[sldev] branches/shadow-draft missing llrender.cpp

[Dave Parks]

A number of people have been e-mailing me directly complaining that this 
doesn't work with their GeForce 7 GPU.  GeForce 7 was introduced in June 
2005, which means it would be starting preschool in the fall.  It's old 
enough to talk in complete sentences, it's beyond obsolete.  Frankly, 
drawing the line at GeForce 8 (not even current gen any more) for a 
still-in-development high end feature is generous.  That would be like 
Crytek saying they're not going to add any features to Crysis that are 
DirectX 10.0 only (probably a bad example what with the whole Vista 
thing, but you see my point).  I'm not going to apologize for it, and 
I'm not going to pander to people who think a 3 year old architecture 
should receive as much support and attention as current offerings.

The way I see it, if you don't care enough about graphics to keep and 
maintain an up to date system, you shouldn't expect to experience 
significant graphics improvements.  If I invest resources to supporting 
an old chip that's being phased out, I get a much lower return on that 
investment than if I would have put those resources into a chip that's 
becoming mainstream.  The number of installed GeForce 7's in the world 
is decreasing while the number of GeForce 8's is increasing, and I don't 
expect GeForce 7's to make a comeback. 

Now, before the over reaction machine spins up and I get an e-mail about 
an open letter from the cheapskates of the world, this doesn't mean 
Second Life is going to be GeForce 8 only, just that you'll need that 
kind of card if you want the absolute best experience.  Second Life will 
still run on that POS laptop your boss let you take out of the recycling 
bin at work.