OpenGL Extensions, More Hardware Info Please?

[WILL]

This question is for all those 3D gurus out there. I've been wondering for many years how hardware from video card to video card actually differs. What are the 3D functions are suported in these ever advancing chips.

Now my soon to be scollared profession will be Somputer Science & Engineering so I will be persuing the hardware sooner or later, but I'd rather sooner.

I was on Delphi3D.com recently remembering about the super cool GLInfo and Hardware Registry that Tom I hope, still has running. *crosses fingers* And I was compairing my poor old laptop's ATI Rage Mobility with a GeForce2 and GeForce4. Well... :lol: I have barely 7 actual "3D" extensions that I support and absolutely NO WGL extensions. I'm clearly missing out in all the 3D acceleration action.

So I wonder... what Direct3D 'extensions' would I support? It can't be that many, right? I mean, these extensions that GLInfo detect and report are only hardware supported ones, right? Tom, I'd love to read your GLInfo's source!

So is that it? Is that all she wrote for my poor tired ATI little chip of amazement and wonder? I'm I truely stuck in a world of Software Rendered 3D? Or... is that simply all the hardware support that my videocard drivers will detect and I could potentially find out by getting better drivers [size=9px](doesn't exist, I believe, this thing is O.L.D.)[/size] or by knowing how to tinker and play with the hatdware from code myself?

So what did GLInfo actually tell me? Just the hardware driven OpenGL library functions, or a true full list of actual 3D hardware that exists on my video card's GPU?

[Clootie]

Rage Mobility... back to year 1998!..
Beyond3D Rage 128 chip info.
Basically it's dual-texture DirectX 6 level chip. May be it's even somewhat supported by DirectX 9 runtime (but I really doubt support will be bug free :lol: ).

[WILL]

Rage Mobility... back to year 1998!

I know it's really old I'm more so trying to understand GPU hardware features than trying to juice my old GPU chip on my laptop.

I've sort of fallen behind with the 3D era and as a person who values knowlage of the insides of a processor, I'd like to be able to pick apart this information on GPUs too.

Thanks for the link Clootie, I'll see what information I can get from there.

[Paulius]

GLInfo shows what you?¢_Tre OpenGL driver reports, which doesn?¢_Tt have a direct link to hardware and might as well be emulated. There is no such thing as an extension mechanism in DirectX. About hardware rendering features you have already asked and you were answered. You?¢_Tre aiming too high Clootie, rage 128 should show more than 9 extensions, he probably has an even older rage model, which most likely does nothing, well except perhaps drawing triangles, z testing ftagments and bilinear filtering :lol: