Today, Metabyte is split into two divisions, Entertainment Technology Group and Information Technology Group. Each group is then split into separate subdivisions. The Information Technology Group handling most internal matters such as datawarehousing, intranet development and e-commerce, and for the most part, is invisible to the consumer base. The Entertainment Technology Group, or ETG, is the "front office" of Metabyte. This division, and the people within it, is largely responsible for all the physical and tangible products that Metabyte brings to retail. Within the ETG are the Wicked3D Board Company, who develop Metabyte's video card products, and the Graphics and Multimedia subdivision, who produce the drivers for Wicked3D, including Re2Flex and Wicked Vision (more on these later). The High-Speed Connectivity Group and Interactive Television are the two remaining members of Metabyte's ETG.
Having summarized their background, let's take a look at the toys that Metabyte, and specifically Wicked3D, had to show off.
Unlike the ill-fated Wicked3D Warp 5, Metabyte's Voodoo 2 card launched without a hitch and has proved to be a success. Like most other Voodoo 2's, Metabyte's card was based on a reference design, offering 12MB of memory and no frills. Similarities with other Voodoo 2 cards, however, stop there.
Instead of attempting to up-sell the Wicked3D Voodoo 2 with a bundle or unnecessary additions such as a TV-out adapter, Metabyte focused on squeezing every ounce of raw power from their card as possible. With the help of their Graphics and Multimedia subdivision, Metabyte developed a set of drivers that give their Voodoo 2 added features not found on the competition. These drivers, called Re2Flex, enable Metabyte's Voodoo 2 to achieve resolutions and refresh rates above those of ordinary Voodoo 2's: 1024x672 on a single board and 1024x1024 on an SLI setup. Re2Flex also gives the ability of the Wicked3D Voodoo 2 to be paired up with any other Voodoo 2 card for an SLI setup, no matter the manufacturer.
In addition to Re2Flex, the Graphics and Multimedia subdivision also developed a set of drivers called Wicked Vision, which when paired up with H3D's stereoscopic glasses, produce a 3D effect for a wide range of Direct3D, OpenGL and GLide games. We'll talk a little more about the Wicked Vision demonstration a little later. Keep in mind that Metabyte utilizes a reference design for the Voodoo 2, so all these enhancements are produced at the driver level, not through a modification of the actual card.
Metabyte's latest project is the Voodoo Banshee based Vengeance 2D/3D video card. Again, like its brethren, the Vengeance is based on 3Dfx's reference design, offering 16MB of SDRAM in either a PCI or AGP bus. Initially Metabyte was planning on releasing the Vengeance with a Chrontel chip that would have offered consumers a TV-out capability. 3Dfx, however, opted to pull the plug on TV-out for the reference design and Metabyte followed suit.
Also like its Voodoo 2 brother, the Vengeance offers full support for the Re2Flex and Wicked Vision drivers. The Vengeance is capable of achieving resolutions of 2000x1500 in 2D and 1920x1440 in 3D and supports the same number of games under Wicked Vision.
The Vengeance will ship without any game bundles... for now. Metabyte hinted to us that a possible bundle could be made available. While we can't drop any names, the game (thankfully) won't be Forsaken or Incoming, and it won't be a demo. Metabyte is also looking at the possibility of locking that game onto their card. That is, the bundle (if it happens, mind you) can only be played on the Vengeance, even though it could very well be 100% GLide or Direct3D compliant. This move is becoming very popular among hardware vendors to make bundle titles "exclusive" to their products. Quantum3D recently locked San Francisco Rush: The Rock onto their own Banshee board, and other vendors are sure to follow.
