Since the original release of 1.8.0 DirectQ has almost exclusively used hardware vertex buffer objects for rendering most 3D objects on screen. Direct 3D is actually pretty good with these, as it possesses nice software fallbacks. Also, even though the geometry data is being updated every frame, D3D also provides an efficient means of using dynamic VBOs in a programmer-friendly manner. This gives improved performance in most cases by offering a more direct route to the 3D hardware.
However, your 3D hardware may not like them. It may offer them but run them slowly; they may require too much video RAM for you, or you may just want to render without using VBOs to see what the difference is like. Finally, some maps may be set up such that they are quite inefficient with VBOs (unlikely, but it could happen).
From 1.8.5 I will be offering a means to switch off VBOs via a gl_vertexbuffer cvar (and a menu option, of course). VBO-less mode will also be triggered if DirectQ fails to create a vertex buffer, which should widen the supported hardware base a little.
I wouldn't recommend switching VBOs off as something that people should do out of a sense of caution (or an unreasonable attraction to crusty old hat technology) but if you ever need to, now you can.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Fun with Vertex Buffers
Posted by
mhquake
at
6:58 PM
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