sfpenny1925 said:
Hello,
I am a person who enjoys playing a few games from time to time but isn't really aware of what programs are needed.
I bought a new game called, "1944:Battle of the Bulge", but it seems that I need hardware T&L and a stencil support.
Can anybody help me with what this is?
Also, I was checking the requirements and Nvidia Geforce3 appeared! Do computers come with this or does it have to be installed? If so where from.
Thank you for your help. Sorry to sound so ridiculous!
Sfpenny1925
The graphics card mentioned "Nvidia Geforce3" will probably be a minimum requirement.
Depending on the age of the machine, you could have any one of a number of graphics cards installed.
Graphics cards are pretty much generational - and as software and games have progressed, they have included as standard each generations features such as on board T&L ( texture and lighting .... basically means that the graphics card has inbuilt features to process types of lighting and texture effects without relying on the cpu )
Some computers have an 'on board gfx chip' instead of a stand alone graphics card - this is a money saving option for those on a budget, and they tend to be a little slow and lacking in functionality for the latest applications and games.
The geforce 3 card is quite old now - most modern games that have any 3D displays will probably be using now standardised techniques - if you have a card / chip that does not support them, then your computer looks like it has not been upgraded for a very long time.
You need to find out the specifics of your machine:
what cpu / mem
what gfx card / chip
is it an AGP card , an old PCI card , an new PCI Express ( extremely unlikely going off what you are saying )
knowing what graphics slot your machine has ( AGP PCI PCI-E ) gives you the information on what type of card you can replace it with if necessary.
If you are really struggling to work out this information - you could try getting some photo's of the inside of the machine and the graphics card if it has a stand alone one --- and we might be able to identify it for you .... most importantly a picture of the slot it sits in / the connector that it uses to plug into the mother board .... along with any specific markings / idenification numbers / names etc on it.