Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 09:14:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pierre Phaneuf <pp AT 55-174 DOT hy DOT cgocable DOT ca>
Reply-To: pierre AT tycho DOT com
To: OpenDOS Mailing List <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: Re: OpenDOS graphics drivers
In-Reply-To: <199705160212.MAA19215@solwarra.gbrmpa.gov.au>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970516091049.553A-100000@55-174.hy.cgocable.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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On Fri, 16 May 1997, Leath Muller wrote:

> In my opinion, if something isn't used, then there is no point in having
> it there to start with - Windows by default uses acceleration if it
> there... OpenDOS doesn't.  Don't get me wrong, I prefer DOS anyday over
> Windows, but at least I know in the game I am writing now, which _requires_
> hardware acceleration, that coding under Win32 almost guarantees acceleration
> in hardware if it is available - OpenDOS certainly does not.

That's why we need an accelerated driver system.

> > In action video games, *ANY* overhead is too much overhead. You break the
> > cache pipeline. You f**kup your prefetch. You lose CLOCK CYCLES. You know
> > John Carmack has created over 20 diffenrent rendering engines for Quake
> > during its development? You wouldn't believe what saving a friggin' clock
> > cycle in an inner loop can give you in gameplay!
> 
> If John Carmack is *so* worried about every cycle in a game, why has he
> shifted to Win32 development only?

Money. Note that software is developed on *Alpha* computers and the Linux
version of Quake is kept up to date with the DOS version.

P.S.: Before anyone gets the idea, no, SVGALib (Linux) is *NOT* good. ;-)

Pierre Phaneuf

"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be
regarded as a criminal offense." - Edsger W. Dijkstra.