Re: Doom Conversion (was Dragons Lair

[snakey@destiny.dorm.umd.edu (David Ross)]

Leslie M. Barstow III (wdphoenix@delphi.com) wrote:
: Re: the Wolf3D port....
:  
: I thought the Wolfenstein 3-D code was now pretty much public domain...
: Games using it have been coming out left and right on many systems lately.
:  
: As for Doom - it would be rough, but not even close to impossible.  It utilizes
: a lot of cheap tricks to keep the amount of data down to something reasonable...
: And speed - well, figure a GS is a multiple of 5 or 6 faster than a 386, and
: about half that (around 3 times) faster than a 486 going the same speed.  So,
: a 9Mhz system can do about the same as a 27MHz 486.  The problem comes when
: you start talking graphics... they only operate at 1MHz right now.  Of course,
: that may change a bit when either of these cards come out.  The bright side is
: that you can do all the math you want - provided you have a limited amount of
: I/O processing, you're safe...
:  
: --
: Leslie M. Barstow III    | Disclaimer:  We don't need no stinkin' disclaimer!
:                          | Send Flames to alt.dev.null
:                          | Organization:  Wandering Damage.
: WDPHOENIX@delphi.com     | Project:  Try To Take Over The World.

Um...  I have a GS, I love my GS, but I'd just like to make this comment to
bring all of you back to reality.  Doom runs under it's own 32 bit OS on PCs,
and does _not_ use floating point, so it can run fine on a 486sux.  The problem
is this...  A 486 25 is not only faster than the fastest GS, but even the
slowest video still has an 8mhz bus bandwith to play with (ISA)  The GS's bus
is like 1 or 2mhz.  Doom could not be ported (most importantly because of the
32 bit issue.)  Be happy you have wolf 3d.  I'd say that the GS community needs
to do something a little more productive, like fiddle with what things
are feasable with the SS or TR, or generally keep sights set on feasable things
such as TCP/IP, or even a new OS.  (Linux?  :) )  The fax software is the
perfect example of this.  Maybe a decent idea would be to start up that
emulator project again.  GS doom would certainly be possible on a virtual GS
with an effective speed of 60mhz or so (I'm thinking of the future here...
with 150mhz Pentiums and the like)   :)

David Ross
snakey@cs.umd.edu

.