Re: [Qemu-devel] Graphic card

[Mike Swanson <mikeonthecomputer@gmail.com>]

Well, it basically comes down to the fact that QEMU isn't so optimised
as much as VMware is. >_> I'm not really a developer, but I'll answer
as best as I can, and maybe somebody will correct me!

1. You can technically see videos right now, but yeah, it's not very
smooth. Oh, and the guest operating system itself will affect the
speed. Using Windows 2000, NT4, or Win95 would be a lot faster than
Windows XP (but you might not have any lower version). Someday, it
might be possible to see videos at a decent speed...
2. Not sure what you're asking, really
3. Perhaps, but there's two things here. First of all, the card would
have to be documented in a fair amount of low-level detail, something
that big video card companies rarely or never do. Secondly, the
complexity of the card might make its emulated implementation even
slower than the Cirrus one used currently
4. It sounds reasonable, but it undermines one of QEMU's goals:
running guest operating system without modification (and drivers
certainly count as one). Also, it'll possibly limit the number of
operating systems you'd run in QEMU with fancy graphics...
implementing Cirrus makes it possible to run many OSes with no (or
few) video problems, including Windows 95, Win NT 4, almost every
GNU/Linux, almost every BSD, Solaris, Darwin, Plan 9, QNX, DOS, BeOS,
etc.

On 10/29/05, Ricardo Almeida <ric.almeida@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  I'm sure you got this asked over and over again, but I joined the list
> recently :o)
>
>  I've installed qemu+kemu on linux and installed windows XP on it. The
> graphic card is slow :( and it's not possible to see videos :(
>
>  1- Will it be possible to see videos when some day the graphic card code is
> enhanced?
>  2- Cirrus card is too slow/some other issue to see videos?
>  3- Why not implement some betther graphic card with 3d support like 3DFX
> Voodoo3 (I believe it was the first 3DFX that was also a graphic card and
> not just a 3d accelarator)?
>  4- Why not implement some Qemu special driver for common installed systems
> that names itself as a Cirrus driver but it's a vmware-like driver.
>
>  I believe (4) should be the fastest, but I think the best relation "work
> required - benefit" is (3) as it works faster off-the-shelf with all the
> operating systems...
>
>  Regards,
>  Ricardo Almeida

--
Mike