CompuServe Thread

#I Love OS/2 & 3DS!!!

9 messages in this thread
#142962From: Dennis FenskeDec 20, 1994 11:18 PM
Larry; The company I work for recently purchases some Indy's, and I have seen the beauty of UNIX multitasking. Does OS/2 come close to this as far as multitasking is concerned? It would be nice. I bought OS/2 ver2.0 before, but wasn't able to spend the time to get everything working together well, so reverted to DOS. Is WARP better. Can you render in the background and work in the foreground? Thanks for answering these questions. Dennis
#143209From: Larry MintonDec 21, 1994 8:05 PM
I am able to run a slave render session in the background, and run a foreground 3ds sesion for modelling. Due to some highly technical reasons <g>, you cannot render in the foreground if you do this (unless you hold the shift key down during the render setup). For the most part, you can't ever tell the background session is sucking up spare cpu cycles. I run Warp at home, and 2.11 at the office (due to network requirements). I find that I like Warp better than 2.11, but I'm able to really wig Warp out every once in a while. I've seen some messages on internet where people have had the same problem as I've had, so maybe it will be a problem fixed by the first CSD (corrective service [?] disks). While running just a foreground session of 3ds, I show about a 10% increase in render time under Warp as compared to rendering under dos. Under 2.11, render times were slighly less versus dos. LAM
#143373From: Dennis FenskeDec 22, 1994 3:54 PM
Larry; Thanks for the tips on OS/2. If I understand your message correctly, you say that you have no problem rendering in the background, and modeling in the foreground in 3DS at the same time. However, you do have a problem rendering in the background, and then also rendering in the foreground in 3DS at the same time. If that is what I understand, that probably wouldn't be a problem. But it sounds like you also have a work-around via the shift key? I may upgrade to Warp and check this out. Thanks again, Dennis
#143605From: Larry MintonDec 24, 1994 4:11 PM
Well, if you want the techinical details <g>… You need to set idle_sensitivity to 100 for the background session and about 10 or so for the foreground session. OS/2 keeps track of how often programs poll the keyboard for input, and uses the idle_sensitity to determine whether the program is doing something useful, or is just polling the keyboard. If it is just polling the keyboard, os/2 reduces the amount of cpu cycles going to the program. When 3ds sets up for a render, it does a lot of polling of the keyboard. GaryY passed along word that this was done because they found that without it, if you pressed the escape key, it took forever for 3ds to see the escape key and abort. Anyhow, os/2 sees 3ds doing this heavy duty polling, thinks 3ds is just sitting there and waiting for input, so it reduces the cpu time to 3ds. So 3ds just sits there like a bump on a log. By pressing the shift key until 3ds is actually rendering, you are faking os/2 out and forcing a lot of cpu time to 3ds. This keeps the ball rolling. There. Aren't you glad you asked? LAM
#143644From: Dennis FenskeDec 25, 1994 9:48 AM
Larry; >> There. Aren't you glad you asked? Yes! That helps. I was in Fry's Electronics a couple of days ago and looking at OS/2 Warp, and didn't see any upgrade packages for those that already have version 2.1. Do you know if there are upgrades for those that previously bought it? Thanks, and Have a Merry Christmas! Dennnis
#143839From: Larry MintonDec 27, 1994 5:07 PM
I was at MicroCenter a couple of days ago, and saw both the full price version and the upgrade version. So they both exist. Tell Fry's to get with it <g>. LAM
#144171From: Dennis FenskeDec 29, 1994 6:59 PM
Larry; >> So they both exist. Thanks, I'll look further. Dennis
#143842From: Carl FinchDec 27, 1994 6:05 PM
>> didn't see any upgrade packages for those that already have version 2.1 << Hey, it was selling for $69.95 wasn't it, Dennis? I don't think IBM's gonna sell an "upgrade" against that price! <g>
#144172From: Dennis FenskeDec 29, 1994 6:59 PM
Carl; >> Hey, it was selling for $69.95 wasn't it, Dennis? I don't think IBM's >> gonna sell an "upgrade" against that price! <g> Well, I've gotta try. <g> I haven't even really used my 2.1 version. And I think it was a bit higher than that. Just a bit mind you. <g> Dennis