How does a video card pre-render frames?

[Throckmorton]

Moved
Fern
Super Moderator

How is it possible for a video card to pre-render frames? The default setting for nVidia is 3 frames. So how can the card know what is going to happen 3 frames into the future?

Edit: DOH! I could have sworn I was posting in the Video Cards and Graphics board. Can a mod please move?

 

[PeshakJang]

How is it possible for a video card to pre-render frames? The default setting for nVidia is 3 frames. So how can the card know what is going to happen 3 frames into the future?

Edit: DOH! I could have sworn I was posting in the Video Cards and Graphics board. Can a mod please move?

Goddamn liberal time-math

 

[Infohawk]

If it's an FPS, isn't it because the software knows which possible places you're going to go next? Assuming you're not playing Portal, you're going to be adjacent to where you are presently and likely in the same room,etc. That's what a CS person told me once.

 

[PeshakJang]

If it's an FPS, isn't it because the software knows which possible places you're going to go next? Assuming you're not playing Portal, you're going to be adjacent to where you are presently and likely in the same room,etc. That's what a CS person told me once.

I would venture it's more along the lines of the human eye not being able to detect 3 frames of lag... the faster you render, the more you can pre-render. The computer has enough time to render the frames faster than it has to display them to achieve consistent motion.

 

[amdhunter]

I'd say to ask a Teabagger, but they only go back in time, not the future. 🙄

 

[Throckmorton]

Someone just gave me the answer. It's not prerendering. It's delaying output. So "pre-rendering" 3 frames means there's a chain of 3 frames, and each frame has to move through the chain before it gets displayed.

 

[BFG10K]

How is it possible for a video card to pre-render frames?

It isn’t possible because the video card doesn’t pre-render anything; the CPU does.