On 2/12/07, Rolf Kalbermatter r.kalbermatter@hccnet.nl wrote:
The issue about network transparency for the display driver would not be an issue IMO. Once complete the DIB engine would handle all DIB operations locally and so no need for translating direct memory access into remote calls to some display server would be necessary. And the blitting of DIBs to the display when necessary would still be done through the driver of course so everything would be transparent as far as the capabilities of the used display device itself allow for that.
What about the case where you draw with GDI, then render with OpenGL on top of that, then draw on top of that with GDI, then swap buffers? If you draw only client-side, you have to copy to the server, then copy back, then copy to the server *again*. You have to upload or download the image *every time* you go between OpenGL and GDI drawing, whereas when you draw with X11, there is no uploads/downloads unless you use DIB sections and draw directly.
X11 drawing has some more advantages, like being able to use forms of hardware acceleration (XAA/EXA) that client-side drawing can't.
A pure client-side drawing strategy is IMO inferior to a strategy where you can draw client-side or server-side, as the need arises.
Rolf Kalbermatter
Damjan Jovanovic