3Dfx has announced that they have released development drivers for Voodoo3 on the Mac. These drivers are designed for developers to use while building and porting Mac games with Voodoo3. According to 3Dfx:
3dfx Interactive(R) Inc. today announced that it has broadened its commitment to the Apple(R) Macintosh(R) market with the release of new Voodoo3(TM) developer drivers, available today. The new drivers will enable leading game developers to create Macintosh versions of their best-selling Windows(R) PC games and harness the power of Voodoo3-based graphics cards for the Mac.
3dfx also announced that Mactell Corporation and other leading Mac market board makers have licensed the award-winning Voodoo3 graphics accelerator chips for use in new Macintosh graphics boards. The boards are expected to be available later this year, and will deliver the fastest 3D graphics ever available for the Macintosh platform.
More than 500 software titles are available for 3dfx graphics accelerator products, with more than 200 titles written for the Glide API. The Glide API was developed by 3dfx Interactive to provide a simple and fast method for developers to write 3D game titles and software specifically to run on 3dfx accelerators.
We spoke to MacTell, who will be releasing their Voodoo3 EvilEye cards for the Mac to ask if the release of these drivers affects their development plans. Greg Snyder, VP Marketing and Corporate Communications for MacTell had this to say:
The 3dfx drivers are generic and are not optimized for the Macintosh platform. Mactell is not only optimizing drivers for the Mac platform, but offering ongoing development and support for our customers at a price that is competitive with the PC side. When EvilEye is released, we will be offering the highest Voodoo3 performance for the Mac platform and are quite proud of that.
Of course, end users could begin the process of optimizing 3dfx drivers on their own, but it is highly unlikely that they will ever achieve the performance we are already seeing with our betas.
Development of EvilEye continues at MacTell as Mac gamers everywhere look forward to a new day in Mac gaming.
The Mac Observer Spin: Early birds can probably use these drivers (which are still technically in beta), but those looking for the highest performance will probably end up waiting for the EvilEye, or the other cards from other Mac development houses that 3Dfx hinted at in their press release.
On behalf of Mac gamers everywhere, a big Thanks! to MacTell, 3Dfx, and any other unknown players in bringing this technology to the Mac!
3Dfx - Mactell
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