TRUFORM games?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Hi I'm such a noob when it comes to ATi stuff. Hope someone can give me some
info here

What games support ATi's TRUFORM?

It's off by default even for quality settings. Does that mean it is only
supported for special games?

Another thing, there so much to select for SMARTSHADER and default is 'no
effect'. What does it do and what games suppoty it?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

On 7/24/2004 3:33 PM Humga brightened our day with:

>Hi I'm such a noob when it comes to ATi stuff. Hope someone can give me some
>info here
>
>What games support ATi's TRUFORM?
>
>It's off by default even for quality settings. Does that mean it is only
>supported for special games?
>
>
>
It works in Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory, Serious
Sam 1 &2, Will Rock, UT2K3 & 2K4 (go to ut200*/system/ut200*.ini and
change UseNPatches=False to UseNPatches=True). Those are the ones I
know, probably the most notable thing it does is, in let's say ut2k4,
when you're looking at a ridge line, instead of seeing unnatural angles
along hill tops, they're much smoother. You can probably turn it on in
some other Quake3 (maybe the Jedi Knight games) based games and see what
happens.

>Another thing, there so much to select for SMARTSHADER and default is 'no
>effect'. What does it do and what games suppoty it?
>
>Thanks
>
>
SmartShader stuff is just for a lark, make stuff look funky.

--
Steve [Inglo]

 

[Andrew]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 23:33:01 +0100, "Humga" <Humga@no-spam.com> wrote:

>What games support ATi's TRUFORM?

Madden 2004 is the only one I have.

>It's off by default even for quality settings. Does that mean it is only
>supported for special games?

Yes.

>Another thing, there so much to select for SMARTSHADER and default is 'no
>effect'. What does it do and what games suppoty it?

No games "support" them, it is for the user to choose what he wants.
Try them and see what they do.
--
Andrew. To email unscramble nrc@gurjevgrzrboivbhf.pbz & remove spamtrap.
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim messages to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking a question.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"Humga" <Humga@no-spam.com> wrote in message
news:q9ednTrG47UGfp_c4p2dnA@eclipse.net.uk...
> Hi I'm such a noob when it comes to ATi stuff. Hope someone can give me
some
> info here
>
> What games support ATi's TRUFORM?

I've had most joy from Half Life.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Humga wrote:
> Hi I'm such a noob when it comes to ATi stuff. Hope someone can give me
> some info here
>
> What games support ATi's TRUFORM?
>
> It's off by default even for quality settings. Does that mean it is only
> supported for special games?


It's old technology that essentially increases the number of polygons -
trying it a new game will unnecesarily tax the GPU.

My advice? Ignore it.

> Another thing, there so much to select for SMARTSHADER and default is 'no
> effect'. What does it do and what games suppoty it?

Just read the titles. Should be fairly obvious.

I can't think of a single situation where I would want any of those effects
on my whole screen, can you?

It's a toy feature, don't even know why they bothered.

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

 

[GT-Force]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

I do not agree that TRUFORM is old tech and useless. A simple example of how
good the result may be, if implemented correctly, is Serios Sam's Tech-Show
Room that shows support of TRUFORM.

Now, about it being old tech, haven't you seen Doom3's models? If you are
going with the hype "How awesome and unbelievable Doom3's graphics are", you
might have missed how such low-polygon its models are! And the reason for it
makes me mad! The reason is that, since it will also be released for XBox, I
guess, id had to decide whether to build two models, one high-polygon for
PCs and one low for XBox, or just say "Our shaders and shadows are so good
that people will not realize how low-polygon our models are" and go for it.
Apparently, they chose the latter, so our PCs are Doomed

I was wishing that Doom3 would support TRUFORM, so that, those ugly
low-polygon models would look much better on our PCs. I doubt it, though.

There, you had my two cents...

GT-Force


"Ben Pope" <spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2mg847Fm61krU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Humga wrote:
> > Hi I'm such a noob when it comes to ATi stuff. Hope someone can give me
> > some info here
> >
> > What games support ATi's TRUFORM?
> >
> > It's off by default even for quality settings. Does that mean it is only
> > supported for special games?
>
>
> It's old technology that essentially increases the number of polygons -
> trying it a new game will unnecesarily tax the GPU.
>
> My advice? Ignore it.
>
> > Another thing, there so much to select for SMARTSHADER and default is
'no
> > effect'. What does it do and what games suppoty it?
>
> Just read the titles. Should be fairly obvious.
>
> I can't think of a single situation where I would want any of those
effects
> on my whole screen, can you?
>
> It's a toy feature, don't even know why they bothered.
>
> Ben
> --
> A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
> Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
> I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"Ben Pope" <spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2mg847Fm61krU1@uni-berlin.de...

> It's old technology that essentially increases the number of polygons -
> trying it a new game will unnecesarily tax the GPU.

Spot on...I enabled it and I feel as though the game is slightly slower.

After reading other replies...it makes me feel as if there isn't a lot of
practical features you could get out of an ATi card for general gaming

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"Inglo" <ingloogoo@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.xcc> wrote in message
news:E1CMc.96763$n44.71985@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...

> It works in Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory, Serious
> Sam 1 &2, Will Rock, UT2K3 & 2K4 (go to ut200*/system/ut200*.ini and
> change UseNPatches=False to UseNPatches=True). Those are the ones I
> know, probably the most notable thing it does is, in let's say ut2k4,
> when you're looking at a ridge line, instead of seeing unnatural angles
> along hill tops, they're much smoother. You can probably turn it on in
> some other Quake3 (maybe the Jedi Knight games) based games and see what
> happens.

