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The problem of supporting older hardware raises a question for me: Why is it worth it to reimplement 2D graphics using such cutting-edge GPU features? Isn't tha

The problem of supporting older hardware raises a question for me: Why is it worth it to reimplement 2D graphics using such cutting-edge GPU features? Isn't that just contributing to what many people perceive as the upgrade treadmill? Take those legacy Android devices you mentioned. If CPU rendering, or more limited use of the GPU, was good enough for those devices when they shipped, why isn't it good enough now? Do we really need to keep increasing resolution, frame rate, color depth, or whatever, at the cost of leaving behind people stuck on older hardware and adding to e-waste?

adwn 6y ago
> If CPU rendering, or more limited use of the GPU, was good enough for those devices when they shipped, why isn't it good enough now? Seriously? That very same argument could be made for anything that increases computing power, all the way back to pipelined ALUs.
- mwcampbell 6y ago
  At some point it has to stop though. Computers have been mass-market products for at least 30 years, depending on how you define "mass-market". How much longer are we going to keep making formerly usable computers obsolete?
  - adwn 6y ago
    > At some point it has to stop though. No, it doesn't, actually. > How much longer are we going to keep making formerly usable computers obsolete? For as long as increases in performance and energy efficiency open up the potential for new uses. I don't see the problem here. You can still use the old computers with the old applications. Just like you can still use hand-drawn carts – doesn't mean that we shouldn't develop the horse-drawn cart, even though they made the hand-drawn carts obsolete. Same goes for trucks and horse-drawn carts.
    - janc_ 6y ago
      Didn’t make them obsolete though… if you look at almost any construction site or gardener, “hand drawn carts” (aka wheelbarrows) are still used a lot.
      - adwn 6y ago
        Exactly my point. A high-performance 2D GPU library won't make older hardware unusable – "the right tool for the job" and all that.

adwn 6y ago

> If CPU rendering, or more limited use of the GPU, was good enough for those devices when they shipped, why isn't it good enough now? Seriously? That very same argument could be made for anything that increases computing power, all the way back to pipelined ALUs.

mwcampbell 6y ago
At some point it has to stop though. Computers have been mass-market products for at least 30 years, depending on how you define "mass-market". How much longer are we going to keep making formerly usable computers obsolete?
- adwn 6y ago
  > At some point it has to stop though. No, it doesn't, actually. > How much longer are we going to keep making formerly usable computers obsolete? For as long as increases in performance and energy efficiency open up the potential for new uses. I don't see the problem here. You can still use the old computers with the old applications. Just like you can still use hand-drawn carts – doesn't mean that we shouldn't develop the horse-drawn cart, even though they made the hand-drawn carts obsolete. Same goes for trucks and horse-drawn carts.
  - janc_ 6y ago
    Didn’t make them obsolete though… if you look at almost any construction site or gardener, “hand drawn carts” (aka wheelbarrows) are still used a lot.
    - adwn 6y ago
      Exactly my point. A high-performance 2D GPU library won't make older hardware unusable – "the right tool for the job" and all that.