arrays and xms

[qbasicking]

I'm mainly a qbasic programmer, but needed a little bit more speed so I am going to be using some assembly, but I am new at it. If I allocate a large amount of XMS memory using a libary (written in either C or ASM) can I access parts of it, assuming that I pass the handle through the stack, or do I have to transfer the sprite from XMS to a regular array before I can access it.

If I use an assembly array:
sprite1 DB 10000 dup (0)

how large and how many such arrays can I have, is that restricted? My game has two megabyte in more than three hundred sprites.

 

[Thazager]

Not quite sure on mixxing the 2, but I know masm32 - windows assembly - can access and allocate memmory upto 128 meg. with 32 bit code. Might be able to have masm32 do it and then return the location to VB to use.

Thaz

 

[qbasicking]

No, I will be using this in a library for Qbasic, so it has to be 16bit

 

[Zeppster]

XMS returns a handle and not a pointer. So you would have to use XMS functions to access it. More than likely you'll have to do XMS functions in assembly and copy it to a pointer (dereferenced) for qbasic to use.