CompuServe Messages

Yes, if you want to pick nits, OS/2 does impart some overhead even when 3DS is running and nothing else. But, I rendered the same scene with the same parameters back to back under both DOS and OS/2 and got exactly 39 sec for both renders. So the overhead is negligible. If you have a 30 sec animation to render, then multitaksing is even more valuable because the machine will likely be tied up for hours and hours. Say I need to send a demo tape and a cover letter to a possible client. You just run my word processor, type and print the letter and mailing label, and while 3DS keeps on rendering. During this time, the word processor is using probably an average of 2% of the cpu while 3DS gets 97.9% (the other .1% goes to OS/2). Yes, since last Wednesday, I do CG for a living. I quit my system software programming job at Intergraph. No more X server implimentations, no more Legato networker, no more HardPC, no more WinNT source spelunking. Yippeee! I will look at no code until the R3 IPAS kit comes out. I think I am about where Martin Foster was seven months ago, trying desparately to pay bills and get a foothold in this business with limited resources. If I spend a day trying to get a computer to work, I have spent almost nothing. If I spend actual $$$, then I have spent $$$. I have already spent much more time arguing this point with you than I have wasted fussing with OS/2. I have an old 386sx/16 with 5mb, but I get much better response from the OS/2 DX2/66 when 3DS is rendering in the background than I do on the sx machine under DOS. Also, to use the second machine effectivly, I'd need networking, which costs more money and is more trouble than OS/2. Someday I will have several fast machines at my beck and call. But I will always run a multitasking OS on the main workstation. If you have one machine for 3DS design and one for Photoshop, then you need a big monitor and fast graphics card for both machines. But if you run OS/2, you can use one machine for both, and need only one machine with the big monitor and fast graphics card.