Re: CF: Crossfire-Client/Server

[David Sundqvist <azzie@netpolicy.com>]

On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, James Cameron wrote:

> Klaus Elsbernd wrote:
> > 
> I agree with Klaus.

I cant say I do. I understand him, but I cant say I agree. 

The problem is that while programming time is free for crossfire, it isnt
unlimited. Support for the various formats drains a precious resource that
could be spent on, perhaps, more valuable things.

I have my fair share of VAXStations (2000&3100), 386's and other
interesting equipment, but I dont expect the latest crossfire to be usable
on them. Neither am I willing to spend time getting it useable on them.

When writing, I target a P75 w/16mb memory to perform acceptably. IMO,
that is good enough. That should include higher end 486's, HP 700 series
after '92-93, Sparc 5 and several of the RS/6000's and DEC machines from
the same era.

Now, if someone wants to write/maintain a client that can actually run on
such interesting equipment as the VAXStation 3100, and maintain the
graphics needed, I'd be happy to see it done. 

> I use at home a VAXstation 4000/VLC and a VXT2000 as X-terminals, and
> the VLC is monochrome.  My other systems at home (all Linux) are two
> headless 486/100's and a 386/25 laptop.  The xpm mode of crossfire is
> just pathetic in terms of graphics performance, so I use either the font
> or the pixmap mode.

Well, I'd be happy to take suggestions on how to improve performance.
Currently, last I profiled a couple of days ago, the actual drawing of one
pixmap (of which there are 11x11xnumber of layers in current cell) took
0.28 microseconds on a P90. A total game window update took about 81.3
microseconds on average. As far as I can see, there is no room for
optimization in the drawing code, but I may be wrong. Currently it just
copies a pre-loaded indexed pixmap by setting graphics context for
clipping and doing an XCopyArea.
There are a couple of ways I know to improve performance in other areas of
the client, but they would be non-trivial modifications including
protocol changes, and according to profiling, not that much time is spent
in them (player inventory drawing, local animations for game window and
look window). It could improve network latency tho.

Best regards,
David

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