Looking to add some per pixel lighting for my game... Are register combiners on any ATI hardware, or is it strictly Nvidia? I know i should pick up GLSL at some point, but I'd like to get away with register combiners for now... alas, not if it's unsupported by ATI (damn those step children). Also, approximately what generation of cards will take GLSL? Register combiners go back quite a ways, but the GLSL stuff is newer... Just trying to get the best combination of compatibilities.

Register combiners were originally developped by Nvidia to overcome the very rigid fixed function pipeline of the time. They're not available on anything else than NVidia cards.

That said, RCs are horribly obsolete. Comparing RCs and GLSL is a little like comparing a stone age granit knife with a laser scalpel. They're only in newer drivers for backwards compatibility, and for nothing else. They're neither extended nor maintained anymore. And they are most probably going to disappear in the near future, with the next OpenGL release. Do not use them, don't even go anywhere near them ;)

GLSL is a very powerful tool, and it's very easy to learn. I'd strongly recommend it. It's supported on any mainstream 3D card, even on older models.

Thanks for the reply!

I started looking through the FAQ and also found a good answer there (oops, RTFM :)

Sigh, one more thing to learn now, no?

GLSL!!
nuff said

Quote:Original post by catch
Sigh, one more thing to learn now, no?

Heh, you always learn ! Don't worry though, GLSL is pretty straightforward. A lot easier to understand than register combiners, that's for sure...