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Does anybody know if the DirectX license has as a requirement that the modified code be released with any modification to the base driver? If that is indeed the case, perhaps Firaxis will release their modified DirectX code with the SDK. Heck, perhaps it's on CD/DVD right now (since I'm blessed to be living in the UK right now, I don't know and really don't have much confidence I'll find out soon). It just may be the case that a patch to get the game to run on non-T&L systems might not require any kind of detailed surgery of the core graphics engine.
Ok, so the major point here is that the game can run faster, and run more detailed graphics because a chunk of the horse power for creating the graphics is put onto the Graphics card Processor Unit, in particular two built-in processing units for transformation of polygons and lighting. So here is what I'm guessing has to be done for any patch, assuming that Firaxis doesn't do it themselves:
1. Somebody has to dummy out any checks for T&L so that this won't stop the game from running any particular features.
2. Somebody has to then modify the Firaxis flavor of DirectX 9.0c to interpret the graphics information it's getting from the game but using non-T&L methods.
Setting up the framework for this is relatively straightforward in C++. Just make the relavent methods virtuals, create new instances of the relative base classes, and overwrite those methods. In fact, this is probably already in place since we know there are so many games running on DirectX 9.0c that aren't dependent on T&L. However Firaxis may have modified things here for their flavor of DirectX.
It won't be easy and will really require somebody who is very competent doing DirectX coding. But technically I think it's completely possible, especially when you consider the quality and quantity of graphics heavy games out there right now that don't rely on T&L.
computerhope/jargon said:T&L
Short for Transform and Lighting, T&L is a type of video technology that takes all the 3D information that used to be handled by the computer processor and gives it to the GPU. This enables for a more complex 3D environment by adding a higher polygon count and improving the lighting at the same time it allows the computer processor to handle other tasks.
Ok, so the major point here is that the game can run faster, and run more detailed graphics because a chunk of the horse power for creating the graphics is put onto the Graphics card Processor Unit, in particular two built-in processing units for transformation of polygons and lighting. So here is what I'm guessing has to be done for any patch, assuming that Firaxis doesn't do it themselves:
1. Somebody has to dummy out any checks for T&L so that this won't stop the game from running any particular features.
2. Somebody has to then modify the Firaxis flavor of DirectX 9.0c to interpret the graphics information it's getting from the game but using non-T&L methods.
Setting up the framework for this is relatively straightforward in C++. Just make the relavent methods virtuals, create new instances of the relative base classes, and overwrite those methods. In fact, this is probably already in place since we know there are so many games running on DirectX 9.0c that aren't dependent on T&L. However Firaxis may have modified things here for their flavor of DirectX.
It won't be easy and will really require somebody who is very competent doing DirectX coding. But technically I think it's completely possible, especially when you consider the quality and quantity of graphics heavy games out there right now that don't rely on T&L.