It's not just animation, though, right? <br><br>Like the previous poster mentioned, any game that has a realtime simulation component is going to be using the CPU even when not responding to user input. Example of this would include games ranging from SimCity to Tetris.
<br><br>Similarly, any game with a computer player might use CPU when the human player isn't doing anything, whether it's a turn-based game like chess, or a realtime game like Galaga.<br><br>Also, for networked games, the local machine may have to use CPU when data comes in from a remote player.
<br><br>I would hesitate to use screensaver information outside of its intended use - I would certainly suspend most of my games when a screensaver activates, to be sure, but I would not rely on it to know when the user might be doing something else. For this, I imagine I'd first look to see if my window has lost focus, and additionally have a game-specific means for reverting to a low-CPU use mode when left unattended for long periods.
<br><br>-Dave LeCompte<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Dec 10, 2007 11:36 AM, Jim Gettys <<a href="mailto:jg@laptop.org">jg@laptop.org</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
In this case (animation), the games should "go quiet", if there is no<br>user input after a short period (say, 30 seconds). It is pretty easy to<br>get the window system to tell you when it has been idle, I believe (the
<br>X screen saver extension, for example).<br><br>When no animation, applications should be quiet as a tomb...<br><br>We can't rely on young kids to remember when to suspend a computer, I<br>don't think....<br><font color="#888888">
- Jim<br></font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>On Mon, 2007-12-10 at 17:28 -0200, Roberto Fagá wrote:<br>> Jim<br>><br>> This is specific of games which use many resources, like animations
<br>> and some more advanced graphics. I also think will be nice if screen /<br>> video driver supports other screen resolution, like 600x450 and less<br>> color depth if the only depth that XO works is 16bits. This can save
<br>> CPU/GPU to some games that need speed but not so much resolution...<br>><br>> The 100% using CPU happens only if you don't use anything to control<br>> framerate, and for it you can use the pygame clock,
time.sleep and the<br>> event.wait if you can freeze application while you wait for an event.<br>> Can happens too if the game / pygame application uses many resources,<br>> exactly as a GTK/Hippo activity does.<br>
><br>> []'s<br>><br>> On Dec 10, 2007 5:11 PM, Jim Gettys <<a href="mailto:jg@laptop.org">jg@laptop.org</a>> wrote:<br>> > There is one piece of this discussion that is scaring the bejesus out of
<br>> > me: the idea that an application should take *any* cpu time when the<br>> > user isn't doing anything... Is this specific to pygame based<br>> > applications? Or am I missing something?<br>> >
<br>> > Electricity doesn't grow on trees, you know.... In Peru, 55,000 of the<br>> > machines will be going to schools/kids with *no* electricity. And this<br>> > is just the beginning...<br>> > - Jim
<br>> ><br>> > --<br>> > Jim Gettys<br>> > One Laptop Per Child<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > _______________________________________________<br>> > Devel mailing list<br>
> > <a href="mailto:Devel@lists.laptop.org">Devel@lists.laptop.org</a><br>> > <a href="http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel" target="_blank">http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel</a><br>> ><br></div></div>
--<br><div class="Ih2E3d">Jim Gettys<br>One Laptop Per Child<br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br></div><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">Games mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Games@lists.laptop.org">
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