Comment by ivanjermakov
2 days ago
None of the benefits listed are exclusive to software rendering. There is literally nothing software renderer can do that GPU one can't. But I get that from historical perspective this not always was the case (esp. before programmable GPU pipelines).
I think software render is much easier to port than GPU? Since you only need to implement blitting the image buffer to the screen. Also having direct easy access to the image buffers can help you make effects easier? Please educate me I'm not that well versed in current GPU programming.
True, although graphics portability has improved quite a bit thanks to Vulkan, WebGPU, Wine, and others.
The thing is, back then CPU were super slow and more complex software renderers were actually not useable/available