In one of its first moves outside the PC market, S3 Inc has licensed its 3D graphics texture technology to Nintendo Co Ltd, to be used in its new Dolphin games console. S3 already uses the technology – dubbed S3TC – in its own chips – the compression algorithm will be incorporated in the Dolphin’s graphics accelerator, which was designed by ArtX Inc.
Paul Crossley, a spokesperson for Santa Clara, California-based S3, described the deal as important because it moves S3 outside of it traditional market, PC OEM deals and the consumer PC add-on market. The major PC graphics chips vendors have been unnerved by Sega’s Dreamcast, Nintendo’s Dolphin and especially Sony’s Playstation II. This is partly because of the graphics capabilities offered on the consoles, but also because all three offer internet access as well as gaming. There is the possibility that these and other consumer-orientated appliances could start to eat into consumer PC market share.
S3 says that the texture compression will allow games developers to increase the detail on 3D backgrounds and characters, resulting in more film-like images, without a drop in game speed. The S3 algorithm compresses texture data by a factor of six. Texturing is the color and shading that is added to 3D wire-frame models so that they look more real.
