slantoflight |
03-04-2006 11:32 PM |
Why is software rendering slow?(Mesa, etc.)
I've always wondered about this. With games these days, its all about the graphics card. I was thinking an amusing idea, would'nt it be kick-ass if I could turn a whole computer into graphics card? I wondered in general, why something like this is'nt possible.
I'm aware that software gl is not able communicate directly with the graphics card. But why are'nt high-end cpus able to compensate? The mainboard CPU is still much faster than any GPU. Sure it has to deal with an operating system and all that. I could even understand CPU usage going to %99 percent while the software dumps out all the calculations and api translation to vesa or X or whatever its using for rendering translation. All the possible tasks that can be suspended are, so more of the cpu can be allocated to achieve maybe not bleeding fast frame rates,but atleast playable. Just like the good 'ol quake 1 days. But it just does'nt happen that way. Can anyone with 3d expertise shine some light on the situation?
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