Why’s this downvoted? Is it not true? I thought lighting was done in software these days?

It’s not really software vs hardware, it’s the fixed function pipeline api vs the shader api.

The fixed function pipeline api only does one thing one way with a lot of limitations while the shader pipeline can basically do anything (doesn’t even have to be rendering a 3D scene) as long as it’s fast enough for your purpose.

> It’s not really software vs hardware, it’s the fixed function pipeline api vs the shader api.

...that sounds like software vs hardware though?

Lighting used to run as a fixed (hardware) function and now it runs via a shader (software) function.

It is true, although a specialized form of software that requires extra hardware, GPUs.