3DWorld (8/13)

From:Michal Wozniak
Date:20 Sep 2001 at 14:47:19
Subject:[3DWorld] Re: Textures.

> Hi,

Hi,

>> Some question about textures. I have noticed that they
>> eat some memory when they are first used. Why?
>> I thought it's about conversion and stuff, but
>> I checked and R5G5B5 textures are directly supported
>> by hardware.
>>

> The first time a texture is used, memory of it is allocated *on the
> graphics board*. Graphcs board memory is normally allocated as bitmaps
> through the underlying graphics board software, so the first time a
> texture is used, there might be a bitmap allocated, which accounts for
> the additional memory. Additional textures should not allocated
> additional bitmaps as long as they still fit into the bitmap that's
> already been allocated.

But, why then I need to keep original texture memory, if it's
copied into a bitmap? Why not allocating a bitmap at the begining,
and then allow programmer to release memory. I know that when bitmap
is allocated then graphics board software allocates a piece of fastram
for it (to be stored in case of gfxram shortage), and tries to place it
into
gfxram. So why do we need this original buffer?

> Regards,

Regards

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