What is needed for speedup Amicygnix ???

Hello,

Amicygnix is a verry verry great software package for the Amiga. Help a lot to use PC world data on Amiga computer.

The Only problem is the lack of speed on SAM motherboards and Little more will be greatly appreciated

As I'm just a simple user, I would like to have some explanations about the needed stuff to have Amicygnix running with more speed.

- Is it just nothing to do and wait after GFX driver updated on the next update of AOS4 (OpenGL,....) ????

- There are something on the Amicygnix code that should be updated to have better speed also ???

- Allready the speed could be better by using special settings before launching Amicygnix (the setting program), or during the use of Amicygnix (inside the settings menus) ???

Yes, I would like to see if the futur will give more speed on Amicygnix and if just new AOS4 update will enhance a lot the speed of Amicygnix or lots of work must be done on Amicygnix for the same result, or both....

Thanks for your comments on this thread

@Mrodfr

OpenGL isn't the answer, drawing some rectangles with text cannot be that complicated.

@Mrodfr

Amicygnix might improve from AOS4.x update but I dont expect it because this project has nothing to do with AOS4 dev. and is the work of one man (Edgar Schwan).

@Mrodfr

Get faster hardware?

faster hardware, OpenGL wouldn't speed it much.

@Mrodfr

Quote:
Will not help. The X server renders everything with own routines.


Quote:
Because of the above reason, it should speed up the server, if he uses the system routines for scrolling and things like this. I'm working on this, but had not much success so far.


Quote:
There are several ways to speed up AmiCygnix. You could try to use a faster window manager. If you have installed the AmiCygnix tools package, you can select the window manager "mwm" in myX11Setup. On SAM systems it should help a little bit.

But I think one the biggest problems are the aliased fonts. By default GTK2 programs on AmiCygnix are only using TTF and Type1 fonts. The normal X fonts are not used. You could compare for example "xedit" (X app) with "leafpad" (GTK2 app). Have a look at the panel menu.

So you ask, how you can make the X fonts available to GTK2 programs?
Stop AmiCygnix and create a file called ".fonts.conf" in "Cygnix:Home/root" with this content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!-- Font directory list -->
<dir>/Cygnix/CygnixPPC/X11R6.3/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi</dir>
</fontconfig>

This adds the following X fonts to the system: LucidaTypewriter, New Century Schoolbook, Times, Helvetica, Utopia, Charter and others.

Afterwards call "Cygnix:CygnixPPC/bin/fc-cache -v -f" in a shell to update the font caches.

Launch AmiCygnix again. Launch the GTK2 prefs editor with the menu item "Settings/Appearance" and select a X font (e.g. "Lucida Typewriter") and click on "apply" + "close". Afterwards every GTK2 app uses this font for it's GUI. Don't forget to select a X font in the application.

I don't know, how much this increases speed on SAM. Would be nice, if you could tell me.

Finally you could select the "Default" theme in the GTK2 prefs editor.

@Mrodfr
IMHO optimising the graphics routines to use the graphics card (blitter) instead of the CPU for stuff like scrolling would make a massive difference. But I have no idea how difficult that would be (presumably not easy or it would have already been done).

@cygnusEd

Just did a complete fresh install on my second SAM flex, all working great, no sign of those problems I emailed you about on my first SAM. The difference being I used SF2 on this one and FFS on the other, I will reinstall on that later.

I added the X fonts, all went smoothly and I reckon it does speed things up a touch, Abiword seems to scroll a bit smoother, of course it all may be wishful thinking!

Brilliant package mate, well done. Any new apps planned?

ace

@acefnq

hope to see a fully working Gimp...

@CygnusEd

Excusme...but I dont think antialiased fonts and various theme changings will helps on gfx refresh(that was the real problem) a lot...
Also dragging wiondows was really slow...
I think (excusme my ignorance) that we need an optimized X server...that use gfx board blitter and capabilities for screen rendering...
I know that was an hard task and dont pretend it...but I think that was the only way to speedup AmiCygnix...

However AmiCygniX was quite usable for reading docs or
sheet with AbiWord/Gnumeric(my main use of it atm...)...

Good Work!

@acefnq

Quote:Good news! I recommend to install AmiCygnix on a SFS partition.

Quote:Hmm - I thought it would help more, especially on a SAM. On my installation I switched to X fonts (Helvetica + Lucida) and it renders a bit faster. But it should not affect scrolling. This is a problem of the server.

Quote:Thanks
Next package will be a games collection. Only some simple games for waisting time. Also a SDK is in development.
I don't know, which app to release next, maybe this http://www.geany.org or this http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net.

@Tuxedo

Quote:I agree. An optimized server is the most important thing to increase performance. I hope I can make it. But also X fonts can help a little bit.

@cygnusEd

Definitely the paint package, we have a myriad of editors avaialble, more creative tools are better.

cheers
ace

Part of the problem might be interops. Given AmigaOS has a very fast message system, might be worth taking a peek at that to see if redundant layers can be stripped out on the X libraries and substituted with pointer exchanges.

@Mrodfr

Hello my friend. We have the same appreciation regarding AmiCygnix. It is a BRILLIANT package for our OS. But for us, SAM owners, is almost unusable. I only hope we get a lot faster hardware some day so we can make use of it. Until then, we will just have a slight idea of what AmiCygix is really capable of..

Have a look at this thread (well couple of posts) about speeding-up AmyCygnix. I don't know if it will help anyone or not though.

@ChrisH

Helps with scrolling I thought, much smoother.

@All

I'm happy my thread has given all this interest

For me Amicygnix is verry great and usefull also on a SAM. Just need to think to be patient when using after switching to the speedest AOS4.1

I haven't the SAM near me, for testing the font alias advice but will do that this end of afternoon, thanks for pointing this.

Hope the X-server will be improved in the futur


I remember testing amicygnix on a amicygnix P96pip window, days ago, on the workbench, but seing the result, IMHO, ugly, compared with amicygnix on his own screen (better picture).

EDIT: SUNDAY 18:24 PM:

Afterwards call "Cygnix:CygnixPPC/bin/fc-cache -v -f" in a shell to update the font caches.

How using the shell in amicygnix for the command ???

@Mrodfr


I don' think you need to use a special shell in Cygnix. At any rate, I just used the standard Amiga shell to run the cache update here, and the fonts show up in Cygnix for me.

@Edgar

On my A1 XE the font change doesn't really seem to make a difference. But then, I didn't think it was all that slow anyway.

Paul

@Mrodfr

Quote:

You have to use a normal amiga shell. There is no X shell like xterm available on AmiCygnix.

@cygnusEd

OK I have made the font change and script update and the default theme and no visually speed change (speed that could be really seen and feel) on the SAM here.

Thanks for testing this point and giving the advice.

the X-Server is the only key for better speed with Amicygnix apparently.