[MUD-Dev] Display Cheats [Was Re: MMO Launch issues...]

[ceo]

Thomas Tomiczek wrote:

> I suggest you go over to lists like GdAlgorythm for this.

> The problem is - your card is so much faster today than the CPU
> that mfinding out which parts ARE visible in the CPU is just not
> feasible.  Instead you basically throw everything in the view cone
> (called the Frsutrum) at the card and let the Z-Buffer sort out
> what is realy visible or not.

> No, this type of exploit is something you have to live with - the
> tendency is going to way of less tests in the CPU.

I thought the tendency was to avoid sending more tris at the card
then necessary, because the cards are still an order of magnitude
too slow (interconnect speed is poor; AGP ain't that great) or too
forgetful (not enough RAM) for what games developers like to throw
at them (many millions of tris, thousands of detailed textures)?

All the work on systems to dynamically minimize the number of tris
sent to the card is primarily to improve graphics performance
(e.g. Hybrid's DPVS, nee Umbra, now part of the RenderWare suite),
and "reducing cheating" was always just an added bonus.

Until the graphics-card --- CPU --- RAM bus gets a fair bit faster,
I think there will continue to be significant pressure to not send
too many tris. Hobbyist developers, and games that don't use many
tris, will continue to take advantage of what you describe, but they
aren't the people pushing the limits.

OTOH, if the HW manufacturers finally introduce procedural textures,
that would probably go a long way to fixing the problem too :).

Adam M
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