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fast864.zip
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README.TXT
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1995-03-08
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FAST864.ZIP
Changes by Mike Shust, March 1995.
V1.0
Sections: DESCRIPTION
INSTALLATION
DIAMOND Stealth 64 DRAM REFRESH FIX (Possibly other 864 boards too)
ADVANCED USERS
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
DESCRIPTION:
Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM and other S3-864/964 users:
Impatient users search for INSTALLATION
The performance of the seamless WINOS2 drivers provide with WARP
for the S3-864 based video boards is abismal at best. The drivers
seem to be stable, but they are very slow. I found that my new
Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM (S3-864) was much slower than the Orchid
Fahrenheit (S3-801) that it replaced. According to my Diamond
documentation, the S3-864 is backwards compatible with the
S3-928. The S3-801, S3-805, and S3-928 are supported by the same
drivers under OS/2 WARP and the performance/stability of these
drivers is good. Through trial and error I found that it is possible
to replace the S3-864 seamless WINOS2 drivers for 640x480, 800x600,
and 1024x768 at 256 and 64k colors with the S3-928 seamless WINOS2
drivers. As far as I can tell this combination works and it
provides *very* fast seamless WINOS2 support. Benchmarkwise S3-864
using 928 drivers gives seamless WINOS2 sessions at least, if not a
little more, performance than the S3-805 boards (more than twice
as fast as the std 864 WINOS2 drivers). In real applications, the
speed difference between native Windows with Diamond drivers is
negliable. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get Diamond
Windows drivers to work at all under OS/2 (they won't give seamless
support anyhow). My experience is specifically with a Stealth 64 DRAM
with 2MB video DRAM. I truely believe this will work with other S3-864
based boards that work with the regular WARP S3-864 drivers. I wouldn't
be surprised if the WINOS2 seamless performance of VRAM S3-964 based boards
is bad too, the S3-864 and S3-964 use the same seamless drivers. 964 users
see the ADVANCED USERS section later in this file. I also have a fix
for refresh rate problems with the Stealth 64 DRAM and WARP. See REFRESH
FIX later in this file.
The good news is that if you have WARP you allready have all the drivers
you need. I have written a command file that will create two display
install diskettes that will install all the S3-864 drivers, except
that the seamless drivers for the resolutions stated above will use
S3-928 drivers shipped with WARP. New display drivers have to be
created because files on the original display diskettes must be altered,
and I know of no way to write to the extra high density WARP diskettes.
Now it is time for a disclaimer. First, the modifications
I have made are freeware. I have benifited from the internet and news
groups and this is my way of making a contribution. The only requirement
for the use of this software is that the person using it is a licensed
user of OS/2 WARP 3.0. I would appreciate your comments on this.
IBM code is copyright IBM Corp. This distribution
contains two DSP (Display Support Profiles) originally shipped with
WARP (S3864A.DSP and S3864B.DSP) that I modified to install the S3-928
seamless drivers for the S3-864. I have commented the DSP files with
the changes I made to them. I make no warranties about using this
package, use at your own risk! I am in no way connected to IBM Corp. so
I doublt they will provide support for this I have used the Modified
Display Driver diskettes on OS/2 WARP 3.0 for Windows to install the
Modified Support after standard 864 support, and I have used the Modified
Display Driver diskettes without problem on a first time install. This
procedure may work with the Fullpack, but I have no access to it. This
procedure may even work with OS/2 2.11, but see ADVANCED USERS FIRST.
I would appreciate feedback on people's success with this - see
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR.
INSTALLATION:
What you need: 2 blank formatted 1.44 MB diskettes
Original (backups better) WARP Display Disk 1
Original (backups better) WARP Display Disk 3
CDROM users, create Display Disk 1 and Display Disk 3
from the disk images on the CDROM.
3 MB Hard disk space (for temporary files)
In addition, for the comand file to work correctly, the LABEL command
must be available and is required for the command file to run without
errors.
What to do:
The installation program is very dumb, there are no fancy error
handlers. Follow the directions EXACTLY.
1) Copy the files of this distribution in a temporary directory on
a hard disk with at least 3MB free. After installation, the temporary
directory can be removed.
2) Make the temporary directory the current directory.
3) Run either MAKEDISK.BAT from a DOS session or MAKEDISK.CMD from
an OS2 session. Either command file must be run from OS/2, because
native DOS cannot access the extra high density WARP diskettes. This
command file can be run after booting from the WARP installation
diskettes, except that the LABEL command proably will not work
(this is fixable, see #5 below).
4) You will be prompted for the Warp diskettes, and then for the two
blank diskettes. Label the first diskette Modified Display Disk 1, and
the second Modified Display Disk 3. Make sure there are no error
messages. If you get an error message right after "Atempting to label
diskette..." then the LABEL command was not available. For a fix see
# 5).
5) Check the diskettes created. Make sure the files are correct as
well as the volume labels. If the volume labels are wrong, they
can be corrected with the OS/2 or native DOS LABEL command.
Modified Display Disk 1 should be labeled DISP 1, and Modified
Display Disk 3 should be labeled DISP 3. The directory of Modified
Display Disk 1 should be:
The volume label in drive A is DISP 1.
The Volume Serial Number is 2E25:18EA.
Directory of A:\
DISK NUM 4 10-10-94 9:19p
DSPRES DL_ 91680 9-23-94 5:40a
VGA 118094 10-10-94 9:21p
IBMVGA32 DL_ 26164 10-04-94 3:09p
PSVGA32 DSP 6345 9-26-94 8:44p
VVGA SY_ 33571 10-10-94 4:56p
VSVGA SY_ 70967 10-10-94 4:54p
DISPLAY DL_ 38288 9-23-94 3:32a
SCREEN01 SY_ 6551 10-08-94 7:14p
SCREEN02 SY_ 6496 10-08-94 7:14p
WINVGA 2762 10-02-94 6:55p
S3WIN 408503 10-10-94 9:27p
S3864A DSP 402 3-08-95 3:32a
SVGABTII EXE 106952 8-13-94 2:24a
14 file(s) 916779 bytes used
537600 bytes free
The directory of Modified Display Disk 3 should be:
The volume label in drive A is DISP 3.
The Volume Serial Number is 3238:18EC.
Directory of A:\
S3864M DSP 741 9-26-94 8:45p
S3864 157675 9-26-94 7:01p
WIN864 886527 10-10-94 9:29p
WIN86432 199301 10-10-94 9:29p
S3864B DSP 17854 3-08-95 2:54a
5 file(s) 1262098 bytes used
194560 bytes free
6) If you have made it this far, you are in good shape. To install
the drivers, start Selective Install from the System Setup folder.
Select Primary Display and then pick S3 864. Install the driver
as you normally would except that with it prompts you for Display
Driver Disk 1, insert the Modified Display Driver Disk 1 instead.
Likewise, when prompted for Display Driver Disk 3, insert the
Modified Display Driver Disk 3. The Modified Display Driver Disks
should ONLY BE USED FOR S3-864 VIDEO SUPPORT. DO NOT USE the
Modified Display Driver diskettes for other video boards, it
will probably bomb the Selective Install if you do.
7) Shutdown and reboot the system. With 2MB of DRAM you should have
the following resolutions available in the System Icon:
640x480x256*
800x600x256* Resolutions with a * use the seamless 928
1024x768x256* driver. All others use the 864 driver. Note
1280x1024x256 that seamless support for 1152x864 and 1280x1024
1152x864x256 works, but is still slow.
640x480x64k*
800x600x64k*
1024x768x64k*
640x480x16.8M
In addtion, you should see a large video performance improvement in
your seamless WINOS2 sessions.
DIAMOND Stealth 64 DRAM REFRESH FIX (Possibly other 864 boards too)
One irritating thing about Diamond (among many other things) and
IBM is that IBM does not support the Stealth 64 DRAM under OS/2.
The refresh rates using WARP 3.0 drivers do not set correctly. Other
S3-864/964 based boards may also have this problem. I found a fix
for the Stealth 64 DRAM is to use the SVGA.EXE file from the WARP
BETA II instead of the SVGA.EXE file included with the WARP GA. As
a bonus, 2MB DRAM users get a new resolution: 1152x864x256!
I have included this file and it is on Modified Display Driver Disk 1 as
SVGABTII.EXE. (I hope IBM does not mind this, the refresh rates for
the Stealth 64 WORKED in BETA II, but they screwed up the GA! In addition,
the 1152x864 resolution was removed). Only use the SVGABTII.EXE file
if you have refresh problems, it is beta code.
I use the following procedure to set refresh rates:
1) Boot native DOS
2) Run S64DMODE and set up screen position and refresh rates
3) Run SVGABTII ON DOS to generate SVGADATA.DOS
4) It is a good idea to save the original SVGADATA.PMI file in the
\OS2 directory. Then copy the SVGADATA.DOS file to \OS2\SVGADATA.PMI
5) Delete the file \OS2\VIDEO.CFG (If this file is present, it will
prevent the 1152x864x256 from appearing in the System Icon).
6) Boot OS2 and enjoy!
7) I have found that once I have the SVGADATA.PMI file set up the way I
want, I copy it to Modified Display Driver Disk 1 so it does not
get inadvertantly erased during a Selective Install.
ADVANCED USERS (964?/CDROM USERS):
WHAT I DID:
Well, here is how I did it. It is not for the squimish (sp?). OS/2
uses DSP (Display Support Profiles) to install video support. The files
contain driver names on the installation diskettes as well as
configuration information for the drivers. The only modification I
made to S3864A.DSP was to add S3WIN %WINPATH%\SYSTEM in the :FILES:
section. I did this because the S3WIN file was originally on Display
Driver Disk 3 and I had to move it to Disk 1 in order to get all
the necessary files on Modified Display Disk 3 (the new disk is only
1.44MB). S3864A.DSP controls the installation from the first display
install disk. S3864B.DSP and S3864M.DSP take care of disk 3. I only
modified S3864B.DSP, S3864M.DSP is as it comes from IBM. The modifications
to S3864B.DSP allow the seamless WINOS2 sessions to use the 928 drivers.
In this file there is a section of configuation information lines that
start with WIN_RES_S3_n ..., where n is the resolution number.
These lines tell OS/2 how to change the Windows INI files to select
the proper driver when it is changed on the System Icon. What I did
was very simple. The file PSS3B.DSP on the original WARP Display Disk 3
is for the S3-801/805/928 based boards. I simply replaced the configuration
information for resolutions 1 through 7 in the S3864B.DSP with the ones
from PSS3B.DSP. One more modification is required, the Full screen
WINOS2 sessions need to use the S3-864 drivers, not the 928 drivers.
For each resolution there is a line similar to:
WIN_RES_S3_n 2 "system.ini boot display.drv xxx.drv"
where xxx.drv is the Full Screen driver for that mode. I took the
display.drv lines from the original S3864B.DSP file for resolutions
1 through 7 and put them in the modified S3864.DSP so the full screen
sessions use the S3-864 drivers.
964 BOARDS?
I think that with very little modification, S3-964 based boards could
use this technique. The seamless drivers are the same for 864 and 964
boards. The full screen drivers are different. The only difference
in the driver names is a v (for VRAM) suffix. I would think that all
that would be needed would be to add a v suffix to each of the full
screen driver names. (anybody with a 964 board care to try?)
CDROM?
The command files are written to use drive A. I do not have a
CDROM and I do not exactly know the directory structure on the
CD. It should be very easy to modifiy the command files to
access the original display driver files from the CD rather than
the WARP installation diskettes. (Anybody with a CDROM care to help
on this?).
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
So far, this has worked for me. Please send your comments
to Mike at mrshust@mtu.edu. If you have access to a 964 board and/or
a CDROM, I am willing to collaberate if you want to write command
files for the 964 or taking the drivers directly off a CDROM. I
will try to answer simple questions, but I can become quite busy.