Update README.md

README.md

@@ -2,31 +2,25 @@
 
 RetroDebian Live is a custom live distro built on **Debian Etch** for **retro gaming on classic x86 hardware**.
 
-It is made for machines like the **Pentium II** and **Pentium III**, with one goal:  
-deliver a **fast, light, period-appropriate Linux system** for old games, old GPUs, and old hardware experiments.
+<img src="./pics/ScreenShot.png" width="800" height="600" />
 
-This is not a modern desktop squeezed onto old hardware.  
-It is a purpose-built retro system.
+It is made for **Pentium II** and **Pentium III**, with one goal:  
+Deliver a **fast, light, period-appropriate Linux system, properly configured** for old games, old GPUs, and old hardware experiments.
+
+This is not a modern desktop squeezed onto old hardware, it is a purpose-built retro system.
 
 ## Features
 
 - Debian Etch userspace
 - Custom 2.6.24-based kernel
 - Live boot with SquashFS + UnionFS
-- Lightweight Fluxbox desktop
+- Lightweight fined-tuned Fluxbox desktop
 - Fast startup and low overhead
 - Built as a base for 3dfx, Glide, UT99, and hardware test tools
-
-## Current state
-
-The system already boots and runs as a real live distro with the custom kernel.
-
-The next steps are:
-- desktop polish
-- 3dfx integration
-- custom tools
-- Unreal Tournament 99
-- optional installer support
+- Missmatched Voodoo 2 SLI support
+- Pentium III optimized (but Pentium II compatible)
+- Bare minimum tools included : text editor, smbfs, htop, (fake) neofetch, term
+- Copy/Past mostly everywhere (seems obvious but not that easy at that era on non-standard desktops )
 
 ## Philosophy
 
@@ -40,6 +34,45 @@ Multiple ISO will be generated, including different GPU Drivers.
 
 The current focus is on 3DFX Voodoo2 :)
 
-## Technical note
+## Current state
+
+The system already boots and runs as a real live distro with the custom kernel.
+
+The next steps are:
+
+- Improved / Cleaned build pipeline 
+- More tools / configuration shortcuts
+- MesaFX integration
+- Derived versions for other games ( probably limited to demo because most of them arent free ) + full version (DVD)
+- Derived versions for other platforms (NVIDIA)
+- Online apt repository for iso self-update
+
+
+## Technical notes
+
+The project is built with a custom kernel, `live-helper`, Docker, and Jenkins.
+
+The choice of Debian Etch is a compromise as it offers an official way to have *updated* kernel through etchnhalf (well.. still early 2.6 branch :) ) but still uses older user-space software. It allows better hardware compatibility with less overhead. 
+
+The Desktop environment is carefully configured to provide a nice user-experience, far ahead from Debian Fluxbox defaults.
+
+This imply a few hacks because we are using an old glibc version. Some games / tools will have to be patched because the kernel supports more feature than glibc exposes. 
+
+**The Kernel is tuned for a nice gaming experience, but not necessary for more fps. Resposivness matters more than FPS. Benchmark should focus more on 1% low FPS rather than average FPS, as it reflects more the real user experience.**
+
+All the components are built with pentium II/III optimizations (as to me its the minimum for a decent gaming experience).
+
+If there is enough demand I might deliver versions for pentium I / K6, but that's not a priority.
+
+3DFX Driver stack is manually cleaned and tuned from source code, but still have some room for improvment:
+
+- Updated core based on current Forks ( this release already uses a not-too-old version but there is newer, and merging is better).
+- MMX ASM optimisations are enabled but not everywhere because there is some incompatibilities with Linux function calling. I will try to work on that but as I donc know how to code assembly, I am struggling, help would be appreciated !
+- The performance level is currently on par / slighty better than a vanilla Windows 98/ME setup. There is still a noticable gap with fine tuned Windows setup (probably arround 5%), but the resposivness seems better.
+
+Xorg from this era doesn't has proper hardware autodetection so I wrote my own. It seems to work well on most case but of course I don't have all the existing hardware to test everything ... If you find incompatibilities feel free to open as Issue here ( or to fix them :) )
+
+Audio is relying on Alsa auto-detection, and is also poorly tested ( I enabled most available modules in the kernel tho).
+
+The ISO works in virtualized environment too, but lacks hardware support. At leat on KVM it boots up to the desktop and is 80% usable. The main issue is the mouse support. We would like to have a proper tablet device support but it seems Xorg is too old compared to KVM hardware emulation. It probably would require manual patching. But as this iso targets real hardware first, this is really not a priority.
 
-The project is built with a custom kernel, `live-helper`, Docker, and Jenkins, with the kernel and ISO handled as separate build stages.