Glide Q&A

What is Glide?

Glide is a low-level application programming interface (API) that allows developers to develop content on 3dfx hardware.

What is the history of Glide?

Glide was developed by 3dfx to allow developers to easily take advantage of new 3D hardware features available on 3dfx products.  3dfx released the initial version of Glide for Voodoo Graphics in 1996.

What are you announcing today?

Based on our commitment to the Open Source community, we have decided to release Glide 2 and Glide 3 source code and hardware specifications for the following products: Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo2, Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo3.

What is the future of Glide?

We plan on supporting current Voodoo3 customers and will provide compatibility support for all current and new hardware products through the end of 2000.

What market conditions influenced your decision?

We believe that users and developers alike want access to source code in order to port Glide to other platforms, customize, optimize and fix bugs.  With the release of Glide to the Open Source community, they will be able to make the necessary changes. 3dfx will focus future development efforts on OpenGL and DirectX.

When will Glide be publicly available?

The source kits and hardware specifications are available from the 3dfx Linux Web site (http://linux.3dfx.com) now.  The CVS repository for Glide is kept on the Sourceforge Web site (http://www.sourceforge.com).

Why is 3dfx giving up the benefits of having their own proprietary API?

Software developers have expressed their wishes to focus their efforts on D3D and OpenGL.  OpenGL and D3D are very mature and flexible APIs with advanced 3D features and we have been very successful in getting our new features added into both APIs.  We have the ability to add revolutionary and unique features to OpenGL through its extension mechanism, and Microsoft has been consistently aggressive in evolving Direct3D every year with compelling new 3D capabilities.  These factors have caused OpenGL and Direct3D to be the preferred APIs by the development community, therefore making a proprietary API such as Glide less important for the industry.

What is the status of your lawsuit with Creative/individuals over their Glide wrappers since you are now making it Open Source?

We are not at liberty to discuss the specifics of our lawsuit with Creative, however the decision to release Glide to the Open Source community has no consequence on that legal action or its outcome.  We have no other lawsuits pending related to Glide or Glide wrappers.

How will this impact the company’s IP position?

3dfx has patents on its IP and will continue to defend its IP if necessary. Glide is just a small part of the unique technology that makes 3dfx a leader in the 3D graphics market.

How does this impact current customers and products?

This is creates a positive impact for current customers and products.  Current customers who wish to use 3dfx based products for Linux now have the ability to do so.

How does this impact future customers and products?

We expect to extend our leadership in D3D and OpenGL with faster, more polished products.  We can now focus our software engineering resources on those APIs. 

What does this mean for the company’s developer relations program- isn’t this a complete strategy change?

Not at all, our developer relations is focused on the developer not an API. 

Content was always a foundation of your company strategy illustrated in your company strategy “triangle.”  Doesn’t the Open Sourcing of Glide negate any content advantages 3dfx has over the competition?  How do plan to counter that?

Content is still a key to the foundation of 3dfx.  We will continue to have content through our delivery of new products and through enhanced support of OpenGL and Direct3D.  We are also expanding our content by releasing Glide to the Open Source community, as that is one of the requirements of the Linux community.  Our driver support for other platforms like Linux and Apple Macintosh also extends our content strategy.  Our cross platform support for FXT1 is a good example of ways we will continue to focus on content.

Developer

What exactly is in the source code kits?

We are releasing the Linux port of our in-house Glide source code. Code is available for Glide 2 and Glide 3 for Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo 2, Voodoo Banshee, and Voodoo 3. Although the code supports Windows and Macintosh platforms, we have only tested it on Linux.

What has the reaction been from the Linux community?

They are thrilled!  The Linux market requires Open Source software.  By going Open Source with Glide we can aggressively pursue new opportunities in the Linux marketplace.  This move combined with our recent Open Sourcing of FXT1 texture compression technology solidifies 3dfx as a leader in the Open Source community.  Glide is also used to accelerate Mesa on 3dfx platforms and thus completes the Open Source requirements for Linux. (Mesa is an implementation of the OpenGL API)

What will this mean for the Macintosh community?

Current Macintosh development efforts are centered around OpenGL and we strongly encourage and support efforts on that API.

If you are not supporting/maintaining/updating Glide any longer, how does this effect your Macintosh users?

Although there are a few legacy Macintosh titles using Glide, current developer efforts are centered on OpenGL, which we will continue to aggressively support and continue driver development.  Demand from Macintosh consumers and participation of the Open Source community will drive any future support of Glide for the Macintosh platform.

What has the reaction been with the PC community?

With over 40% of developers actively working with Glide code and over 80% having used it at some point, the PC developer community is excited to see this move.  We have always promoted the use of the API which best suits their needs and recent feedback was that all Glide developers were supporting OpenGL or DirectX in addition to Glide.  Open Source Glide allows them to focus their energies and reduce development and testing time.

What will be the new API(s) for the company?

Our goal has always been to be the best 3D accelerator for OpenGL and D3D, in addition to supporting Glide.  Now, our efforts are completely focused on providing the best DirectX and OpenGL drivers.  The Open Source community will continue to evolve Glide as required by the market.

What influenced that decision?

First and foremost was the input from the software development community.  Continued improvement in DirectX and OpenGL through input from 3dfx has made these APIs suitable for our advanced hardware.  They are also becoming more flexible because we can expose new features through extensions in OpenGL and hope to see Microsoft follow a similar path with D3D.  Cross platform support is provided through OpenGL.

What will happen to the team of people that were working on Glide?

The talented group of engineers responsible for Glide will focus their efforts moving forward on providing the best OpenGL and DirectX drivers in the business.

