On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 02:53:58 -0500, Daniel Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Friday 04 February 2005 17:46, John Tsiombikas (Nuclear / the Lab)
> wrote:
> > > Decent engines do very little overdraw. Hidden geometry is removed
> > > before it ever gets to the card. In ID games, only movable objects
> > > are dumped into the Z buffer on top of the scenery, which is only
> > > one pixel deep. ID puts a huge load on the graphics card, but it's
> > > not overdraw, it's things multitexturing and more recently,
> > > shaders. I don't know too many details about the Unreal engine,
> > > but I'm fairly confident they don't just dump all their geometry
> > > onto the card either.
> >
> > Not everything is quake though (and it's derivatives). Techniques to
> > avoid overdraw in 1st person shooters and similar *static* *close
> > space* environments have been developed to a great extend, but there
> > are a lot of applications out there that do totally different things,
> > and most of the time avoiding overdraw is not feasible. Especially in
> > programs with highly dynamic 3D environments.
>
> If you're talking about engineering and real time modelling, those are
> not twitch games and don't have to keep up a steady 30-60 frames per
> second.
>
> I don't belittle the importance of non-game 3D graphics applications,
> however I use games to measure performance because everybody else does.
> If it handles games well, it's going to handle a lot of things well.
This card will not have the raw power to do gaming of the type you
mention. And it will not be doing the really massive CAD renderings
either. But if you want to talk about demanding 30-60 frames per
second with no lag and frustrating amounts of overdraw, all you have
to do is look at the /primary purpose/ of the card: compositing
numerous overlapping windows. That is pretty much entirely overdraw,
and it unquestionably demands unflinching framerate. Any dip will be
perceived by the user as slow and incompetent graphics. This is going
to be our test, the one we cannot fail.
Kent
--
The world before the fall
Delightful is the light of dawn
Noble is the heart of man...
-Cyan Garamonde, Final Fantasy VI
_______________________________________________
Open-graphics mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
