What is Pixel Shader ?

ANSWER
PIXEL SHADERS ARE TINY PROGRAMS THAT CAN DO OPERATIONS ON A SINGLE PIXEL ON THE SCREEN, AS OPPOSED TO GEOMETRY SHADERS AND VERTEX SHADERS WHICH WORK ON THE GEOMETRICAL PRIMITIVES (TRIANGLES) THAT MAKE UP EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON THE SCREEN. THE MOST COMMON USE FOR PIXEL SHADERS IS 'SHADING', APPROXIMATION TO REAL WORLD LIGHTING. COMMONLY USED SHADING MODEL IS PHONG.
PIXEL SHADERS ARE EXECUTED ON YOUR VIDEO CARD, SO YOUR VIDEO CARD NEEDS TO SUPPORT THEM. EACH NEW VERSION PROVIDES MORE CAPABILITIES, SO AN OLDER VIDEO CARD WILL NOT RUN NEWER SHADERS. A NEW VERSION OF THE PIXEL SHADER SPECIFICATION (E.G. PIXEL SHADER 3.0) IS USUALLY RELEASED FOR EACH NEW VERSION OF DIRECTX (MORE ACCURATELY, DIRECT3D).
MORE LIKELY, THE BEST OPTION IS FOR YOU TO SIMPLY REPLACE YOUR VIDEO CARD WITH ONE WHICH HAS NATIVE SUPPORT FOR PIXEL SHADER.

THE ABOVE ANSWER IS DEAD ON TARGET! LET ME ADD TO THIS FIRE.......

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE WORK-AROUNDS TO THE PIXEL SHADER, IT IS ILL-ADVISED TO DOWNLOAD A PATCH OR THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE TO ACHIEVE WHAT COMES NATIVLEY IN THE NEWER VIDEO CARDS. THE COMPETITION IS SO TOUGH IN THE INDUSTRY, WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A TOP OF THE LINE VIDEO CARD LAST MONTH, IS NOW THE CHEAPEST CARD ON THE SHELF!
REMEMBER THAT EVEN IF YOU DO GET A THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE TO ACHIEVE WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT IN A DISPLAY, THE OS AND COMPUTER WILL HAVE TO WORK HARDER TO MAINTAIN THE DEMANDS OF NOT ONLY THE THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, BUT ANY ADDITIONAL WORKLOAD THAT THE SOFTWARE GENERATES. MEMORY ALLOCATION IS REDUCED BECAUSE THE DEMAND OF THE THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE IS MEMORY INTENSIVE. THUS, REDUCED PERFORMANCE. EMULATORS DO NOT WORK WITH EVERY GAME, APPLICATIONS OR SYSTEMS. NOT TO MENTION, CALLING ON THE DRIVERS TO PERFORM OUT OF THEIR SCOPE, CAN ALSO LEAD TO CORRUPT SYSTEM FILES AND FRAGMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM PARTITION. EMULATORS TEMPORARILY "CHANGE" CRITICAL SYSTEM AND DRIVER FILES PER DEMAND, TO ALLOW THE SYSTEM TO ADAPT TO THE NEW DRIVERS AND DLL FILES OFFERED BY THE EMULATOR. AFTER THE EMULATOR IS NO LONGER NEEDED, SOME TIMES, THE FILES DON'T GET "PUT BACK" OR RESTORED TO THE DEFAULTS, AND YOU HAVE A MESS ON YOUR HANDS! LISTEN TO THE ANSWERER ABOVE, AND GET A NEW CARD! YOU NEED TO GET A BETTER GRAPHICS CARD.

HOWEVER THERE IS A WAY AROUND IT.

PIXEL SHADER IS A HARDWARE CAPABILITY. HOWEVER THERE ARE PIXEL SHADER EMULATORS AVAILABLE WHICH MIMIC THIS CAPABILITY FOR COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER/OLDER CHIPSETS. ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE OF THESE "EMULATORS" IS "SWIFTSHADER" FROM A COMPANY CALLED TRANSGAMING.

PIXEL SHADER 1.1 (AND LATER VARIANTS) ARE HARD-CODED INTO THE VIDEO CARD AND ITS DRIVERS. IF YOU HAVE A FAST PROCESSOR AND A GOOD AMOUNT OF RAM, YOU MAY BE ABLE TO GET AROUND THE PIXEL SHADER REQUIREMENT BY DOWNLOADING "3DANALYZE" AND "SWIFTSHADER 2.0" TO EMULATE PIXEL SHADER.

IT IS MORE ADVISABLE TO TRY TO USE A VIDEO CARD WHICH DIRECTLY SUPPORTS THE CAPABILITIES YOUR GAME OR APPLICATION IS DESIGNED FOR, HOWEVER, SWIFTSHADER IS NOT BAD IF YOU WANT TO TRY TO GET YOUR APP RUNNING TO AT LEAST GAUGE WHETHER A NEW VIDEO CARD INVESTMENT IS WORTH IT OR NOT. SWIFTSHADER IS NOT FREE, BUT A DEMO IS AVAILABLE TO TAKE FOR A SPIN.

SwiftShader: Technology Overview : http://transgaming.com/swiftshader/technology
SwiftShader: Download Demo : http://transgaming.com/swiftshader/signup
SwiftShader: FAQ : http://transgaming.com/swiftshader/faq


The following cards support Shader Model 1.x:
- ATI Radeon 85xx Series (1.4)
- ATI Radeon 9000 Series (1.4)
- ATI Radeon 9100 Series (1.4)
- ATI Radeon 92xx Series (1.4)
- NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti (1.1)
- NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti (1.3)

The following cards support Shader Model 2.0:
- ATI Radeon 95xx Series
- ATI Radeon 96xx Series
- ATI Radeon 9700 Series
- ATI Radeon 9800 Series
- ATI Radeon X7xx Series (2.0b)
- ATI Radeon X8xx Series (2.0b)
- NVIDIA GeForceFX Series (2.0a)

The following cards support Shader Model 3.0:
- ATI Radeon X1x00 Series
- NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series
- NVIDIA GeForce 7 Series

Some laptop have in board cards that do as well.

PakarPC No 23-1, Block A, No 2 Jalan Langkawi 53300 Setapak Kuala Lumpur FB:facebook.com/thepakarpc Hotline:1800-88-7508

Categories: Amazing Trick or Tips, How to, info