New Lamothe Book

Impossible · 2003-06-05T12:46:44

I think it''s interesting that Lamothe''s new book will focus on software 3D rendering. It makes sense from a theory learning perspective and on certain platforms without 3D acceleration, but even the fastest general purpose CPUs can''t beat a decent GPU when it comes to rasterization. As far as I could tell this book only covers software rendering (which is very 1996...), it seems like he could easily do both software and 3D accelerated rendering. I just wanted to get some people''s opinions on the (current) validity of software rendering. Not from a learning standpoint but from a practical standpoint.

Graphics and GPU Programming Programming

Started by Impossible June 03, 2003 02:03 AM

18 comments, last by Impossible 20 years, 10 months ago

Impossible

134

Author

June 03, 2003 04:14 PM

quote:Original post by mittens
Welcome to yesterday.

I''m so sorry for not reading the For Beginners Forum... I think you should lock this thread now (sarcasm.)

quote:Original post by C0D1F1ED
Now back on the topic of the performance of software rendering. Take a look here: UT2003 Software Renderer. I have a Celeron 1200, and a Radeon 9000. The performance difference between the software renderer (which uses nearly the same technology as my SoftWire based renderers), is only a factor of ten. Quality of hardware rendering is still noticably higher, but claiming that modern games absolutely need hardware rendering is not true.

A factor of ten is still pretty large... That''s the difference between a not very realtime 6 fps and a very smooth 60 fps. The image quality also makes a pretty big difference. I want to check out that UT2K3 software renderer, I heard about that but wasn''t quite sure it existed.

One really cool thing I saw a while back in a software renderer was realtime subsurface scattering (Flipcode IOTD.) This could not be done on the cards released at the time. This was pre-DX9 and Radeon 9700, and he said it could probably be done on that hardware. This is the only situation I''ve seen where realtime (about 15-20 fps on my Athlon 1.4 ghz) software rendering did something that was not possible on hardware. I''d like to see more of that.

sjelkjd

171

June 03, 2003 08:19 PM

I''m not saying software rendering is useless by a long shot. I''ve written a software renderer, and I think it''s an invaluable skill to have.

But if you want a practical answer, how many ametuer game developers NEED to write a software renderer? Wouldn''t it make more sense to get the game running on a 3d platform? To the average person, you can''t justify learning software rendering when you could be learning how to make a game.

There will always be people for whom knowing software rendering is relevant, but they are the minority.

_the_phantom_

11,263

June 03, 2003 10:29 PM

I''m considering buy this book simply coz i''d like a nice central book to learn the principles from, i get the feeling from time to time that having not done a software render has left me with some gaps in my knowlage, plus i''d like to know how it works, i''m a knowlage junkie at times

mittens

1,323

June 03, 2003 11:14 PM

quote:Original post by Impossible
I''m so sorry for not reading the For Beginners Forum... I think you should lock this thread now (sarcasm.)

I''m so sorry, I guess I had made the assumption that these forums were actually for helping people. Didn''t mean to injure your ego, feel free to go back to the little imaginary world where you think you''re the center of the universe.

Trent Polack
Game Designer, LightBox Interactive
Twitter :: Polycat

Impossible

134

Author

June 04, 2003 09:41 PM

quote:Original post by mittens
I''m so sorry, I guess I had made the assumption that these forums were actually for helping people. Didn''t mean to injure your ego, feel free to go back to the little imaginary world where you think you''re the center of the universe.

Whoa... Just trying to start some discussion, there isn''t anything wrong with that right? I really didn''t see that thread before I posted this because I rarely visit that forum. I still don''t see how anything I said, even my reply to your comment, has to do with me living in my own world or having an injured ego, but interpret it how you want to.

fodd3r

126

June 04, 2003 09:55 PM

I think what LaMothe is providing is very good in the grand scheme of things. It''s a middle ground between theory and application. Really it''s probably the best way to learn, here is the theory now apply it immediately. This approach will likely prove to be rather successful and the people who go through the book properly will likely come out much better for it.

Software renderers are not useless, especially for teaching purposes. One doesn''t ALWAYS need insane performance or use the latest technology. This is exactly why you don''t learn calculus, linear algebra and what not in grade 1. You start with the old low-tech stuff.

Myopic Rhino

2,378

June 04, 2003 10:23 PM

quote:Original post by Impossible
Whoa... Just trying to start some discussion, there isn''t anything wrong with that right? I really didn''t see that thread before I posted this because I rarely visit that forum. I still don''t see how anything I said, even my reply to your comment, has to do with me living in my own world or having an injured ego, but interpret it how you want to.

He forgets to take his medication sometimes.

zealouselixir

256

June 04, 2003 11:38 PM

Judging by the rants on his homepage, it happens rather often.

[twitter]warrenm[/twitter]

Anonymous

June 05, 2003 11:47 AM

quote:Original post by Impossible
What kind of performance do things like softwire, realstorm, swShader, etc. get on a fast (3 ghz) CPU? Just curious.

softwire/swShader (softwire is just the underlying technology which provide runtime compilation functionnalities is very fast : the demo which is shipped with the package (showing a simple PS2.0 shader at more than 30 fps on a PIII 800... Of course, it''s not the "big shader you want", but it''s still a pixel shader !)

--
Emmanuel Deloget

mittens

1,323

June 05, 2003 12:46 PM

quote:Original post by Impossible
Whoa... Just trying to start some discussion, there isn''t anything wrong with that right? I really didn''t see that thread before I posted this because I rarely visit that forum. I still don''t see how anything I said, even my reply to your comment, has to do with me living in my own world or having an injured ego, but interpret it how you want to.

Heh, I just read your post as a sarcastic "I''m *SO* sorry that I didn''t read the ''for beginners'' forum first", as if you felt you were too good to read the forum to help people out. It''s not always easy to get the right idea from text. Sorry if I got the wrong idea from your statement.

Trent Polack
Game Designer, LightBox Interactive
Twitter :: Polycat

New Lamothe Book

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

New Lamothe Book

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines