In article <37efffe5@news.povray.org>, "Thorsten Froehlich"
<tho### [at] trfde> wrote:

>In article <jer### [at] cerebusacusdedu> , jer### [at] acusdedu 
>(Jerry) wrote:
>
>> a) the unofficial compile is a lot faster than I thought it was in my home
>> configuration.
>
>Simply turn off the preview and measure again (see below), please!   Read
>the official Mac documentation, please, please, please!

Sorry, I was measuring this for my use (hence the "nonrigorous"
adjective). I always use the preview, so the relevant speed for me is with
preview on.

I no longer have the 233 to perform more testing.

>> f) The difference in parsing time *may* be because of the slowness of the
>> official compile in writing the vista buffers to the display. (The
>> unofficial may be writing them off-display; it certainly appears
>> instantaneous)
>
>You need to make sure both versions have the *same* settings!

Both were set to display the vista buffers. The unofficial compile seemed
to display them much faster--instantaneously, whereas the official compile
seemed to draw each box separately.

>> g) There doesn't seem to be much of any difference between the official
>> and unofficial compiles on the Rev.1 machine--at least, compared to the
>> big differences on the Rev.2 and G4!
>
>This is obviously a setup error on your side. :-(

That was my thought as well, so I ran that test twice; this was also the
reason I added the "extensions off" test, in the hopes that whatever was
causing the difference would not load. This was with the same POV settings
that I used on the G4 and on the Rev.2 G3. As you pointed out, I did not
use the same settings file for both compiles, but I did use the same
settings file across machines for each compile. When I get some G4s in our
lab, they'll be set up exactly the same as the rev.1 G3s in that lab; I'll
see if I can do some more rigorous testing when that happens.

>> h) the speed increase on the G4 vs. the Rev.2 machine appears to be
>> hovering right around 1/3 faster--which is just what you might expect from
>> the 400 MHz chip vs. a 300 MHz chip?
>
>Yes, what did you expect? :-)

Given your earlier explanation, exactly that :*)

>NOTE: It is simply *impossible* that the unofficial compile (the one from
>the Smellenberghs?) is anything faster than a few percent points simply
>because there is *no* difference between the source code (except how the
>preview is implemented) and *no* difference between compilers! All these
>differences (if preview is off) are user setup errors, sorry!

Yes, the one from the Smellenberghs. Do those differences make sense if
preview is on? I've occasionally turned preview off to get the greater
speed, and just can't handle it, especially for the long renders that
require the greater speed. I need to see what's going on!

I didn't actually switch to the unofficial compile for speed, I did so
because I need the Object Bounds patch for working with text. (In fact, I
had looked at the unofficial about a year ago, and decided against using
it; I prefer the less-cluttered interface on the official compile; but I
do a *lot* of work with text in POV, and really need the object bounds
patch, which was recently added.)

Jerry
http://www.hoboes.com/jerry/

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