jumping and the 'shoot through walls bug' are outside most people's definition of cheating.
Slashdot Mirror
Argonaut developed (not ported) the PS1 version of "Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone". They have never developed or ported a PS2 Potter game.
See here for the official history.
Vertex shaders are a more general implementation of T&L. They will eventually replace it and are a huge improvement over it. Pixel shaders are similar, they replace the fixed function blending modes. They are both supersets of the older stuff which will still be accelerated just fine.
Wrong. The API's for accessing these new features are well documented and well defined. If you had bothered to check up on what exactly these features are you would know this. That's not "embrace & extend". Noone is prevented from implementing these features themselves.
Of course, NVidia could concievably whack a patent claim on anyone who does implement them (assuming they've got the patents, I haven't got time to check today), but as that would prevent anyone but NVidia implementing the complete DX8 API Microsoft probably wouldn't be too happy.
Read the previews, GF3 includes a lot of features like this. You might also remember something called T&L. Fully backwards compatible... and NVidia were the first to introduce it in a consumer chip.
Is it just me or is any sort of innovation at all these days getting slapped with the "embrace & extend" label just because (horror!) using it requires dropping some backward compatibility?
Rust has plenty of links for getting started (follow the Content link at the top).
I'd recommend Worldcraft or Qoole to begin with. The 'professional' tool that id uses, QE/Q3Radiant, is a little unfriendly for the beginner.
Unreal and Unreal Tournament both come with a level editor on the CD if you have it.
I believe there's a .dfx/.3ds to .map convertor around, but I don't have a link handy.
You might also be interested in this (under CNID3) as yet incomplete rendition of Chartres Cathedral in Q3.
I find opinions like this in the majority of less experienced players. I can find no explnation other than envy and ignorance. Er, the changes are applied equally for everyone Exactly. id has removed or weakened two skills that require practice and intelligence to use effectively. This is equivalent to, say, limiting all serves in tennis to under 100mph. It flattens the learning curve. It makes it harder to differentiate between two players of similar but not equal skills. I fail to see how this can be considered a good thing, unless you enjoy games where no skill is involved and wish to see q3 head further down this route. Here's a hint: if your m@d skilz depend on exploiting cheats in the game, you're probably not that good. These 'cheats' are present in the retail game and require no special soft/hardware to exploit. They are known to pretty much everyone except the very inexperienced, who in any case would be largely incapable of taking advantage of them. I think that it is safe to say that strafe-jumping and the 'shoot through walls bug' are outside most people's definition of cheating.