ATI TruForm was a brand by
ATI (now
AMD) for a
SIP block capable of doing a graphics procedure called
tessellation in computer hardware. ATI TruForm was included into
Radeon 8500 (available from August 2001 on) and newer products.
The successor of the SIP block branded "ATI TruForm" was included into
Radeon HD 2000 series (available from June 2007 on) and newer products:
hardware tessellation with TeraScale.
Support for hardware tessellation only became mandatory in Direct3D 11 and OpenGL 4. Tessellation as defined in those APIs is only supported by newer
TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) products introduced in September 2009 and
GCN-based products (available from January 2012 on). The GCN SIP block carrying out the tessellation is the "Geometric processor".
Overview
Before the adoption of pixel shader-enhanced bump mapping methods such as
normal and
parallax mapping that simulate higher mesh detail, curved 3D shapes in games were created with large numbers of triangles. The more triangles are used, the more detailed and thus less polygonal the surface appears. TruForm creates a curved surface using the existing triangles, and
tessellates this surface to make a new, more detailed polygonal model. It is designed to increase visual quality, without significantly impacting frame rates, by utilizing hardware processing of geometry.
TruForm was not significantly accepted by game developers because it ideally required the models to be designed with TruForm in mind. To enable the feature without causing visual problems, such as ballooned-up weapons, the models had to have flags identifying which areas were to be tessellated. The lack of industry-wide support of the technique from the competition caused developers to ignore the technology.
In later version of Catalyst drivers, the TruForm feature is removed.
Beginning with Radeon
X1000 series, TruForm was no longer advertised as a hardware feature. However, Radeon 9500 and higher (as well as hardware supporting Shader Model 3.0) include Render to
Vertex Buffer feature, which can be used for tessellation application
In the case of Radeon X1000 series, it supports binding up to 5 R2VB buffers
simultaneously. Tessellation as dedicated hardware has returned in Xenos and
Radeon R600 GPUs.
Games with TruForm support
*
Counter-Strike (ati_subdiv "2.0", ati_npatch "1.0")
*
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
*
Soldier of Fortune
*
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
*
Quake (TruQuake Patch)
*
Quake 2
''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the Quake (series), ''Quake'' series, but not a direct sequel to ''Quake (video game), Quake''. The game ...
(TruQuake2 Patch)
*
Hexen II (TruHexen2 Patch, edit of the TruQuake2 Patch) (developed by RaVe
*
Unreal Tournament (TruUT Patch)
*
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (unofficially, with the FPS Optimiz
*
Madden NFL 2004
*
Bugdom
''Bugdom'' is a 1999 platform video game originally created by Pangea Software for Mac OS 9. It was included with the iMac DV 2000 and later iBook models. The Microsoft Windows version, released in 2000, was developed by Hoplite Research and ...
*
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
*
Serious Sam
*
Unreal Tournament 2003 and
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
(must edit the game's ".ini" file and set "UseNPatches=True")
*
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
*
Command & Conquer: Renegade
*
Neverwinter Nights (must edit the game's ".ini" file and set "Enable Truform=1")
*
FTEQW (Quake World, Net Quake, Quake II, Quake, Quake III: Arena, Hexen 2, Nexuiz
* Quake III Arenabr>
(developed by RaVeN )
References
External links
Official ATI's List of TruForm Enabled Game TitlesTruForm whitepaperR2VB Programming (March 2006)Render to Vertex Buffer with D3D9area3d.net: NitroGL Demos
- home of TruQuake, TruQuake2 & TruUT
{{DEFAULTSORT:TruForm
3D rendering
ATI Technologies