abrash-black-book/39-02.md
2013-12-30 20:26:41 +11:00

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At any rate, Listing 39.1 for this chapter shows a version of
**DrawHorizontalLineList** that uses memset to draw each scan line of
the polygon in a single call. When linked to Chapter 38's test program,
Listing 39.1 increases pure drawing speed (disregarding edge tracing and
other nondrawing time) by more than an order of magnitude over Chapter
38's draw-pixel-based code, despite the fact that Listing 39.1 requires
a large (in this case, the Compact) data model. Listing 39.1 works fine
with Borland C++, but may not work with other compilers, for it relies
on the aforementioned interaction between memset and the selected memory
model.
* * * * *
Implementation
Total Polygon\
Filling Time
DrawHorizontal\
LineList
ScanEdge
FillConvex\
Polygon
* * * * *
Drawing to display memory in mode 13h
C floating point scan/DrawPixel drawing code from Chapter 38, (small
model)
11.69
5.80 seconds\
(50% of total)
5.86\
(50%)
0.03\
(\<1%)
C floating point scan/memset drawing (Listing 39.1, compact model)
6.64
0.49\
(7%)
6.11\
(92%)
0.04\
(\<1%)
C integer scan/memset drawing (Listing 39.1 & Listing 39.2, compact
model)
0.60
0.49\
(82%)
0.07\
(12%)
0.04\
(7%)
C integer scan/ASM drawing (Listing 39.2 & Listing 39.3, small model)
0.45
0.36\
(80%)
0.06\
(13%)
0.03\
(7%)
ASM integer scan/ASM drawing (Listing 40.3 & Listing 40.4,small model)
0.42
0.36\
(86%)
0.03\
(7%)
0.03\
(7%)
Drawing to system memory
C integer scan/memset drawing (Listing 39.1 & Listing 39.2,compact
model)
0.31
0.20\
(65%)
0.07\
(23%)
0.04\
(13%)
ASM integer scan/ASM drawing (Listing 39.3 & Listing 39.4,small model)
0.13
0.07\
(54%)
0.03\
(23%)
0.03\
(23%)
All times are in seconds, as measured with Turbo Profiler on a 20-MHz
cached 386 with no math coprocessor installed. Note that time spent in
**main()** is not included. C code was compiled with Borland C++ with
maximum optimization (-G -O -Z -r -a); assembly language code was
assembled with TASM. Percentages of combined times are rounded to the
nearest percent, so the sum of the three percentages does not always
equal 100.
* * * * *
Table 39.1 Polygon fill performance.
* * * * *
**LISTING 39.1 L39-1.C**
/* Draws all pixels in the list of horizontal lines passed in, in
mode 13h, the VGA's 320x200 256-color mode. Uses memset to fill
each line, which is much faster than using DrawPixel but requires
that a large data model (compact, large, or huge) be in use when
running in real mode or 286 protected mode.
All C code tested with Borland C++. */
#include <string.h>
#include <dos.h>
#include "polygon.h"
#define SCREEN_WIDTH 320
#define SCREEN_SEGMENT 0xA000
void DrawHorizontalLineList(struct HLineList * HLineListPtr,
int Color)
{
struct HLine *HLinePtr;
int Length, Width;
unsigned char far *ScreenPtr;
/* Point to the start of the first scan line on which to draw */
ScreenPtr = MK_FP(SCREEN_SEGMENT,
HLineListPtr->YStart * SCREEN_WIDTH);
/* Point to the XStart/XEnd descriptor for the first (top)
horizontal line */
HLinePtr = HLineListPtr->HLinePtr;
/* Draw each horizontal line in turn, starting with the top one and
advancing one line each time */
Length = HLineListPtr->Length;
while (Length-- > 0) {
/* Draw the whole horizontal line if it has a positive width */
if ((Width = HLinePtr->XEnd - HLinePtr->XStart + 1) > 0)
memset(ScreenPtr + HLinePtr->XStart, Color, Width);
HLinePtr++; /* point to next scan line X info */
ScreenPtr += SCREEN_WIDTH; /* point to next scan line start */
}
}
At this point, I'd like to mention that benchmarks are notoriously
unreliable; the results in Table 39.1 are accurate *only* for the test
program, and only when running on a particular system. Results could be
vastly different if smaller, larger, or more complex polygons were
drawn, or if a faster or slower computer/VGA combination were used.
These factors notwithstanding, the test program does fill a variety of
polygons of varying complexity sized from large to small and in between,
and certainly the order of magnitude difference between Listing 39.1 and
the old version of **DrawHorizontalLineList** is a clear indication of
which code is superior.
Anyway, Listing 39.1 has the desired effect of vastly improving drawing
time. There are cycles yet to be had in the drawing code, but as tracing
polygon edges now takes 92 percent of the polygon filling time, it's
logical to optimize the tracing code next.
#### Fast Edge Tracing {#Heading5}
There's no secret as to why last chapter's **ScanEdge** was so slow: It
used floating point calculations. One secret of fast graphics is using
integer or fixed-point calculations, instead. (Sure, the floating point
code would run faster if a math coprocessor were installed, but it would
still be slower than the alternatives; besides, why require a math
coprocessor when you don't have to?) Both integer and fixed-point
calculations are fast. In many cases, fixed-point is faster, but integer
calculations have one tremendous virtue: They're completely accurate.
The tiny imprecision inherent in either fixed or floating-point
calculations can result in occasional pixels being one position off from
their proper location. This is no great tragedy, but after going to so
much trouble to ensure that polygons don't overlap at common edges, why
not get it exactly right?
In fact, when I tested out the integer edge tracing code by comparing an
integer-based test image to one produced by floating-point calculations,
two pixels out of the whole screen differed, leading me to suspect a bug
in the integer code. It turned out, however, that's in those two cases,
the floating point results were sufficiently imprecise to creep from
just under an integer value to just over it, so that the **ceil**
function returned a coordinate that was one too large.
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![](images/i.jpg) *Floating point is very accurate—but it is not precise. Integer calculations, properly performed, are.*
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