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paulie Femto
Into the dark
Join date: 13 Sep 2003
Posts: 1,098
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05-25-2006 22:39
Do we have hardware lights only, now? It seems as if there is no "fallback" to software lighting, even for non-dynamic lights.
When I encounter a situation with more than 6 lights, the extra lights are not rendered at all. They "shut off."
It's disconcerting to walk through a long hall and watch the ceiling lights turning on ahead of me and turning off behind me, as I walk.
For non-dynamic lights, could those extra lights get "baked" into a scene and appear to stay lit or be rendered as software lights?
_____________________
REUTERS on SL: "Thirty-five thousand people wearing their psyches on the outside and all the attendant unfettered freakishness that brings."
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Torley Linden
Enlightenment!
Join date: 15 Sep 2004
Posts: 16,530
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05-26-2006 12:16
We'll see what we can find out about this--lemme ask Steve Linden.  |
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Steve Linden
Linden Lab Employee
Join date: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 23
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05-26-2006 13:40
We actually do have code to use software to bake in the effects of all lights, and for a while it was available in Preview, however it is currently disabled.
The problem is: this code requres GLSL shaders. OpenGL does not have a built in way to do this efficiently without the use of shaders. During testing we came across a lot of bugs related to GLSL and we wanted to get the release out so that other development could move forward. So, we disabled this feature and currently only use GLSL for avatar rendering and Ripple Water. These features are more optional and so far have had fewer problems, although there are some that we are still fixing.
Once we are satisfied that GLSL is stable for avatar and water rendering, we hope to enable the software lighting again.
Meanwhile, the patch that went out today (5/26) improves the light sorting algorithm which should help, and know that better lighting is on the way, at least for higher end graphics cards.
-Steve
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