Imagine Wrap Mem Hog?
8 messages in this thread
Roger, remember your problem with wrapping a 1 bitplane image in Imagine.
You kept getting 'not enough ram' error messages, even though you thought
the brush was pretty small (cause it was just 1 bitplane, after all). I
thought that maybe Imagine expanded all brush wrap images to 24bits
internally?
Well, I did a quick test, and results seem to bear out that it expands the
1 bitplane image to 24bits. At least that amount of memory is consumed.
Here are the results of my test:
I created a 1 bitplane 640×600 image. As a 1 bitplane image it should use
up @ 48,000 bytes internally (640×600/8). As a 24 bitplane image it would
use up @ 1,152,000 bytes. (640x600x3)
I started Imagine and set up a simple sphere for rendering. I used AVAIL
every few seconds immediately after I told it to start rendering….
Memory avail Memory avail
w/ no image wrap w/ color image wrap.
Imagine running,
before rendering 8,898,952 8,899,192
@ 2 secs after starting
to render 8,729,568 7,720,776
@ 10 secs after starting 8,604,987 7,577,680
when done rendering 8,898,952 8,899,192
As you can see, when rendering without an image wrap, the memory dropped
about 80K just after rendering. With the image wrap, it dropped almost
*1.2meg*. That's just about the size of the 2 bitplane if expanded to
24bits.
So, I'd think the solution to your problem will have to be MORE MEMORY 🙂
It appears that Imagine does expand all images to 24bits, and that really
eats memory. Either that, or use smaller brushes for your wraps. Good
luck.
–jp–seattle–
John:
Thanks a lot for going thru your experiment! I'm sure your discovery will
be useful to many people besides me. Too bad Impulse couldn't have saved
us both a lot of time (GRIPE!).
So, yep, it looks like more RAM is in order. I've got 6 fast/1 chip right
now; would more RAM have to be CHIP in order to help, or would fast RAM do?
I've been planning on getting that MegaChip thing, but I was waiting to see
the "Chip Ram Accelerator" at the Oakland AmiExpo. As far as I could tell
they didn't show. Rats!
Thanks again for your help,
-Roger
Boy with 7 meg total you should be ok. I thought maybe you were running on
a 1-2 meg system, where memory for brush loading can get very tight. I
don't think that the Imagine brushes require CHIP ram, but will verify that
later. Let you know.
I have the MegaChip thing, and love it. Mainly what it means is that I
virtually never have to worry about CHIP ram problems. I like that 🙂 (oh
yeah, it gets you an extra meg of ram, period. That is nice also) I've
only heard of the Chip Ram accellerator, but don't know anything about it.
What exactly is it supposed to do?
–jp–seattle–
John:
According to the hype they (sorry, forgot company name) uploaded onto
several BBSs, the Chip Ram Accelerator would, er . . . do this:
Most people beleive that their Hi-Res/16 color/Overscan animations play
slowly because of the Delta Compression, (The difference between two frames
that the computer must calculate.) and by buying the Fastest excellerator
card on the market will improve their frame rates. If you allready have a
68030 this is not the case, animation speed is limited to the amount of
memory you can move through CHIP RAM. for example, you can play a Overscan
6Bit plane Image (HAM/32 Colors) at 30fps, where as a complex Overscan 4Bit
plane Image (HiRes/16 Colors) plays at 6fps. A good example of this is
DCTV. When converting a 24Bit/Overscan animation to run under DCTV, you
have a simple choice, make the animation either DCTV 24Bit non-overscan, or
DCTV 64000 Colors Overscan.
The Amiga 2000 family (A2000, A2500, Etc.) can move about 1.3MB of
Imformation through Chip ram, resulting in frame sizes around 45K for best
playback. With the A3000's 32Bit Buss, the speed increases to about
1.7MB/sec. Still your limited to about 50K a frame.
The Hottest new product for the amiga will be shown on October 4th for the
first time at the AmiEXPO in California.
The CHIP RAM EXCELLERATOR!
Over 5MB/sec of Information through Chip ram! Create DCTV 4Bit,
Overscan, Animations that run in real time.
Features: * A MINIMUM of 5MB (10MB-a maximum of 20MB) of Information
through Chip
Ram. * Adds 2MB of TRUE 32Bit memory to the A2x00. * Uses the A3000 Angus
chip for maximum compatiblity. * Screen updates, Blitter operations will be
increased.
For More Information Please Call, or Write:
*************************
* P.P.V./R.C.S. *
* 544 Queen Street *
* Chatham Ontario *
* Canada, N7M 2J6 *
* *
* TEL (519) 436-0988 *
* FAX (519) 351-1334 *
* BBS (519) 436-0140 *
*************************
Dealer/Distributor In
But how reliable can a product with an incorrectly-spelled name be?
I'll beleive this thing when I see it.
…Denny Atkin
So, have you called them? Sounds good, but they'd have to maintain 100%
compatibility, and still do what they say. I don't see how they can do it,
but then again, the developers on the Amiga continue to amaze me!
Thanks for the info.
–jp–seattle–
Roger, I have used Imagine before and after my MegaChip upgrade, and the
difference is _very_ pronounced! Many times with my 5-meg system I would
run out of memory attempting the simplest things. Now, with 6 megs (2
chip), I have not had a single memory problem. MegaChip makes the
difference!
Don Weed
Don:
Alright, thanks for the feedback on using MegaChip with Imagine. If you
saw my message to John, I'd been just about to buy MegaChip when I saw the
announcement for the "Chip Ram Accelerator." Since that seems, at this
point anyway, to be vaporware, I'll go ahead and get MegaChip as soon as I,
uh, get the money together.
Cheers, Roger