What card for GL_ARB_point_sprite

Graphics and GPU Programming Programming

Started by Sander September 01, 2003 04:32 AM

39 comments, last by Sander 20 years, 7 months ago

1,332

Author

September 01, 2003 04:32 AM

I''m working on my particle systems lib. I wanted to use the GL_ARB_point_sprite extension but I noticed that it isn''t supported on my old TNT2 card. Does anyone know which cards do support it? GeForce2? Or do I need at least a GeForce3 for it to work? Sander Maréchal [Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]

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jesterlecodeur

122

September 01, 2003 04:47 AM

I don''t know, but does only the last drivers manage it? Not sure about it.

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Jester, studient programmer
The Jester Home in French

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Sander

1,332

Author

September 01, 2003 04:57 AM

That''s what I thought as well, so I updated my drivers yesterday. I have 37 extensions available but the point sprite extension still doesn''t show. I need to now what card is the oldest one that supports this extension so I know the minimum system specs my lib would require (I don''t want them to be too high).

Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]

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jesterlecodeur

122

September 01, 2003 05:54 AM

Even 45.23 don''t support them :
http://www.delphi3d.net/hardware/viewreport.php?report=807

I don''t read ARB_point_sprite spec but if it''s similar to NV one you can take a look at http://www.delphi3d.net/hardware/extsupport.php?extension=GL_NV_point_sprite

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Jester, studient programmer
The Jester Home in French

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Jester, studient programmerThe Jester Home in French

Yann L

1,806

September 01, 2003 06:27 AM

ARB_point_sprite is a very recent extension. I''d expect the first OpenGL 1.5 drivers to support it in the near future.

In the meantime, I''d suggest using NV_point_sprite instead. Besides POINT_SPRITE_R_MODE_NV, it seems to be compatible with ARB_point_sprite (even the tokens have the same values).

Sander

1,332

Author

September 01, 2003 07:30 AM

Well, GL_NV_point_sprite is not supported on my TNT2. Nor is GL_EXT_point_sprite (from OpenGL 1.3 IIRC). I reckon that the cards that support the NV and EXT versions will also support the ARB version, but what cards could do that? Obviously not TNT2.

Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]

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Yann L

1,806

September 01, 2003 10:08 AM

ARB_point_sprite will probably not be exposed on anything below GeForce3/4, because chipsets prior to that did not have hardware point sprite support. A software emulation could be done, but that would be a little against the general OpenGL rule "if an extension is available, then it is hardware accelerated". This rule has already been broken a couple of times (vertex programs on GF2/GF4MX), so it''s basically upon nvidia and ATI, wether they implement a software codepath or not (and upon the ARB to certify it).

Sander

1,332

Author

September 01, 2003 10:38 AM

Thanks YannL. I guess I better stick with GL_QUADS for the moment then. I don''t feel like raising the minimum system specs for my lib to GeForce 3/4.

Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]

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jeeky

126

September 01, 2003 10:58 AM

My GeForce3 Ti-500 handles GL_NV_point_sprite just fine. I haven''t updated my drivers in a little bit, but I would assume that if the latest and greatest drivers enumerate ARB_point_sprite that the behavior would be the same as GL_NV_point_sprite.

As I recall, the one thing that this extension didn''t implement on the GF3 was size attenuation. You still control the size of the sprite (max = 64) using glPointSize(). This attenuation feature has been implemented in the GF4s (not the MX).