What pressure is being but on Nvidia from MTBS3d and other ?

Post by **ribuck** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:45 am

Hi All,

I hear all the time people complaining about Nvidia dragging their heels on driver release and hardware support, but i never hear of anyone from the s3d industry putting any pressure on Nvidia to pull their finger out of their ass.

What has Mtbs3d and DLP manufacturers etc actually done to tey and pressure Nvidia into putting more effort resources into the development of the S3D.

The way i see it, a large proportion of S3D solutions rely on the Nvidia drivers, so as more and more people get frustrated that Nvidia are planning to drop support for everything but Zalman and everything prior to 8000 series card and the lack of any available driver, it seems clear to me that there is a very big risk that the S3D industry will eventually stall and fail as it has with many other vendors like sharp etc....and i think Zalman will be the first to fall foul to this trend.

There is only so much waiting and lies that people will tolerate, and already this is having an impact of peple giving up on the technology and switching brands from Nvidia to Ati. I think nvidia needs to wake up and realize that there are other solutions available, and they are not as untouchable as they believe they are in the 3d market.

Post by **Neil** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:50 am

Hi Ribuck,

It's good to see you here, welcome to MTBS!

While NVIDIA is launching with Zalman only support, that's where things are beginning, not necessarily where things are ending. The drivers are expected to support all Vista compatible GPUs, so that includes 6, 7, 8, and eventually 9 series cards - but 8 or better is recommended.

What lies?!?!? As far as I know, NVIDIA's appearance on MTBS is the first showing they've done in years. What false statements have you been reading?

NVIDIA isn't dragging their heals. They are just going in a very different direction that you are personally not happy with, and that's the issue.

I've written about this in a recent MTBS BLOG already ("Where is S-3D Headed According to MTBS"), and you are welcome to debate me in the related thread.

For me, I'm more interested in using our resources to grab the attention and involvement of game developers and game engine developers.

Regards,
Neil

Post by **ribuck** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:11 am

Ok perhaps the word lies was the wrong choice of words, i guess broken promises of release dates would be a better choice of wording. I just dont think Nvidia is doing enough to keep the 3d community updated on their progress which can be quite disheartning.

As to me being upset about the path they are taking, this is not the case as i won the Zalman 22" screen, so this couldn't be further from the truth, I think that the initial support for Zalman only is a bit poor. Whilst this wont affect me it will affect an awful ot of others.

I certainly agree that the ideal way forward would be to get game developers to do the in game code to support the 3d, then we are free of propriety drivers which limited people to their graphics card choice.

Rich.

Post by **Neil** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:36 pm

Hi Ribuck,

I'm just taking an educated guess, but I think now that NVIDIA and Zalman are working closely together, at least to start, I think that impression of slow driver releases and out of date support will become a thing of the past.

I don't think it's pressure we are trying to achieve, it's business justification. This goes for all game developers, manufacturers, and driver developers interested or involved with S-3D. We don't want to push them forward with a stick, we want to pull them forward with the carrot of business success and benefits.

Regards,
Neil

Post by **ssiu** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:10 pm

I don't think MTBS3D or anybody else can "pressure" NVIDIA. Long before MTBS3D was born, their "old" S-3D customers were already crying out about the driver situation in NVIDIA's own Stereo-3D forum. NVIDIA didn't respond in the forum, but I believe they know very well about the outcry, and they have done the full business calculation and decided that they won't support us period. They know about their losing unique advantage compared to ATI, and the negative goodwill from the longsuffering S-3D'ers, and they don't care.

When I first signed up to MTBS3D because of the NVIDIA beta S-3D drivers, I was under the impression/assumption that MTBS3D has some special influence over NVIDIA (because of the beta drivers that only MTBS3D have). But by now it is clear that MTBS3D (or anyone else) cannot "pressure" NVIDIA, and NVIDIA only respond to "business justifications" (i.e. money).

Post by **ribuck** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:16 pm

Nvidia Vista Drivers are out 22nd Feb for Zalman Screens.

Post by **Neil** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:00 pm

Hi SSIU,

Just to confirm, MTBS was never about pressuring NVIDIA or any other S-3D manufacturer. That's not where our power comes from. Our influence is focused on the game developers and benefiting the game developers with the mindset that they will drive S-3D forward. What will build this influence? Every MTBS member is a notch of leverage we can use to better the industry. It is demonstrated demand for technologies like this. This is where the action is.

Regards,
Neil

Post by **pixel67** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:59 pm

ssiu wrote: When I first signed up to MTBS3D because of the NVIDIA beta S-3D drivers, I was under the impression/assumption that MTBS3D has some special influence over NVIDIA (because of the beta drivers that only MTBS3D have). But by now it is clear that MTBS3D (or anyone else) cannot "pressure" NVIDIA, and NVIDIA only respond to "business justifications" (i.e. money).

Your absolutely right. It is all about money and always has been. Have you seen Nvidia's stock today? It dropped 16% in one day, which is about 200,000,000 given their current market cap. This is what is has ALWAYS been about and is exactly why you don't see them posting on forums such as these. Any statement that is dropped in print can affect their stock price. Personally, I am very happy with Nvidia's decision to change their model from a free driver to one that will make them money. While it won't affect their stock in a major way, at least the development team is turning a profit and that is a great start. I am sure IZ3D had to do the same type of justification prior to their announcement of addtiional display support. Good times lie ahead when companies start ot focus on turning a profit from driver development!

PiXeL