The Video Electronics Standards Association is creating an alliance with the Computer Game Developers Association in hopes of increasing dialog between game developers and the manufacturers of all the interconnecting hardware that must work together to ensure effective gaming.
"When I go to conferences I'm amazed at all the developers just doing things on their own, without realizing that they have access to a wealth of information," says Rik Sandoval, executive director of CGDA, who believes that the sharing of information will benefit the entire gaming industry. "This would help their careers, their designs; it would help companies become more successful - a lot of times it's just access to people ... they just don't talk. What we're doing is starting to talk and make those crossovers."
VESA, which has been in operation since 1989, and was just accepted by the International Standards Association, consists of members whose dues are adjusted according to the revenue of their company. The standards which they develop cover a range of products and software from code to drive accelerator cards to the size of flat-panel displays.
SuperVGA cards, for example, are all designed to allow high resolution on a PC, but each works a little differently. VESA worked toward creating a standard code which software developers could use to drive any SuperVGA card. Nearly every SVGA card shipped in the past four years supports the VESA VBE standard, says VESA.
Cathy Egan of VESA says that along with shared member databases there will also probably be joint tech conferences, workshops, and a roundtable. VESA members include 3M, Apple, Compaq, and Fujitsu.
While the two organizations fit well together, Sandoval says that they will work in alliance, and not merge as some had speculated. "We're trying to keep the two organizations separate for right now." Sandoval doesn't rule out a merger in the future.
