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INI File | 1997-07-20 | 18KB | 384 lines

[English] README.TXT MATROX GRAPHICS INC. 1997.07.21 Millennium/Mystique Display Driver for Windows NT 4.0 Table of Contents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Release description - Product files - Installation - Using MGA PowerDesk - Registry settings - Hardware-accelerated 3D - Notes, Problems, and Limitations Note: This file may contain some last minute information not translated into your language. We apologize for the inconvenience. Release description ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the Matrox Millennium/Mystique Windows NT Display Driver. It supports Microsoft Windows NT for x86 CPU's, version 4.0 (Build 1381). This product includes: - Display Driver - MGA PowerDesk for Windows NT 4.0 The driver supports 2, 4, and 8Mbytes Matrox Millennium and Matrox Mystique cards, as well as all Matrox Millennium II cards. Up to four cards are supported. Product files ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \MGA64.INF Driver installation file for Windows NT Setup \MGA64.SYS Matrox Millennium/Mystique miniport driver \MGA64.DLL Matrox Millennium/Mystique display driver \READMENT.TXT This file \PD_CTRL.MVA Registry services applications \PD_DNAV.MVA MGA Desktop Navigator application \PD_MON.MVA MGA Monitor property sheet \PD_MONF.MVA MGA monitor file and database \PD_QDSK.MVA MGA QuickDesk application \PD_SET.MVA MGA Settings property sheet \???_MON.MVA Resource file for MGA Monitor \???_CTRL.MVA Resource file for Registry services applications \???_DNAV.MVA Resource file for MGA Desktop Navigator application \???_QDSK.MVA Resource file for MGA QuickDesk application \???_SET.MVA Resource file for MGA Settings property sheet \???_DOC.MVA Documentation and readme files \SETUP.EXE Installation application for driver and MGA PowerDesk \INST_???.DLL Resource file for SETUP.EXE \SETUP.INI INI file for Installation application \MGA.INI INI file for PowerDesk where '???' stands for supported language identificators (e.g., ENG). Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Refer to your Owner's Manual to install your card in your system. If you are installing multiple Matrox Millennium cards in your system, please note that only one should be VGA-enabled through the on-board switch. Matrox Mystique and Millennium II cards are always VGA-enabled. If you are installing multiple Matrox Mystique or Millennium II cards in your system, your system BIOS must disable all VGA-enabled cards it finds after the first one. When Windows NT starts, the miniport driver will find all cards and enable them for use. THIS IS GUARANTEED ONLY IF YOUR SYSTEM BIOS IS FULLY PCI-COMPLIANT. IF YOUR SYSTEM BIOS IS NOT FULLY PCI-COMPLIANT, MULTIPLE MYSTIQUE OR MILLENNIUM II CARDS MAY NOT WORK. Multiple-card installations are similar to single-card installations. The system will automatically assign separate addresses to each PCI card, allowing the driver to issue commands to each card. In a multiple-card configuration, all cards must be either Millennium, Mystique, or Millennium II cards, and all cards must run with the same resolution and pixel depth (number of colors). The VGA-enabled card will drive the top left monitor. To install the Matrox Millennium/Mystique driver, run the Setup utility supplied with the driver: - Start the Windows NT Explorer, or open a Command Prompt window. - Go to the drive and directory holding the driver installation files. - Double-click on the Setup application, or type 'setup' and press Enter. The Setup utility will query you about your preferred installation location and the components you wish to install. You must restart your computer before the changes take effect. You can also use the standard Windows NT procedure to install the drivers (without the MGA PowerDesk). The general procedure is the following: - Right-click on the desktop, select 'Properties'. This will open Display Properties. - Select the 'Settings' tab. - Press the 'Display Type...' button. - In the Display Type dialog box, press the 'Change...' button. - In the Change Display dialog box, press the 'Have Disk...' button. - In the Install From Disk dialog box, type the location of the Matrox Millennium/Mystique installation files (e.g. "A:\" or "D:\WINNT"). - From the displayed list, select the model of your display adapter, and press 'OK'. - Answer 'Yes' to the Third-party Drivers dialog box. - Press 'OK' in the Installing Driver message box. - Press 'Close' in the Display Type dialog box. - Press 'Close' in the Display Properties applet. - In the System Settings Change dialog box, you should select 'Yes' so that the new settings take effect. Using MGA PowerDesk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Changing resolution, selecting a monitor, and using the MGA PowerDesk is covered in the "online.doc" file. You can view this file