Message-ID: <8D53104ECD0CD211AF4000A0C9D60AE35DD532@probe-2.acclaim-euro.net> From: Shawn Hargreaves To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: Video adapter question... Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 12:17:23 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.0.1460.8) Content-Type: text/plain Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Gary Powell writes: > I am running the latest Permedia2 drivers for windows. However, my > DOS sessions report only 2 VESA modes available. I have the Scitech > Display Doctor (trial only 17 days left) running which increases the > VESA modes to 59! I have been very impressed with the driver but not > quite impressed enough to shell out the $40. Only two modes in the manufacturer supplied VESA driver? That is absolutely insane! I have to say that if I had bought this card, that would be serious grounds for taking it back and demanding a refund: the VESA BIOS is an industry standard, and I don't think it is acceptable for people to sell hardware with such a poor implementation of it. Out of interest, which two modes are supported? (the Allegro vesainfo utility will list them). > Anyway, I am rather saddened by the VESA situation I am left in. > I looked at the FreeVB/AF, but my chipset is not supported. Is the > FreeVB/AF an on going project? Will the latest (or almost latest) > video boards/chips be supported? FreeBE/AF is a sporadic project, in that it doesn't have anyone working on it fulltime, but depends on people to contribute individual drivers as and when they feel so inclined. This is really the only way that it can work, because you can't write a driver unless you own the card in question, and you'd have to be really weird individual to want to spend your life buying new graphics cards purely in order to make drivers for them :-) At the moment we have five accelerated drivers, which are the result of five different developers putting some effort into making things work on their particular hardware. Obviously not everyone will have the time or skills to do this, but it would be fantastic if you did feel like working on some Permedia support, and bumping the number of drivers up to six... A major problem with supporting new hardware is that the manufacturers often refuse to release specs for it, but this doesn't seem to be a problem with the Permedia. I can't find any technical references on the manufacturer website, but there is a driver for it in the latest version of XFree86 (www.xfree86.org), so you could get the necessary information from that. > I have tried to briefly look at the ML/GL source code from Scitech, > but I am having troubles with the include with Rhide and/or djgpp.env > as well as not being certain with where to begin with it. MGL won't help with your problem: it's a library for using VESA drivers in the same way that Allegro is, and doesn't contain any hardware level SVGA drivers. So you would still need a capable VESA driver to set the modes. Shawn Hargreaves.