When should you let Direct 3D handle lighting? Should you check to see if hardware support is available and provide your own optimal software implementation for when it''s not? Or is the Direct 3D light behaviour so specific that even accelerated cards may not be used because they do not behave in the exact way that the D3D lights are documented? Ideally the engine I''m starting won''t end up in a finished game until we all have hardware for reasonable lighting... Any input appreciated.

Direct3D does lighting in software by default. The only cards that do it in hardware are the new T&L cards (GeForce 256) Every other card just does it in software. People say that D3D''s lighting is slow, so you might consider doing it in software anyways.

Ok, thanks for the reply - if this is the default for DX then I''ll do my own lighting.

Sam