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Transformations and APIs

Started by +AA_970+ Oct 23, 2000 at 9:46 PM 1 replies 400+ views
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+AA_970+
+AA_970+
Let''s say I made a software renderer and created my own functions to do transformations (operations on matrices, projection, etc...). Now many APIs such as D3D have their own functions to do these things. Does it matter if I just use my functions to do the transformations or should I use the API functions? Are there performance issues? Digital Radiation
DeltaVee
DeltaVee
Weeellllllll...............

Who is doing the transformations for you?

If you get the card to do it, it can perform those calculations alot faster than your 1GHz pentium III.

Graphics cards have a pipeline which you fill with data and commands, so the card can do what it was designed to do (while your Pentium can do the real important things like stop 98 fram falling flat on its face every time the mouse moves ;P )

Any way, using an API, wether it be Glide, OpenGL, or DeathX, is generally ALOT faster and efficient than handcrafting your own routines, but then again it really depends on your video hardware. If you have something specific in mind then you can write simple transformation routines that are faster. i.e. use fixed floating point maths, which is extremely quick, kinda lacks in accuracy tho, especially accumlative results.

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Carpe Diem
D.V.Carpe Die<FONT C

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