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Shaders without SM ?

by Areal Person · in Hardware Issues · 09/04/2006 (3:17 pm) · 4 replies

Ok, I got a nVidia Geforce Ti4200 128mb (That old cards rocks!)
I've overclocked it to 400/650 and It only smokes if I run it longer than three hrs.

I want to work with shaders.

I play guild wars, and the shading on the water looks awsome on my card !

However, I think Cg requires SM x.x for shaders, right ?
My card does not support that.

So how does good software like do the shading on my old hardware ?
Is it HLSL ? or GLSL ? (I have no clue)


So, what technology should I use to implement shading in TGE
that's not SM dependent ?

Also, How could TSE demo work on my card if it dosent support SM ?

Thanks,
-Areal
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Torque Owner Matt Vitelli
#1
09/04/2006 (3:58 pm)
Hi. Most of TSE uses 2.0 shaders so your answer is most of it won't work. DRL is neat and can use a shader if neccessary. Honestly I'd seriously recommend getting a new card. You could buy one with shader model 2.0 for about $50 today.

Torque Owner Areal Person
#2
09/04/2006 (7:52 pm)
Thanks,

Yes, I can see that DRL makes a big impact on "Lighting"
and is an important component of shading but
I'm wondering what other Shading type solutions are used by
games like Guild Wars that produce these shader like results without
using SM. These solutions will run on older hardware e.g nVidia Ti4200 etc.

Is HDR all that they use for that ?

Can a card support PS 2.0 & VS 2.0 without supporting SM and/or HDR ?

Any ideas anyone ?

Torque Owner Matt Vitelli
#3
09/04/2006 (9:20 pm)
Hmm.. I'm fairly sure HDR is dependant on a shader model card, 2.0 being the least.

Torque Owner Areal Person
#4
09/04/2006 (9:27 pm)
Thanks