Do you still support fixed function pipeline?
Author
The company I'm working on is making the decision whether or not to drop the support for fixed funciton pipeline. To make the game running on older hardware is nice but you have to give up a lot of features that would make the game stunning otherwise. With shader level hardware appeard for about 6 years, is it really necessary to keep the compatibility with older hardware now?
I would say yes, keep it. Until DirectX10 comes out i spose FFP should still be catered for.
Dave
Dave
Quote:is it really necessary to keep the compatibility with older hardware now?
I say no. To support all the different rendering levels necessary for pre-shader hardware makes designing and coding extremely difficult and dirty. For me personally, it is not worth it to support whatever small portion of people have such outdated hardware. The trend is clearly in the direction of exclusive shader support, with big industry players having dropped FF support already.
Author
Quote: with big industry players having dropped FF support already.
Thanks for the reply. Who are those big fellows and on what titles?
Microsoft is our publisher and they certainly haven't tried to insist we drop FF support. In fact, if I recall correctly they were arguing for us to keep it in.
It really depends on who your target audience is. If you're making games for the casual market, you better hold on to that FFP for a little while longer. If you're targeting the hardcore gamers only, then you're probably safe.
Quote:Original post by CGameProgrammerFFP is actually going to be slightly slower on shader cards, most likely.
Is there a speed advantage to using the fixed-function pipeline?
The advantage to the FFP (in the context of this discussion) is in it's compatibility with a large range of graphics cards (up to say ten years back).
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