These speed tests were performed running on a Thinkpad 560 (120 Mhz Pentium) with 20 MB RAM, running Windows 95, connected to the Internet via 10Mbit/s ethernet. Screen was in 800x600 resolution, with 16 bit color. Faster times can be obtained by lowering screen resolution and/or number of colors.

MUD test was performed connected to the Highlands II MUD. Telnet test was performed connected to a telnet server running on a HP-735 workstation.

zMUD Version speeds (UPDATED 8-Apr-99)

Version	EXE size	Memory start	Memory end	^Q test	#SEND
5.53	2836k	6004k	6392k	43	14
5.31	2248k	4392k	4852k	33	11
5.22	2248k	5236k	5828k	60	22
4.62	1578k	4352k	4972k	64	26
4.30	1322k	3812k	4204k	152	57
4.01	1171k	3864k	4204k		50
3.62a	1087k	3728k	4076k		43
2.91	856k	4568k	5256k		58
2.0	611k	3176k	3188k		73

The main test is to load a script containing about 36 triggers (the actual triggers that I MUD with), then use the #SEND command to display a previously captured log file (4300 lines) to the screen. The Memory columns shown the memory used by zMUD before and after the test. The ^Q test is the time displayed when Control-Q is pressed (a timing function that has been built into zMUD for the last few versions). The #SEND column is the number of seconds used to display the log file. For the ^Q test, the Scroll Amount is set to 5. For the #SEND test, Scroll Amount is set to zero (since most old versions forced Scroll Amount to zero when using #SEND). For very old versions where #SEND wasn't available (2.91, 2.0) or not working (4.30) then #READ was used, which makes the times a bit slower for those versions.  In later versions where the size of the buffer can be set, a default size of 1,000 lines is used.  In versions 5.4x and greater, all plugins are unloaded before testing.

MUD/Telnet Client Scrolling Speed Test

Client	Version	Time (secs)	Notes
zMUD	5.21 32-bit	6
zMUD	4.50b 32-bit	7
CRT	1.1.4	37	(1)
GMUD	1.9b	9
MUTT	0.1j	62	(2)
MUD Master	2.40	10	(3)
MUD Sock	0.7B	48	(3)
Phoca		38	(2)
Pueblo	2.01	10	(4)
Tintin	III	7	(3)
QVTnet	4.0	24
MUD Manager	2.0	crashed

Notes:

1. Updates screen after each line is received. This results in smooth, but very slow scrolling and is equivalent to zMUD Scroll Amount setting of 1.
2. Does not support ANSI color codes
3. Runs in Console mode of Windows. This results in faster scrolling, but application is not a true GUI Windows client.
4. Only updates screen when entire buffer is received from the MUD, resulting in very jerky scrolling. This is equivalent to zMUD Scroll Amount setting of 0.

Test description:

Send 20 look commands (abbreviated with l) to the MUD, followed by an inv command. This was done in a quiet room in the MUD School of Highlands II which has very little lag. Time is from pressing Enter after the first look command until the MUD displays the results of the inv command. Several tests are performed and the results are averaged and rounded to the nearest second. All clients are run with their screen size maxmized. Note that Console mode clients (Note 3) allow a smaller number of lines on the screen, resulting in faster scrolling. If the default font is not fixed-space, Courier font is selected. Otherwise clients are run with the default settings obtained after a clean installation.  Note that on a 28,800 baud modem, approximately 4 seconds is required just to transfer the data from the MUD.

Telnet Test

Client	Version	termcap test	syslog test
zMUD	4.50b 32-bit	15 secs	3 secs
zMUD	4.34a 32-bit	(1)	3 secs
CRT	1.1.4	59/12 secs (2)	12 secs
GMUD	1.9b	(3)	(3)
Local HP console		7 secs	2 secs

Notes:

1. zMUD v4.34a hangs when displaying a large amount of text over a fast network connection, so a time could not be determined.
2. CRT takes 59 seconds to display the termcap file when directed connected to the client. If connected via an intermediate gateway, CRT speeds up to 12 seconds. This speed difference is due to its method of screen updating. Normally, CRT updates the screen after every line, resulting in slow display. When an intermediate server is used, text is buffered so that CRT updates after every buffer is received, resulting in faster scrolling. The syslog test was only done using an intermediate server to show the best-case timing.
3. GMUD does not support telnet option negotiation, so a telnet connection to this server could not be made

Test description:

This test was performed over a high-speed ethernet connection, rather than the 28,800 modem used in the previous tests.  Telnet connection was made to HP-UX server and the 'cat' command was used to display large files.

termcap test

cat /etc/termcap (43,049 byte file). Lines do not wrap

syslog test

cat /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log (20,746 byte file) Many lines in this file word-wrap

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