I know this is a dumb question but I dont know the answer and I want to know. Direct X and OpenGL are (I think) APIs. And APIs are funtions to blit ojects to the screen and a whole bunch of other stuff that i dont know. But in somebodys post that I was reading here said that they were not using Direct x or OpenGL but they were making a software renderer. Now what exactly is a software renderer is something where the programmer makes up his owns functions to blit objects to the screen? Is it based on the Win32 API? A confused little Newbie!

yes, basically. you can make a software renderer with DirectX by forcing it to use software instead of hardware acceleration. you could use GDI, for example, to do your basic primitives. software renderers are obviously slower than using DirectX or OpenGL.

JoeMont001@aol.com www.polarisoft.n3.net

Hey, you basically have it right. Most software renderers use a compbination of the Win32 API and Direct X. Direct X is used to access video memory directly. API isn''t graphics specific, it can apply to a number of things, such as sound, networking, etc.

And that''s not a stupid question. The award for Stupid Newbie Question still goes to, "I have the characters, I have a story idea, now how do I make a 3D RPG?"

-Ironblayde
Aeon Software

quote:
And that''s not a stupid question. The award for Stupid Newbie Question still goes to, "I have the characters, I have a story
idea, now how do I make a 3D RPG?"

Phew! Did someone -actually- posted a question like that? To think I''m struggling to make a isometric engine using OpenGL...



Gaiomard Dragon
-===(UDIC)===-

Yes:
It''s in this forum, called ''I''m making a RPG using C++'' (I think ). It''s still there I think.
Oh yeah - can you put HTML here in these posts? And what is the HTML for a link? (I''ve forgotten - Using Dreamweaver too much )


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What should I put here? You tell me.

Yep, although actually that little quote of mine came from a different message board, and is taken almost verbatim. You can throw any kind of HTML you want at this board... the source for a link would be:

<A HREF="yourURL.com">Link Text or Image Goes Here</A>

-Ironblayde
Aeon Software

Cool....
Learn a new thing every day...
Oh well. Just goes to show that the brain''s memory _isn''t_ infinite (C++ has crowded out HTML )



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What should I put here? You tell me.

Hello!

A software rendering 3DEngine, is a 3dengine not using any HW-acceleration at all. The programmer writes all the rendercode by hand and do not use any library functions for rendering the objects on screen.

But, you often still use DirectX, or DirectDraw to be precise, to set videomode, create surfaces and so on. When people talk about SW rendering the most of the time refer to 3D rendering.

Wha, hope you didn''t get too cofused

/ Tooon