The point of HWA?

[ToffeeandPebbles]

Ok I've installed HWA but I still don't understand what it really does. Does it help the games run smoother? I'm not sure?

Thanks for your time!

[Looki]

Rendering using the hardware (HWA) is much faster when you're using a lot of objects. MMF HWA uses direct3d as display mode.
The second advantage of HWA is that you can scale and rotate objects/actives smoothly (When quality = 1), and you can apply pixel shaders to layers and objects. Pixrl shaders are kind of effects, e.g. flipping, colorizing red or a blurring.

[ToffeeandPebbles]

How do you apply Pixel shaders?

[Pkeod]

You can apply shaders to layers or objects. Click on an object or layer and on the first property tab change change "Effect" to which ever shader you wish to use for that object or layer. You can download or make your own shaders and use them for producing some really cool effects with your application.

[Looki]

Yes, pixel shaders are pieces of codes.

You can download a cool package of shaders made by Sphax here.

Oh, and mind that most of the graphical extensions don't work using HWA, since HWA uses another display mode. Actives, Active picture, backdrop etc. work, though.

[Zeitgeist1989]

And yes, HWA makes animation and scrolling much smoother because it allows your game to run at faster framerates without taxing the computer's CPU. The graphics card handles all of the visual stuff now. V-Sync also works better with HWA, so you don't get the "tearing" during scrolling that used to be noticable in MMF software mode and old PC games.

HWA works reasonably well now, but once it is optimized and gets out of beta stage, it will be amazing!

Be sure you have Direct3D 9 or 8 selected in the the Runtime Tab of your Application Properties. That will put your game into HWA mode. Also be sure that you have V-Sync checked and your Framerate is 60 or greater. Rotate and scale some of your objects and try a scrolling level... if your computer is up to it, you should see a big difference.

[DevonV]

Also be sure that you have V-Sync checked and your Framerate is 60 or greater.

I find that unless the framerate of your application matches the framerate of your desktop enabling v-sync actually slows the application down noticeably. That shouldn't be a problem once fullscreen support is in, but for now I get better results leaving v-sync off. (Which may have more to do with my computer than anything else.)

[BrandonC]

Well the framerate of your desktop is always 0fps unless you're doing something that alters that. It's more so whether or not the refresh rate of your monitor is going to be faster or slower then the refresh rate of your game. Most LCD's use a refresh rate of 60Hertz, so 60fps and v-sync works very well for them.

[DevonV]

Well the framerate of your desktop is always 0fps unless you're doing something that alters that. It's more so whether or not the refresh rate of your monitor is going to be faster or slower then the refresh rate of your game. Most LCD's use a refresh rate of 60Hertz, so 60fps and v-sync works very well for them.

Yeah, I meant "refresh rate of your monitor in desktop (not fullscreen) mode".

Generally it is 60, though one of my monitors runs best at 70. The trick is, if you are building a game for release, that you cannot know the default refresh rate of your users. (I've seen one LCD that updates at 43Hz.) Once fullscreen support is back, Direct3D should change the refresh rate, too, but for now, if you get poor framerates, try disabling v-sync.