Direct3D

I read a statement by NVIDIA and SGS Thompson saying that they didn't think consumers would need OpenGL at all, so they just didn't bother with it.

And then by the time Direct3D came along and DirectX, this couldn't do that either because it didn't support rendering through quads, only through traditional triangles and those types of polygons.

They did release a driver or a patch for it to update it to run DirectX, but only through software.

So you're effectively running a hardware accelerator in software mode to run hardware accelerator DirectX, Direct3D stuff.

It made no sense.

Despite the innovation, the project was an abject failure.

Uh, plug in a 3D card like a Voodoo 2 and run it in OpenGL, and you got smooth textures, colored lighting, and a steady frame rate.

There was a Direct3D option too, but most people with a Voodoo stuck with OpenGL.

So it's the same story as the sound, Lee.

Uh, the, the game worked on a normal PC, but it came alive once you'd spent the money.