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Why was x3dfx stopped? Who do you think stopped it? Why did their website after being stopped speak of legal matters? Why does it no longer speak of legal matters?
Why isn't anyone allowed to release official V5 drivers? Who is not allowing it to happen?
Do you have any evidence to backup your claims? No hearsay, real evidence, Do you have any evidence a link about Nvidia been behind somebody stopping you or any body from releasing a driver? I know people working on 3dfx drivers for Linux and nothing like that has happened, they do not have access to all the technology, some now owned by Nvidia and some owned by other companies (There patents in the 3dfx design that are properties of some other companies beside 3dfx or Nvidia, there are even Intel patents there)
Why isn't Nvidia speaking about how they can't stop anyone from releasing the drivers or hacking the source code? It would seem to me that if they are not to blame it would only do their business good to tell people that they don't have the technology to write drivers for the chips they bought. That if they could find the correct person who worked for 3dfx and had the knowledge, the driver source code is free for the taking.
And how Nvidia has anything to do with this? 3dfx cards were made by 3dfx, they are the only ones who can grant people the Rights to do this or the other, there is still a pool of patents nobody has acquired, there are some patents that are now Nvidia property and anybody trying to use them will have to get an agreement.
they bought some patents used in the design of the v5, THEY DID NOT BUY ALL LICENSES, THEY DID NOT BUY THAT CHIP they bought also the brand names 3dfx and Voodoo, under the terms of the deal Nvidia was not liable for driver support.
"FACT: Nvidia owns the V5 chip."
Nvidia owns some of the technology and the brand names.
FACT: Nvidia does not own the 3dfx made V5 boards.
TRUE and more, they have nothing to do with the production of V5 the same way General Motors owns a bunch of patents in cars made by Ford but if Ford goes out of business General Motors has nothing to do with the problems you would have with your Ford.
"FACT: Official REFERENCE drivers are release by chip owners for cards using the chips they own."
Only problem here is that Nvidia doesn't own that chip, and has absolutely nothing to do with its production before or after those patents were bought.
"FACT: Nvidia could release reference drivers for the V5 if they chose to do so."
This is not any FACT, to do that you have to own the Rights over the production of that chip and Nvidia doesn't have it, Nvidia only owns some patents used in the production of the V5, there are a lot of patents not owned by Nvidia you need the source code for those patents, you need to pay to have access to those patents. But I think that what is more important is that at the time of the deal it was specify that they were not liable for driver support.
"FACT: Nvidia chooses not to."
No it didn't, Nvidia has no Rights over all the technology.
FACT: Nvidia could release the source code to a third party.
Not true either, Nvidia could release the source code of the technology they bought, and they didn't bought all the patent pool, it would be stupid for Nvidia to spend millions buying this technology that I don't know if you realize is proprietary secret technology that you do not want the competition to have and then go and post the source code so somebody could release a driver, oh yeah it makes sense.
"FACT: Nvidia chooses not to."
Nvidia doesn't have the Rights over all the patent pool Nvidia bought some patents used in the design of the V5 Nvidia has no rights to tell who can or cannot produce anything over a chip that was made by some other company even if part of the technology is in their hands, the same way Nvidia cannot tell anybody to produce drivers for the Kyro or ATI cards even when those cards use some technology owned by Nvidia.
"FACT: Third party means party other than party one or party two. Has nothing to do with official or not. Official means they have the code to write real drivers rather than hacking drivers that are already there."
No, official means that you own all Rights over that technology Nvidia doesn't own all Rights over the production manufacturing or patent pool of the V5 or any 3dfx card for that matter Nvidia after 3dfx got into deep trouble went and bought some patents used in 3dfx chips under that agreement they were not liable for driver support.
"Yes, out of the goodness of their hearts and greed. It doesn't cost millions of dollars to write drivers. It does make millions of dollars to sell video boards to people who would be your loyal customers if you would support the cards they own based on technology that you own."
This is all no sense, Nvidia never sold any 3dfx card, they never got any money from cards sold by 3dfx, Nvidia doesn't owned the V5 or any 3DFX card, Nvidia just bought some technology used in the design of those cards
You think it doesn't cost millions to write drivers, let me guess you have never worked in anything related to support or writing software. To make a driver you need at least a team of 15 to 20 engineers and some other people to support them, some office space, some hardware, computers compilers, tools etc. you need specialist in every OS, Windows 9x, Windows NT/2000/XP, Mac computers. Any entry software engineer writing low level machine code will get a salary of more than $80,000 minimum, you will need some good ones also that maybe will make $150,000 or more start adding, and that's to support a card that they have never sold, never got a cent from them in an industry with razor thin profits margins
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ATI really leaves a sour taste in my mouth. This company CHEATS with their drivers by degrading texture quality to make it look like it outperforms a GF3 in the Q3A benchmarks. Sure ATI says it was a simple mistake and they are sorry, but that's bullshit- they were caught red-handed cheating. And the OEM vs. retail clock speed scam is just that- a scam. Also, Nvidia has the most "pull" in the graphics industry. You'll see more support for Nvidia's API's vs. ATI's Trueform and Hydravision, even though ATI has the greater market share (in my opinion OEM graphic cards bundled with machines don't count). THe only reason why ATI cards are chosen by OEM's over Nvidia is because ATI is cheaper- you get what you pay for.