Warp2Search.net » News » May 2003 » 3dfx Driver/BIOS source code leaks

Just got word that the 3dfx Driver/BIOS source code has been leaked to the web!

Well, its happened, although it was released to the net about 3 weeks ago (but not posted publically)... Nu Angel from the x3dfx community forums has released the 3dfx driver / BIOS source to the world. Its spreadign like wildfire and would allow the community to build new drivers for their aging hardware.



The legallity of this is questionable. I had been trying to contact the companies in question (nVidia, Quantum3D, Elpin) regarding releasing the source openly and was bashed by several members on the x3dfx community forums. Lets hope Nu Angel hasn't made the wrong choice...

3dfx Driver/BIOS source leaks

digitalwanderer Junior Member Posts: 3 Joined: 2004-02-22

#43461 Posted on: 05/03/2003 09:36 PM Mebbe I'll get some use out of that V5 5500 on the shelf after all. I don't see why any company would be against this, don't they not exist anymore?

Brisk Unregistered

#43463 Posted on: 05/03/2003 10:09 PM I believe nVidia bought property rights for 3dfx.

ThomasTS Unregistered

#43465 Posted on: 05/03/2003 11:52 PM Don't see why they'd be against it? Well, it's just one more reason why someone with a 3dfx card should postpone upgrading their hardware I guess (& denying them sales as a result). The cards might have been pretty good back years ago, but 3dfx are dead now, along with any developer support (Which had gone down the tubes even before they went bust). Everyone with a 3dfx card should just get over them & move onto something better - which is what both NVIDIA & ATi now offer.

chris_exe Unregistered

#43466 Posted on: 05/03/2003 11:57 PM I agree the V5 was cool, but its long dead. There really is no reason to hold on to one especially with the likes of the 9700/9800 Radeon around. Yes ok it had great AA but life goes on.

ThomasTS Unregistered

#43467 Posted on: 05/03/2003 11:59 PM Oh yeah, before 3dfx faded away they sold a load of IP to NVIDIA. The "3dfx Driver/BIOS source" is NVIDIA's property far as I remember. So, yeah, there's at least 1 company who would have a strong objection to this - it is there source code thats been released, & probably without their consent too (Regardless of what little gains this may have for those not willing to move on).

Divine_Madcat Junior Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2003-06-15

#43469 Posted on: 05/04/2003 10:08 AM One question: WHo cares!??! Really, anything being used with a 3DFx logo (except perhaps the V5 6k), should have been long replaced anyway. It is junk, and really, by people clinging to archaic crap, they are slowing the industry. I remember a BIG fuss when people found out how bad their cards were when America's Army came out. They screamed for a patch... how pathetic..

Raistlin Member Posts: 60 Joined: 2003-01-25

#43472 Posted on: 05/04/2003 11:47 AM i get tired of noobs to 3d gamin disin the voodoo cards. TELL me how do u play any older glide games, You still may own without a voodoo card??? eh, well you don't. I still have 2x 3dmonster Voodoo II's sitting next to my geforce 4 ti 4400.

ThomasTS Unregistered

#43473 Posted on: 05/04/2003 01:34 PM Well this "noob" (Which I ain't - I've had a voodoo 2, 3 & 5) would get a Glide emulator of course.

Jollemi Unregistered

#43474 Posted on: 05/04/2003 03:08 PM That's exactly what I was about to say

Raistlin Member Posts: 60 Joined: 2003-01-25

#43479 Posted on: 05/05/2003 02:22 AM There are no glide EMUS that work even 50% correctly, bout all there compatible with is Ultra Hle

Divine_Madcat Junior Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2003-06-15

#43480 Posted on: 05/05/2003 04:48 AM Ops. i forgot, people still play 4 year old games that look like crap... my bad. Sheesh. get a new card, and get some new games.. belive it or not, they are fun....

rocco66 Unregistered

#43482 Posted on: 05/05/2003 05:21 PM well i was a huge 3dfx fanboy - i will admit some of the later products were not as innovative as the first few. but Nvidia - man they stink - they are hugely based on PR -and most of their products suck let me make some points A) i am a user of a 3dfx product in my old system and an ati on my new. - i still want to be able to run - say win xp - on my machine and make full use of the progs that my card is capable of running. microsoft - and nvidia - now owning the 3dfx logo and stuff - allow only basic support - this makes me feel ill against them. and i 'm really thankful to nuangel - because he;s affording us a choice. it ain;t all market shares and sales of newhardware as far as i 'm concerned. hm - it was 3dfx that came up with t-buff and fsaa if i remember correctly. nvidia was all about T&L ! at the time . now a few years down memory lane - fsaa is a standard. back then nvidia said- if the game is running as t you wont notice it :P but we have 32 color textures :P true - the only visible thing that i 've seen so far - is the iq difference in smoke :P 16 bit is dithered ! nvidia has a tactic of mud-slinging. they release bet-o-nators every 2 days. too many of them - most of them crash. in corespondence that i had with some support person when i had an nvidia product -they were generic and untruthful to avoid a sale in favor of a competitor. i hated that. GLIDE WAS AWESOME !!! ??! they should have kept it in development- in fact they should have actually released the 3dfx roducts instead of buring them. probably they would have been better. instead we got GF3 - which was good - GF4- which was ok , and the mighty FX - which was a dissaster !!! NVIDIA - get your hands of NU-ANGEL - 3DFX FOREVER !!! oh guess what - i will never buy an nvidia product in my life again. i did that mistake with viper330 - it runs as fast as a voodoo one they said .... back on those olden golden 38 days. NOAP it didn't ! Which Sucked. ever since - it's mud slinging, carefully selected benchmarking - loads of PR B#$@$@#%X which finally hit the fan - and claims of leadership etc etc. without the oems - nvidia would have been in the gutter - and they know it they bundle cheap g.forces on every system to all unsuspecting customers. why not ati ? DUDE ? why not aTi ? one last thing - the pr machine of nvidia ? a comedy of errors !? 2X4 ? FX-flow ? the ground breaking awesome new product that would BLOW the R300 away ??!!! Sure !!! now who's smoking that halluci-stuff ?!

rocco66 Unregistered

#43497 Posted on: 05/06/2003 07:53 AM should i also mention the way they treated Visiontek ? they did not give a damn if the company would close - if people would loose their jobs - etc. That's the goody goody - company they are - money hungry - "fairy" demoing - PR based so called "leaders of the industry". well the leaders of the industry have had the sloweer card since last summer- Now that's what i call number one !!!

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