Here's the same question asked three times: -There's a lot of older graphic cards out there, so i want to now can i safely use .fx files in my engine as material definition files, and be sure it will work on older cards? -Does effect files works with older graphics cards that do not support shaders? -Is it possible to define a technique in .fx file that do not use shaders?

FX files can be used with older graphics card.

FX files will work with graphics cards that do not support shaders.

FX files can define techniques which do not use shaders - i.e. use fixed function states.

What matters is that your user has new *drivers* which support DirectX 9.0c and a decent FX framework. Apart from that, using FX files is a great way to provide good, customised support for a wide variety of hardware.

-Mezz

.fx Files enable HLSL if they do not support that .. your shader will not appear on your meshes. Just put a catch in your application to check for the ability to use HLSL shaders if they dont have it just dont pass the effects thru and just render the meshes .. and use some other type of lighting on the objects in this case as well. Because hey .. if they dont support hlsl shaders they probably wont care if the graphics are kickin' sorta speak.