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Re: Executor usefulness?



>>>>> "emb121" == emb121 (Eric Bennett) <Ericb@psu.edu> writes:
In article <49skep$r2q@hearst.cac.psu.edu> Ericb@psu.edu (emb121 (Eric Bennett)) writes:

    emb121> I've seen Executor running on two or three machines, the
    emb121> latest being a Pentium 120.  Executor on that machine is
    emb121> about as fast--near the speed of a 20 mhz 68040--as
    emb121> Apple's old 68k emulator on a 66 mhz PowerMac (Apple's new
    emb121> emulator is much faster).  Unfortunately, while this is
    emb121> respectable processor emulation from Executor, its video
    emb121> speeds (under Linux Xwindows) on the machine I saw were
    emb121> pretty horrendous.  I certainly wouldn't want to play
    emb121> arcade games in Executor.

The Speedometer graphics benchmarks aren't a particularly good
measurement of Executor's graphics speed for most applications.  The
"diagonal lines" test, in particular, runs very slowly under Executor
because of the screen updating algorithm Executor uses.  Fortunately,
few programs spend much of their time drawing diagonal lines.

You'll also find that running your X server at 8 bits per pixel and
running "executor -privatecmap" is *much* faster, because Executor
doesn't have to convert pixels from the Mac colorspace to the X
windows colorspace while updating your screen.

That said, many arcade games *are* too slow under
Executor/Linux/X-Windows, at least on machines slower than a
Pentium/90.  Linux users who want to play games under Executor should
check out Executor/Linux/svgalib.  If svgalib supports SVGA graphics
modes and linear frame buffers on your card, those arcade games will
blaze.

-Mat


References: