DIVE

DIVE came 1994-11-22, before Microsoft's DirectDraw (DirectX). Unlike DD, it used self-modifying code & had multiple levels of direct access that an application could choose on-the-fly to gain speed or quality as needed for each element of a game. OS/2 had none of the limitations of DOS, more technical advantages than Windows 95, and with DIVE, the full power of a PC at its disposal due to the ability to bypass any and all components of the operating system that might slow it down. OS/2 was also 32-bit before Windows was. With the coming of DIVE and corresponding API's (DART, MMPM/2), OS/2 turned PCs into the most advance gaming hardware available. This was an advantage that IBM only mildly participated in.

There are two flavors of DIVE, plain vanilla DIVE and EnDIVE. Libraries made from either API will run any game indented for either. However, players have reported an up to %20 increase in frame rate along with sound improvement by using EnDIVE for certain vanilla DIVE games.