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

Dave Parks davep at lindenlab.com
Tue May 27 23:24:21 PDT 2008


Exactly.  LL is ridiculously conservative with our minimum spec (GeForce 
2! come on!), and no one is talking about changing the minimum spec, 
merely taking advantage of what many of our users already have, and what 
all will have within several years.  We really don't stop supporting a 
range of hardware until less than 2% of the user base is using it or the 
company that makes the hardware asks us to stop supporting it (yes, this 
has actually happened).


Dante Tucker wrote:
> Well really they have. All the same graphical options are available. 
> WindLight and "DarkLight" (awesome name Darien) are just added 
> optional things.
>
> On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Callum Lerwick <seg at haxxed.com 
> <mailto:seg at haxxed.com>> wrote:
>
>     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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