That's a video card spec.

Not to be rude, but it never hurts use Google first:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclie … TF-8&q=HW+T%26L

Thanks, canadacow. I'm still curious why I don't see this spec. mentioned on the vid cards that I see advertised for sale. Am I correct to assume that the 'latest' generation vid cards come equipped with this HW T&L technology?

As you can probably surmise, I may be in the market for a new vid card. 😀

H&W TL should be in every card that support euhm direct x 7 i think, every card beyond the first nvida geforce and ati radeon

Harekiet wrote:

H&W TL should be in every card that support euhm direct x 7 i think, every card beyond the first nvida geforce and ati radeon

Huh?.........euhm?

Uh, Should be in every card....? I think I understand what you are saying. Are you suggesting that vid cards that are compatible with DirectX 7 or later versions, should have HW T&L technology?

Funny thing though, There are several new games that 'require' a HW T&L graphics card, and they mention various nVidia and ATI cards, but, when you look at the specifications for the cards, there is no mention of HW T&L.

This can be quite confusing to a newbie that is clueless as far as vid cards are concerned. Is HW T&L technology inherent in the latest generation cards that are available?

I read an article that claims that HW T&L is a bit too forward, (technologically speaking), to be of much benefit to gamers who use machines built with components that are other leading edge. In other words, unless you are using the latest generation P4 or Athlon processor(and associated components), you are better off using the more commonplace anti-aliasing technology.

I'll attempt to locate the article, and post the info.

Thanks for the help, Harekiet

In other words, unless you are using the latest generation P4 or Athlon processor(and associated components), you are better off using the more commonplace anti-aliasing technology.

We're going from bad to worse. HW T&L is structly additional functionally supplied by the graphics processor to take an additional step off of the CPU. If your card has it and the game supports it, its going to use it. It adds nothing to the visual quality of the game except speed. Anti-aliasing tech is a completely different animal altogether. AA smooths out edges so as to remove jagginess in the rendered graphics. Using AA will improve image (quality but will sacrifice the frame rate).

In short, transform and lighting is (T&L) is a required step in rendering 3D graphics, if its not supported on the video card (that is, HW T&L) then its going to be done in software, using your system's CPU. Antialiasing, on the other hand, is a completely optional step only used when you've got video processing to spare and want to kill it on bluring your rendered image.

Canadacow,

Uh, I was wrong, the article had to do with anti-aliasing and shading effects. Stuff was way over my head. Thanks for the info.

Carry on!...out!