What is "TnL"?

[Havoc 526]

Title explains everything.

When on the Laptop of the house, I run BF2's main menu, click "Play", but then, a box pops up saying "No TnL found on your computer. Do you still want to continue?" I always click yes. The game, however, loads very slowly, and the graphics are mediocre compared to my Dad's minigun of a computer. So, is TnL a graphics card thingamajig, or what?

[Dohnutt]

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/TnL.html

TnL or T&L, short for Transform and Lighting it refers to a hardware feature found on some graphics cards. TnL is separate engines on the GPU that enable extremely high polygon count scenes. With TnL technology some or all of the 3-D information normally processed by the computer processor is processed by the GPU. Transform performance determines how complex objects can be and how many can appear in a scene without sacrificing frame rate. Lighting techniques add to a scene's realism by changing the appearance of objects based on light sources.

Yep; I don't know much about it, but I would assume it's on most modern graphics cards/adapters.
I'm guessing it's just that your laptop's graphics adapter can't handle the game very well.

[Havoc 526]

So, by the sound of it, it's built into the system and the only way to get it into your computer's programming is to manually install it into the innards of the computer, right? Or is it downloadable?

[Dohnutt]

Correct, it seems to be a hardware issue instead of a software issue. Though, maybe installing the latest graphics drivers might help? Not sure.

[Havoc 526]

Okay, that makes sense. I have a better understanding of it now, but I am a tad frustrated how my Mom's laptop, which she just got, btw, would have old, unsupported hardware. Oh well. Such is life. Thank you, Dohnutt.

[Dohnutt]

Just got it? Really? How expensive was it? Because, yes, that does seem weird.

[Frisbeetarian]

I wouldn't be surprised if her laptop's integrated graphics didn't have TnL support. I know mine doesn't. SWBF2 should still run fine without it. When in doubt, emulate it.

[VF501]

Transform and Light is hardware specific and is not supported even on most modern integrated GFX (primarily Intel based ones). Most current games don't specify need for TnL nowdays as its built into the Shader support for the card. So if your graphics card supports Shader 2.0-4.0 you'll have TnL.

[Delta 47]

I don't have TnL either and I use to get this message every time I started the game until I made a launcher fix for it, if you want I can give it to you. All it does is disable the warning message when you start the game though. Anyway, TnL (Transform and Lighting) like most have already said, is a separate engine on the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) that enables high polygon counts on objects. It's not necessary to run the game but it is recommended.

Unfortunately, because TnL is part of the GPU, its almost impossible to upgrade for a laptop. Since most laptops have their graphics hardware built right into the Motherboard you can't upgrade it without replacing the Motherboard which can end up being quite a lot of money of which buying a new laptop that has TnL would end up the better run. The only thing I've noticed that will stop the game are a couple of campaign space maps that crash halfway through of which I'm not even totally sure that the crashes are the result of not having TnL.

You can emulate TnL by using a tool called 3D Analyze. Of course, using this tool isn't necessary for playing SWBF2 because TnL's isn't required for the game to run but the tool does come in handy playing other games or even the SWBF2 map editor, Zero Editor of which requires TnL to operate.