S3 Ramps Up Support

S3 Inc. announced today that more than 50 game developers have pledged their support for the company's S3 Texture Compression (S3TC) technology and would incorporate its use in games released this year.

The technology lets game developers compress graphical data up to one-sixth of their original size, giving 3D games built with S3TC higher resolution textures with fewer size limitations and better image quality. Microsoft has also chosen the technology as the basis for its DXTn technology in DirectX so games makers can build S3TC support in their games. By licensing the S3TC technology for DirectX the hope is that 3D graphic-chip makers will take advantage of S3TC although we have a feeling that 3D-chip developers would prefer not to use a competitor's technology in any of its products.

"By integrating texture compression based on S3's technology into DirectX, we gave software developers the confidence to ship compressed textures with their titles, secure in the knowledge that the textures would be supported by a wide range of graphics cards," said Kevin Bachus, group product manager for DirectX. "As evidenced by recent hardware announcements, as well as today's software announcement, the transition to DXTn is well on its way. Consumers can look forward to more realistic, higher-quality graphics in Windows applications, thanks to the high-resolution textures that DXTn enables."

The first chip to introduce the masses to S3TC will be S3's Savage4. So far, the upcoming chip will be placed into retail products from Creative Labs, Diamond Multimedia, ELSA, Number Nine, and Hercules. Interested customers should begin seeing Savage4-based boards sometime in May.

"To the game player, having an S3TC-enabled game means unbelievable realism," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games Inc. "It means six times the resolution of what they're used to without a perceivable loss in performance. It means that the gravel is so real, you can almost reach out and feel the texture. It's just an unbelievable improvement in graphics and technology!"

S3 says upcoming games will help build support for its technology, but it hopes to move developers in the direction of building games with S3TC in mind from the early stages of development. The first game to feature full S3TC support will be Epic Games' Unreal Tournament - due to ship sometime in mid 1999. From the shots we've seen so far of Unreal Tournament with the S3TC support, we believe the world of 3D gaming is about to take another leap closer to reality. In the meantime, here's a list of games announced by S3 that will support its technology:

Quake 3 (Arena) - id/ActivisionUnreal: Tournament - Epic/GTiWargasm - DID/InfogramesWorldToolkit - EAI/Sense8Half-Life: Day One - Sierra/ValveUnreal - Epic/GTiTrueSpace 4.1 - CaligariExpendable - RageGunlock - RebellionTonic Trouble - UbisoftDispatched - RageMidnight GT - RageSF Rush: The Rock - MidwayRush 2 - Midway WorldToolkit - EAI/Sense8Chronicles of Pern - Hostile Waters - RageIncoming Forces - RageMotoCross Madness 2 - Rainbow/MicrosoftAnachronox - ION Storm/EidosUnreal 2 - GTi/LegendBabylon5 - SierraFXDeusEx - ION Storm/EidosFormula Offroad - RageSurrender3D - Hybrid Holding