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- Path: nntp.teleport.com!sschaem
- From: sschaem@teleport.com (Stephan Schaem)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
- Subject: Re: Why are europeans dumb enough to buy amigas?
- Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
- Date: 17 Apr 1996 04:37:03 GMT
- Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016
- Message-ID: <4l1shf$gg4@nadine.teleport.com>
- References: <3169d95b.6667522@news.onramp.net> <1430.6676T846T1963@ak.planet.gen.nz> <4komaj$r5l@nadine.teleport.com> <DpyA3r.3BK@eskimo.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: linda.teleport.com
- X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
-
- G. Baldwin (drizzit@eskimo.com) wrote:
- : Stephan Schaem (sschaem@teleport.com) wrote:
-
- : : I just want to relate my experience on PC... plug the GFX card...
- : : and it just work under dos, windows. You have to give credit for this
- : : to the VGA/SVGA standart, such standart do not exist on the amiga.
-
- : With DOS, yes. If your card supports VESA screens, then your DOS apps can
- : use it in SVGA modes without a problem. But with Windows? No, I don't
- : think so. You might be able to get away with using it in 640x480-16c, but
- : that is not a SVGA mode - thats VGA. Every video card I have ever seen
- : comes with some disks that include drivers for OS/2, Windows 3.0, 3.1, NT,
- : ect.. But that is more than even Amiga's can use with their Grfx cards.
-
- I do not know those standart actually... So Win95 lowest denominator
- might be VGA. The thing I wanted to show is, you plug a video card and
- it work. The card as enought in its bios to be usable (VESA, VGA), but
- of course the custom drivers are much better since they are fit for the
- OS in question and offer full usage of the custom gfx chiset on the card.
-
- : : Most card today include alot more then this, so to get full use of the
- : : card chipset you install its specific driver.
-
- : You do not even get partial use of your video card in Windows in a SVGA
- : mode (640x480 in 8-bit or better) w/o a driver, and I don't ever remember
- : seeing a VESA driver in my Windows 3.1 driver list. If there is, then you
- : are correct.
-
- I never runned win3.x, so I cannot say. I think win95 offer VGA, SVGA
- driver standart. So if you lost your disk that came with the GFX card
- you would boot the first time in VGA, select the SVGA driver and go
- from there till you can install the optimised driver for your chiptset.
-
- : : BTW, windows do privide a monitor file system... but the smart thing
- : : about it is that it describe the monitor :) The video mode are selected
- : : from the video card setting and take into account the monitor limitation.
- : : (there is also tools to edit/create monitor setting)
-
- : The way it picks it out is a lot rougher than AmigaOS. At least AmigaOS
- : gives its screenmodes ID numbers. For example, "NTSC:Low Res" is #00011000
- : and "Euro72:Very-Low Res" is #00061004. Even CyberGrfx screens have
- : ModeIDs. Windows does not. If memory serves correctly, it uses things
- : like "LOW" "MID" and "HIGH". Hmm....
-
- Its a 2 step process... fisrt is the definition of the monitor, then you
- can choose the pixel mode and resolution.
-
- If you have a nice card , this might be available to you (If you find
- that floppy with the drivers :)
-
- The driver I have support custom monitor file, so I can set every little
- detail of the sync behaviour in a nice inuitive fashion. Then in its
- custom interface (integrated to Win95 display propriety) I can choose the
- desktop size, the visual resolution, pixel depth. it only offer
- resolution of 640x,800x,1024x,1280x,1600x , but the card support zoom,
- 320x,400x,512x. and the size of the desktop is separate from the pixel
- resolution.
-
- Stephan
-