Re: [AD] DGA driver improvement

[Eric Botcazou <botcazou@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Shawn Hargreaves wrote:
> Is this really how it ought to work, though? Since the DGA mode disables
> other apps while it is active, what is the point of being able to control
> the exact placement on your desktop? It really behaves like a fullscreen
> mode with regard to other apps, so it's almost just a fluke that when you
> don't use the mode changing version, it may not cover your entire screen.

I do agree with you: this isn't really a fundamental point, rather a
cosmetic one.
But I quote from the Allegro doc:

GFX_XDGA
Use the XFree86 DGA extension to write directly to the screen surface.
DGA is normally much faster than the standard X mode, but does not
produce such well behaved windowed programs, and will not work
remotely.                                                

So why not to improve the look of these "not so well behaved windowed
programs" ?

> I guess the question is whether non-fullscreen DGA mode is intended to be
> useful for actual games, or just for development, and if the former, how
> exactly should it work? Comments would be appreciated...

Here is my viewpoint:
- if you want to experiment a whole immersion in your game and don't
want to be bothered by the piles of icons that are visible on your
desktop, then you do choose one of the fullscreen modes and all is fine.
- but if you are in love with such a sexy windowing system as X11, and
with such beautiful environments as KDE or Gnome, then you want your
game to fit submissively with them, don't you ?

Am I too puristical ?

-- 
Eric Botcazou (ebotcazou@xxxxxxxxxx)
Web site: www.multimania.com/ebotcazou