OK, I've done quite a bit of research and testing into process/thread priorities in Windows. Basically some people's PCs don't run Max games too well when they have background tasks eating up CPU time (they get "catchup" jerks when using delta timing/fixed rate logic).
So anyway, you can boost the Process Priority Class and/or the Thread Priority. However, if you boost them too much the combined value can make Windows unstable (according to the docs) and there is a table on MSDN showing you what the combined values are.
Anyway, I'm going to boost the full-screen mode to a "safe" level as a user who reported jerks has now said it's basically fine. I'll make another demo at some point soon for wider testing to see if anyone notices anything wierd which could be related to boosting the process and thread to Above Normal.
My question is, should I boost windowed mode too? I was thinking of boosting it the same amount for smooth windowed games, or should I assume that the user knows that windows mode won't be as good as full-screen for action games? I'm not sure the user *will* know this to be honest. I could put it on the options page, but then they'll never find it and activate it (imho). Anyway, I've only boosted it a tiny bit, which seems to be good for fighting back against other "hoggy" programs, and Windows still works totally fine on my PC.
And no my framework is not event driven, it's loop driven and the windowed mode loop has Delay(1) in it. Oh and windowed mode doesn't use MaxGUI it's just Graphics with some API calls.
So anyway, you can boost the Process Priority Class and/or the Thread Priority. However, if you boost them too much the combined value can make Windows unstable (according to the docs) and there is a table on MSDN showing you what the combined values are.
Anyway, I'm going to boost the full-screen mode to a "safe" level as a user who reported jerks has now said it's basically fine. I'll make another demo at some point soon for wider testing to see if anyone notices anything wierd which could be related to boosting the process and thread to Above Normal.
My question is, should I boost windowed mode too? I was thinking of boosting it the same amount for smooth windowed games, or should I assume that the user knows that windows mode won't be as good as full-screen for action games? I'm not sure the user *will* know this to be honest. I could put it on the options page, but then they'll never find it and activate it (imho). Anyway, I've only boosted it a tiny bit, which seems to be good for fighting back against other "hoggy" programs, and Windows still works totally fine on my PC.
And no my framework is not event driven, it's loop driven and the windowed mode loop has Delay(1) in it. Oh and windowed mode doesn't use MaxGUI it's just Graphics with some API calls.