🚀 go-pugleaf

Excerpts from netnews.comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action: 29-Apr-94 Re: Is
there a VGA version .. by jfl...@charlie.usd.edu 
> >
> >       Title says all,  I wonder if there is or will be a VGA version of
> >doom.   I don't know much about programming,  but I figure it wouldn't be
> >that hard to do this, am I right?
> >
> >
> >Thanx
> >
>  
> Excuse me, but DOOM is already VGA.  It was from the beginning.  Unless, you
> meant SVGA?
>
> [And other comments about this question.]

    It's possible the original poster *did* mean SVGA resolutions.  There
*is* a reason why most VGA games are 320x200x256--actually a couple I can
think of.
    First, it's the only *standard* 256 color VGA resolution.  Even
640x480x256 is not a standard VGA resolution (though 640x480x16 is).
SVGA resolutions started out non-standardized; registers on different cards
would be in different memory places, BIOS calls were different.  So VESA
defined some standards for modes/card function.  But not all cards directly
support VESA and need software drivers (= using up memory).  But you'd have
to have VESA drivers for your card if you wanted to play.  The other
option would be to include drivers for Video 7, TSENG3/4, Orchid, and all
the main chipsets.  Either case would probably make for a lot of unsatisfied
customers.
    The other problem is memory.  DOOM is already pretty monstrous.  To have
good detail, there would probably be up to 4 times more data for a
640x480x256 game.  The registered version could have a 40 meg wad!  Ouch.
Compression would be possible, but that would likely affect the speed greatly.
And video also takes memory.  320x200x256 required < 1 64K page, so no
major memory block-swapping is needed.  At 640x480x256, the screen requires
> 64K, so to draw one screen, you'd have to swap memory banks at least once.
Doing that to get 20 frames per sec would really cripple the speed, and you
probably wouldn't be able to run on anything slower than a 486-66DX/2 with
VLB--which means a smaller pool of people playing the game.
    Personally, I'm happy with the 320x200x256 mode.
    Does this answer the questions people have?  (Comments welcome, flames
only begrudgingly welcome.)

-Scott E.
ti...@cmu.edu