hi, its mr X again.
the big question is, is what i think. i only think this, because i do not know. but you, who does know, is going to answer the question.
quake II is the most 'advanced game' for beos right? sadly, it probly is.
i was reading some bench marks, with systems running windoze . well, my current system stacks up as this:
p-II 400
128x3 pc-100 ram
443lx chipset
seanix columbia III motherboard.
3dfx 16mb card.
i run quake II at 800x600.
and this is the frame rate i get in quake II: about 14 .bleh. i typed 'timerefresh' in the console and let it do its thing. i know the difference between hardware accell and software accel, like with the dvd player example.
-> why dont they put 500mhz cpu in a set-top dvd player. because the most efficient way of palying the dvd is hard-coded into the cpu. like the eeprom chips, when you burn the software code into it, it runs alot faster. but with a pc dvd player, the instuctions are in the software, and then the cpu has to decode it. but if the software was emulated as the hardware, the speed would go faster. like with set-top dvd players.
now, with a video card, it is like the same parady with the set-top dvd player, the most efficient way of getting better fps are coded into its hardware, but we need the software, to tell the gpu to do most of the processing, and the software, like gl or direct x or drivers, make it happen.
this should be pretty much true. no?
back to my point.
i noticed that when you go into the quake II video options, choose driver, and you choose hardware or software. well, hardware would go alot faster, but i doesnt work. it just crashes. only software works. i searched bebits for gl, direct x and no results that i could download. i also once installed the beos forbidden beta's with the gl kit. but it screwed up so bad that no 3d games would run. period.
so does this mean, i have no hope of a hardware accel for beos quake II? or can some smart(er) guy on beos help me here. i could put in a 500mhz p-III , but its in the garage, and im mad at the cpu cooler to put it back in.
dont think im a windbag for just an over winded write-up.
this site
http://www.roce.org/articles/hwacceleration.html
the hardware accel part was used.
