Been trying out XFree86 4.0 over the last couple of days and had some
nice results:
Our game (a Linux port of Creatures 3, using SDL) saw an instant speedup
of around 20%!
Not sure what has changed behind the scenes - I’d guess the amount of
buffer shuffling has been reduced.
I love optimisations which don’t require a recompile 
Ben.–
Ben Campbell (Antipodean Straggler)
Programmer, Creature Labs
ben.campbell at creaturelabs.com
www.creaturelabs.com
Sean Middleditch wrote:
Ben Campbell wrote:
Been trying out XFree86 4.0 over the last couple of days and had some
nice results:Our game (a Linux port of Creatures 3, using SDL) saw an instant speedup
of around 20%!Not sure what has changed behind the scenes - I’d guess the amount of
buffer shuffling has been reduced.
I love optimisations which don’t require a recompileHave you tried the just released XFree86 4.01? It’s supposedly a bit
faster, and has a lot of bug fixes, and DGA 1.0 compatibility (which might
be useful for some programs, I suppose, but SDL uses DGA 2.0 so I guess
it’s not THAT big of a deal…
XFree86 4.0.1 was released about 10 minutes after I got 4.0 set up
I look forward to trying it.
Ben.–
Ben Campbell (Antipodean Straggler)
Programmer, Creature Labs
ben.campbell at creaturelabs.com
www.creatures.co.uk
Ben Campbell wrote:
Have you tried the just released XFree86 4.01? It’s supposedly a bit
faster, and has a lot of bug fixes, and DGA 1.0 compatibility (which might
be useful for some programs, I suppose, but SDL uses DGA 2.0 so I guess
it’s not THAT big of a deal…XFree86 4.0.1 was released about 10 minutes after I got 4.0 set up
I look forward to trying it.
Is there some HOWTO about getting the CVS XFree86 4.x installed on a Red
Hat system, hopefully without disturbing too much the 3.x installation
(just in case)?–
“Unix gives you just enough rope to hang yourself – and then a couple
of more feet, just to be sure.” – Eric Allman
Ben Campbell wrote:
Have you tried the just released XFree86 4.01? It’s supposedly a bit
faster, and has a lot of bug fixes, and DGA 1.0 compatibility (which might
be useful for some programs, I suppose, but SDL uses DGA 2.0 so I guess
it’s not THAT big of a deal…XFree86 4.0.1 was released about 10 minutes after I got 4.0 set up
I look forward to trying it.
Is there some HOWTO about getting the CVS XFree86 4.x installed on a Red
Hat system, hopefully without disturbing too much the 3.x installation
(just in case)?
I just moved /usr/X11R6 and /etc/X11 out of the way, and did a fresh X4
install. I switch between them by moving the appropriate X11R6 and X11
directories into place and running ldconfig.
Your mileage may vary.
See ya,
-Sam Lantinga, Lead Programmer, Loki Entertainment Software
Pierre Phaneuf wrote:
Ben Campbell wrote:
Have you tried the just released XFree86 4.01? It’s supposedly a bit
faster, and has a lot of bug fixes, and DGA 1.0 compatibility (which might
be useful for some programs, I suppose, but SDL uses DGA 2.0 so I guess
it’s not THAT big of a deal…XFree86 4.0.1 was released about 10 minutes after I got 4.0 set up
I look forward to trying it.Is there some HOWTO about getting the CVS XFree86 4.x installed on a Red
Hat system, hopefully without disturbing too much the 3.x installation
(just in case)?
I have a few short ones worth a read here:
http://www.antimeta.com/tmp/X400.txt
http://www.antimeta.com/tmp/nvidia.txt--
Marc A. Lepage
Software Developer
Molecular Mining Corporation
http://www.molecularmining.com/
Sean Middleditch wrote:
Is there some HOWTO about getting the CVS XFree86 4.x installed on a Red
^^^
it’s pretty simple. Just donwload all the tarballs like the installation
^^^^^^^^
Hey, I’m a hacker! I plan on MODIFYING my X server… :-)–
“You can have my Unix system when you pry it from my cold, dead
fingers.”
– Cal Keegan
Ben Campbell wrote:
Been trying out XFree86 4.0 over the last couple of days and had some
nice results:Our game (a Linux port of Creatures 3, using SDL) saw an instant speedup
of around 20%!Not sure what has changed behind the scenes - I’d guess the amount of
buffer shuffling has been reduced.
I love optimisations which don’t require a recompile
Have you tried the just released XFree86 4.01? It’s supposedly a bit
faster, and has a lot of bug fixes, and DGA 1.0 compatibility (which might
be useful for some programs, I suppose, but SDL uses DGA 2.0 so I guess
it’s not THAT big of a deal… 
Sean Etc.>
Ben.
