An option for shaders

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freereign
Space Squid
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:40 pm

An option for shaders

#1 Post by freereign »

I know that there has been alot of talk about using shaders for FreeOrion. I am all for this. But the thing I am against is making it a requirement. People with older hardware (like me) know that recent games probably won't look nice on their computers. An option to turn off shaders would allow me to run the game (once shaders are implemented). My Graphics card doesn't support any shaders at all.

Just food for thought.
MoO: Darloks Rule!
MoO2: Custom Darloks Rule!
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M4lV
Space Squid
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 10:51 am

Re: An option for shaders

#2 Post by M4lV »

seconded. For example, I can't play the freeware tank battle game Zero Ballistics because they require shader 2.0 and my old radeon 9200 card only serves shader 1.4...

tzlaine
Programming Lead Emeritus
Posts: 1092
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:33 pm

Re: An option for shaders

#3 Post by tzlaine »

Depending on how much work it is, I'm prepared to add support for lower-spec cards. However, you have to understand that time is a precious resource, and there's only one of me. Ultimately, when the game is "released" (i.e. FO 1.0), cards that are high-end now will be purchasable out of a bin for $5 US. So, it's hard to justify spending time now on features that won't be needed in future, just so a few (or even many) people can test out the game, when ultimately this will be wasted effort. In brief, this may or may not happen, but it's at least on my radar. As always, patches are welcome. :)

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