SwiftShader: Frequently Asked Questions

The list below includes several frequently asked questions about SwiftShader. If you have a question that is not listed here, please feel free to contact us at swiftshader@transgaming.com for additional information.

Questions:
1) What is SwiftShader, and how can I use it in my application?
2) Exactly how fast is SwiftShader?
3) What makes SwiftShader so fast?
4) How does SwiftShader compare with competitive software 3D renderers?
5) Will SwiftShader run on Linux or MacOS systems?
6) What's the relationship between SwiftShader and Cedega?
7) What Direct3D 9 features are not supported by SwiftShader?
8) Can SwiftShader run on other CPUs?
9) What about an OpenGL interface?

1) What is SwiftShader and how can I use it in my application?
SwiftShader is a high performance software 3D renderer that can be used in place of standard Direct3D implementations. To test it with your application download the demo and move the provided D3D8 or D3D9 DLL next to your application.

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2) Exactly how fast is SwiftShader?
SwiftShader performance can vary significantly depending on the exact CPU and system being used as well as the application being tested. For example, on a 1.8 GHz Pentium M, SwiftShader reaches 90 fps on the Direct3D 9.0 DolphinVS sample, and 60 fps on the CubeMap sample. To see how SwiftShader performs for your application, download the demonstration version and give it a try!

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3) What makes SwiftShader so fast?
SwiftShader uses a unique runtime compiler engine to dynamically build exactly the right code needed to run the graphics commands that a game or application requires. That code is then cached so that the next time the same set of graphics commands is required, it can simply be executed immediately. Beyond that, SwiftShader uses highly advanced graphics algorithms to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the CPU cores available on your system. Please see our SwiftShader Technology page for more information.

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4) How does SwiftShader compare with competitive software 3D renderers?
SwiftShader is more advanced than any existing high-performance software 3D renderer. SwiftShader's feature set includes support for all DirectX 9 Shader Model 2.0 features. SwiftShader can be more than 100 times faster than Microsoft's reference rasterizer. When comparing against performance-oriented software 3D rendering technologies without shader features, SwiftShader performance can vary between 70% and 110% depending on the quality settings used.

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5) Will SwiftShader run on Linux systems?
SwiftShader can run on Linux in conjunction with TransGaming's Cedega technology.

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6) What's the relationship between SwiftShader, Cider, and Cedega?
TransGaming's Cider and Cedega technologies allows games built for Windows to be run on Mac OS X and Linux systems. Cider and Cedega includes not only support for the 3D graphics APIs used by games, but also every other major API they require -- sound, input, window system integration, etc. The graphics technology in Cider and Cedega converts Direct3D API calls to OpenGL API calls, in contrast with SwiftShader which compiles and executes the graphics commands itself.

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7) Which Direct3D 9 features are not supported by SwiftShader?
SwiftShader has support for all Direct3D features available to Shader Model 2.0 capable rendering systems.

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8) Can SwiftShader run on other CPUs?
SwiftShader is currently available for Intel x86 or compatible CPUs with MMX and SSE support. Because SwiftShader is designed on top of SwiftAsm, porting SwiftShader to other CPUs consists of writing a SwiftAsm back-end appropriate for the target CPU and implementing optimized CPU-specific code paths in SwiftShader as necessary.

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9) What about an OpenGL interface?
A limited OpenGL-like API is currently under development. For custom applications, TransGaming can accelerate this development.