CompuServe Thread

Ernie, Luckily both software(drivers) and hardware can be improved to get better performance from video cards. I think you'll start to see that alot in the coming months as MAX makes it debut and pushes the envelope. Since NT is only an operating system, it can't really be improved along the lines of faster video except for what new technologies may emerge in the future (and Microsoft making sure that NT supports it, of course). It's mainly up to the 3rd party manufacturers to improve their hardware through better technologies and drivers. Am I rambling? Hope this helps… Jh

Hi Ernie, You bet we can enhance NT's video capabilities. 1st there's the basic 2D performance. 2nd there's the 3D performance required by 3DS MAX. You can get the best of both worlds … sometimes. 🙂 2D performance is a given requirement. Your graphics controller needs a good GUI graphics chip and top-notch drivers for top performance. 3D performance comes in hardware and software flavors. 3DS MAX uses Heidi. Heidi is an optimized 3D rendering pipeline. 3DS MAX talks to Heidi, Heidi talks to the hardware (or another software layer like OpenGL). 3rd party vendors will jump in to support 3DS MAX with improved performance. ELSA, for example, sells the ELSA GLoria controller. GLoria has an S3 Vision968 for 2D performance coupled with a GLINT 300/SX for 3D performance. ELSA has been working very closely with 3Dlabs to make certain that the GLoria has full, direct support for 3DS MAX. This support is integrated into ELSA's Windows NT driver, so the user gets optimum speed without the hassle. There will be a performance difference depending on your video choice. What that difference will be has been described a bit in the press releases where they compare the performance of the 8bpp dithered software solution to the true-color full-screen GLINT based solution. The good news is that, according to the Yost Group, even the software-only solution will be "fun to use" (I hope that I've paraphrased Gary properly. 🙂 Sincerely, Tom