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View Full Version : Hardware Question > Normal Mapping

Ravennome

10-09-2004, 03:45 AM

So here's a question. What cards from both ATI and Nvidia support normal mapping? What is the oldest generation to support it?

I have a Fire GL1 and I'm pretty confidant that I'm going to have to purchase a new card. I like the Fire GL series, but for some reason normal mapping isn't on much of the tech specs for ATIs workstation class hardware. I assume all the higher end cards can do it via DirectX 9 and other software solutions, but I was wondering what workstation
(not consumer/gamer) cards "by name" support it either through software or directly though hardware.

MonkeyCheez

03-26-2005, 09:03 PM

Any card supporting pixel shaders can render normal-mapped surfaces.

Newer cards can do it faster by combining multiple light influences into a single render pass, though, while older cards are generally limited to rendering the geometry once for each light affecting it (so if four light affect it, the surface must be rendered four times).

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03-26-2005, 09:03 PM

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