D3D openGL Software

JackMackG · 07-13-2010, 06:00 PM

D3D, openGL, Software are the choices I get for rendering. What are the +/- of them all?

gorpie · 07-13-2010, 07:39 PM

More tech-savvy people will have to really answer you.

I can say that software mode is supposed to be crap, or something. (But some people do run into a glitch/bug, and temporarily switching to software mode lets them get past that section of the game.)

I think you should choose between the other two depending on which you think looks better.

Leushenko · 07-13-2010, 08:21 PM

Quote:

I can say that software mode is supposed to be crap, or something

It took me two playthroughs before I even noticed I had mine set to software mode...

Anyway with brain turned on - given how far D3D and OpenGL have come in the twelve years since Half-Life was released, the differences between them in general are pretty much irrelevant; just try them both and see if one looks better than the other (if there's any noticeable difference, it'll be a machine-dependent thing).

trenmost · 07-14-2010, 12:33 AM

if you choose Software rendering, the CPU will do the rendering

OpenGL and D3D will render using the VGA card, so it can use filtering, etc., so it looks better. OpenGL and D3D look the same, but for me OpenGL is more bugless (i can see underwater, no bad fonts when i use AA, etc.

seseorang · 07-14-2010, 08:27 AM

openGL and Direct3D are similar to look at - but are different.

With the version of DirectX that was around when the game was available, it was not too good. Performance was better with openGL as you don't need to worry about updating DirectX every 5 minutes.
Software is similar to the Playstation graphics. Everything is all blocky. Although software is a good fallback if the other 2 do not work.

With Direct3D and openGL, they write differently to the graphics card. OpenGL has been reported to communicate faster than DirectX.

Vonje · 07-14-2010, 01:39 PM

There are some differences, but they might be system related therefore probably not happening for everyone.

D3D has overbrightness, can look like bloom!
OpenGL doesn't have blurred text.
As for software, there are a few good things it achieves, but it's generally horrible and laggy to use.

green_meklar · 07-14-2010, 06:03 PM

I use software mode. From what I've heard, people using modern computers are supposed to use software mode since computers are so powerful these days it actually outperforms the other two in both speed and compatibility. So far this has been my experience as well on both my machines.

However, both my machines also have integrated graphics devices. It's possible that people with dedicated graphics devices will see a different set of strengths and weaknesses among the three modes.

Vonje · 07-14-2010, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by green_meklar

I use software mode. From what I've heard, people using modern computers are supposed to use software mode since computers are so powerful these days it actually outperforms the other two in both speed and compatibility. So far this has been my experience as well on both my machines.

However, both my machines also have integrated graphics devices. It's possible that people with dedicated graphics devices will see a different set of strengths and weaknesses among the three modes.

What what what? Using a hardware renderer saves you a lot of peformance. You have serious compatibility issues if it doesn't.

pizzahut · 07-17-2010, 06:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JackMackG

D3D, openGL, Software are the choices I get for rendering. What are the +/- of them all?

OpenGL
The best for the old HL series of games (CS, CZ, DoD, DMC, HL, HL:BS, HL:OF, Ricochet, TFC).
+ good looking
+ fastest rendering speed

D3D
The game is not optimised for it and thus rendering speed is slower than OpenGL. Could be used as a fallback if you can't get OpenGL to work.
+ mostly good looking
- slower than OpenGL

Software Mode
May be useful if you don't have any gfx card drivers installed yet, or if there are driver issues.
- bad looking (pixelated)
- very slow

Vonje · 07-18-2010, 07:19 AM

There's also this article which covers almost everything about software. It's for Quake and not everything applies in Half-Life.

07-19-2010, 08:38 PM

Off topic: Software rendering brings back memories (first time I played HL, years ago). The "gaming PC" I had back then was a "killer machine" (AMD 233 Mhz, 50 MB RAM, S3Trio on-board video-2 MB shared memory, 6 GB hard drive... Yes, go ahead and laugh). I had to play Half-Life @640-480 and it ran really slow lol

On topic: Current Computers should not have any problems running the game on hardware mode (either D3D or OpenGL). Though, OpenGL is the way to go with GoldSrc games.

pmc64 · 07-24-2010, 12:41 PM

Don't use software it looks horible. It looks like sprites faking a 3d envornment instead of having polygons with texures on them.

shresht93 · 07-24-2010, 01:48 PM

I guess you should be using OpenGL as long as you have a graphics card.

CPUs are (very very very) bad at drawing games compared to graphics cards. 'Software' mode uses your CPU.

green_meklar · 07-25-2010, 08:13 AM

Quote:

CPUs are (very very very) bad at drawing games compared to graphics cards. 'Software' mode uses your CPU.

