Frame pre-rendering is the process in which graphics sequences are not rendered in real time by the hardware . Instead, the graphics are a sequence that have been previously rendered on a different computer or drive. This technique is used for the production of a multitude of video productions, animation, etc.
The term pre-rendered refers to anything that is not rendered in real time . This includes content that could have been run in real time with more effort. In general, this term is not used to refer to video captures of real-time rendered graphics, even though video is technically pre-rendered in nature.
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Advantages and disadvantages
The advantage of pre-rendering is the possibility of using more complex and computationally intensive graphic models than those that can be rendered in real time, due to the possibility of using several computers for long periods of time to render the final results.
The downside of pre-rendering, in the case of video game graphics, is a generally minor level of interactivity, if any, with the player. Another downside to pre-rendered assets is that you can’t make changes during gameplay. A game with pre-rendered backgrounds is forced to use fixed camera angles, and a game with pre-rendered video generally cannot reflect any changes the game characters may have suffered during gameplay (such as injuries or other external changes). without having an alternate version of the video stored. This is typically not feasible due to the large amount of space required to store high-quality pre-rendered assets. However, in some advanced implementations, such as in Final Fantasy VIII, real-time assets were composited with pre-rendered video, which allowed for dynamic backgrounds and changing camera angles. Another problem is that a game with pre-rendered lighting can’t easily change the lighting state convincingly.
NVIDIA Max Pre-Rendered Frames
Now this is pre-rendering, but the technology NVIDIA uses is somewhat different than all of this, and allows for more dynamism than described above. What NVIDIA calls this is an implementation that controls the maximum number of frames that the CPU prepares before being rendered by the GPU .
The advantage of storing frame data before it is processed by the GPU is that it helps keep the GPU constantly fed with data. This smooths out any small variation in rendering times, leading to better FPS. The downside of storing frame data before displaying it is that it can increase latency, that is, a delay between input devices.
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On the other hand, this could increase the problem when the CPU is much less powerful compared to the GPU, i.e. when the CPU is a bottleneck on the PC .
