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Re: Game report - Sheer amazement



>>>>> "Jared" == Jared Roberts <root@dontmailhere.cyberspace.com> writes:

    >> on your 486/33?  Well, of course it is, but that's not the
    >> point, and it is

    Jared> Well, it's slow on a 33Mhz 68040....

    >> almost playable.  So, if a Mac user ever gives you gruff about
    >> Marathon, just load it up ;-) I am using v1.99o of E/D, with a
    >> refresh of 5 and an

A few performance tips:

1) I've barely played with Marathon, but if it provides an option like
   "use QuickDraw", choose that and turn off refresh.  Wolfenstein 3D
   provides an option like this.  Refresh is _slow_ and should be
   avoided when possible.
2) UniVBE 5.1a will help somewhat (it will help a lot if there's
   a "Use QuickDraw" option, less if you're using refresh).
3) 1bpp and 8bpp are by far the fastest video modes in Executor,
   because of how SVGA boards work.  2bpp and 4bpp require a separate
   conversion step to a format the SVGA board can use.

Also, we're working on some stuff that will allow Marathon and other
programs to bypass QuickDraw (under DOS) without requiring "-refresh".
In other words, those programs will be able to *directly* access your
SVGA board, and therefore they will be super fast.  In order for this
to work, you'll need VBE 2.0 (e.g. UniVBE 5.1a) a decent SVGA board,
and a DPMI 1.0 server (which we'll provide, although you won't be able
to use it under Windows or OS/2).  These patches will be present in
1.99p or 1.99q.

And in case I haven't mentioned it, the UniVBE folks are going to try
to improve UniVBE so you don't get that "annoying white screen border"
when using it with Executor.

-Mat


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