No Software Mode?

katana

I run half life through software mode, and when I tried playing natural selection, it came up with a message saying that software mode isnt supported. Now I need to know wether or not to get OpenGL or DirectX3D, and if they are hardware or software, and if theyre free or not.

Unsong

i think ns requires hardware accelleration

Thansal

Most things look bad is software.
NS is unplayable. (well nearly)

Direct3D (D3D) and OpenGL (OGL) Are hardware modes that your vidoe car might suport.

If you don't know what your vid card is just try playing in OGL, and if that don't work try D3D (OGL is MUCH better then D3D, infact D3D often gives alot of the errors like Software does).

If neither work:
Find out what your video card is
How To:
WinKey+Pause/Break --> Hardware Tab --> DeviceManager --> DisplayAdapters (just click the + Box and tell us whats there)

katana

I just use dxdiag in the run menu to check my specs. But anyway its a really crappy card, and its a 5.5 mb Intel card.
What's strange is I tried the Direct3D test under it, and it seems Direct3D is somewhere on the system, but I couldn't find anything. Strange.

ZERG

The dev team decided to drop software support. Since software mode tends to be exploitable the dev team locked out software mode. Mainly cause you could see cloaked units.

Soylent_green

<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I run half life through software mode, and when I tried playing natural selection, it came up with a message saying that software mode isnt supported. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Even with an old and/or bad graphics card openGL "should" be available and run faster and look much better(mainly due to better texture filtering instead of nearest sample).

In software all the rendering is done by your processor, and half-life is often CPU bound anyway so this is very bad. Graphics cards are specifically made for the type of work they will encounter, where as a processor is made to be a very general purpose device.

Direct3d support in half-life is poor, and I wouldn't bother trying to use direct3d if I didn't have to.

FireStorm

Try OpenGL. If it dosn't work download the last version of your 3d card drivers and try OpenGL again. If it still doesn't work try D3D... Now if that doesn't work either, download DirectX and try again. Now it has to work.

But OpenGL is better for HL.

katana

Can someone post the link for opengl?

FireStorm

well you can't "download it". It's in your video card drivers... so you have to download a newer version of your video card driver.

Of course there's www.opengl.org but it's a site with documentation and 3D programming.

katana

So how do I load it then? Just download an update to my vieo driver?

Eniac

<!--QuoteBegin-katana+Feb 21 2004, 06:26 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (katana @ Feb 21 2004, 06:26 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> So how do I load it then? Just download an update to my vieo driver? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
<ul><li>go to your video cards manufacturer site, download the latest driver for your graphics card</li><li>launch ns, in the options/video, select OpenGL or Direct3D for the video mode</li></ul>
by this way, you will be able to "load" it in opengl or direct3d mode
if it says these modes is not supported by your graphics card, then your graphics card may be a very old one, or you didn't installed your graphics card drivers correctly. (if you are using windows2003, be sure to set the graphics hardware acceleration to "full", from "control panel" / "display" / "settings" / "advanced" / "troubleshoot" / "hardware acceleration" slider)