[Alephmodular-devel] Re: [M-dev]Re: Br'fin's Multi-Monitor-Support Patch: A Belated Review

[Mark L. <hav...@ma...>]

> Try switching the game down into Low-resolution for a better frame 
> rate. Software rendering is known to be extra-slow in both A1 and the 
> main trunk of AM. (Improper usage of a window's back buffer.) But with 
> low-resolution mode on the game should be trying to blit directly to 
> the screen more or less. So it tends to fly even when high-resolution 
> has no legitimate reason to be sluggish.

Actually, I've noticed that when running on my secondary monitor 
(temporarily set to main, since I haven't applied the patch yet) the 
game window is misaligned by a pixel or two, and spills onto the other 
monitor. This forces OS X to do a copy across the two graphics cards 
every frame, which is an enormous speed drain. I tried to get a 
screenshot but the extra pixels didn't show up on the blank monitor's 
image, even though I could clearly see them when playing the game.

(A1 was running on a Radeon PCI hooked up to a 14" as main, with a 17" 
on an AGP R7500 as secondary, arranged with tops aligned and the 14" on 
the left. This doesn't seem to happen with the monitors reversed, 
although it's possible the R7500 is simply fast enough that it has 
enough excess capacity at 30fps to squeeze in the copy without slowing 
down.)

--Mark

"...and remember, a friend is just an enemy who hasn't tried to kill 
you!"

Random acts of programming: http://homepage.mac.com/haveblue