Mail Archives: opendos/1997/05/14/03:25:41
On Mon, 12 May 1997 22:09:39 -0500 dfremlin AT facstaff DOT wisc DOT edu (John
Fremlin) writes:
>No - there are zillions of specialized SVGA cards that each
>have their own little secrets and optimizations. Having the
>manufacturer provide the video routines (DirectX, etc) means
>that a game will run optimized on whichever SVGA card is installed
>and relieves the poor game programmer of the impossible task
>of supporting each and every card.
>
>(I am not sure that this manufacturer's writing their own
>drivers idea is actually DirectX, because I have never programmed
>under Windows. If I am wrong, please correct me)
>
>This currently cannot be done under DOS, and DOS is AFAIK
>still faster than DirectX but that may (will) change as SVGA
>manufacturers concentrate on Windows (DirectX, etc.) graphics
>speed and as 3D accelerators become more common.
>
>DOS + DirectX would still be faster than Windows + DirectX
>
>So, how about a DirectX-like interface for OpenDOS?
>I have no idea as to how difficult this would be and
>whether any manufacturers would support it but I think
>that it would be a great idea.
>(It would, naturally, be in a separate package from the kernel)
Wonderful! You've just reinvented the VBE!
Seriously, I think it's a great idea - but I think people seem to be
forgetting about the VBE (which, even with accelerated functions, only
provides 2d support) and concentrating on Windows programming (a mistake,
I think).
Why not write our own set of calls, then? Or should we just stick with
the VBE? If we provide our own set of calls, we need to make sure it's
VERY flexible, or else we'll just make a huge mess... Also, I don't know
that we could provide much in the way of support for that many cards
right now.
...Chambers
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