can T3D support GPU skinning ?
by hxfps · in Torque Developer Network · 07/26/2010 (3:36 pm) · 2 replies
I found that in T3D, the skinning is computed by CPU,looping all the vertices and combined with the bone transforms and bone weights.My question is : can T3D support GPU skinning method ? if not,why not use it? It will be much more efficient.
#2
07/27/2010 (10:58 am)
thank you for your reply. maybe the CPU skinning is suitable for our demands but we will try to add the GPU-Skinning feature to our game based on torque. 
Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
With vertex skinning on the CPU we can support lots of bones, arbitrary weights per bones, and do the work once per-frame. Our skin updates are very optimal, but the big optimizations... threading the work... isn't in T3D 1.0.
On the GPU, still under DX9, the bone trasforms have to be done on each draw... that can be as much as 6 times per-character per-frame or more if you have multiple shadowed lights, reflections, etc. The GPU has alot of vertex processing power... but it has limits.
Alot of it comes down to your game... if your gonna have few characters and a few lights and reflections. Its very possible that the GPU could keep up with your needs. If you have a lot of lights and reflections and you have animated trees and other elements that eat up VS power... maybe not.
So could Torque 3D be changed to support GPU skinning? ...yes it could. Possibly a week or two of work if you know what your doing. But until we drop DX9 support entirely we will continue to have a CPU skinning path.