Hardware vs Software Rendering - any visual differences?

[Deusfaux]

I was having a lot of trouble getting this game to work with hardware rendering enabled in the options (it just locks and kicks me to Win XP desktop)

 

but then I considered the possibility this is one of those early games which only used hardware rendering to speed up rendering, not enable any visual effects or improve the look of the game in any way.

 

Is this the case with Grim Fandango? Cuz it already runs like butter on software, and I could relax knowing I'm not missing out on anything if all hardware did was speed it up back in the day.

[Tall Guy]

you're not missing much, it just smooths the edges of the characters and other objects that you can interact with. the backgrounds are all pre rendered so they don't look any different

[Deusfaux]

you're not missing much, it just smooths the edges of the characters and other objects that you can interact with. the backgrounds are all pre rendered so they don't look any different

 

you're sure that's all it does?

 

and in that case, the AA you speak of would be controlled by the GPU drivers, right?

 

It's not some kind of AA coded into the game.

[Tall Guy]

you're sure that's all it does?

 

and in that case, the AA you speak of would be controlled by the GPU drivers, right?

 

It's not some kind of AA coded into the game.

 

yes, the characters get rendered a little more smoothly but everything else is the same.

[Thrik]

Running hardware acceleration also results in the textures on characters/objects looking much smoother, whereas in software mode they're distinctly pixellated. On a grand scale the difference between the two modes is definitely minimal.

 

It's incredibly rare for hardware acceleration to work at all on newer machines, and getting anti-aliasing to work post-Vista is pretty much unheard of.