Wow...good to hear that UT2004 supports it

I'll try it right now...tell you what I think after...cya

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Humga wrote:
> "Ben Pope" <spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:2mg847Fm61krU1@uni-berlin.de...
>
>> It's old technology that essentially increases the number of polygons -
>> trying it a new game will unnecesarily tax the GPU.
>
> Spot on...I enabled it and I feel as though the game is slightly slower.
>
> After reading other replies...it makes me feel as if there isn't a lot of
> practical features you could get out of an ATi card for general gaming

How about decent Pixel Shaders, good AA and AF?

There are some toy features, but back in the day, TrueForm was genuinely
useful. How the times change eh?

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

you can get trueform in morrowind if you use the Morrowind FPS Optimizer. It looks really good on a
high end card. The cool thing about the FPS optimizer is that it alows you to select which objects
will have trueform applied.

Generally, TRUEFORM is good on older games that support it, because it allows you to scale up the
quality to make best use of your hardware... there comes a point when high framerates just make no
difference, so its better to use that power in something else, such as better image quality and
additional polys.

For newer games, TF doesnt do much, because they are already high poly.

S

to ATi stuff. Hope someone can give
>> me some info here
>>
>> What games support ATi's TRUFORM?
>
> I've had most joy from Half Life.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

This is a good thing, because in some games TrueForm can be applied
incorrectly. One such example is Serious Sam, where some boxes turn into
spheres...

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"Sham B" <shamb@takemeouteasynet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:41038789$0$6757$afc38c87@auth.uk.news.easynet.net...
> you can get trueform in morrowind if you use the Morrowind FPS Optimizer.
It looks really good on a
> high end card. The cool thing about the FPS optimizer is that it alows you
to select which objects
> will have trueform applied.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

GT-Force wrote:
> I do not agree that TRUFORM is old tech and useless. A simple example of how
> good the result may be, if implemented correctly, is Serios Sam's Tech-Show
> Room that shows support of TRUFORM.
>
> Now, about it being old tech, haven't you seen Doom3's models? If you are
> going with the hype "How awesome and unbelievable Doom3's graphics are", you
> might have missed how such low-polygon its models are! And the reason for it
> makes me mad! The reason is that, since it will also be released for XBox, I
> guess, id had to decide whether to build two models, one high-polygon for
> PCs and one low for XBox, or just say "Our shaders and shadows are so good
> that people will not realize how low-polygon our models are" and go for it.
> Apparently, they chose the latter, so our PCs are Doomed
>
> I was wishing that Doom3 would support TRUFORM, so that, those ugly
> low-polygon models would look much better on our PCs. I doubt it, though.
>
> There, you had my two cents...
>
> GT-Force
>

John Carmack made a comment some time ago on how TRUFORM 'was not an
option'. Something to do with the shadow calculations. I'm sure someone
will be able to find it...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

@lias wrote:

> GT-Force wrote:
>
>> I do not agree that TRUFORM is old tech and useless. A simple example
>> of how
>> good the result may be, if implemented correctly, is Serios Sam's
>> Tech-Show
>> Room that shows support of TRUFORM.
>>
>> Now, about it being old tech, haven't you seen Doom3's models? If you are
>> going with the hype "How awesome and unbelievable Doom3's graphics
>> are", you
>> might have missed how such low-polygon its models are! And the reason
>> for it
>> makes me mad! The reason is that, since it will also be released for
>> XBox, I
>> guess, id had to decide whether to build two models, one high-polygon for
>> PCs and one low for XBox, or just say "Our shaders and shadows are so
>> good
>> that people will not realize how low-polygon our models are" and go
>> for it.
>> Apparently, they chose the latter, so our PCs are Doomed
>>
>> I was wishing that Doom3 would support TRUFORM, so that, those ugly
>> low-polygon models would look much better on our PCs. I doubt it, though.
>>
>> There, you had my two cents...
>>
>> GT-Force
>>
>
> John Carmack made a comment some time ago on how TRUFORM 'was not an
> option'. Something to do with the shadow calculations. I'm sure someone
> will be able to find it...

....and that someone is me

"TruForm is not an option, because the calculated shadow silhouettes
would no longer be correct."

From here: http://www.beyond3d.com/interviews/carmackdoom3/

 

[GT-Force]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Thanks. Now, I do not have to wait and see.
GT-Force

"@lias" <kix_pet@yahoo.spammersgohere.com> wrote in message
news:wqJMc.216$zS6.37742@news02.tsnz.net...
> @lias wrote:
> ...and that someone is me
> "TruForm is not an option, because the calculated shadow silhouettes
> would no longer be correct."
> From here: http://www.beyond3d.com/interviews/carmackdoom3/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"Ben Pope" <spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2mg9qvFmtrjoU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Humga wrote:
> > "Ben Pope" <spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:2mg847Fm61krU1@uni-berlin.de...
> >
> >> It's old technology that essentially increases the number of polygons -
> >> trying it a new game will unnecesarily tax the GPU.
> >
> > Spot on...I enabled it and I feel as though the game is slightly slower.
> >
> > After reading other replies...it makes me feel as if there isn't a lot
of
> > practical features you could get out of an ATi card for general gaming

>
> How about decent Pixel Shaders, good AA and AF?
>
> There are some toy features, but back in the day, TrueForm was genuinely
> useful. How the times change eh?
>
> Ben
> --

Something tells me that there are more "Trueform" games
than "T-Buffer" games; alas.

Luck;
Ken