I don't think that's strictly true. As far as I know, all software mode does is use some sort of in-house graphics library rather than the official DirectX or OpenGL ones. Ultimately it's still using the GPU for most of the rendering work, it's just passing instructions to the GPU in a different way.

barneyinblue · 07-25-2010, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pizzahut

...

I don't know how can you make a such comparison.

Most modern hardware isn't compatible with the older technology, which might cause rendering problems, random slowdowns, and possibly other errors. For example, ATI had some serious OpenGL problems, until they fixed them in Catalyst 9.12.

I think the manufacturers prefer to support Direct3D, rather than OpenGL (which is free), since they get paid from Microsoft, but that's another story. Whatever you choose, you can never get the perfect performance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shresht93

CPUs are (very very very) bad at drawing games compared to graphics cards. 'Software' mode uses your CPU.

John Carmack's next engine is going to be based on this technology, which require no hardware based rendering. Crytek also used this to draw some elements in their games, but it wasn't fully supported. This is the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxel

07-13-2010, 06:00 PM	#1
JackMackG Join Date: Oct 2009 Reputation: 2 Posts: 177	D3D openGL Software D3D, openGL, Software are the choices I get for rendering. What are the +/- of them all?

07-24-2010, 01:48 PM	#13
shresht93 Join Date: Apr 2010 Reputation: 71 Posts: 575	I guess you should be using OpenGL as long as you have a graphics card. CPUs are (very very very) bad at drawing games compared to graphics cards. 'Software' mode uses your CPU. Last edited by shresht93: 07-24-2010 at 01:51 PM.

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07-13-2010, 07:39 PM	#2
gorpie Join Date: Sep 2009 Reputation: 1437 Posts: 10,727	More tech-savvy people will have to really answer you. I can say that software mode is supposed to be crap, or something. (But some people do run into a glitch/bug, and temporarily switching to software mode lets them get past that section of the game.) I think you should choose between the other two depending on which you think looks better.

07-14-2010, 12:33 AM	#4
trenmost Join Date: Nov 2008 Reputation: 254 Posts: 1,994	if you choose Software rendering, the CPU will do the rendering OpenGL and D3D will render using the VGA card, so it can use filtering, etc., so it looks better. OpenGL and D3D look the same, but for me OpenGL is more bugless (i can see underwater, no bad fonts when i use AA, etc.

07-14-2010, 08:27 AM	#5
seseorang Join Date: Feb 2010 Reputation: 683 Posts: 7,229	openGL and Direct3D are similar to look at - but are different. With the version of DirectX that was around when the game was available, it was not too good. Performance was better with openGL as you don't need to worry about updating DirectX every 5 minutes. Software is similar to the Playstation graphics. Everything is all blocky. Although software is a good fallback if the other 2 do not work. With Direct3D and openGL, they write differently to the graphics card. OpenGL has been reported to communicate faster than DirectX.

07-14-2010, 01:39 PM	#6
Vonje Join Date: May 2007 Reputation: 307 Posts: 4,502	There are some differences, but they might be system related therefore probably not happening for everyone. D3D has overbrightness, can look like bloom! OpenGL doesn't have blurred text. As for software, there are a few good things it achieves, but it's generally horrible and laggy to use.

07-14-2010, 06:03 PM	#7
green_meklar Join Date: Oct 2008 Reputation: 774 Posts: 498	I use software mode. From what I've heard, people using modern computers are supposed to use software mode since computers are so powerful these days it actually outperforms the other two in both speed and compatibility. So far this has been my experience as well on both my machines. However, both my machines also have integrated graphics devices. It's possible that people with dedicated graphics devices will see a different set of strengths and weaknesses among the three modes.

07-18-2010, 07:19 AM	#10
Vonje Join Date: May 2007 Reputation: 307 Posts: 4,502	There's also this article which covers almost everything about software. It's for Quake and not everything applies in Half-Life.

07-19-2010, 08:38 PM	#11
Master74 Guest Posts: n/a	Off topic: Software rendering brings back memories (first time I played HL, years ago). The "gaming PC" I had back then was a "killer machine" (AMD 233 Mhz, 50 MB RAM, S3Trio on-board video-2 MB shared memory, 6 GB hard drive... Yes, go ahead and laugh). I had to play Half-Life @640-480 and it ran really slow lol On topic: Current Computers should not have any problems running the game on hardware mode (either D3D or OpenGL). Though, OpenGL is the way to go with GoldSrc games.

07-24-2010, 12:41 PM	#12
pmc64 Join Date: Mar 2010 Reputation: 374 Posts: 1,535	Don't use software it looks horible. It looks like sprites faking a 3d envornment instead of having polygons with texures on them.