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Hardware VS Software

Started by Cronuss Jun 2, 2003 at 1:55 PM 2 replies 450+ views

Original Post

Jun 2, 2003 at 1:55 PM

I''ve been looking through the tutorials and they are great so far... I''m curious about a few things, though... First of all, are these examples written to take advantage of hardware (video cards) or is it purely software based? It''s well-known that running graphics in software mode is very innefficient and slow compared to using hardware... If these are written to use software, how can they be converted to take advantage of hardware? Also, I noticed that some of the programs run EXTREMELY FAST on my computer, especially in full screen. The rotating triangle/square spin very, very fast and looks wierd, but if I shrink the window down, they rotate smooth and slow.

uncutno

Jun 2, 2003 at 2:03 PM

they all use OpenGL, (all the nehe site is about OpenGL)
OpenGL is a API witch helps you to use hardware graphics! , so:
they are all running in hardware mode! (some parts is in soft, but not the "drawing"... calculations of shadow volumes are in software)

Cronuss

Author

Cronuss

Jun 2, 2003 at 2:16 PM

hehe, that makes sense...

So, is there a way to do shadows and stuff in hardware though?

And why do you think the program goes super-fast when I put it in full screen?

UltimaX

Jun 3, 2003 at 9:01 AM

Look on most OpenGL web sites, you''ll find a bazillion shadow demos. I believe theres one on NeHe''s site to.

The reason your program is running faster in fullscreen is a long story, that is there are a lot of reasons... Bascally it all boils down to one simple answer, your app has exclusive rights to your vdeo card. In other words, your app''s the only app it''s worried about at the time.

-UltimaX-

"You wished for a white christmas... Now go shovel your wishes!"

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