What do these tech terms mean?

[VLC]

hi
a setup panel of mine reads these settings, but what do they actully mean....

bilinear filtering
software mode
volmetric FX
low res texturing
hardware acceleration
direct3D HAL
RGBA
hatch compat
hid compat
direct-show
directsound

ps - if you're a 'first-person shooter' game fan click here - http://www.fileforums.com/showthread...threadid=59461

[Quall999]

ok, here is what I can say...I could be wong on some parts though.

Bilinear filtering = a texture filter for games. It makes it so that a texture on a wall looks good when it is blown up, instead of blocky. Trilinear is alot better.

software mode = My guess is that the software does everything. instead of hardware. More memory is needed. Thing\k of an snes emulator, no snes hardware is actually used.

volumetric FX = ??? My guess is that it has something to do with texture showing volume, like a shader or something. I have no idea.

low res = crappy textures...add a blur effect 500 million times and a couple smudge marks. There is your picture.

hardware acceleration = processes are done on hardware (as in your graphics card), cpu usage (and memory?) isn't used as much.

direct3D HAL = direct3d hardware abstraction layer. Basically a layer between hardware and software. My guess is that it reads from a file on how to display things, like from a graphics driver. Not completely sure. (yes, i googled it)

RGBA = basically it's color display

hatch compat = ???

hid compat = Human interface device campat(ibility?). Game controllers, joysticks....

direct-show = google tells me it is a movie watching driver, for ingame and whatnot. I have never heard of it before.

directsound = well, you can hook your mobo to the cd-rom and get direct sound off of the disk, instead of having software read and do all that other stuff. You will probably not hear a difference. Maybe it saves memory and cpu power, i dunno.

[VLC]

thanx very much for the above replies - RESPECT

But also, i got some more lately from an 'older' games settings.

an do i assume i click on all the opts below as i have a modern pc to handle them - or is that wrong of me?

any how, what do these ones mean???

z-buffer
true alpha
perspective correct
triple buffer
software color renderer
sort transparent polys [y/n]
texel adjustment
mic position

[so how about this stuff folks?]

[Quall999]

First off, these are all choices in the game? Some of these things should be included in the 3d engine, or is needed to display 3d right. The only type of game that I would think would have a choice for some of these would be maybe a strategy game (which uses both 3r and 2d displays).

z-buffer - basically, depth (thus the Z axis) in game. Lets say in a fps there is a box, in the middle of a room. z-buffering is how close the object is, and how much behind it you can see as you move forward. Some games don't use this method, but it is more realistic.

true alpha - beats me. Never heard before. Alpha is a beginning, so uh... true beginning? Or realtime?

perspective correct - Basically makes sure the textures show up right on a polygon in a 3d environment from all angles.

triple buffer - A way to make the textures to display without much flickering or distortion. Usually by refreshing the framerate faster than your monitor refreshes (or the same speed).

software color renderer - no idea. Probably uses software to help display color right (correctly, like hue/brightness), but that is a complete guess. Never heard before

sort transparent polys - Not sure. Probably has to do with the lighting.

texel adjustment - Texel is a spot of color in a texture. Usually 1 texel per pixel. When you get farther away from an object, the texel adjusts to the pixels to display the texture smaller. For example, take a 640x640 image, and shrink it down to 140x140. It may look the same, but if you blow it up, it will be distorted. Texel adjustment makes it "not distorted" in a 3d world.

mic position - no idea what the definitiopn would be for a game....

[Luciel]

just a comment about direct-show, its actually an old driver that was installed in ur pc whith the old directx versions (3,4,5) wich was basicly as u said, a video display driver.

[Eagle]

volumetric FX = fog effects

[tbaher]

RGBA = 32bit Color - aka True Color + Alpha (best/most colors)
It is short for Red-Green-Blue-Alpha (8 bits each)

It's like RGB (24-bit or True Color) but with an alpha channel too.

Alpha is a channel that sets transparency, so if the alpha channel has a value 127 (out of 255) it would be 50% transparent.

[VLC]

TECH TERMS

Hi,

this is for all intelligent people here who know tech stuff.

i recently installed a game utility loading program, but theres some terms in its setup program + its readme file, that i dont understand - so what do they actully mean?

btw - i'll be saving the answers, if any, for my future reference

so heres my list i made of terms i dont know -

OpenGL API; Ogl draw & fill; CDDA; VDMSound; mipmapping; checkroutine; VESA emulation; Kernel module; Backface culling; YIQ-tables; vertex converter; Alpha based colorkeying; Refresh frequency; VDD mode; SDK; Dege; wrapper file; NTVDM process; Server mode; Linear Frame Buffer; 386Enh; DirectDraw

any way, thanx to any one here who enlightens me on the above terms