Rage adopts S3's texture compression

Rage Software has entered into a strategic alliance with S3 Inc. to include S3TC as standard in all of its future retail game titles.

Adopted by Microsoft as a standard in DirectX, S3TC is a major leap forward for PC gaming technology, radically improving image quality by enabling games to utilize up to six times the amount of textures found in today's games without affecting performance.

S3 officials cite Rage's commitment to S3TC as another example of how its technology is being adopted as a mainstream industry standard.

Rage's first S3TC-based games will include Midnight GT, Hostile Waters, Off Road GT and Incoming Forces, the long awaited sequel to the hugely successful Incoming. All four titles are due for release beginning in October.

A complete listing of announced S3TC titles is available at www.S3.com/s3tc/titles.htm .