slim@clipper.cis.ohio-state.edu (Scott Whitman) (02/21/89)
I noticed the discussion about getting color background images running on a Color sun. This may not be worth doing due to speed problems. I am running X11 on a sun and notice that if I am using a color sun than the update of the screen is terrible. Presumably, the reason is that all 8 planes must be updated, unless one runs it monochromatically (I've never tried this but I heard that is the potential solution). Besides the fact that X11 is not particularly fast anyway, it is very slow and most people won't even work on the color sun since the update is too slow. On the other hand, since SunView doesn't view the screen this way, the update is much more reasonable with that windowing system. There are most likely two problems and/or solutions here: 1) What I said about all 8 planes being updated when running is color is true so one can give up trying to run color under X11 for any real performance or 2) something can be done to make it work correctly and/or better. My guess is that the problem occured since the port of X11 was not done by Sun Microsystems and they should know their machines best. One might take into account that under Sunview, one can run two desktops in a color system (one b/w, the other color) so obviously something different is going on there. Another poser: If the update is so slow on a color sun, why is it much better on a color HP running X11 in 8 planes? Any response to this will be appreciated. -=- Scott Whitman, Graduate Research Assistant in Computer Graphics slim@cis.ohio-state.edu or ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!slim The Ohio State University; 2036 Neil Ave. Columbus OH USA 43210-1277