And yet you said that systems with something like a Pentium M can't run any games and 3D stuff without hardware acceleration.
I was talking about games made in the past 5 years or so. Sure, in theory you could still run your smelly old 486/Pentium software renderers on them, and actually increase the resolution a notch or two, wow!
But in the past 5+ years there have been no games that have included a software renderer, let alone that they were actually designed to work efficiently with software rendering.
You should try writing more than just a renderer sometime, perhaps then you'll get an idea of how differently you would setup your workload and rendering algorithms for software vs hardware. As I say, it was a big transition from software to hardware, and there's no going back.
So no, the actual games on the market, they don't run that well on these systems even WITH acceleration, and it's futile to even try running them with a software-renderer.
Then how do you explain the continuing trend towards integrated graphics? What about projects like Fusion? Exactly where you put the line between hardware and software rendering? And what makes you so sure that CPUs and GPUs will stop converging?
Integrated graphics is still accelerated 3D to the best of my knowledge, so what's your point?
Fusion is just a cost-effective solution for low-budget/small form factor OEM machines (and still 3d accelerated obviously).
I never claimed that CPUs and GPUs will stop converging, and I don't think they will. But your point with SwiftShader is that the CPU will *replace* the GPU, and that is something quite different from the CPU *integrating* the GPU.
Evidence that a software renderer cannot run present-day games at acceptable performance and quality levels.
You can't really conclude anything about SwiftShader's future based on Pixomatic's past.
I do know however that PixoMatic has a simpler and faster renderer than SwiftShader running SM2.0, and that the games were actually tuned a bit towards the use of PixoMatic, which should give PixoMatic some advantage over SwiftShader.
Indeed, those people don't. But that doesn't negate in any way that 15% of people today still don't have DirectX 9 hardware. And they're not going to get it for free. They can get SwiftShader practically for free though if it's included with the software.
Yes, but since SwiftShader doesn't actually allow them to play games properly (okay, Chess Titans perhaps), that really doesn't help them. They'll still need a faster CPU for SwiftShader... and if they buy a new PC to get that faster CPU, they'll also get an IGP with SM3.0+ features that is significantly faster than SwiftShader, for free! So it's a catch-22.
These people don't want to invest anything extra in their gaming experience at all. The majority of them doesn't even know what GPU stands for. They do however expect software to just work, even if it includes some 3D.
So they live in an alternate reality? Doesn't mean that what they *expect* to happen is actually a realistic possibilty.
Developers prefer to implement just one rendering path, using the most recent API. Doing things with texture blending and multipass, or writing assembly shaders, is a whole lot less appealing than writing an HLSL shader. The exact reasons don't matter that much though. It's a fact that casual games using DirectX 9 effects are getting more common, and software rendering offers a way to broaden the target market.
Which brings us back to Davros' question: what makes you think these casual game developers will choose the most recent API when their target audience clearly is incapable of running it anyway? In fact, no offense, but casual games are usually written by small and inexperienced game studios where they don't even have the knowledge/time/resources to develop their own D3D renderer and shader system. Fixed-function D3D or even OpenGL is much easier, and is also better supported by their target audience.
You have yet to name any such casual games by the way, aside from a game that comes with Vista... an OS that by its requirements alone doesn't match the target audience you are implying.
Casual games have been running on the CPU since Pong. So why bash a software renderer that allows everyone to enjoy DirectX 9 graphics?
'Enjoy' isn't the word I would use.
Besides, you have been ignoring the inevitable all the time, even though I brought it up a few times already: For quite a while now it has been virtually impossible to buy any kind of IGP/GPU with anything less than SM2.0 (3 years I think?... even Intel had SM2.0 back in 2004 on the GMA900 series).
So it's only a matter of time before everyone has upgraded their 5+ year old systems for something with an IGP that makes SwiftShader obsolete.
Aside from the fact that you may be able to outperform those 5+ year old IGPs with *today's* (extreme high-end) CPUs, but you won't be getting anywhere near with the 5+ year old CPUs that are actually inside the systems with these IGPs.