DirectX 9.0c Interface

For supporting all features and effects, the engine requires a recent 3D accelerator and DirectX 9.0c or better. Please note that there are 3 DirectX9 versions - 9.0a, 9.0b, and 9.0c - that are mutually incompatible. DirectX 9.0c is the most common one and comes with the Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. You can use the DxDiag tool for checking which DirectX version is installed on your PC. You can download a redistributable DirectX 9.0c setup for you and your customers from http://server.conitec.net/down/directx9_redist.zip.

3D accelerators differ in features, speed, texture memory, maximum texture size, and in the reliability of their software drivers. Depending on the characteristics of the hardware, the engine uses different algorithms to generate textures, shadows, and other effects. The engine always tries to squeeze the best performance and image quality out of the hardware. An indicator for the performance of your hardware and the maximum texture size is the message in your starting window.

...bad device detected
...weak device detected

An outdated 3D device was detected, like Voodoo/3dfx or and old ATI card. 'Slow' is better than 'weak'. Textures, sprites or model skins larger than 256x256 pixels won't be displayed.  Images have no shadows and are lacking other effects. Rendering quality is bad.

...good device detected

An old, but decent 3D device, capable of multitexture blending operations, was detected (like TNT2). Your application may still run with over 100 fps on a 1024x768 screen. Most effects are supported, except shaders and stencil shadows.

...T&L device detected

A recent 3D card with T&L capabilities was detected (like GeForce or Radeon). All effects are supported.

Remarks:

For some old 3D accelerators the -W3D command line option must be used to disable stencil shadows.

See also:

d3d_mode