[Mesa3d-dev] Re: [Dri-devel] Who is working on Texture Compression (other than me?)

[Ian D R. <id...@cs...>]

> > Is this extension going to only be supported on 3dfx hardware or will there
> > be a software fallback?  It sure would be nice to make sure that one's code
> > works right with the FXT1 textures without having to go out and buy a Voodoo
> > 4/5/6.  The same could also be done with S3TC format textures, I suppose.
> 
> I don't think there are plans for software fallbacks, but in reality you
> are much better off using non-compressed textures than using software
> fallbacks. What really happens is that other drivers that don't
> implement the feature don't advertise and it and the application doesn't
> use it. 

Well, it could be useful so that a person could write and test code that
uses that extension without having to have hardware the explicitly supports
it.  I for one don't have the extra $$$ just sitting around to go out and
buy a Voodoo5, but I'd really like for my code to correctly support its
texture compression extensions.

> I am not a lawyer, but from what I understand FXT1 can be implemented in
> software, because 3dfx made it open source and even provided code to do
> so. S3TC is very heavily protected and I wouldn't want to go near it for
> a software implementation for fear of legal issues.

You are probably right there.  It could possibly go either way, but I'd
rather not press my luck. :)

-- 
"The [300MHz P-II computer] is clearly not optimized for word processing.
 But when we pushed it to produce high-end 3D graphics, it truly shined."
                            -- Byte, Sept 97, pp. 33
What the hell does it take to do word processing?  http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~idr/