'2D on Quartz Extreme'
I was reading an interview with two ATi engineers over at Inside Mag Games [http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/view.php?ID=240]. In it, one of them mentions '2D on Quartz Extreme', which (apparently) finally offers 2D acceleration from graphics cards for the GUI.
Read the article and tell me what you think. Will this speed up window resizing?
Quote:
In Jaguar, Apple innovated using the 3D hardware to accelerate the window manager interface. In Panther they built on their previous work and leveraged Quartz Extreme to create really cool apps and effects that improve the user's experience, such as picture in picture in iChat AV, tiling all the on screen windows in Expose, the cool 3D cube transition when switching between multiple users, and also the "2D on Quartz Extreme" technology which apps can enable, that lets OpenGL handle drawing the contents of windows and can result in up to 10x speed boosts.
In Jaguar, Apple innovated using the 3D hardware to accelerate the window manager interface. In Panther they built on their previous work and leveraged Quartz Extreme to create really cool apps and effects that improve the user's experience, such as picture in picture in iChat AV, tiling all the on screen windows in Expose, the cool 3D cube transition when switching between multiple users, and also the "2D on Quartz Extreme" technology which apps can enable, that lets OpenGL handle drawing the contents of windows and can result in up to 10x speed boosts.
Read the article and tell me what you think. Will this speed up window resizing?
Comments
We'll be seeing more and more of that, as GPUs get more sophisticated and more programmable.
That we'll be be seeing more of what BuonRotto doesn't understand or more of 2d Quartz acceleration?
Originally posted by Mac The Fork
Why would applications need to enable this feature?
Remember that this is from ATi's point of view, which is pretty far down the system. Since Apple's Foundation and frameworks are part of almost any application, Apple should be able to turn it on in a way that doesn't require the software that end users think of as applications to worry about it if they don't want to.
On the other hand, there are some things, like window resizing, which are application dependent, and in that case, it really would be up to the individual application to make whatever calls would allow the GPU to do some of the lifting involved in resizing and reflowing the contents of the window - to the extent that's possible, which will vary.
Originally posted by Amorph
More of what BuonRotto doesn't understand. I've heard that it's Steve's personal mission to leave the poor guy baffled and poleaxed.
Whoa, careful there, boy! Your're gonna hurt yourself tryin' stunts like that.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913):
Poleax \\Pole"ax`\\, Poleaxe \\Pole"axe`\\, n. [OE. pollax; cf. OD.
pollexe. See Poll head, and Ax.]
Anciently, a kind of battle-ax with a long handle; later, an
ax or hatchet with a short handle, and a head variously
patterned; -- used by soldiers, and also by sailors in
boarding a vessel.
-----------------
From WordNet (r) 1.7:
poleaxe
n 1: an ax used to slaughter cattle; has a hammer opposite the
blade [syn: poleax]
2: a battle ax used in the Middle Ages; a long handled ax and a
pick [syn: poleax]
v : fell with or as if with a poleax [syn: poleax]
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Whoa, careful there, boy! Your're gonna hurt yourself tryin' stunts like that.
I've been a gaming geek long enough to know what a poleaxe is, boy.
Apparently your dictionaries missed the most entertaining definition (and the one I used) which means stunned or struck speechless.
If 2D acceleration is real, then to be useful it's going to have to be as transparent to the user and developer as QE is... GLterm replaces all the text rendering of Quartz with its own, based on X11's font system. Heck, it may just require you to install X11 and use that, but in any case it's not Cocoa/Carbon/Java compatible.