Message-Id: <9801070651.AA22194@gcef.gc.maricopa.edu>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 23:51:58 -0700 (MST)
From: "Joshua James Turpen" <44699 AT ef DOT gc DOT maricopa DOT edu>
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Loading Windows95 DLL's under Plain DOS.
Precedence: bulk


I've recently begun a project to load Windows 95 DLL's under plain vanilla
DOS.  My ultimate goal is to load a .drv video driver  (really a 16 bit
DLL) to allow access to hardware accelerated 3D functions for a variety of
video cards for DJGPP developers.

I've chosen this route because of the lack of documentation on most SVGA+
hardware, and the wide variety of implimentations of SVGA functionality. 
Using a Windows 95 .drv file will solve both of these problems, and since
the manufacturers are responsible for writing the video drivers, they
should be more efficient than one that somebody else wrote.  Who else
could write a better driver for a video card than the manufacturer of the
video card itself?

Does anybody want to help me with this project?  After reviewing how
DLL's work I'm certain it's possible under 32 bit DPMI DOS, but I'm going
to need help.  I believe it would greatly help out the DJGPP community,
since hardware accelerated video is the only drawback of using plain DOS
to develop under.  My belief is that the only thing keeping DOS alive is
the video game market, and that is dwindling because of things like
Win95/DirectX.  DOS will be dead soon without hardware accelerated video.

Allegro is good and getting better, but there is simply no way Shawn is
going to have a 3d accelerated driver for something like the Voodoo^2
chipset.  

VBE/AF is good, but since it's getting standardized by VESA, it will be
years before it's a standard that's usable.  DOS will be dead by the time
VBE/AF impliments 3d acceleration.





Josh
44699 AT ef DOT gc DOT maricopa DOT edu