[MPlayer-dev-eng] Should I write Voodoo Banshee VIDIX driver?

[Arpi]

Hi,

> I just wondered if I write Voodoo Banshee/Voodoo 3 VIDIX driver will
> be there any theoretical speedup compared to XVideo?

to shitty xvideo, yes. to tdfx_vid, no.
the tdfx_vid driver already pushes the iron to its limit.
the main poblem that tdfx hardware cannot natively handle yv12
colorspace, used by all mpeg1/2/4/divx codecs.
so you have to do some conversion/preparation in software and it
takes cpu time. also it isn't so fast in data transfer, the chip
itself doesnt support agp transfers (not even teh agp version of
the card, it's just pci wires in the agp slot).
maybe driving teh card in pci busmastering mode and do dma
transfer could help, but it's more than a vidix driver can do,
you need deep kernel hacking for that.


A'rpi / Astral & ESP-team

--
Developer of MPlayer G2, the Movie Framework for all - http://www.MPlayerHQ.hu