>From: gww <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Not-yet-supported Quartz Extreme?
>
>Folks,
>
>The next version of Mac OS X ("Jaguar") includes "Quartz Extreme". Let's call
>it QX for short.
>
>Quartz is the standard 2D display system for Mac OS X and is (you probably
>know) effectively an implementation of Adobe's Display PostScript - like with
>NeXT - but done to PDF (Acrobat) standards rather than the official Display
>PostScript. By doing it this way, Apple (I think) avoided paying PostScript
>licence fees to Adobe. The happy side-effect is that any OS X application can
>create PDF files simply by printing to a PDF format file. Saves buying Acrobat
>Distiller.Another side effect is that PDF uses objects instead of make-this-point-and-draw-a-line-to-here. Meshes much better with the Cocoa framework. Note that there are advantages to creating PDF files from Distiller (or some other app) in certain cases. >QX takes this a stage further. QX converts the 2D screen image to be an OpenGL >scene. This scene can then be rendered more quickly because modern graphics >cards have accelerated support for the OpenGL libraries. Hence, doing it this >way, Apple have created "Hardware-accelerated-Display-PostScript" without >needing anyone else's support. Neat. Maybe the words '2D screen image' should be replaced with '2D screen scene'. Some screen drawing functions are accelrated (processed on the graphics card) now in 2D (wasn't there a thread about accelration support for older cards...). The avantage of using OpenGL is that more of the screen drawing is done on the graphics card, which is better suited to that job than the CPU, and is closer to the buffer that is seen on the monitor. >I'm not aware that equivalent technology is yet available on PC (whether under >Windows or under Linux/BSD). Microsoft has announced similar technology for Windows XP. It is probably based on DirectX, not OpenGL. I am not sure when it is scheduled to be released. Since the XWindow servers are coded closely to specific graphics chips, the Linux GUI may use more of the graphics capabilities of video cards now than either current MacOS or Windows. I think IRIX may use a good portion of the graphics capabilities of the SGI machines it runs on, again, probably not to the extent of Quartz Extreme. One thing to think about, no other GUI is so slow that it needs this type of acceleration ;) >Downside is that QX only works officially on supported AGP cards with 32 MB >VRAM. 'Works best with 32 MB' and 'needs 32 MB' are two different things. I believe all announcements have been 'works best with 32 MB' and 'works with 16 MB'. >Supported cards are ATI Radeons and various GeForce. Yes, those shipped by Apple. >However: it may be >that there is still limited support for lesser spec PCI cards, such >as might be >used in unsupported Mac systems. Please tell us of any successes here. If those cards support all the OpenGL calls used by Quartz Extreme, and have (good, solid) OpenGL drivers. Newer cards support more OpenGL calls. >Note, in passing, that QX depends on the graphics card, not the Mac. Hence it >should work just as well on a PC implementation of Mac OS X. Not that Apple >would ever produce such a thing, I'm sure... Or if Apple bought SGI and released OS X for the Octane ;) -- Charles Dostale System Administrator Silver Oaks Communications http://www.silveroaks.com 824 17th Street Moline IL USA 61265 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 309-797-9898 -- Unsupported OS X is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Unsupported OS X list info <http://lowendmac.com/lists/unsupported.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive <http://www.mail-archive.com/unsupportedosx%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
