CompuServe Messages

>If you are not using PharLap extender does this mean that OS2 can release the swap files after single test renders so that performance is not degraded? With PharLap its such a pain to exit DOS and restart after swapping to disk. < PMJI, but I can hopefully answer that . . . OS/2 creates a virtual DOS session. Because of this, 3DS just sees a big chunk of RAM. In fact, some of that is virtual memory provided by OS/2. OS/2 in turn, takes care of the virtual RAM swapping (paging) — which is way fast when using the OS/2 High Performance File System (HPFS). Still, what 3DS does within its address space provided by OS/2, OS/2 has no control over. You see, Phar Lap is still present, and is being used in a DPMI compliant fashion. So if 3DS fragments its memory space, performace will still dwindle, even though you are not directly engaging the Phar Lap paging system. So to answer your question, an occasional restart of 3DS is still recommended, but need not be so frequent. That was a rather condensed explanation. Let me know if it needs diluting! 🙂 BTW: OS/2 uses a flat memory model. As a result, it swaps out whatever address space is being used the least regardless of who is controlling it. The individual apps never actually know what is going on as far as paging is concerned. Hence 3DS will report 0 page faults, when in reality, OS/2 may have paged out several times to give 3DS enough RAM to work. The old addage still holds: if you get paging of any sort when running 3DS, BUY MORE RAM. — James — MAP —