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Xayd · 06-26-2001, 11:27 PM

The cost factor that Toaster pointed at is one reason I wouldn't want that to happen. Competition has done great things for the graphics/gaming market out there. With nVidia and 3dfx fighting like cats and dogs over the last year, we've seen it possible to play a PC game smoothly that looks damn near like a movie with 300 dollars worth of hardware or less.

If there were a set standard for graphics processors, who would set that standard, and how long would it take them to muscle every other manufacturer out of the market and raise prices accordingly?

And honestly, with a set of rules and standards innovation slacks off. I have several pieces of proprietary company software looking at me right now that would get an in-house programmer from a generation ago fired, but a half-working 1-day-Visual-Studio-job-for-Win9x-only piece of software is 'good enough' in today's world. Who's to say graphics processors wouldn't fall to the same lower standard if there was a generally accepted design?

If a generally accepted 'way' was devised that would serve the purposes of all conceivable applications for years to come was devised, it might be do-able. But who sets these standards for hardware and software? Microsoft and Intel right now for the most part, and Apple has their market as well. Don't forget Gates saying way back when that no single user would ever need more than 640 kilobytes of RAM on a workstation or home PC. Is this the guy we want to devise a standard for graphics processing? Nope,

.

Take the PC Game market for instance. Has Direct X made gaming on a PC incredible in every way, for example? Actually it's just made it easier to produce a crappy game, as evidenced by the crap available at any store that sells PC Games. Truly great games still require innovation from the developers of said game, and are few and far between.

When an idea becomes practice, and eventually turns into a generally accepted standard, it isn't always because it's a great thing. And it rarely means that great things can be attributed to its invention. More often it means that crap can be produced by lesser manufactuters/developers, simply by employing this standard rather than having to do the hard work themselves.

Xayd

06-26-2001, 11:27 PM	#3
Xayd Member (13 bit) Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: nowhere.com Posts: 4,819	The cost factor that Toaster pointed at is one reason I wouldn't want that to happen. Competition has done great things for the graphics/gaming market out there. With nVidia and 3dfx fighting like cats and dogs over the last year, we've seen it possible to play a PC game smoothly that looks damn near like a movie with 300 dollars worth of hardware or less. If there were a set standard for graphics processors, who would set that standard, and how long would it take them to muscle every other manufacturer out of the market and raise prices accordingly? And honestly, with a set of rules and standards innovation slacks off. I have several pieces of proprietary company software looking at me right now that would get an in-house programmer from a generation ago fired, but a half-working 1-day-Visual-Studio-job-for-Win9x-only piece of software is 'good enough' in today's world. Who's to say graphics processors wouldn't fall to the same lower standard if there was a generally accepted design? If a generally accepted 'way' was devised that would serve the purposes of all conceivable applications for years to come was devised, it might be do-able. But who sets these standards for hardware and software? Microsoft and Intel right now for the most part, and Apple has their market as well. Don't forget Gates saying way back when that no single user would ever need more than 640 kilobytes of RAM on a workstation or home PC. Is this the guy we want to devise a standard for graphics processing? Nope, . Take the PC Game market for instance. Has Direct X made gaming on a PC incredible in every way, for example? Actually it's just made it easier to produce a crappy game, as evidenced by the crap available at any store that sells PC Games. Truly great games still require innovation from the developers of said game, and are few and far between. When an idea becomes practice, and eventually turns into a generally accepted standard, it isn't always because it's a great thing. And it rarely means that great things can be attributed to its invention. More often it means that crap can be produced by lesser manufactuters/developers, simply by employing this standard rather than having to do the hard work themselves. Xayd Last edited by Xayd; 06-26-2001 at 11:36 PM.