CompuServe Messages

Gregory – Actual speed in 3DS is based on a number of items. First and foremost is CPU. Nothing, I mean nothing, will make 3DS perform faster than $ spend on the 486-66. I bet when the 586 starts shipping, the first customers will be 3DS users. Now beside rendering, all other interaction with 3DS is via either the Materials Editor or the various display modules. There is basically nothing that can speed up the materials editor much beyond an basic VGA and a GOOD driver, since the materials editor is not video intensive. A well designed driver will not slow you down at higher resolutions (beside longer material rendering times<g>). To the best of my knowledge, all drivers that implement high-resolution Material Editors actaully make the materials editor HARDER to use, because everything gets visually smaller on the screen. Of course, there is one driver that is an exception<g>. In the display modules is where an accelerated board will help. The supplied VESA driver with 3DS only works on 256 color VGA modes, and it's performance implementation is very poor compared to what can be achieved with the right code. If you are going to stay with a VGA, a 16 color mode is the only way to go to get "snappy" performance. The key to accelerated boards are that they provide higher resolution (1024 and up) without noticable performance loss. [More]