churritz@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Skito) (09/12/90)
Has anyone been able to run the fractal generating program Fractint in the background of enhaced mode? I've tried all the pif file combinations I could think of, but when ever I try to generate them in the background I get a message telling me I cant do it in the background. I have 386 33mhz, vga 640x480x16, and am using the fractint mode "f4". Can someone tell me the pif settings that can make this work? Is it even possible to run high graphics routines like this in the background of windows? thanks in advance. -skito
guy@contact.uucp (Guy Lemieux) (09/14/90)
In <26ed5518.2eac@petunia.CalPoly.EDU> churritz@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Skito) writes: >Has anyone been able to run the fractal generating program Fractint >in the background of enhaced mode? I've tried all the pif file combinations >I could think of, but when ever I try to generate them in the background >I get a message telling me I cant do it in the background. >I have 386 33mhz, vga 640x480x16, and am using the fractint mode "f4". >Can someone tell me the pif settings that can make this work? >Is it even possible to run high graphics routines >like this in the background of windows? >thanks in advance. >-skito Sorry, Windows 3.0 will not run a graphics program in the background. Period.
aaron@jessica.stanford.edu (Aaron Wallace) (09/15/90)
In article <1990Sep14.015721.813@contact.uucp> guy@contact.uucp (Guy Lemieux) writes: >Sorry, Windows 3.0 will not run a graphics program in the background. Period. Funny. I had a Sierra game running in a window; the game normally does some simple animation when waiting for input. Sure 'nuff, the animation continues when the game isn't the active application. It's a bit slow, but it is a graphics program running in the background. I have a Hercules card--that may be the difference... Aaron Wallace
jls@hsv3.UUCP (James Seidman) (09/15/90)
In article <1990Sep14.015721.813@contact.uucp> guy@contact.uucp (Guy Lemieux) writes: >Sorry, Windows 3.0 will not run a graphics program in the background. Period. Sorry, but Windows 3.0 *will* run graphics programs in the background. You just need to clarify the situation a little. For example, I can run a 640x480x16 graphics program in a window using the 8514/A driver, because the Virtual Display Driver which comes with the 8514/A supports that. The problem with the VGA VDD is that Microsoft short-sightedly said, "Well, who's going to run a 640x480 display in a window on a 640x480 desktop?" without thinking that some of us might have 1024x768 VGAs. I think, however, that you can pull off 320x200 resolutions (oh boy) and the like in a window on the VGA. -- Jim Seidman (Drax), the accidental engineer. UUCP: ames!vsi1!headland!jls ARPA: jls%headland.UUCP@ames.nasa.arc.gov
tarquin@athena.mit.edu (Robert P Poole) (09/16/90)
>Sorry, Windows 3.0 will not run a graphics program in the background. Period.
Actually, if you read the documentation for the latest version of Fractint
(I believe it's 14.0, and can be gotten on Simtel 20 and other places), you can
do background fractal plotting using machine ram rather than video ram. Read
the stuff on ram video and disk video. Disk video is slower -- fractint
pretends that a particular file on your hard disk is a video display, and so
you can definitely use that option with windows. You just won't be able to
directly display the results. Since Fractint 14.0 supports the new gif89a GIF
format set down by compuserve (a backwards compatible format with the old
gif87a format), you can use one of the popular GIF viewing programs available
for Windows. The particluar GIF viewer I have in mind runs under 3.0 with
no difficulties.
Anybody know if there's a GIF viewer for Windows that supports the gif89a
standard?
--
Robert P. Poole tarquin@athena.mit.edu
46 Massachusetts Avenue MIT Course VIII
311B Bexley Hall "I love the smell of napalm early in the
Cambridge, MA 02139 morning. Smells like... victory!"