Early Critique of Netbook GMA Video

This isn't a review. I've really only barely used the system for a 3 hour (distraction heavy) work session. But something I've observed.

Currently, I run the game on the system windowed. A 480x320 popup that I can click in all I like. Fullscreen may improve these findings, but I'm not sure yet. Not a priority ... yet.

Currently my game runs well above 60fps. I'm extremely light on overdraw, perhaps 3x a 480x320 screen max. But the questionable slowdown is capture. Right now, when I perform a full screen capture to texture (OpenGL), the game freezes for roughly half a second. Compared to the iPhone where I maybe lose a frame.

This isn't a big issue per se, just an observation. The Aspire One does ship with some out of date Intel drivers. Doing whatever 'nix kung fu that's required to install drivers may fix this. Not to mention, running full screen may fix this too.

Still, I wanted to note this observation.


Anyways, I'm not sure how much more use I'll get out of the system this week. My current TODO list is mostly art and sound creation. I know there's still bugs hidden inside, but I might be a while before I get back to this.

As a first impression review, I'd say I'm happy with the system. I have a Canadian model, so my left shift key is tinier, but I'm surprisingly used to it already. Compile time isn't too bad. It's powerful enough for me to work on. But there's still work to be done.

Because it's Linux, I'm optimistic that I'll be able to do some unheard tweaks (to Windows users). Right now the boot time is really fast. Probably 15-20 seconds, but with all this comotion of the 5 second 'nix boot, I might start exploring what I can do with a stock Linpus.

What I can get out of a stock machine is important to me. I'm not the most Linux savvy, even though I do have the odd 'nix box around the house. I want to trust that the OEM's did *something* right to make a stock system worth using. The current boot time is certainly a sign of that (unlike talked about Ubuntu boot times of 45+ seconds).

Anyways, back to the grind.