Doom3 - ARB_vertex_program on NV30

[dante_uk]

I'm not sure if anyone else has spotted this:
http://www.bluesnews.com/plans/1/

The top part is old from Jan 29, 2003 but if you scroll down you get to this:

------------------
[b]Doom has dropped support for vendor-specific vertex programs
(NV_vertex_program and EXT_vertex_shader), in favor of using
ARB_vertex_program for all rendering paths.[\b]

This and the text that follows it I had'nt spotted previously. It's not dated specifically so no idea when it was added.


Having seen that Doom3 may end up being shipped with NV40 and NV40 boxes will have Doom stickers etc, I wonder if John has added anything specific for this to force on some of the other features he talks about, maybe a special nv40 path :) or more likely a flag like
g_bestpossiblelook 1
or
g_everything_on 1
or
g_i_hate_fps 1



I don't care about the Xbox port, what about a linux port ?
Can the CD's/DVD contain both binaries ( win32, linux )?
Will it ship on DVD only, cos if so I got a get DVDROM/CDRW ( I have 3 IDE HD's+a CD/RW so no cables for a DVDROM :( )
If the target release is April ( Official date being 'When it's done' ) then
we need answers now so we're ready for it.

[Nutty]

Moving from NV_vertex_program to ARB_vertex_program makes absolutely no difference on either hardware, as its mainly just cosmetic API changes.

The NV30 path's main performance increase comes from using NV_fragment_program, instead of ARB_fragment_program. In these 2 extensions, there are differences.

Best possible look, will be enabled by forcing the ARB2 path (R300's default path).

There will possibly be a few experimental things, he moved a few calculations down from interpolated vertex calculations, down into the fragment programs, but they have serious performance impacts on current hardware. But they'll probably be left in, just not enabled by default.

[Paul]

This has been in the post from January 29th, and isn't new or particularly note worthy. Everyone supported the move, and it's worked out fine.