–
Ben Campbell (Antipodean Straggler)
Programmer, Creature Labs
ben.campbell at creaturelabs.com
www.creaturelabs.com
Pierre Phaneuf wrote:
Ben Campbell wrote:
Have you tried the just released XFree86 4.01? It’s supposedly a bit
faster, and has a lot of bug fixes, and DGA 1.0 compatibility (which might
be useful for some programs, I suppose, but SDL uses DGA 2.0 so I guess
it’s not THAT big of a deal…XFree86 4.0.1 was released about 10 minutes after I got 4.0 set up
I look forward to trying it.Is there some HOWTO about getting the CVS XFree86 4.x installed on a Red
Hat system, hopefully without disturbing too much the 3.x installation
(just in case)?
it’s pretty simple. Just donwload all the tarballs like the installation
instructions on the xfree site says, grab extract and Xinstall.sh, make a copy
of /usr/X11R6 (I did a “cp -Rd /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11R6-XF86-3.3.6”), and run
Xinstall.sh. The installation went perfectly. Much better than I expected. I
was almost disappointed that I wouldn’t get to try and fix things…
As a note, this was on a Mandrake 7.0 system, which is pretty similar to Mandrake
6+.
Also, there are XF86 4.0 RPMS from Red Hat, but I’m told they don’t work very
well at all.>
–
“Unix gives you just enough rope to hang yourself – and then a couple
of more feet, just to be sure.” – Eric Allman
Sam Lantinga wrote:
Ben Campbell wrote:
Have you tried the just released XFree86 4.01? It’s supposedly a bit
faster, and has a lot of bug fixes, and DGA 1.0 compatibility (which might
be useful for some programs, I suppose, but SDL uses DGA 2.0 so I guess
it’s not THAT big of a deal…XFree86 4.0.1 was released about 10 minutes after I got 4.0 set up
I look forward to trying it.Is there some HOWTO about getting the CVS XFree86 4.x installed on a Red
Hat system, hopefully without disturbing too much the 3.x installation
(just in case)?I just moved /usr/X11R6 and /etc/X11 out of the way, and did a fresh X4
install. I switch between them by moving the appropriate X11R6 and X11
directories into place and running ldconfig.Your mileage may vary.
See ya,
-Sam Lantinga, Lead Programmer, Loki Entertainment Software
This method mostly worked for me, although mandrake seems to possess a notion that
is a good idea to put some of the more useful X apps (Eterm in particular) in the
X11R6/bin directory, as well as some of the libs. so watch out for that. Most
things still worked though but I am know running Mandrake 7.1 which comes with
X4.0, I will proabaly try 4.01 when Mandrake makes some Rpm’s ( doesnt appear that
they have yet)
My major problem was with X4+Nvidia+SMP, which is a bit buggy.
otherwise I have found it to be much faster than X336. AFAIC the sooner it is main
stream the better.
Been trying out XFree86 4.0 over the last couple of days and had some
nice results:Our game (a Linux port of Creatures 3, using SDL) saw an instant speedup
of around 20%!
Just curious (sorry if offtopic but is this an official port or
something people are doing just kuz they like the game (ala Descent 1).
(Either way it’ll be cool… just curious ;)On Mon, 3 Jul 2000, Ben Campbell wrote:
–
Sam Hart http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~hart/
Web Page Highlights: Video Game History, Black Hole Simulation, & more.
OTHER WEB SITES MAINTAINED BY SAM HART
http://www.geekcomix.com/ - Geekcomix, the Daily Geek Comic Strip Site
http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~hart/gw/ - Ghostworks (Alt./Linux Computing)
Sam Hart wrote:
Been trying out XFree86 4.0 over the last couple of days and had some
nice results:Our game (a Linux port of Creatures 3, using SDL) saw an instant speedup
of around 20%!Just curious (sorry if offtopic
something people are doing just kuz they like the game (ala Descent 1).
(Either way it’ll be cool… just curious
It’s an unofficial project that Francis Irving (who also posts here) and
I have been working on in our spare time. We both worked on the original
windows version of Creatures 3. We’re both doing it because we like the
game and thought it’d be cool to port. It’s got lots of funky alife
stuff in it like neural networks, a genetics system, simulated
biochemistry, agent-based systems… There is a big community of C3
hackers coding up new agents, constructing new genomes with different
biochemistry and brain wirings, running experiments in natural selection
and all sorts of crazy stuff.
In short, there’s a lot of geek appeal which we think would fit in well
with the Linux hacker ethos
The port is looking really nice - it’s fully playable and fast
approaching the QA stage.
It’s very likely that a boxed version will be available. Probably it’ll
be sold directly from the Creature Labs website.
Ben Campbell (Antipodean Straggler)
Programmer, Creature Labs
ben.campbell at creaturelabs.com
www.creaturelabs.com