What happened to software rendering? Why isn't it a thing anymore?

What happened to software rendering? Why isn't it a thing anymore?

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youtube.com/watch?v=rLizA6UeQao
youtube.com/watch?v=-pnVllXI7vk
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youtube.com/watch?v=gBzV1EPd95c
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What benefits does software rendering has over hardware rendering anymore?

It runs like shit for le epic retro experience

Some games have a unique look or sometimes look better in software rendering. Some people actually are able to run some games in software rendering.

Has it ever had any?

toasters?

what is software rendering?

because hardware acceleration has always been more efficient
you can still use point filtering to get that effect but most games don't have it as an option

What the fuck.

I really don't know how to put it into simple normie terms.

Software render uses an internal program to render shit. So the graphics can be a bit more "customized" because they're going to be rendered by a program specifically designed for those graphics.

Hardware rendering is rendered by say, your graphics card. They have to make generic stuff so that several different graphic cards can run them.

Software rendering usually presents more compatibility and performance issues

so sofware render is better than hardware render ?

no

No.

Software render runs like shit, because it's not interfacing directly with your hardware, there's an "intermediary" (the software) and that makes it slower. It also creates compatibility issues, like say excessive clipping or missing decals because the variable hardware isn't optimized for the generic software.

You could make any graphical effect in existence and it would work which is not the case with GPUs.

However, it would run slow as heck because CPUs don't run on unicorn magic.

Software mode only existed because GPUs were really expensive at the time so if the game could be made to run without a GPU, it would do so to reach a bigger audience.

The last game I remember that had SR was UT2004
youtube.com/watch?v=rLizA6UeQao
Performance was shitty. Graphics were awful (as expected). But it was possible to do some fun stuff with custom SDL lib outputs on linux..
If anyone is retarded enough to try SR you can google up SwiftShader.. (and enjoy your 3 FPS)

>yfw the first time you ran quake 2 with colored lighting

There are software implementations of opengl so you can do that even today.

More importantly, you can produce a picture just like in OP with hardware rendering - Minecraft literally does that, for example.

>I really don't know how to put it into simple normie terms.
Software rendering = rendered on CPU.
Hardware rendering = rendered on GPU.

There.

>Not remembering the days when you had to manually configure your video adapter and sound card for games individually
>Not going diamonds in prince of persia 2 after getting the configuration right and hearing poliphonic music with voice acting for the first time instead of shitty monophonic 8 bit tunes
Fucking SoundBlaster Pro m8

You can run whatever code you want on modern GPUs.

kids these days will never know these feels

>go from 320x200 software mode with sw_drawflat 1 to 640x480 3DFX Glide
It was amazing.

>Not going diamonds in prince of persia 2 after getting the configuration right and hearing poliphonic music with voice acting for the first time instead of shitty monophonic 8 bit tunes

for me it was hearing the water sounds in return to zork as my first real oh my fuck sound experience and then of course came myst

I started videogames with West Bank on Spectrum and I never had those feels. It was a gradual improvement.

youtube.com/watch?v=-pnVllXI7vk

Am I the only one who remembers this game being super fun? Why dont they make FPS games like it any more? No bullshit story, just an opening and ending cutscene, encounters with thousands of enemies with unique types to battle throughout the game.

Serious Sam?

too video gamey. serious sam and painkiller we the last games to try it.

>that music

As fun as they are, the problem with the SS games is that they are very blatantly gated rooms where enemies spawn in and you can't progress unless you defeat them. It lacks actual enemy placement design or designed encounters like Quake 2.

>why don't they release games that do A anymore?
>there you go, a game that does A
>but it doesn't do B!

Exactly? It has to do both A and B

Specify B in your original post then. No incentive to think of an answer when I know you'll just add C next time.

>ligthning on par with modern games
Modern gaming is shit

software mode runs like shit on old cpus, it stops running like shit about 10 years ago with modern pcs
>the variable hardware isn't optimized for the generic software
on the contrary, software mode is fixed and without variance compared to the various hardware gpus doing their own shit

there's this webm showing comparison (textures, waters) between half-life's software mode and opengl

i don't have it

I can't tell if this bait.
No. GPU is not suited for generic computations. GPUs have a ton of computing units but they all execute the same instruction in lockstep mode. This does not work for generic computing tasks, only for those that can be parallelized, like rendering a picture pixel by pixel or multiplying huge matrices not neural networks.
In CPU instead of ton, you have 1-16 computing units, but they are completely independent, and each is a much more powerful than a single unit in GPU, which is what makes CPU better for generic tasks (but still worse for tasks that can be parallelized because GPUs have more computing units).

