Minimum Requirements

[MrIslomaniac]

Hey Guys, it's me again

I just send a friend of mine a cube demo, a simple cube that is spinning and it does not run ...

Can't we get the option to set the minimum requirements to shader model 2.0?

Because the people I am making my game for sometimes don't have an nvidia graphics card or direct x11 for shader 4.0

 

Greetz

Dustin

[Josh]

Why would you want to do this? If Leadwerks could run a a Shader Model 2 GPU, it would look like any other stuff that runs on SM2 cards.

[Canardia]

There should be an option to disable the shader check when the engine starts. But it should an unsupported option then, which means that only when the option is not changed, you can post a bug report. This is because the engine is designed to work with Shader Model 3 and up, but it still might work with Shader Model 2 when you make very simple graphics.

 

I think it's better to be able to play a game, even with no textures and shadows, than not to be able to play it at all. After all, graphics don't make games, but the game idea and logic makes them. Graphics only makes Virtual Reality Simulations and AAA Games.

[MrIslomaniac]

Yeah Lumooja that is what i am talking about. I know many people that will not play a game that does not start on their machine ... This unfortunately limits the possible users alot =(

And another example for a really good looking engine that uses shader 2.0 or shader 3.0

UNREAL ENGINE

And it looks better if the game starts and looks crappy instead of not starting at all ...

[Marleys Ghost]

No offence and don't take this the wrong way but why then go for an Engine that requires SM3.0 ?

[Canardia]

LE won't look very good with Shader Model 2, because it's not designed to do that. It will lack of baked shadows and other things which make Shader Model 2 games look good. But if it works, it's still better than not working at all.

 

Josh could make completely seperate Shader Model 2 code too, but it would bloat the engine (especially since BlitzMax has no #ifdefs to compile different versions of the engine), and cause many new bugs. So I would prefer just to have a pure Shader Model 3 and up engine, and a fallback mode for Shader Model 2 cards, which is more like a debug mode, and not really intended to make games.

 

If you really want to make a good looking Shader Model 2 game, then you should use another engine. There will be always people who complain that the engine is using too high end graphics, and people who will complain that the engine is using too low end graphics. I just think the people who complain about too low end graphics have more money, and actually are willing to pay to support the engine, and pay for games made with the engine Why support people who don't support you either?

[MrIslomaniac]

You got a point there...

But face it, right now there are not so many people out there that have either a NVidea graphic card or an ati with shader 4.0 which makes testing for me kinda hard, 3 of my friends don't have that. But when i look into the future, cause it will take ALOT more time until i get something to actually test and work there will be more and more people with such graphic cards every day.

And i don't want to make a sm2 game, just want my game to run on such a card. Maybe these people will then buy a new graphics card xD

Ask yourself: would you try to get a game running that c rashes before something started?

Or would you rather try to get a game running that looks just bad because of the card you are using ...

 

Dustin

 

P.S. The problem is actually not the SM3 but the SM4 for ati!

[Marleys Ghost]

But face it, right now there are not so many people out there that have either a NVidea graphic card or an ati with shader 4.0 which makes testing for me kinda hard, 3 of my friends don't have that.

 

 

 

SM4.0? or did you mean SM3.0?

[Canardia]

I think it goes like this:

SM2 = DX7 = OpenGL 1.0

SM3 = DX9 = OpenGL 2.0

SM4 = DX10 = OpenGL 2.1

SM5 = DX11 = OpenGL 3.0

SM6 = DX12 = OpenGL 3.2

[MrIslomaniac]

I meant SM 4.0

Here

 

I think it goes like this:

SM2 = DX7 = OpenGL 1.0

SM3 = DX9 = OpenGL 2.0

SM4 = DX10 = OpenGL 2.1

SM5 = DX11 = OpenGL 3.0

SM6 = DX12 = OpenGL 3.2

Well I can use OpenGL 2.1 and newer versions with my xp with dx9 ...

Java application of a friend

 

// Well never mind, he informed me xD

[Marleys Ghost]

I meant SM 4.0

Here

 

 

Ah .. you kinda lost me as you started off it seemed wanting SM2.0

[macklebee]

tell your friends to get a real graphics card... or you make them a nice game using FPSCreator

[wh1sp3r]

i think, problem can be in terrains. Josh uses pixelshader commands in vertex shader and it works only 3.0+

[MrIslomaniac]

Hehe @ mackle

Never thought of that ...

I just need to get all the people that are interested in my game to buy a new card ...

P.S. He can run Unreal engine 3 with over 100 frames

 

Josh uses pixelshader commands in vertex shader and it works only 3.0+

really? well you are not supposed to do that Josh ...

Well nvm, works with nvidia

[macklebee]

hmmm... i guess i never understood the comparison to unreal... imo its not even in the same ballpark for graphics as LE... but to each his own i guess

[Josh]

You can't even run a game without SM3 because the cards can't do basic things like a texture lookup in the terrain shader to set the terrain height, or for GPU skinning.

[Canardia]

Not all games use terrains or animated models. So it should still run for those games, which are explicitely designed not to use SM3 features.