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**GNEP** · 26 September 2002, 04:05

I think that it is RMODE 1 for wireframe. And RMODE 0 to switch back. There are apparently modes 0 through to 9 to play with

EDIT: might be RMODE 5 for normal...

gnep

**leech** · 26 September 2002, 04:20

Does that mean I should be able to enable Truform for Serious Sam 2? I think I tried and it wouldn't let me. I'll try again when I get home. I thought Truform was something that was ATI specific, much like the Parhelia has Displacement Mapping (can't wait 'til some games are released to use that!)

Leech

**GNEP** · 26 September 2002, 04:27

Notice I said "since the Parhlia was released" - SS may well have ATI-detection code in it that doesn't allow the P to use Truform. UT2k3, on the other hand... who knows?

**P5ycho** · 26 September 2002, 06:03

I think you shouldn't get your hopes up, ati didn't get a hdm license from matrox, i guess matrox didn't get a truform license either.

**GNEP** · 26 September 2002, 06:07

I thought that HDM was a feature of DX9?

And N-Patches are in the P spec IIRC.

Or am I simply confused?

Anyone fancy giving it a try? Or perhaps R0M can clarify?

**P5ycho** · 26 September 2002, 06:15

it is a feature of dx9, but as i understand it Matrox did keep their hardware implementation a secret, so ati had do do some stuff in software. I read it in some interview with an ati employee.

is n-patches thesame as truform?

**GNEP** · 26 September 2002, 06:18

I think so. (No expert though)

**Greebe** · 26 September 2002, 06:26

so ati had do do some stuff in software.

P5ycho, you refering to ATi drivers as crap?

**P5ycho** · 26 September 2002, 06:38

well, that was an accident, but it's kinda true actually

**DGhost** · 26 September 2002, 12:42

Under DirectX TruForm is not an ATI specific thing, as it is specified in the DX8 specs. for OpenGL it would be ATI specific as you would have to use their extensions. they are however the only company thats currently supporting it under either of them.

currently it looks like the Parhelia does not explicently support N-Patches in DirectX8 (at least from my peak at what capabilities it has... used 3DMark2k1's system info tool so god only knows if it is accurate or not)... judging from the info i have seen on DirectX9, displacement mapping and N-Patches have been merged and updated... its possible that under DX9 it will support the new version of n-patches as well as DM...

keep in mind that the stuff that the Parhelia can do is quite a bit more advanced that what DX8 allows... DX8 can't do floating point LOD (which is what DX9 will require, and in order to use DAT with DM properly you will need FP LOD), it can't do DAT (altho you could fake it... it would just be ugly because of the integer precision LOD), it can't do DM (altho matrox has implemented a method of doing this...), etc...

wait and see what DX9 brings about, with any luck it will support it...

or, it might not... who knows...

Edit: Serious Sam 2 uses OpenGL primarily... you would never see truform work on a Parhelia because of that, even if the Parhelia supported it... unless they implemented ATI's GL Extensions...

**P5ycho** · 26 September 2002, 13:57

didn't they support some of ati's extensions already?

**leech** · 26 September 2002, 16:17

Yes they do. According to Sandra's OpenGL information they support:

GL_ATI_element_array
GL_ATI_vertex_array_object.

Also they support what looks like an Nvidia extension

GL_NV_texgen_reflection.

I just want shiny water enabled in Neverwinter Nights, could this possibly be enabled at a later date on the Parhelia?

On a side note, Serious Sam can use either OpenGL or DirectX. And with the newer drivers (even the leaked ones) there is a problem with the reflective floor in the technology test. The previous official drivers worked fine with it. So somewhere between the leaked drivers and the previous ones they messed this up. But at least the GL version on these new drivers is 1.3, the others were 1.2 (which might be where the problem lies, I don't know enough about OpenGL or even 3D programming to know) but it's the same way in DirectX and OpenGL.

Leech

**UberLord** · 26 September 2002, 17:10

Re: Parhelia and Truform

Originally posted by GNEP
I am not in a position to check this for a while, so was wondering if one of you other chaps with the UT2k3 demo and a Parhelia could.

Well, turning on that setting causes my PC to hard-lock when viewing a truformed model.

Luckily it freezes on the screen so I can see if it's truformed or not. From a first look, I'd say that bits are and bits aren't. For example, a bit of the boot as a major jaggy line, whereas the majority of the back looks nice and curved.

Didn't look too closely as my PC speaker was bleeping demanding that it was reset :/

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Parhelia and Truform

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