Spring RTS Engine

I would like to know exactly what are shadowmaps?

As i get this error all the time:

You are missing an OpenGL extension needed to use shadowmaps (fragment_program_shadow)

Yet spring runs fine, so i am wondering will devs ever include a way to just turn shadowmaps off, and what exactly are they/do the do?

Thanks.

Shadow maps are used in a process called shadow mapping, which is one of several methods of rendering shadows in 3D graphics. It involves a bunch of calculations that Spring does with a shader (a small program executing on your graphics card) for speed reasons, but shaders require a certain level of hardware support to run. In OpenGL that means the right "extension" must be available, and if it isn't (because your graphics card is too old, for instance) you get that message, which really just says "hey, I know you want me to render shadows, but I cannot do that with this card, please get another one or don't ask me to next time". Turn shadows off and it'll disappear.

I don't have any options on for shadows and it still shows, and my graphics card isn't old, it's a laptop one.

Yes, it still shows when shadows are disabled. Just ignore it.

cleric, whats your laptops gfx card?

This message gets shown now even if you don't have shadows, because spring tries to make typing "/shadows" in ingame chat possible (to enable/disable shadows). The option to disable shadows totally is missing from settings.exe I think...

Can it be added in it is annoying lol.

And my graphics card is - Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset.

^^ Which indeed isn't old, but integrated chipsets often have the same shortcoming (AFAIK the 945GM supports PS2.0 though). Have you updated your drivers?

I'm pretty sure i updated the drivers yeah.

Bummer huh!

Intel graphics suck so bad this doesn't come as a surprise.

If I modified the shadowmap size value to 256, would I get 256x256 shadowmaps? Or would it crash/fail?

KDR_11k wrote:Intel graphics suck so bad this doesn't come as a surprise.

Hey, they're better than SiS

Marginally.

I wouldn't say intel graphics suck, as they don't, they work well enough for me to play spring how i like, and works for everything i do, so hey it ain't bad.

clericvash wrote:I wouldn't say intel graphics suck, as they don't, they work well enough for me to play spring how i like, and works for everything i do, so hey it ain't bad.

You like <20 fps?

Anything Intel is worse than my GF2!

No i don't like below 20 FPS, but i get a lot higher than that, idiot.