Comments on: The Legacy of the R300

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:02:06 +0000

I know X-Plane is to blame. 😉

By: Benjamin Supnik

Benjamin Supnik — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:04:40 +0000

Yep – 32 bits isn't much. Jittering effects are not from the card usually though – usually it's from the sim not being very, very careful with how we manage those 32 bits.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:45:15 +0000

I looked around a bit on the web and found a little evidence for R420 using 24-bit still, none for 32-bit.

But I have to say, even 32-bit isn't that much at the scale of X-Plane's coordinate system. When you don't happen to be near the origin there's only about a centimeter of precision (not counting cumulative rounding). That jitter is getting on my nerves. I don't mean the reflections in particular (couldn't care less about that), but the plane in external views and anything nearby from any view, really, like runways.

By: Bold & Courageous

Bold & Courageous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:01:49 +0000

I only ask because my water looks "looks square and pixelated up close" and I have an X800 XT.

By: Benjamin Supnik

Benjamin Supnik — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:45:52 +0000

I am pretty sure that the R420 doesn't have the instruction limit, and I think it's also full 32-bit float inside, but I can't confirm that – I don't have one myself.

By: Bold & Courageous

Bold & Courageous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:31:30 +0000

Since the R420 is can be seen as two 300's back-to-back, do these limitations apply to the 420 as well?

By: Wayne Conrad

Wayne Conrad — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:50 +0000

The worst special cases ever are for configurations you can't test yourself.

#ifdef RARE_HARDWARE
// do funky stuff that I can't refactor
// without huge risk because I sure
// can't test it.
#endif