Warp2Search.net » News » April 2003 » Half-Life 2 To Be Nvidia Exclusive?

Website Spong posted that we may have to face an unpleasant change in the way we know gaming. Right now we are all PC gamers. If it comes to what they outline there will soon be Nvidia and ATI gamers. Spong claims to have learned from insiders that Valve Software is currently investigating to make Half-Life 2 exclusive to Nvidia hardware. Half-Life was originally published in 1998 and brought innovations to the genre still referred to today. Spong also reports that both chipmakers have been in negotiations with game developers for such exclusivity deals for quite some time. More details are said to be revealed at this years E3. BTW this story was posted on April 2nd, 2003. Source: Spong.com

Tuckwit Member Posts: 64 Joined: 2002-09-26

#42732 Posted on: 04/03/2003 05:26 PM Downside: There goes DirectX Upside: There goes DirectX

Degger* Moderator Posts: 646 Joined: 2001-08-26

#42733 Posted on: 04/03/2003 05:27 PM If this would be true it would be very stupid from Valve because they will loose lot s of buyers. Myself wouldn´t change grafics card for a game. Also if they do it a new kind of "war" would be born and that would be very bad for all out here. Than it s similar the same than with X-Box, Game Cube e.g. For every system different games. Hope that this will never happen.

MagamiAKO Unregistered

#42735 Posted on: 04/03/2003 05:38 PM the issue is that games are being hindered by having to be coded for two entirely different code paths. Not to mention the hardware render the games differently, it's very very very difficult to just have to put up with that. With all of the newer games coming out, with all of the new effects in hardware, they want to be a step above the general 'draw a polygon on the screen' and they want to use hardware. The issue is that what the R9700 can do over the GF-FX or the GF-FX over the R9700, they might want to include that but can't since the other hardware can't run it. At that point, different players will be playing two entirely different games. This is sort of what Nvidia's Cg was to help with, but ATI refuses to make a Cg compiler for their hardware, and Cg essentially should somewhat really help with this problem. At least they're not going console specific....

Sarc Unregistered

#42736 Posted on: 04/03/2003 05:42 PM I can't beleive they are actually considering doing something this bone-headed. I mean isnt the idea to get as many people playing your game as possible? I know NVidia is probably still the dominate king of video cards, but ATI has a very strong following due to there very powerfull recent Radeon line. Sounds like a very stupid idea to me. At the same time, maybe I should go by a PCI based ATI Radeon, pair it up with my AGP based GF 4 4200 and call it good. :P I do have 3 monitors on my desk after all, but home many of your common gamers can say that? Um... segrigation is a bad thing.

Jollemi Unregistered

#42737 Posted on: 04/03/2003 05:57 PM I see the positive and negative sides of this new possible change in making games. But still I think it's more negative than positive...

Gemini Unregistered

#42739 Posted on: 04/03/2003 06:20 PM ATi has Rendermonkey

Quinn1981 Unregistered

#42740 Posted on: 04/03/2003 06:28 PM I got NDA'ed. :- Guess we will have to wait to find out.

Vasquez Unregistered

#42741 Posted on: 04/03/2003 06:53 PM QUOTE: the issue is that games are being hindered by having to be coded for two entirely different code paths. Not to mention the hardware render the games differently, it's very very very difficult to just have to put up with that. Errr... that's what DirectX is for, look at what Epic have done with the Unreal Engine. They stopped development of the OpenGL renderer in favour of concentrating on DirectX, and the much wider user base it offers. That said, I *very* much doubt Valve are going todo this, they are not stupid, they know this would be a *very* bad move...

Thorz Junior Member Posts: 17 Joined: 2002-06-12

#42742 Posted on: 04/03/2003 06:54 PM If this become true it can be the worst thing that can happens to all us gamers. I really hope this idea will never see daylight! This is like returning to the times of Glide vs directx, only much worst.

Yahoo Unregistered

#42743 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:01 PM Are you guys kidding! This is great news! I now have an excuse for my wife on why I need to build another computer!

hinkle Unregistered

#42744 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:20 PM wouldn't bother me, I currently own a Ti4600 and are considering very strongly to buy a nv35 during this summer. This way valve can concentrate themselves on one particular hardware and try to make the best game possible... why not? Although I have my doubts about this news. Not that valve will be losing many buyers with that decision since most ATI 9700 and 9800 owners will buy the nv35 for sure this summer (I'm talking about high-end users) and besides that if nowadays ATI only owns a small market share; but the decision indeed could start a big flame/bashwar which could become very uncomfortable for anyone... nvidia and intel all the way because in the end everyone will return to this both companies, regardless how hard ATI and AMD tried and succeeded for several months.

Dwarden Junior Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2006-10-04

#42745 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:25 PM Why should ATI use Cq? They have RenderMonkey and 3Dlabs is cooperating with them on RenderMonkey usability and improvement too ... plus ATI is following standards (DirectX and OpenGL) but nVIdia is always doing all 'theirs' way ...

Dwarden Junior Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2006-10-04

#42746 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:26 PM I heard same about VooDoo ... j/k

Dwarden Junior Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2006-10-04

#42747 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:28 PM Eh ? UT2003 still have OpenGL renderer ... and it will sure get improved for OpenGL 2.0 etc. Epic was always supporting both (because of linux user ...

Jaybo Unregistered

#42748 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:32 PM I've got no problem with this, the game consoles have this very same situation, as they always have. Why make it any different for PCs?

hinkle Unregistered

#42750 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:37 PM ATI also has vendor specifique fonctions implemented in OpenGL which don't work with nvidia cards. That nothing new!

Marlboro_man Unregistered Posts: 15 Joined: 2002-12-13

#42751 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:39 PM This article is a load of BULLSHIT.

Trik Junior Member Posts: 3 Joined: 2003-02-13

#42752 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:42 PM but nVIdia is always doing all 'theirs' way ... They're heading down the 3dfx path

hinkle Unregistered

#42753 Posted on: 04/03/2003 07:45 PM probably, but maybe not. It's know that nvidia and ATI have been trying to get exclusive rights to a game, that's nothing new. If this story really is true then this will mean three things: 1) ATI will strike back with another gaming title exclusive to their hardware and the graphiccard will have started 2) ATI wrappers will pop up which enable you to play HL2 on your Radeon, like it happened with the first Glide wrappers to be able to play 3dfx only games on other hardware. This will become the biggest PC revolution this side of the millenium (not saying that this is good) if it really happens!

Marlboro_man Unregistered Posts: 15 Joined: 2002-12-13

#42754 Posted on: 04/03/2003 08:03 PM Game developers aren't in the buiseness to make exclusives for certain hardware, they are there for the money.

Jaybo Unregistered

#42756 Posted on: 04/03/2003 08:19 PM ...and if a company pays them for making it exclusive?

Marlboro_man Unregistered Posts: 15 Joined: 2002-12-13

#42758 Posted on: 04/03/2003 08:27 PM I don't think they will pay THAT much money. There are LOTS of ATI users out there you know...

Jaybo Unregistered

#42759 Posted on: 04/03/2003 08:29 PM but Half-Life is a huge title

Marlboro_man Unregistered Posts: 15 Joined: 2002-12-13

#42760 Posted on: 04/03/2003 08:33 PM Yeah, but the number of potential buyers with NON-nvidia cards is also huge.

Jaybo Unregistered

#42761 Posted on: 04/03/2003 08:36 PM That may in fact change with the NV35...

Warp2Search.net » News » April 2003 » Half-Life 2 To Be Nvidia Exclusive?