Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!agate!darkstar!ucscb.UCSC.EDU!davids From: davids@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Dave Schreiber) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Multitasking is slower Keywords: games, multitasking Message-ID: <4111@darkstar.ucsc.edu> Date: 5 Jun 90 23:07:50 GMT References: <279@smosjc.UUCP> <4039@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <17902@ultima.cs.uts.oz> Sender: usenet@darkstar.ucsc.edu Organization: UCSC Open Access Lines: 58 In article <17902@ultima.cs.uts.oz> vilkas@ultima.cs.uts.oz (Iron Wolf) writes: >davids@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Dave Schreiber) writes: >>In article <279@smosjc.UUCP> brett@smosjc.UUCP (Brett Coon) writes: >>>>From: Tim Friest - Programmer/Analyst >>>>The point the people are making about games needing to multi-task is simply, >>>>if I run the game without anything else running, it is exactly the same as >>>>if the game took over the machine and didn't let me run anything else.... >>>NO! For a program to allow multitasking, it has to be "nice". It must own >>>and disown the system resources (esp. blitter) using OS calls, and do so >>>often enough to allow other tasks a chance to use them. Depending on the >>Are you reading all of the original message? If the machine is in a state >>so that the game is going "without anything else running", then there won't >>be "other tasks" that demand system resources like the blitter. This >>seems fairly self-evident. >But even when your task is the only one running, there are other tasks that >are started by amigados: >The mounted devices have processes (mostly dormant so they dont really > count) >Cli or Workbench (cli transfers control to the program so it doesnt > make a huge difference) >Intuition itself. >OF the above,intuition and workbench will take a fair amount time up,especially >intuition,(which will in turn access the device processes for mouse moves, etc) Workbench sits dormant, as does the CLI. Intuition processes input, so as long as the user doesn't type, move the mouse, eject disks, etc. Intuition will barely do anything (the occasional Intuitick being the exception). Also please note (I guess I should have made this more clear in my previous message) that while other system tasks are running, they do not generally use the blitter (unless the user is moving windows around, etc., in which case it isn't the program's fault). >So, even when you are running only one game, the system is running at least one >of its own tasks, and, I believe, at a considerably higher priority! No, the OS has tasks present, but not actually taking up the CPU for the most part. [...] -- Dave Schreiber The blue leprechaun at davids@slugmail.ucsc.edu (prefered but flakey) or (not both) davids@ucscb.ucsc.edu "Coffee, Darling?"