Do these Apps utilize Alti-vec?

[MajorMatt]

iTunes
iMovie
Stuffit

The QuakeIII engine?

[Jonathan]

as far as i know

yes
yes
no

in os x.

[MajorMatt]

Why are my iTunes frame rates so terrible then?

[Brad]

AltiVec isn't used in the visualizer; it's used in the encoder.

[Brad]

BTW, the AltiVec optimizations for Quake III are minimal and pathetic. Graeme Devine (the key id Mac programmer) promised over and over again that the AltiVec optimizations would blow us away and make the Mac the leading Quake III platform with FPS's dusting the PC OCers.

Yeah, right. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> :rolleyes:

[MajorMatt]

Quake III code is the pinnacle of efficiency compared to how unoptomized Return to Castle Wolfenstein is, although RTCW is based on Quake III engine the frame rates are only 1/3 of Quake III.

The PC version of RTCW has been released, the Mac release should be around christmas, btw.

[jethro]

[quote]Originally posted by MajorMatt:
<strong>Why are my iTunes frame rates so terrible then?</strong><hr></blockquote>

OS X has a hard time painting any large area with high frame rates in general, it's not just iTunes.

Unfortunately it affects many more apps than just iTunes, try using the grabby scroll hand in an app like Illustrator to experience true horror.

[G-Dog]

does iMovie use altivec when rendering? I see that it does when exporting, but, I don't see much difference in rendering between my dual800 OSX.1.1 640RAm and my iMac500 256ram osx.1.1