D3D is not supposed to be hardware dependent

[Mag__Boy]

I purchased W&W yesterday seeing that it supported Direct3D and was under the impression that this worked just like DirectX, meaning one could use the API and not worry about the hardware. I started to doubt my knowledge until I found this nice definition on Webopedia....


http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/D/Direct3D.html
Direct3D:
An Application Programming Interface (API) for manipulating and displaying 3-dimensional objects. Developed by Microsoft, Direct3D provides programmers with a way to develop 3-D programs that can utilize whatever graphics acceleration device is installed in the machine. Virtually all 3-D accelerator cards for PCs support Direct3D.

Another 3-D standard offering similar functionality is OpenGL.


Ok, now my knowledge and a definition agree, I'm not crazy! Wait, am I?
Yes, I am among the many that bought the wonderful ATI Radeon (64M) card and cannot use D3D on this game.

If I see another post about me not missing anything using software mode I will puke! I also have an older system with a Voodoo3 3K and the characters look 10x better, not to mention the better resolution. Wait! Let me guess, your reply: stop whining and play on the other machine? Unfortunately it's a lot wimpier and has a much smaller monitor.

Anyway, can someone at least tell me why this is a problem?

Why, if so many people have this problem, hasn't HP put something on their page about it? Why didn't Activision explicitly say on the box that if your card isn't listed your out of luck? Why does none of my other 3D software written long before the advent of the ATI Radeon work fine with it using D3D? It says it right in the definition, "can utilize whatever graphics acceleration device is installed in the machine", yet somehow HP/Activision have somehow managed to break it. Ok, sure maybe it's a Microsoft problem....if it is then why do we keep hearing rumors of patches from HP? Has anyone contacted Microsoft about this? Am I wasting too much of my life complaining about something I probably won't even remember a year from now? (Probably!)

Ok, that's my 2 cents....the only question I would really liked answered is why it won't work, the others were mainly rhetorical.

[Wyvern]

Sound like very excellent questions that you should be directing to HP/Activision!

That HP/Activision fell far short of expected standards in producing W&W, we all know. As to why and what they might do about it, I have no answers.

Wyv

[carg]

The ATI Radeon card is not supported by the game. Probably because it is too recent. (It does say on the box which graphic chipsets are supported.)

And yes, I would agree with you that in theory Direct3D should be completely hardware independent, but I'm afraid it might not be 100%. On the other hand I think that W&W is probably not as hardware independent as it could be either.
So I think you can blame Heuristic Park for a less than perfect design, Activision for not willing to let HP work on a patch, and perhaps even Microsoft for not completely succeeding in making direct3D hardware independent, and even some graphic cards manufacturers for not being completely Direct3D compatible.
Note that I can't prove any of the above; it's my just opinion.