Time flies, there is no more such a company called 3Dfx Interactive, and you
won't see Voodoo series 3D accelerators on the market. Glide is now an
open-source, but almost dead API (Application Programming Interface) because of
its strict dependence on 3Dfx Voodoo hardware. Considering circumstances, you
may guess why Glide, 3Dfx Interactive and the Voodoo family are sinking into
oblivion. Now they are history.
I shall not tell you here about 3Dfx products and their features. This is a
whole big story, though it shall also be told.
As for now, let's get back to our bananas. Here are Glide libraries, both
the source code and x86 Linux binaries. You can use the source code to build
the Glide libraries and accompanying tools on your own, and it's the recommended
way to go. These x86 Linux binaries are provided for another reason. If you're
running a FreeBSD / NetBSD / OpenBSD system and want to run some 3D action games
(e. g., Unreal Tournament) through Glide, you'll have to do so under Linux
binary compatibility. That's because all commercial 3D titles in the UNIX world
keep a tradition to be compiled for Linux only. Hence, you will need to install
both a Linux binary compatibility package (e. g., linux_base-X.X for
FreeBSD) and the Linux versions of Glide libraries. I build these binaries from
the source tree on a periodic basis.
Though not only Quake3 matters in this world, I have built the MesaVoodooGL
library (libMesaVoodooGL) under Linux with MMX and 3DNow! optimisations. It
provides hardware OpenGL acceleration through Glide v2 calls. Runs well, no
comments.
After some period of inactivity, I've started to improve Glide somewhere
since mid-February of 2003. I've had an intention to achieve some performance
increase for Voodoo 2 and fix numerous little bugs meanwhile, after that
I've had planned to try my luck with Voodoo Graphics. It's not much different
from Voodoo 2, besides I have the hardware. Voodoo3 & Banshee should be
the next. There is no intention to work for those 3Dfx accelerators based upon
VSA-100 chips (Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5) because they're significantly
different from the previous generation of Voodoo series hardware. Additionally,
it's not likely that I shall ever do something for Glide v3.
However, there are some compatibility issues. The Glide codebase is growing
older, hence some actions should be taken to make sure it compiles & runs
fine under newer releases of operating systems mentioned above with GCC 3.xx.
Currently, I can state that Glide v2 for Voodoo 2 builds & runs fine
under FreeBSD 5.0 (GCC 3.2.1 or 2.95.4) and Linux 2.4.19 (GCC 2.95.3) on the x86
platform, not sure about NetBSD & OpenBSD.
Unfortunately, I have no time to continue the development since there are
more important tasks awaiting for my attention, so the development has been
suspended. But I haven't forgotten about the project and hope to get back some
day.
3Dfx Glide source code |
Hardware |
Glide 2.x |
Glide 3.x |
Release |
Size |
Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo Rush |
2.46 |
n/a |
6a |
1337K |
Voodoo 2 |
2.53 |
3.01 |
162003 |
1907K |
Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3 |
2.60 |
3.10 |
18 |
1720K |
|
3Dfx Glide Linux (x86) binaries |
Voodoo Graphics |
2.46 |
- |
6a |
245K |
Voodoo Rush |
2.46 |
- |
6a |
278K |
Voodoo 2 |
2.53 |
- |
162003 |
423K |
Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3 |
2.60 |
- |
18 |
313K |
|
MesaVoodooGL Linux (x86) binary |
Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo 2, Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3 |
any |
- |
3.4.2 |
773K |
1. Glide 3.x for Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3 can be
built either as a DRI client or as a stand-alone library.
2. The Linux binaries were built and tested with kernel-2.4.19,
glibc-2.2.2, gcc-2.95.3, XFree86-4.2.1; some older ones with
kernel-2.2.10, glibc-2.1.1, gcc-2.95.3, XFree86-4.2.0. To use them under
FreeBSD, you need a linux_base-7.1 (6.1 for older binaries) or newer package
installed.
3. Glide 3.x from the V3 Linux x86 binary distribution was built
as a stand-alone library.