From: rjc@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Interlace video (Was Re: PC (OS/2) / Amiga debate)
Date: 4 Sep 92 23:42:50 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <4SEP199211285039@venus.tamu.edu> cpw8034@venus.tamu.edu (ALAN CHIPIN WEN (409)693-2924) writes:
>For the price of the A2320 that I bought, I can almost get a Diamond Stealth
>with an S3 graphics coprocessor.  Awesome color, resolution, and SPEED.  Face
   
   I seriously doubt whether an S3 would be capable of the kinds of
tricks the Amiga or a Sega genesis are capable of. I'm talking
built in multiple playfields, parallax scrolling, alterning color
registers and bitplane pointers anywhere on any scanline.

>it, 7 year technology can't be called cutting edge anyway you put it.  Sure

  The S3 can not be called cutting edge either.  Cutting edge
is SGI Crimson and Evans and Sutherland.  Cutting edge is CM-5.
Cutting edge is not S3.

>amigas have neato euro demos and such... have fun.  The only reason anyone 
>should have an amiga is to play games or do video.  Both of which are where
>the amiga currently has an upperhand on.  But IBM games are getting better
>(simulations are already better) so the amiga should concentrate on low-high

   Because simulations don't need super graphics ability, they need
super CPU power.  If you can copy from cpu ram to video ram at
60 frames per second and have lots of CPU time left over, you don't
need a 34010. Simply do all your rendering off screen into fast
ram and copy the results to screen.   (having a math
coprocessor or a vector processor does help with the 3d transformations)
(a 486 can not copy 640x480x8 into SVGA ram in real time)

  386/486s will beat the hell out of a 68000 at doing simulations
which require little screen update, but the Amiga will destroy the 386
in parallax scrolling, bobs, multisource bitplane tricks, etc.

>end video solutions and at least TRY and catch up the the graphics standards
>of real machines.

  First of all, having an S3 will not help you if you want to hit
the hardware in a game/demo unless you plan to code for every
chipset. DIG will not give you the flexibility of hitting the hardware.
(don't believe me? Find me any Mac game or demo that compares to
C64 games and demos in speed)

  640x480x8, and 640x480x8 with 256,000+ colors simulataneously
is fine for my purposes (which the AA provides).
I cannot afford the bigger monitors that 1024x768 or 1280x1024 require.

  Sure, I can afford a $75 VGA card, but can I afford a $600-800
high-res monitor?  You can not get away with buying a cheapo monitor
either.  I made the mistake of buying a cheapo $280 SVGA
monitor. It is interlaced in 1024x768 and the dot pitch is bad,
plus my eyes hurt when trying to read the text with 8x8 pixel
fonts. I have to increase the fontsize in my Xconsole to about
12x10 for it to be tolerable.

   if you are going to plunk down $600 for a monitor you may as
well plunk down another $400-500 for something better than VGA
(like a Tiga, or DMI).

  I am going to unload my 486 in a few months anyway because 1) I want
an AA Amiga, and 2) 586s are due soon and the value of a 486
machine is going to depreciate rapidly. (Intel will slash 486
prices, AMD will release 486 clones, ...)


>alan
Xref: sparky comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:24086 comp.sys.amiga.misc:13918