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if you were to write a game for dos, would your game take advantage of a nice graphics card, or do you have to be in a higher operating system (ie windows) with graphics drivers installed, for a nice graphics card to be of any use ?
thanks, and sorry if my question seems obscure.
For your program to take advantage of any graphics card features/acceleration you must be in an operating system such as windows, with the proper drivers. If you tried to program the use of your graphics card in DOS it would be hellatious, and the graphic restrictions of the DOS console would make anything you programmed unusable anyway
ok, thanks, i was just curious.
i was just trying to figure out if there is a way to use assembly to make graphics go even faster.
http://www.masm32.com/
you can use assembly with directx or opengl but using it wont make it go faster.
ah, then what is the point right? other than if i want to make my head explore. lol
But you can use vertex and shader assembler which does make it go faster.Quote:
you can use assembly with directx or opengl but using it wont make it go faster.
Because knowing assembly language well...will....IMHO make you a better programmer. In the end all that code is just pure assembly and if you know a little about how it all fits together you can program much more effectively...even in C/C++.Quote:
ah, then what is the point right? other than if i want to make my head explore. lol
I highly recommend at least learning assembly to the point that you can do simple small functions but more than that I recommend learning about the structure of Von Neumann architecture and the x86 family of CPUs.
There are now high level vertex shader languages like HLSL and Cg that are like the C equivalent to writing a program in pure assembly. But knowing assembly, even if just a little bit, will never hurt you and it's time well spent. I can't even begin to explain how much it has helped me. Do I use it frequently? No. But it does help me produce better C/C++ code (at least I hope it does). I wouldn't worry so much about being able to write a pure assembly language program as that will probably never be required of you - but at least learn enough to write a function or two and be able to call those functions from C programs.
There are some things in DirectX/OpenGL that assembly can indeed speed up. Otherwise half of the game companies out there would not require that you at least have some knowledge of assembler prior to qualifying for their programming positions. Assembler knowledge will also help you create your own 'languages' or scripting languages IMO.
Just learn it. You won't regret it.
Google for Randall Hyde's Art of Assembly Language Programming...and while it is old 16-bit, it is chocked full of enough information to turn you into an intermediate level assembler programmer. Porting to 32-bit is really not all that difficult, especially if you have the Intel x86 tech refs. They are available for download at www.intel.com
> would your game take advantage of a nice graphics card
It could, but you'd be locked to that specific make/model of graphics card, so your game would immediately have a much narrower audience.
As well as being a 32-bit platform, windows (or linux for that matter with OpenGL) give you a nice consistent interface no matter what graphics card is underneath it.
ok cool, and when i stated
i already know basic assembly, i actually learned it before i started c. so i was just saying how much longer it would take me to do stuff with assembly.Quote:
ah, then what is the point right? other than if i want to make my head explore. lol
thanks for all the info.
--variable
Then yeah you will not gain anything by just coding it in pure asm. Those days are long gone.
too bad in some ways, i always enjoyed writing in assembly, it felt like i was actually doing something, even if it did take me a couple hours to learn how to write a hello world app. i learned alot about hardware with assembly.
i've got a good DOS graphics library or two, if you want one :p
what kindof resolutions can u even achieve in dos?
lol why do you even care?Quote:
Originally Posted by variable
because dos is nostalgic to the max, and i was interested in what it can still do.
Nothing.