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HAL & REF

Started by Peter Cunliffe Aug 5, 2001 at 5:08 PM 5 replies 450+ views

Original Post

Aug 5, 2001 at 5:08 PM

OK this ones been bugging me for a while. Whatever graphics card I have tried [all current models] the PR dialog box has option for HAL or REF. Now I thought that HAL was for non T&L Hardware and REF was for T&L Hardware? I''ve recently tried a Kyro II which does not have hardware T&L but is faster with REF than HAL! Now I''m thinking why not get rid of this option and hard code the REF mode since REF always works and is always faster - or is it still there for compatibilty reasons with old cards? Anyway my main project always crashes in HAL mode since Beta7 appeared [still ok with Beta 6 today but no later version] so I don''t want the HAL option - Chris, take it out next beta? If it''s got to stay, what''s the easiest way for me to remove it? Thanks in advance for helping! Petrovski

PsycoBlade

Aug 5, 2001 at 5:16 PM

HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) is T&L

REF (Reference Rasterizer) is NOT T&L

Thats why REF is faster on the Kyro.

-Rich

Peter Cunliffe

Aug 5, 2001 at 5:23 PM

Psycoblade are you sure?

With my Radeon or Geforce I get higher frame rates with REF!

Thanks in advance for helping!
Petrovski

PsycoBlade

Aug 5, 2001 at 5:41 PM

positive

-Rich

Vaporisator

Aug 5, 2001 at 5:48 PM

Well AFAIK, at least in plain DirectX,
HAL means Hardware Abstracton Layer and this one uses T&L if it''s available.
BUT the REF is a software device, that uses your CPU not GPU, so it simply cannot be faster than the HAL (at least on boards that aren''t from the first generation)!
Ever looked in some games options menus? You''ll find no game that uses the REF instead of the HAL. Abolishing it would be a great failure.

Of course I''m only human and could be wrong about that.

Dahadrael

Aug 6, 2001 at 7:44 AM

The HAL uses hardware to do all the calculations and special 3d stuff. REF is a software emulation layer. They keep it there so if a program tries to do a function that the video card does not support, it can emulate this function in software. This is usually very very slow and wouldn''t be appropriate for games at all. But I suppose in some situations it would be better to be able to do it, no matter how slow it is.

Peter Cunliffe

Aug 6, 2001 at 10:45 AM

So you guys are saying selecting REF in PR dialog box would
run a PR project slower than HAL but I find the opposite is always true!

Thanks in advance for helping!
Petrovski

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