What will happen to legacy applications?

Legacy applications are supported through current Glide drivers and the Open Source community will provide continuing support.  3dfx will provide Glide drivers for legacy Glide applications for all current products and any new products through the end of 2000. 

What about applications that are currently under development?

Most Glide developers are already supporting additional APIs and 3dfx will provide support and guidance where necessary.  We will work with each developer individually to help determine what is best for their title.

What about Glide-only titles?

Current Glide-only titles function properly on the released Glide drivers (with the exception of the Linux DRI beta driver). New titles should be developed on OpenGL or Direct3D, in order to take full advantage of 3dfx hardware features.

When will I be able to run Glide-only titles on Voodoo3 on Linux?

If you want to run Glide-only titles on Linux with Voodoo3 you need to install the fullscreen (non-DRI) driver. We are adding DRI support to Glide 2.6, so users can run both Glide-only titles and OpenGL in a window on Linux with Voodoo 3. We expect this work to be completed by the end of the year.

What will 3dfx do to help developers make the transition?

We will be working with each Glide developer individually to create a plan that suits their needs.

Will you continue to develop Glide for the Open Source community?

3dfx will continue to focus on OpenGL and D3D. Glide development will be left to the Open Source community.  3dfx is currently and will remain active in all Open Source efforts including Glide and FXT1 and will provide support as necessary to encourage further development.  We have already seen some very talented individuals do some very creative things with Glide and hope the release of Glide to Open Source community will encourage them to continue or even increase those efforts.

Does 3dfx have any resources allocated for supporting/maintaining/updating Glide?

Further updates of Glide, in terms of adding additional functionality at the API level, will happen through the Open Souce development community.  We will continue to staff a small internal group to ensure Glide drivers are available for all existing and new products through the end of 2000.

Why would a developer choose to write to Glide now?

3dfx is focusing on D3D and OpenGL.  However, Open Source Glide provides developers full access to our feature set, performance optimizations and coding structure.  There has been intense interest from developers creating content for embedded systems, set-top boxes and alternative operating systems. Glide provides a concise, easy to program interface for 3D graphics that can now be modified to suit a particular developer’s needs.

Will you be offering any incentives to encourage the development of Glide in the Open Source community or to game manufactures for continuing to support Glide?

We are Open Sourcing this mature and feature-rich API based on feedback and requests from game developers and the Open Source community.  We will create programs based on developer needs.

Technology

Do you have arrangements with Microsoft to have all the new features of your VSA-100 chip included in Direct X 7?

We are currently pursuing that with Microsoft and have provided Microsoft with a proposal to incorporate the T-Buffer as a part of a future release of Direct3D.  We are confident that a future version of DirectX will incorporate full T-Buffer capabilities.

Do you have arrangements with SGI to have all of the new features of the VSA-100 in OpenGL?

OpenGL has an extension mechanism for hardware vendors to expose new features.  There is no requirement to make “arrangements” with SGI regarding OpenGL.  It is an open API, and as such, Independent Hardware Venders (IHVs) such as 3dfx can develop drivers accordingly.  The only arrangement required with SGI is to have a license for OpenGL and 3dfx has been a level III licensee since 1997.

Are you making Glide Open Source because there is a need for another API?

We believe that it is important to listen to developers.  The recurring comments we have heard is that there is a need to innovate - in other words, allow developers the freedom to use new hardware features, and enable a requirement for standards - so that developers can maintain compatibility and a high level of quality.  We feel that OpenGL and D3D provide developers with appropriate solutions for these requirements. 

Can Glide be ported to your competitors’ chipsets and have existing applications look better and run faster with Glide?  Will Glide offer these advantages to 3D accelerators based on other chipsets?

There are several approaches possible to making Glide titles compatible with other chipsets.  For instance, there have been Glide wrappers which convert Glide calls to other APIs.  A native port of Glide to competitors’ hardware is also now a possibility.  That being said, it is important to recognize that Glide exposes certain features in 3dfx chips that are not supported on other vendors' chips, so it is very unlikely that a Glide port to those chips can be done that is 100% compatible with all of the features of the Glide API.

Is there a new version of Glide coming out before you make it Open Source with the release of the VSA-100?

No, there will not be a new version of Glide released prior to it being Open Sourced.  3dfx will provide Glide drivers for the current Glide spec for all products through the end of 2000.

What new features of the VSA-100 will be exposed by the 3dfx VSA-100 Glide driver?

The Glide driver shipped with all VSA-100 products will include support for all new VSA-100 features, including, for example, full-scene anti-aliasing, T-Buffer cinematic effects, 32-bit color rendering, FXT1 compressed texture formats, 2kx2k texture sizes, etc.  All of these new features, however, are only accessible through OpenGL (which is currently layered on top of Glide), as we are discouraging developers from accessing these new features directly through Glide. The user can, however, via a control panel option, force current Glide games to run with full-scene anti-aliasing enabled.  And, of course, the VSA-100 Glide driver will take advantage of the multi-chip VSA-100 boards to substantially increase fill-rate even for current Glide titles.

Will you put transform and lighting support in Glide?

No, we have no plans to do this.  OpenGL and Direct3D currently support fully featured transform and lighting capabilities, and our future evangelism will revolve around those APIs. 

Certain applications look better and run faster with Glide.  Will Glide offer these advantages to products based on your competitors’ chipsets?

Glide has been developed and optimized for 3dfx hardware, however it is conceivable that a concerted effort can be made to essentially port Glide to another chipset.  How well such a port performs is very difficult to predict.

Voodoo3 can not run OpenGL as fast as Glide.  How will you compensate for this in the future?