Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms.programmer
Path: funic!fuug!mcsun!sunic!kth.se!nada.kth.se!nathus
From: nathus@nada.kth.se (Mikael Kindborg)
Subject: BitBlt is too slow
Message-ID: <1993Feb3.094252.17287@kth.se>
Originator: nathus@dront.nada.kth.se
Sender: usenet@kth.se (Usenet)
Nntp-Posting-Host: dront.nada.kth.se
Reply-To: nathus@nada.kth.se (Mikael Kindborg)
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1993 09:42:52 GMT



I want to do high performance animation in Windows, and find
BitBlt far too slow. Are there any lower level functions
available? Would the Device Driver Development Kit help?
We are thinking of programming the VGA card directly, but
it would be nice to maintain device independence, at least
to some extent. Another annoying issue is that it is said to
be impossible to alter the palette in 16 color VGA mode.
This should also be possible by programming the VGA registers.
Anyone has experinces s/he is willing to share?. Anyone
knows which method AVI (Video for Windows) and QuickTime for
Windows use?

I work at Naturens Hus ("Nature's House" in English) which is an 
educational center in Stockholm, Sweden. 
School kids come here to discover different aspects of nature. 
Among other things, we develop educational computer games, 
which kids can play with and copy for use at home. We have been 
working mostly with the Mac and are now extending our work to the 
PC. We prefer to program for Windows, but the poor performance of 
BitBlt has made us looking for alternative methods. For instance, 
we have looked at WAP (Windows Animation Package by Brian L 
Goble (see rec.games.programmer for more info).

In our project we have developed a story-telling technique for
multimedia programs (actually, we prefer using the terms "games"
or "educational games" in favour of "multimedia <something> since 
computer games are much more stimulating and interactive than
typical state of the art multimedia systems, which tends to be 
quite boring and outdated).
This story-telling technique is based on communication
principles used in film and drama. If anyone is interested I will be 
happy to discuss our findings with you. Our project is affiliated to
the University of Stockholm and the Royal Institute of 
Technology. 

Thanks for any help on this matter!

Mikael Kindborg

Snail-mail:
Naturens Hus
Stora Skuggan
S-115 42 Stockholm

Phone: +46 8 16 70 30
Fax: + 46 8 16 70 20




