Comments on: The Future of Triangles Part 3: X-Plane 9 https:/2008/09/the-future-of-triangles-part-3-x-plane-9/ Developer resources for the X-Plane flight simulator Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:22:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 By: Benjamin Supnik https:/2008/09/the-future-of-triangles-part-3-x-plane-9/#comment-920 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:24:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=298#comment-920 “So does this mean “IF” implemented that Cards without pixel shaders will no longer be able to run X-plane?”

NO!

The decision on minimum hardware requirements and the decision on rendering effects are separate.

– If we continue to support non-shader cards AND we do per-pixel lighting, then you simply won’t get per pixel lighting on old cards.

– I cannot say what future requirements will be.

– I can say we are NOT going to CHANGE the hardware requirements in the MIDDLE of a version run to DISALLOW cards that used to work.

If your card works in v9, it will work for the rest of v9. I can say absolutely nothing about what will happen in v10, v11, v12, etc.

Actually, I can say this: I think it will be relatively unlikely for us to REQUIRE shaders — too many cards have too many problems with their drivers…I expect we will always support some kind of really primitive “no features required” mode that works, so that users don’t get stuck with a DVD they can’t run at all, no matter how toasted their drivers are.

But I don’t think we’ll do any more new eye candy that doesn’t require shaders…the non-shader pipeline is just about as maxed out as it can be already – we’re not going to invest more work in 1990’s graphics technology.

The future is shaders – even if they are not required for compatibility/troubleshooting reasons. You’d certainly be insane to pick up a new graphics card without them.

]]> By: AWC https:/2008/09/the-future-of-triangles-part-3-x-plane-9/#comment-921 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:12:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=298#comment-921 So does this mean “IF” implemented that Cards without pixel shaders will no longer be able to run X-plane?

]]> By: krz https:/2008/09/the-future-of-triangles-part-3-x-plane-9/#comment-922 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:29:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=298#comment-922 thats very good news that you consider this 🙂

means in the future we maybe have a:
– color-map
– normal-map
– specular-map

since my background is offline-rendering i hate specular-maps and prefer real reflection-maps (wich look the same, but produce reflections like on x-planes water instead of just a “fake” highlight). i know that some racing games like project gotham for the xbox360 use reflection-maps for the carpaint parts on the cars. every few “seconds” a car-centric cubemap is generated and applied to the carpaint-materials reflection slot.

i wonder if such a high-end tecnique makes sense for xplane? (i have no clue if there are planes that are highly reflective in real life, i think i have seen a p51 in il2 with a imitated chrome-look).

what do you think personaly about this?

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