@xXx: Just one last opinion, I had a 5200 for a while and while it can run 2.0 shaders, as everyone has said and as you yourself know, it's slow as hell. When I got my 7600GS it was like flipping on a light switch in regards to speed. My new one was $150 on sale but I don't know where they stand now or if that's even the best card to get. Perhaps save for the big boys that are ready for DX10 so you don't have to worry about yet another upgrade.

@Phil: Thanks, it's all looking good.

In the latest PC gamer mag, it shows the 8800 GTS is almost as good as the 8800 GTX, for much cheaper($300). Probably a good buy for the price.

This shader pack looks good. I purchased it; though I can't say when I'll have the time to test things out, but looking forward to it. Thanks for the 3dgs conversion.

I'll check it out. I'm not in a position to spend more than 200 though, so I may just do a smaller upgrade such as the 7600. I'm also needing to reinstal XP (you know how windows ages...), and I'm thinking about the upgrade to Vista? I just need to do some research...

Back to the topic, I can't wait to see some screenshots, as well as INFO. I want to see how it looks, and how it performs as well! It sounds great though

@xXx: I was at Best Buy today and the 8600s are $150, now. It's not going to be the powerhouse of an 8800, but it's still a DX10 card for $150.

Don't forget Geforce 7 and 8 cards need more power. I first updated one of my workstations and found out that my newer card required 450watt. So I had to buy that too and the total amount became a lot higher.

Yes, I saw the same thing Thats what got me thinking about upgrading.

Does it support DX10, or require it? Since I only have XP, and DX10 is Vista only, would I still be able to use it?

I bought the shader pack 4 and cant figure out how to apply them. I read the shaders for noobs thing in the wiki and still couldn't figure it out. Maybe because I'm using A7 the tutorial doesnt apply? If anyone knows how to do it please help. Thanks

Hi Ben,

As it explains in the documentation provided with the pack, you just need to give your material an effect parameter.

material MtlNormal
{
effect = "Normal.fx";
}

Then apply that material to your object, for example in an action, you might do this :

action NormalShader
{
my.material = MtlNormal;
}

Then all your material settings in the material are used by the shader. ( The docs indicate which material settings each shader uses. )

And yes, it works just fine in A7. A7 is what I used to create the shaders.

Thanks for the quick response. I did that and I get a startup failure:
Error in "main" line 29: 'material' undeclared identifier <material MtlNormal> . Its probably a stupid error on my part, but I'm just learning 3dgs .
Perhaps a simple sample level and script file with a couple of the shaders applied would be really helpful with the pack for newbs like me. Thanks for the time and help