🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <bytor.713564132@milton> bytor@milton.u.washington.edu (Jill Patterson) writes:
>dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett) writes:
>
>>In article <Bsts4L.15r@news.cso.uiuc.edu> tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan) writes:
>>You're right, it wouldn't exhibit any more than drawing to a full
>>screen.  But it also wouldn't exhibit any less.  Hence: what's the
>>advantage?  You have to double buffer, whether you're using full-screen
>
> The advantage comes from the extra video memory you save by not having
>to allocate a second page area for the status display.  This also allows
>for the double buffered area to be flipped faster, since less of it will
>need to be displayed.
>
>         +-------------+
>         |             |
>         |             |  <- Double  buffered area
>         |-------------|
>         | Status Line |
>         +-------------+
>
>   The extra video memory can be used for sprite storage for use in
>   fast video to video copies.

That's yet another advantage. (Wish I'd thought of it ;-)

BTW, I double checked the Game Bytes mag (issue #2), and it IS Wolf 3D which
uses a split VGA screen. The situation is exactly as you've diagrammed
above. As for the flicker an earlier poster feared would result, Wolf 3D
has no apparent flicker, at least on my monitor. One way to insure a
flicker-free display is to only update the (always visible) status
portion during the vertical blank.