Does Anyone Use Truform?

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
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I don't cos I don't know where to enable it (I have a 9800 and Unreal 2, I *think* U2 supports it, not sure). Where do you enable it? Within the game?
 

BDawg

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
11,631
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It's in the ATi control panel under 3d. At least it is on the 3.8 Catalysts.
 

clicknext

Banned
Mar 27, 2002
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I've got a Radeon 8500 and I don't use it because in the games that actually support it, it doesn't make much of an image quality difference but drops frame rate.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
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Originally posted by: clicknext
I've got a Radeon 8500 and I don't use it because in the games that actually support it, it doesn't make much of an image quality difference but drops frame rate.

Yeah, a bit of a quality improvement (Half Life does look a good bit better actually), but it almost halves the framerate. Isn't it implemented in software, not hardware?
 

clicknext

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Mar 27, 2002
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Originally posted by: Jeff7
Originally posted by: clicknext
I've got a Radeon 8500 and I don't use it because in the games that actually support it, it doesn't make much of an image quality difference but drops frame rate.

Yeah, a bit of a quality improvement (Half Life does look a good bit better actually), but it almost halves the framerate. Isn't it implemented in software, not hardware?

I'm pretty sure it has hardware support. Otherwise, they should be able to do that with older cards as well.
 

vss1980

Platinum Member
Feb 29, 2000
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Its implemented in hardware for the Radeon 8500 and 9000 variants I think (so that would include 9100 and 9200) and software for the Radeon 9500 and higher. I believe it was put into software on these to save chip space but who knows.

TruForm doesn't actually improve image quality itself... texturing quality will remain the same.... however the idea of it is to round the edges to objects which should be more round.
For example, take Homer Simpson. If you wanted to model him but cut as many corners as possible for speed purposes, you may only make his beer/beef gut out of a few hundred polygons. The idea of truform is to take that and add extra intermediate polygons to make it appear more perfectly rounded. So don't be surprised its a frame rate killer, which is probably why its not taken off yet.
 
Oct 31, 2003
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I don't use TruForm... The effect is minimal and the performance drain is too much on a mobility 9000... go figure... lol
 

clicknext

Banned
Mar 27, 2002
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Originally posted by: vss1980
Its implemented in hardware for the Radeon 8500 and 9000 variants I think (so that would include 9100 and 9200) and software for the Radeon 9500 and higher. I believe it was put into software on these to save chip space but who knows.

TruForm doesn't actually improve image quality itself... texturing quality will remain the same.... however the idea of it is to round the edges to objects which should be more round.
For example, take Homer Simpson. If you wanted to model him but cut as many corners as possible for speed purposes, you may only make his beer/beef gut out of a few hundred polygons. The idea of truform is to take that and add extra intermediate polygons to make it appear more perfectly rounded. So don't be surprised its a frame rate killer, which is probably why its not taken off yet.

In theory, shouldn't it not have that big an effect on the performance? The hardware renders the extra polygons, but there's not any extra information passing between the video card and system because it's done after the information goes to video card.
 

Metalloid

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2002
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Anybody have some screen shot comparisons with it on/off in a game that supports it?

I personally have never used it, but I also didn't know which games supported it.
 

vss1980

Platinum Member
Feb 29, 2000
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Originally posted by: clicknext

In theory, shouldn't it not have that big an effect on the performance? The hardware renders the extra polygons, but there's not any extra information passing between the video card and system because it's done after the information goes to video card.

Yes, while that is true in some part the system still has to wait for the graphics card to finish drawing frames. With Truform on, the GPU is working much harder. For example, in Counter-Strike there is very little for the T&L function to do on the card, but with Truform on it is given something to do which will undoubtedly delay things a little. Serious Sam also supports Truform but has a lot of T&L calculations going on at some points anyway, so when you have the GPU adding extra thousands of polygons to a frame things are gonna slow down a bit.

I think the biggest problem with Counter-Strike is that it is so prone to dropping its frame-rate anyway. It may be a favourite, and even I play and find it fun now and then, but it is not what I would call a very efficient game and the Half-Life1 engine has more holes in it than a cheap B-movie.
 

PliotronX

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
8,883
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Originally posted by: Jeff7
Originally posted by: clicknext
I've got a Radeon 8500 and I don't use it because in the games that actually support it, it doesn't make much of an image quality difference but drops frame rate.

Yeah, a bit of a quality improvement (Half Life does look a good bit better actually), but it almost halves the framerate. Isn't it implemented in software, not hardware?
IIRC the R2x0 core has TruForm in the hardware, and the R3x0 core has only TruForm2 in hardware, and so original TruForm is in the software so it performs worse with it than the R2x0, and most games that do support TruForm use the former version rather than the newer so it just sucks on R3x0. I don't usually use it because its implementation has to be correct in that it applies to models and not weapon models that make them look bloated like balloons. That and the performance drop isn't worth it IMO. Using a Radeon 8500 BTW.
 

oLLie

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2001
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How does it know what sharp edges not to round? Does it just "round" every polyhedron?
 

VIAN

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2003
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TRUFORM is gay because it makes my CS terrorist pistol look like a limp d*ck and it makes the ct m4 look like it has a an oval shaft. It like it when it works properly, performance is fine, but i hate it when it works improperly and that is why I stopped using it. This was on a Radeon 8500 64MB, just early this year.
 

clicknext

Banned
Mar 27, 2002
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Originally posted by: VIAN
TRUFORM is gay because it makes my CS terrorist pistol look like a limp d*ck and it makes the ct m4 look like it has a an oval shaft. It like it when it works properly, performance is fine, but i hate it when it works improperly and that is why I stopped using it. This was on a Radeon 8500 64MB, just early this year.

In CS, it really doesn't do much for me. My guns are a bit deformed, but the performance doesn't change (still maxes out at 100, go radeon8500) and neither models nor weapons nor environments look much smoother.
 

gibhunter

Member
Aug 30, 2002
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I play Madden 2003 allot and it makes a huge difference in that game. Once you try it in this game, you can't play it without TrueForm enabled. What it basically does, is makes the helmets round and very realistic instead of the blocky things you get by default. I'm not sure about other games, but in Madden it definitely owns.

Ps. You have to enable it in drivers, and then in the game. If the game doesn't support it, then you don't get it. It's as simple as that.
Pps. I have an Inspiron 8200 laptop with Mobility 9000, so my trueform is done in hardware and when enabled, I don't experience any noticeable performance hit.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
3,003
126
Nope. It's too slow, too ugly and it doesn't work in very many games.

What about performance on newer cards like a 9600XT and 9800XT?
Newer R3xx cards are slower than the older R2xx cards because they emulate it instead of having a dedicated hardware unit for it.