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triangle models (with software rendering)

Started by qtpp 3 replies 450+ views
Original Post
qtpp
qtpp
Hi everyone. I''m experimenting with different software-rendering techniques for rendering small-triangle models. As some already know, the trick for fast software-rendering is often to ''cheat'' or to try some less-obvious approaches. It might help to think of the MDL models in Quake 1, for example, which used affine-mapping (and/or subdivision) for quicker (but less accurate) rendering. The models contain around 400 polygons with a 128x128 skin texture. The target platform is a Sony-Ericcson P900 smartphone, so the main issues are related to the only-integer rendering pipeline (the phone''s ARM cpu slows down unacceptably with floating-point calcs). In any case, i''m very curious to hear other people''s opinions especially from people with experience in software-rendering from around the quake-era.
aboeing
aboeing
try looking at some of the older engines, quake relied quite a bit on the fpu, most of the earlier engines avoided the fpu as much as possible, there should be a lot of source code out there for you to learn from.
Drilian
Drilian
I''d highly suggest getting Michael Abrash''s Zen of Graphics Programming. It''s written with exactly this type of use in mind.
qtpp
qtpp
Cool, thanks for your input.

I''ve actually read a lot of Abrash''s stuff (he put a lot of his written work online), some of it has been quite useful. I was just wondering if anybody had any other experiences really.

"try looking at some of the older engines" - any recommendations? I can''t really think of anything pre-quake, that might be suitable really.
C0D1F1ED
C0D1F1ED
Look for Chris Hecker''s Perspective Texture Mapping articles. No floating-point required for rasterization or texture mapping. Also explains a lot of optimization techniques. A bit math heavy but definitely worth it! I still use many of the techniques in my swShader renderer.

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