Author Topic: OH MY GOD......this is freaking incredible!  (Read 4463 times)

Goku7

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OH MY GOD......this is freaking incredible!
« on: 2003-05-14 02:50:53 »
Somehow, somewhere, someone just leaked the 3Dfx driver source code! :o

Yeah, I downloaded it, a whopping 40MB COMPRESSED, supposedly it contains the source code for 3Dfx D3D, OpenGL and the (already open-sourced) Glide drivers.

However, the key word here is SUPPOSEDLY.  I don't know enough about source code to verify if this is the real deal or not, so basically, if this doesn't violate the forum rules, I would like to post a link so that some of you who are more educated in understanding this stuff can tell me if its "legit" (not legally, but whether or not this is just a huge hoax.), but that is all.

Yes, of course the people of X-3Dfx are claiming it is the real thing, but as people here have mentioned, they may not be as objective because that forum is more or less geared for 3Dfx people anyway.

So, this is mainly a curiousity of whether or not its real, and I'm not trying to blatantly post "illegal" material...besides, IIRC, not many other people here have 3Dfx cards (hence the idea that you guys'll be more "objective" in verifying this), so its not like you'll actually find a use for this, other than answering my question, lol.

Linkage here: 3Dfx Source Code?

A lot of the stuff in there appears to be for Glide, though I have reason to believe the D3D stuff is tucked away in the "Hal" folder.

Note to Mods: I will understand if you deem that this should be deleted, however for the purposes of answering my question I would like you to wait long enough for its legitimate-ness to be confirmed/denied, (assuming you are allowed to do that, like I said I'm not sure if this is violating forum rules) after that I won't have a problem with taking the link off.

 - edit by Alhexx -
Corrected that link url :D

mirex

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OH MY GOD......this is freaking incredible!
« Reply #1 on: 2003-05-14 11:07:10 »
I had set to d/l it on the night, however i can't tell if my analysis helps you.
But i know one thing, that is that you missed first letter 'f' from 'ftp' in your link. :)

Goku7

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OH MY GOD......this is freaking incredible!
« Reply #2 on: 2003-05-14 20:53:01 »
Quote
- edit by Alhexx -
Corrected that link url :D


Thanks.  Guess I went a little too fast there, eh? :P

Lieron

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OH MY GOD......this is freaking incredible!
« Reply #3 on: 2003-05-15 01:28:49 »
link doesnt work.. hmmm

Goku7

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OH MY GOD......this is freaking incredible!
« Reply #4 on: 2003-05-15 15:26:48 »
Yeah, from what I heard from the guy who is the webmaster of that site (actually, he's a moderator at X-3Dfx, go figure) I linked to (should be something like "NuAngel.net", I'll check for sure...), he said that he's beeng taking the file up and down occasional, because

1.)  He's got it on a school server (for a fast download time), and for some reason the a large portion of the bandwidth suddenly got eaten up when word got out the source is on there..:P

2.) I'm guessing he's also trying to throw off any people that are trying to gather evidence for suing him for nVidia's sake or something; at least that's what his explaination SOUNDED like to me.

In other words, keep trying, or try the main site, NuAngel's Helping Hand, as it has some more information on what he's doing about the whole "I have teh source!" deal.

Goku7

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OH MY GOD......this is freaking incredible!
« Reply #5 on: 2003-05-17 03:33:30 »
Heh, I guess the source code must have been real, I've already started to reap the benefits from the newer driver sets coming out, as it appears that my Voodoo3 now has, among the unexpected things:

Full-Blown DirectX8.1 Compatibility :D -- It now passes all three DXDIAG tests, it can now initialize under the D3D7, 8, and 9 interfaces.

Not sure if this is actually occuring, but I also appear to have some sort of software-based DOT3 Bump Mapping Emulation.....It is weird, but that's what the circumstantial evidence is suggesting, as I loaded up Star Trek Armada2, which uses that Bump Mapping technique, and for some reason it doesn't complain when I enable it in the options, considering that I know for a fact the V3 should ONLY be capable of Emboss Bump Mapping in hardware.

I'm gonna try utilizing the DOT3 Bump Mapping test in 3DMark2k1SE to determine whether or not my suspicions are correct.  Speaking of 3DMark2k1SE, it doesn't give me any more errors upon initialization anymore (I've only used it to see how well its running the demo part of the program....that Lobby Scene made full use of my Subwoofer, LOL. :P)!

Can there be any more good news?!  Appearantly so:

Geometry Assist, AKA "Hardware TnL emulation" appears to be stable for once when used in a D3D8 game, and is presumably completely stable in D3D7 games.

Now, I have to clarify something here....yes, on the whole, any of the previous driver sets I used would cause D3D8 to crash and burn upon initialization, thus meaning I couldn't play most DX8 games.....except for Star Trek: Bridge Commander, oddly enough.  In the past, that game would run thinking it had a HW TnL card, due to the Geometry Assist feature.....but would usually crash after maybe 5 or 6 minutes.

A few D3D7-era games, like HomeWorld, and HomeWorld Cataclysm, would randomly lock up when using D3D (they are capable of using OpenGL or a software render too), when Geometry Assist was enabled, with the length of time before the lockup being somewhere between 10-15 minutes.

Now, as far as this feature is concerned, it is the most unstable when attempting to run D3D8 games in comparison to D3D7 games, so the fact that it is running D3D8 so much more stable (relatively), leads me to believe that this also should mean that D3D7 games are even more rock-solid.

And for my next trick:

To get my hands on a V5 so I can actually not be limited to 16bit textures and that 256x256 texture limit.... :P