3D GameStudio version up to 5.24 includes a software renderer which every Windows computer can support. The ones who have a DirectX 7- capable video card (note that I use 7- as video cards that came out during the late 1990s (in other words, ATI Rage Pro is a DirectX 3-capable video card, while Rage Pro 128 is a DirectX 5-capable (or is it 6) video card. However, they may have already got the latest version of DirectX (Windows 95 supports it up to DirectX 8.0a) or in case of Windows 98 or later, DirectX 9.0 (however, not everyone updated their version to 9.0c).

So there are developers who want to target customers who don't have a very high income, unemployed, or if they're doing a project in school which those including families with very low income or who are unemployed, may have got their computers with Windows 95 and don't plan to upgrade their computers to Windows XP.

Thus, developers will have to use a software renderer for those listed above.