video card: please evaluate mine
Author
i''m developing on a laptop, yes, i''m crazy, and i have an ATI Rage LT Pro 2x with 8mb, agp. i don''t know if this is good, bad, what, but i''m sure it''s bad cuz it''s in a laptop.
if i''m developing on a laptop, then my card is crap, right? and i should be expecting my game to run way better on desktop machines, right? i''m coding in opengl.
what''s the standard that i should aim for, regarding video cards? with/without acceleration? and what cards support opengl acceleration, and should i assume my audience has this type of card?
please tell me my video card is crap. i''d appreciate it.
a2k
Is there a decent software OpenGL renderer? I know id's Quake II software renderer is a very highly optimised thing that only looks like ogl to the main quake 2 renderer.
I'd be interested to know what sort of performance a proper OpenGL renderer can achieve in software. I vaguely remember that the mesa demos ran like turd before I got a Voodoo2.
TheTwistedOne
http://www.angrycake.com
Edited by - TheTwistedOne on 4/10/00 2:18:43 PM
I'd be interested to know what sort of performance a proper OpenGL renderer can achieve in software. I vaguely remember that the mesa demos ran like turd before I got a Voodoo2.
TheTwistedOne
http://www.angrycake.com
Edited by - TheTwistedOne on 4/10/00 2:18:43 PM
OpenGL is a bit too general purpose to be implemented fully in software with fast results.
The best OpenGL software renderer for Windows was produced by SGI some years ago. They eventually discontinued it..partially because of the Farenheit API, and partially because so many people were buying 3D accelerator cards that a software renderer wasn't as essential as it once was.
You can still find it on the net if you search for it, but it isn't guaranteed to work (I know from testing that it has problems under Windows 2000), and SGI won't be updating it. Its not that great a loss, though, because the rendering, while relatively much faster than Microsoft's OGL software renderer, was still way too slow to be useful for modern-ish games.
...
The ATI Rage Pro series are extremely crappy 3D cards. Any 'gamer' is likely to have a much better card in his or her desktop system. If you want to reach the non-gamer mass market, I suggest you avoid using OpenGL. If you want to reach the gamer-market and your game is 6 months or more off, you could probably expect your audience to own at least a TNT2-class video card. Maybe Voodoo2 at the very low end.
Its kind of hard to make a specific recommendation as to which video card generation you should target as a baseline..it depends a lot on when you expect to be done with your game, and what you expect the audience of the game to be.
Edited by - gmcbay on 4/10/00 3:45:58 PM
The best OpenGL software renderer for Windows was produced by SGI some years ago. They eventually discontinued it..partially because of the Farenheit API, and partially because so many people were buying 3D accelerator cards that a software renderer wasn't as essential as it once was.
You can still find it on the net if you search for it, but it isn't guaranteed to work (I know from testing that it has problems under Windows 2000), and SGI won't be updating it. Its not that great a loss, though, because the rendering, while relatively much faster than Microsoft's OGL software renderer, was still way too slow to be useful for modern-ish games.
...
The ATI Rage Pro series are extremely crappy 3D cards. Any 'gamer' is likely to have a much better card in his or her desktop system. If you want to reach the non-gamer mass market, I suggest you avoid using OpenGL. If you want to reach the gamer-market and your game is 6 months or more off, you could probably expect your audience to own at least a TNT2-class video card. Maybe Voodoo2 at the very low end.
Its kind of hard to make a specific recommendation as to which video card generation you should target as a baseline..it depends a lot on when you expect to be done with your game, and what you expect the audience of the game to be.
Edited by - gmcbay on 4/10/00 3:45:58 PM
Hey gmcbay, 2 Voodoo2 SLI isnt that bad(neither is one Voodoo2, when compared to any ATI card
).
).
hah! you call your video card crap! i''ve got an ATI rage 2c agp 8mb. i usually run things in software render mode because it runs faster.
- Moe -
- Moe -
yeah, moe.
___An ATI Rage IIc PCI 8mb came with one of our systems [it was cheaper to just leave it in] and transplanted it into our internet system [the one I''m on right now.] It has the second worst graphics output I''ve ever set my eyes on. Less features than MS'' software OpenGL rendere, slower than a Pentium 166, able to corrupt palettes with a single texture [er, not sure about that last one .] The worst, by far, was a Jaton card using Cirrus'' Laguana chipset. It couldn''t even handle quarter-screen full-motion video. My 386 with a 16-bit card outperformed that sucker.
___Er, back to the thread... Your laptop would make a great development tool if your audience is going to be people who just buy a computer. Not in terms of performance, mind you, but memory. 8Mb is preety much bare minnimum memory that anyone will have [heck, best buy has Permedia 2 8Mb cards for $20-$30US.] In my book, you shoot for the memory requirement first, then the performance. You can always cut the polys easily; textures are another story.
___An ATI Rage IIc PCI 8mb came with one of our systems [it was cheaper to just leave it in] and transplanted it into our internet system [the one I''m on right now.] It has the second worst graphics output I''ve ever set my eyes on. Less features than MS'' software OpenGL rendere, slower than a Pentium 166, able to corrupt palettes with a single texture [er, not sure about that last one
.] The worst, by far, was a Jaton card using Cirrus'' Laguana chipset. It couldn''t even handle quarter-screen full-motion video. My 386 with a 16-bit card outperformed that sucker.___Er, back to the thread... Your laptop would make a great development tool if your audience is going to be people who just buy a computer. Not in terms of performance, mind you, but memory. 8Mb is preety much bare minnimum memory that anyone will have [heck, best buy has Permedia 2 8Mb cards for $20-$30US.] In my book, you shoot for the memory requirement first, then the performance. You can always cut the polys easily; textures are another story.
Author
regarding software renderers, um, i''m not too knowledgeable about that. so, if i just so happened to find something better on the net, how would i implement this "software renderer" into my game? and where would i find a good one anyway?
i''m also using a laptop just for development as in coding/testing, but i have access to a better desktop that i can test it on. i''m just using a laptop, cuz i''m movin around a lot at school ''n such.
a2k
i''m also using a laptop just for development as in coding/testing, but i have access to a better desktop that i can test it on. i''m just using a laptop, cuz i''m movin around a lot at school ''n such.
a2k
Hi all,
While we''re on the subject of crap video cards, my laptop (which I too do a lot of dev on) has this dog of a card called a NeoMagic MagiGraph 128ZV... what the hell is THAT? I assume that most OpenGL functions run under software on this anyway.
I am envious of you a2k (yes, it is that sad).
The only consolation is that when I write something on my lappy that gets a half-decent framerate, and I take it home to run on my desktop beast, it gets about 500 fps... it makes me feel like I''m a programming god or something
PS: the green square will get you... one day
-------------
squirrels are a remarkable source of protein...
While we''re on the subject of crap video cards, my laptop (which I too do a lot of dev on) has this dog of a card called a NeoMagic MagiGraph 128ZV... what the hell is THAT? I assume that most OpenGL functions run under software on this anyway.
I am envious of you a2k (yes, it is that sad).
The only consolation is that when I write something on my lappy that gets a half-decent framerate, and I take it home to run on my desktop beast, it gets about 500 fps... it makes me feel like I''m a programming god or something
PS: the green square will get you... one day
-------------
squirrels are a remarkable source of protein...
beware the green square
for it is out there
i cannot see
it''s true beauty
for the aux library
is out there to scare me
i have used glut
to get out of the rut
of viewing this square,
i no longer care
a2k
for it is out there
i cannot see
it''s true beauty
for the aux library
is out there to scare me
i have used glut
to get out of the rut
of viewing this square,
i no longer care
a2k
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