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

[Callum Lerwick]

I think some thought needs to be put in to what exactly Second Life's target
market is. I don't know what goes on inside the LL wall but I've not seen
any such discussion outside it.

I see it as a "casual game". Its not for the hardcore gamers with seemingly
unlimited disposable income. They're all playing WoW, Counterstrike, Call of
Duty, Halo and whatnot. Second Life is the virtual world for the rest of us.
Its for the casual computer user, who buys a new mid-range system every 5
years. Its for that family member who's using that spare box you gave them.

If you accept this view, this means LL must be much more conservative about
pushing minimum requirements forward than most games. The target should be a
mid-rangeish system from 5 years ago, the client should still run nicely on
such a machine. All LL developers should be forced to do all testing on such
a machine unless they're working on the new shinies.

Which isn't to say LL shouldn't be trying to keep the graphics engine
current. It just means effort has to be put in to "graceful degredation". Or
perhaps "progressive enhancement". All it takes is to bother to put the
effort into it...
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