...

>it would do so to reach a bigger audience.

>wanting to reach a bigger audience

fucking normies

GIT OUT

wrong

How do I play this game on a modern computer?

>le epic

HAHA I love these retro memes !!!!

Thumbs up if you got this meme (it will also make you a 90s kid ;))

Because it's an obsolete concept in a world where all PCs come with at least integrated graphics?

You run the exe

Software rendering is usually slower
do you really think there are people still playing on PCs without gpus?

what does the red cirlce indicate?

kmquake or quake 2 pro

>people born in 98 can now post here

consider run as administrator and windows xp sp3 compatability, works for q3a latest patch from the quake 1-3 collection, havent tested for q2 but the steam edition "just works"
remember to keep the cd in the tray to hear the fucking radical nin tunes
heres a thing from some old quake thread
pastebin.com/XjBHDRFw

i just downloaded it from tpb and it runs out of the box on win10

You are wrong. You can run whatever you want on a GPU with programmable shaders, even simulate shitty old artifacts. There is literally no reason to go with software rendering.

>WTF is this IRQ shit?
Man, being 10 sure was fun.

>people born in 2005 post here

GPUs became more powerful.

None.

These metal stripes on the gun are completely gone in GL. Along with other texture details on other models and enemies.

>PS1 vs N64

kys blind fuck

And it makes everything too dark.

Those aren't details, just flawed byproducts of software rendering. The barrels were intended to be round with smooth lighting.

Isn't that what DOOM (2016) is?

That's because software rendering is essentially using fullbright and OGL has actual light sources

>that framerate for the Voodoo
Was quake 2 ever a hog for CPUs? I remember specifically my dad buying me a Voodoo 2, installing it and only just being able to run quake. I wish i could say what CPU i had but that's all i really know.

It's supposed to look like blurry shit?

i see, gl has more realistic lighing on that gif, the rest is better on software renderer

unless you are rendering voxels

just disable bilinear or triliniar filtering, fegget.

The software rendering does look blurry and washed out. It's not intentional but a limitation of CPU rendering.

op proven wrong? it was only because of linear filtering?

What's the difference between OpenGL and this new Vulkan thing?

you can archive this look by disabling texture filtering in almost most modern emulators and engines (like eduke32,Quke2 Pro, gzdoom & etc.)

yes

Vulkan is much, much faster than OpenGL and allows for more control over the GPU.

GPUs are not turing complete so there are limits to stuff they can do.

Given, chances are we're not going to make such stuff ever but even GPGPU has its limits.

OpenGL is an old standard API.

Vulkan is a mutation of AMD's Mantle, as is DirectX12.

GL_NEAREST GL_LINEAR etc
with yamagiq2 you can achieve a software-like look for textures while retaining colored lighting which is best of both worlds

Vulkan is a lot easier to work with b/c there's none of the legacy cruft that NOBODY (even the GPU vendors) but the guys running OpenGL wants to support. Supposedly basic shit like shaders is essentially a hack in OpenGL.

can somebody show an example where linear filtering actually improves visuals?

That game had an amazing soundtrack

Every newer 3D game with decent textures on models.
Nearest neighbor is only beneficial with 2D games and if you prefer, old 3d games with lowres texures

Any filtering on 2D/2.5D games looks like crap.
P.S. in case you've missed:
BloodCM was released 2 days ago. Has now 100% the original game content and Plasma Pack epidsodes:
moddb.com/games/bloodcm/downloads

Playing it atm. Love the working mouse aim and widescreen

youtube.com/watch?v=gBzV1EPd95c

looks great, does it have real 3d and vertial aim?

I believe it have

>kids these days will NEVER understand the mind blowing levels of being able to free look in an FPS for the first time and seeing not only a skybox, but an animated one at that.

Open console and enter:
gl_texturemode "GL_NEAREST"

or you can put it into cfg

Russians saving the fps genre.