Quote: "Erm one maybe two examples ?. That's hardly the production output anybody would expect from an apparent virtuoso on the subject of shaders, now is it ?."
i don't really have to spend ANY time creating anything here.
i've helped out a few users here with shaders as and when they've asked me ... i'm not going to go out of my way to demo some "super-fantastic" thing just to prove i can do them, my examples speak for themselves, and i still the ONLY member here with shader code which is my own as well as working DBPro accompanying code with some.
This includes Fur, Fresnel Relfection & Refection, Aniostrophic Shading, Bump Mapping and some other simple examples.
the most i've seen from another users in the way of ACTUAL code sofar is neo and his basic shader example which was literally copies.
i've explained what shaders are, i've explained howto get them working in DBP even under the old system & the bugs the old system has to keep away from.
i'm the only person aside from Lee who showcased WORKING shaders in DBP 4.1 and below...
so until someone else is capable of saying the same i'd strongly suggest ya'll lay off me conserning Shaders - even when i do showcase work none of you are ever damn well happy and quite frankly why the hell should i even bother to do anything to help any of you if this is what i always get for it.
atleast there are a few users out there who i've helped that actually appreciate it.
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as for the HL2 show system, you can find me all the sites you like ... but i poped in an out of E3 all well because of business i was doing at the time and HL2 was one of the games i got to see, i also found out alot of information about the rig they were using considering the game wasn't exactly at a reasonable speed imo.
it was using a Pentium3 2.52 HT w/1Gb RDRAM 400mhz w/GeForceFX 5900 ultra prototype version w/DirectX 9.00 SDK Retail w/Windows 2000 SP4
the box even had a little nVidia logo and intel P4 logo on it.
i'm sure all of these sites you've found on the trustworthy google must have more information than the guy who was actually running the booth though eh.
if i remember Lee went to E3 as well, and no doubt he also stopped by the HL2 booth - why don't you ask him eh, the guy at the booth was fully prepared to state the system specs apparently alot of people were interested.
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Doom3 LAST YEAR was an alpha demo which was leaked, and that time it was demo'd on an GeForce again, the 4Ti4800 simply because it was the fasted on the market.
This year it was simply a technical demo, don't remember and XBox logo at the end - maybe that was the released copy for gamespot or something. id Software aren't actually handling the XBox translation, another company is - but i forget the name.
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and bar what anyone things, if even ONE title can prove that it is capable of producing the same effects and graphics as the current professional titles THAT will get the bedroom developers more noticed ... because magazines and such pick up on this and showcase these programs, Serious Sam for example was another bedroom development gone pro - which inspired a few people to want to create thier own versions of it, and the fact that it was originally just bedroom developers probably helped a good few to think "well if they can do it then i can too!"
the economy right now within the games industry is dieing, so much so that even the larger names are feeling it and belt tightening is going on atm. this WILL effect smaller companies like TGC if stronger and much larger userbases cannot be established.
sure revenue could be created by just releasing the next version of the language - but honestly how well do you think it bodes for the next one to actually do well if it ends up with similar teething problems to pro?
TGCs main focus is going to be to try and attract new customers rather than trying to get the old ones to cough up more money ... and the way this can happen is by very highly publicied titles suchas Industri (which is programmed by just 1 man, the team of people in the credits helped with support 1 other made the levels, 1 other made the textures, 1 other converted the mdl models to md3 thats it) - no Industri wasn't made with dbp, however if it is shown in the light of a bedroom developer game and not a C++ game ... it'll show that bedroom developers are just as capable as professionals and that anyone can really do it.
the same impact of a product wouldn't be the same if it came from me, yeah that'd look great to inspire people "bedroom developer Robert Lettan who works for ** entertainment, has created this title using the language darkbasic pro"
doesn't really have the same appeal as someone who is a)a nobody in the industry and b)doesn't actually work for one of the largest games companies in the industry.
the first thing that would go through my head reading something like that is "he already knows what he's doing" ... regardless perhaps my position in the industry i.e. being in an artist position yet doing programming for this game.
The first impression of the situation would be that i've had help doing it and i do this for a living probably with professional qualifications.
in situations like this you always have to think about the FIRST impressions and information passed down. reviewers are quick to make ties to the industry, its like if TGC made a game with DBPro of pro quality ... the first impression is "they created the language, how could i possibly be as good as that!?"
regardless of the background this is the first impression.
to someone who doesn't know, application and games programming come under the same title - programming! they're very different worlds to you and me, but to someone who isn't into any of this - they're exactly the same.
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really it seems pointless to explain, cause some people here have already passed judgements and are being so close minded i'm surprised any of you are still even programming ... or maybe its just because it was me who posted this and ya'll felt it was a good opertunity to just have a pop.
eitherway what half of you have done here you should be ashamed of, becuase this is some of the most impressive work i've seen - not just visually but if any of your took the time to download and look at the source it is just impressive what they've been able to achieve with just an old and slow engine.
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oh and TWIMTBP title/association with nVidia means that the title has been developed with specifics to nVidia graphics cards - will work faster, more stable and oftenly has a few trinkets specific to the nVidia card range.
although nVidia have spent millions on people to go into the main companies they want on thier side in the use with thier hardware and doing specification checks to make sure the developed software meets thier standards ... there are alot more developers who have applied for WIMTBP licenses to be part of the program.
even if you don't agree that nVidia hardware is faster than the ATi equivilants, nVidia are the pioneers within this industry ... they took down 3DFX who were really the creators of the 3D Acellerator, they've been setting the standard for technology ever since.
And although ATi incorportate what nVidia are setting into this own cards, they're not actually making these effects AS good - instead they just increase the pure polygon processing to make up for thier lack of expertise.
even with simply pumping more raw speed into thier cards ATi is quite obviously finding it hard to keep up, in new developments and in overall speed.
although on that note, my FX5900ti performs quite a bit better than the 5900 on show there ... and my 9800pro 256 doesn't quite cut the same scores that that card is getting.
Tested w/both a Pentium4 and AthlonXP on thier repsective motherboard types Via/nForce2/Northridge
the FX5900ti actually performs a good 15% better on the nForce2 chipset.
