Qestion about Toms DX7test.dll

Hi.
I wonder if the dx7test.dll can be used to access the depthbuffer? Or is there any other way?

Hi,

As far as I recall, the only way to access the depth buffer is via stencil operations (in DX 7 at least).

Is there something in particular you're trying to do?

Thanks for the answer. I'm trying to do some kind of fast ray tracing. Based on the depth buffer I'd be able to emulate CameraPick in a much faster way (tho without pickedNx etc.). Individially colored triangles will then be used to determine the visibility of each 3D Coordinate from the lights viewpoint.

Currently I am using Fog to emulate a depth buffer. It works but it's limited to 256 greyscales and gives me rounding errors.

Everyone always mensions the "stencil buffer", "stencil shadows", and "stencil operations".

What is the stencil buffer?
How can I access it?
What are the advantages of using it?

www.wikipedia.co.uk has a pretty good description

Where can I find the dx7test.dll ?

Search for Render2Texture or DXTC :)

there are several versions btw. One was used in the stencil shadows demo with that beethoven mesh.

Still can't find it does anyoe have a link?
Oh, and is it true that it only works on nVidia?

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=41012.

Latest version works perfectly on my ATI Radeon 9600 Pro :)

There were some problems with ATI cards, this was when calling the DX function DeviceClear(), it didn't work right on ATIs if I recall correctly.

I even asked Mark and he showed me his DX code and it was identical.

<shrug>