3Dfx Interactive platform brings next generation 3D to new Hercules Windows accelerator; Hercules is first to bring low-cost, high-performance Voodoo Rush to consumer market with Stingray 128/3D product.SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 1997--3Dfx Interactive today announced that Voodoo Rush, the next-generation of its critically acclaimed Voodoo Graphics A family of 3D graphics accelerator chipsets originally from 3Dfx that are used in a variety of 3D display adapters from major manufacturers. The Voodoo Rush technology added 3D capabilities to 2D adapters. 3D technology, is providing the 3D graphics acceleration for the recently announced Stingray stingray: see ray. stingray or whip-tailed ray Any of various species (family Dasyatidae) of rays noted for their slender, whiplike tail with barbed, usually venomous spines. 128/3D Windows accelerator A display adapter that provides 2D functions in hardware. See graphics accelerator. from Hercules Computer Technology Inc. The Stingray 128/3D is the first consumer graphics board to incorporate the new high-performance, low-cost technology from 3Dfx Interactive, which was announced at Comdex in November. The proprietary VR interface, jointly developed by 3Dfx Interactive and Alliance Semiconductor, allows a seamless interface between the Voodoo Rush chipset and Alliance Semiconductor's ProMotion-AT3D PC multimedia accelerator. This joint technology results in a low-cost, uncompromising 2D/3D product for the consumer mass market of which Hercules is the first to deliver. In addition, other consumer and coin-op/arcade OEMs have selected 3Dfx's Voodoo Graphics product to bring unparalleled interactive, arcade 3D technology to their customers. These OEMs include Acclaim Entertainment, Diamond Multimedia, Hewlett-Packard Company, Falcon Northwest Falcon Northwest is a personal computer manufacturing company located in Medford, Oregon, USA which was founded in 1992 by its current President Kelt Reeves. The company began its existence focusing on high-end systems for CAD applications. , Interactive Light, NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. Technologies, Micron, Orchid Technologies and Williams-Atari-Bally-Midway. "We have already won the support of the game enthusiasts with our platform," said Andy Keane, 3Dfx Interactive vice president of marketing. "With products like the Stingray 128/3D, we fully expect that our 3D platform now will become the technology of choice for consumers who increasingly demand the realistic 3D to enhance their computing experience." Voodoo Rush delivers interactive 3D applications with photorealistic Having the image quality of a photograph. quality at real-time frame rates. Its performance exceeds 45 Mpixels per second and over 1 million texture-mapped triangles per second on a 166Mhz Pentium system. Voodoo Rush incorporates critical 3D features, such as triangle set up, Gouraud shading In 3D graphics, a technique developed by Henri Gouraud in the early 1970s that computes a shaded surface based on the color and illumination at the corners of every triangle. Gouraud shading is the simplest rendering method and is computed faster than Phong shading. , bilinear bi·lin·e·ar adj. Linear with respect to each of two variables or positions. Used of functions or equations. Adj. 1. bilinear - linear with respect to each of two variables or positions and trilinear filtering Trilinear filtering is an extension of the bilinear texture filtering method, which also performs linear interpolation between mipmaps. Bilinear filtering has several weaknesses that make it an unattractive choice in many cases: using it on a full-detail texture when scaling , Z-buffering, alpha-blending, level-of-detail MIP mapping A texture mapping technique that uses multiple texture maps, or MIP maps. Each MIP map is half the size of the first one, providing several texture maps for various levels of depth. MIP mapping is combined with various other techniques to produce different amounts of realism. , and perspective-correct texture mapping In computer graphics, the application of a type of surface to a 3D image. A texture can be uniform, such as a brick wall, or irregular, such as wood grain or marble. The common method is to create a 2D bitmapped image of the texture, called a "texture map," which is then "wrapped around" , which are essential for visually realistic texture-mapped entertainment and authoring applications. Moreover, Voodoo Rush simultaneously delivers these features with the performance to achieve smooth, realistic game play. In addition to its core 3D capabilities, Voodoo Rush also supports unique special effects including texture compositing and morphing, sub-pixel correction, texture animation, and per-pixel MIP mapping and atmospheric effects such as transparency, fog, and haze. These features dramatically enhance photorealism photorealism, international art movement of the late 1960s and 70s that stressed the precise rendering of subject matter, often taken from actual photographs or painted with the aid of slides. and impact to aid developers in creating a truly radical gaming experience. For professional applications, Voodoo Rush delivers crisp screen updates and fast previews of high complexity 3D objects and animation sequences. "3Dfx Interactive has won critical industry acclaim for 3D technology. The partnership between the two companies assures consumers of industry leading 2D performance, arcade quality 3D graphics and superior video playback," said Patrick Lucci, Hercules vice president of marketing. The Hercules Stingray 128/3D combines three high performance graphics processors on a single board to offer 128-bit 2D graphics plus high performance, arcade quality 3D and outstanding video acceleration. The Stingray 128/3D integrates the 128-bit Alliance ProMotion AT3D 2D/3D graphics processor with the Voodoo Rush dual 3D graphics controller chipset and 4MB of 40ns single-cycle EDO memory. All major 3D APIs for popular 3D games are supported including Microsoft Direct3D, 3Dfx Interactive Glide, Argonaut Brender and Criterion Renderware. Over 100 game titles are currently being developed to run on the Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo Rush platforms. Over 250 developers have joined the 3Dfx Interactive developer program including 3D Realms, Accolade, Activision, Atari Games, id Software, Interplay, Microsoft, Sierra and Virgin. The Hercules Stingray 128/3D will be available in Q1 1997 through Hercules' worldwide network of distributors, major computer retailers and OEMs. Estimated street price will be $129 for the 2MB model, $159 for the 4MB model, and $299 full configured with the daughtercard See daughterboard. daughtercard - daughterdboard . The Companies Hercules Computer Technology Inc. was founded in 1982, created the first high resolution PC graphics standard and is a leading developer of innovative, high performance graphics, 3D and multimedia solutions. The company's worldwide headquarters are located in Fremont, Calif., with international operations located in Munich, Germany. The company is privately held. Hercules can be reached at (800) 532-0600 or at (510) 623-6030. Reach Hercules on the World Wide Web at www.hercules.com . 3Dfx Interactive Inc., founded in 1994, is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. headquartered in San Jose. 3Dfx Interactive brings together a team of leading professionals from the 3D graphics, video game, multimedia, PC and semiconductor industries to provide advanced technology that enables new levels of interactive 3D electronic entertainment and visual simulation. For more information about 3Dfx Interactive, visit the company's Website at http://www.3Dfx.com . -0- Trademarks: The 3Dfx Interactive logo and Voodoo Graphics are trademarks of 3Dfx Interactive Inc. Hercules is a registered trademark of Hercules Computer Technology Inc. All other brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders, and are hereby acknowledged. CONTACT: 3Dfx Interactive Wendy Allen, 408/935-4400 wallen@3dfx.com http://www.3dfx.com or Hercules Computer Technology Inc. Patrick Lucci, 510/623-6075 plucci@hercules.com or Brodeur Porter Novelli Linda White or Barbara Kohn, 408/327-0470 lwhite@brodeur.com bkohn@brodeur.com |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion