Well…
More and more 3d boards have 2 or more texturing pipeline making the texture lighting available at very little cost.
Texture lighting is precise and cheap.
Vertex lighting is coming along with T&L features.
It’s less precise (no per pixel but per vertex), and could cost more cylces.
On the other hand textures are BIG compared to vertices…
Anybody as an idea of what’s best ?
I’ll be happy to see someone comment on that subject since I really don’t know what to choose.
Vertex lighting is free for apps that are fill limited. It is easier for novices to handle dynamic light source positions with vertex lighting instead of texture mapping.
Texture map lighting does not provide the same functionality as vertex lighting. E.g., vertex lighting supports overbright light and material colors to create washed out effects, and this is not possible with lighting approximated by texture maps to my knowledge.
Texture map lighting may be more expensive for fill limited applications.
Texture maps consume more memory but this is a non issue with most cards today, or will be with the next generation of consumer grade devices.
On the other hand, for simple lighting with a single fixed light source, texture map lighting is trivial to set up and produces excellent results.
As with most things in OpenGL, “which is best” depends on the nature of your dataset, your application requirements, and the target platform’s capabilities.
Originally posted by Ingenu:
It’s less precise (no per pixel but per vertex), and could cost more cylces.
True, but as with most things there are exceptions. One of the most impressive features of the Geforce 2, in my opinion, is the per pixel realtime lighting that is possible. Granted, the normal maps consume as much or more memory as texture maps, but it sure does produce excellent results.
[This message has been edited by DFrey (edited 06-26-2000).]
DFrey,
Do you by chance happen to know HOW to use the per-pixel shader of the GF2? If so, see my post entitled “register combiners” and reply there.
Thanks,
thewizard75
Just give me SMP.