AngelDaniel good points there, thanks.
First one, which I was also thinking of recently is switching off all OS control when drawing to ensure it's top speed, like you said, then giving it control at some other time when it's allowed and safe, providing it doesn GRAB too much control and come back late or whatever.
Second big point you made about the draw commands maybe being queued and then all done at once with the flip is a very good point. I bet some cards do this. Some kind of way to force that drawing at a set time not with the flip would be great, then the flip would occur quickly and not result in any visible tear.
The whole working in harmony with the video card by drawing certain strips at certain times etc is very intersted and clever but I don't have the time do look into this now :-( It might not work on all PCs as some don't give decent feedback about their scanline position.
Also giving customers options to turn on fancy stuff is a good idea for action games that techie types might play but normal users won't ever look for this. They'll take one look at it and go, "uh it's all funny and jerky" and exit = Lost sale.
Indiepath was saying that perhaps Max just needs to be brought up to date with DX8 or 9. But then we exlcude a lot of customers, swings and roundabouts again ...
First one, which I was also thinking of recently is switching off all OS control when drawing to ensure it's top speed, like you said, then giving it control at some other time when it's allowed and safe, providing it doesn GRAB too much control and come back late or whatever.
Second big point you made about the draw commands maybe being queued and then all done at once with the flip is a very good point. I bet some cards do this. Some kind of way to force that drawing at a set time not with the flip would be great, then the flip would occur quickly and not result in any visible tear.
The whole working in harmony with the video card by drawing certain strips at certain times etc is very intersted and clever but I don't have the time do look into this now :-( It might not work on all PCs as some don't give decent feedback about their scanline position.
Also giving customers options to turn on fancy stuff is a good idea for action games that techie types might play but normal users won't ever look for this. They'll take one look at it and go, "uh it's all funny and jerky" and exit = Lost sale.
Indiepath was saying that perhaps Max just needs to be brought up to date with DX8 or 9. But then we exlcude a lot of customers, swings and roundabouts again ...