Re: Linux network layer
- From: Volker Grabsch <volker_grabsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:25:35 +0100
bit-naughty@xxxxxxxxxxx <bit-naughty@xxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb:
This explains why the Linux demoscene is so little. And it also
explains why there are so few games for it.
This statement is technically and historically incorrect. This
situation has nothing to do with X11. (see below)
Does anyone here want to do something about this, and have the skills
to do it? (for example, something that lets you switch into graphics
mode and just *write* stuff into Vram, like a kernel module or
something?)
This has been done a long time ago, and is still done by some small
programs.
Technically: Noone is forced to use X11. Remember the good old libsvga?
You can also set the graphics card's registers directly. Well, you need
root privileges for that.
Historically: DOS was wide-spread, Linux was a niche. On both systems
you were able to communicate with CGA/VGA/SVGA cards directly. However,
Demo scene coders wanted to show their results to "the world", so most
of them chose DOS. (well, most of them originally chose Amiga ;-))
They didn't use any API; they wrote their own specialized drivers and
their programs were fast - stunningly fast. I remember sitting in front
of some demos ans asking me: Is it really that old 486 with that old
VGA card? Someone must have exchanged my hardware ...
Then times were changing. SVGA cards diverted more and more,
having nothing in common except the old VGA standard. Another
standard, VESA, at least made it possible to access the higher
resolutions (above 640x480) in a uniform way. But 3D acceleration
features weren't compatible at all. So the two requirements
- slurp every bit of speed out of the hardware
- be portable across recent hardware
drifted apart.
The scene changed from accessing hardware directly to using
drivers. Windows 95/98/... got well support by hardware vendors,
because it dominated the market. DirectX became the only chance
bring the graphics card up to speed in a portable way.
Today, Linux is quite popular, but vendor support is still
half-hearted (crappy and binary-only drivers), with some noble
exceptions such as HP ... but HP doesn't produce graphics cards.
Today, it is possible to write "old-school" demos for Linux
as well, with or without X11, with very good library support.
But the "state-of-the-art" demos still require recent hardware,
good driver support and a very wide-spread platform.
Well, I'm not "in" the demo scene, but I hope my summary is
still accurate. Anyone with more knowledge should correct me
if I'm wrong.
One last thing: Since modern computers are faster than anything
you really need, I hope that future demos return to their original
values, and retry to unify speed and portability. Restrain yourself
from using the Win API. Use OpenGL instead of DirectX. Speed is no
longer a real issue, except for very special demos. Small size and
good portability are the qualities that really matter. IHMO.
Greets,
Volker
--
"Wenn du der Meinung bist, der andere sei ein Depp, dann überlass das
Antworten denjenigen, die nicht dieser Meinung sind."
-- Adrian Suter in <5tejveF1d94gkU2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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