with WordPad. Registry settings (for advanced users only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information held in the Windows NT registry can have a direct effect on the whole system. Introducing incorrect values can cause serious problems and may make it necessary to reinstall Windows NT. The changes outlined below should have effects limited to the Matrox Millennium/Mystique drivers. However, if you accidentally modify values that make your system unusable, please note that it is often possible to undo the damage by using the 'Last Known Good Configuration' option at boot time. It is also possible to save a copy of your registry settings prior to any modification. The configuration of the MGA Windows NT driver and of MGA PowerDesk is saved in the registry. The most important parameters can be modified through the MGA PowerDesk, but others can be accessed only through the Registry Editor. Most users will find that the default values are best for their system. However, specific problems will be solved through these switches. The values are: User.AlternateLines when set to 1, allows lines defined by integer coordinates to be drawn using the faster AUTOLINE opcode of the drawing engine. The convention used to determine which pixels contribute to a given line is slightly different in AUTOLINE and in Windows NT. Setting AlternateLines to 1 trades off compliance with the Windows NT conventions for performance. A value of 0 will enforce compliance. Lines defined by non-integer endpoint coordinates are not affected by this setting. The default value of User.AlternateLines is 0. User.CenterDialogs has no effect on Windows NT 4.0. The default value of User.CenterDialogs is 0. User.ComplexBlt when set to 1, allows the hardware to accelerate some complex raster operations (ROPs) by executing a sequence of simple ROPs (ORing, ANDing, etc...). A value of 0 will result in complex ROPs being performed in software. The complex ROPs are performed directly on the display through a succession of simple ROPs. Artifacts (flashing) in the target display area may become visible when an intermediate result in video RAM is displayed on a given refresh cycle, to be replaced by the final image on the next cycle. The default value of User.ComplexBlt is 1. User.DeviceBitmaps when set to 1, allows use of off-screen memory for caching bitmaps. This will allow the hardware to accelerate drawing to bitmaps. A value of 0 disables bitmap caching, allowing the CPU to draw onto all bitmaps. Bitmap caching is internally disabled when a desktop requiring more than one card is in use, regardless of the registry setting. The default value of User.DeviceBitmaps is 1. User.EnableUSWC when set to 1, allows direct frame buffer access to use the Write Combining feature of the Pentium Pro processor. Setting this value to 0 may result in slightly lower performance. The default value of User.EnableUSWC is 1. User.MgaInfoFile when set to 1, allows use of the MGA PowerDesk to control refresh rates. A value of 0 will allow all available refresh rates to be listed. The default value of User.MgaInfoFile is 1. User.SynchronizeDac when set to 1, will require the driver to wait for a vertical sync before programming the ramdac with a new pointer shape or a new palette. If you notice stray pixels flashing around the pointer, setting this flag to 1 might fix the problem. Setting it to 0 will result in slightly better performance. The default value of User.SynchronizeDac is 0. User.SynchronizeEngine when set to 1, will require the driver to wait for the Millennium hardware to be ready to accept new data before programming the next operation. Setting it to 0 will result in better performance. On most x86-based systems, the PCI logic should ensure that such a check is redundant. If you're experiencing problems that might be related to timing (with communication programs, for instance), setting this value to 1 may be of help. The default value of User.SynchronizeEngine is 0. Modifying keys and values in the registry is done through the Registry Editor. The Registry Editor can be invoked in the following way: - Use Start/Run..., or open a Command Prompt window, and type 'regedt32'. Alternately, from the Windows NT Explorer, go to SystemRoot\system32 and double-click on Regedt32. The Registry Editor will come up. To examine or to modify the values that govern the behavior of the Matrox Millennium/Mystique driver: - Select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE window. - Travel down to the key named: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\mga64\Device0. You will find the values in the right window pane. To modify any of them: - Double-click on the selected value. - In the DWORD Editor, change the value to '0' or '1'. The new value will take effect the next time you reboot. PowerDesk settings are kept under the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MGACtrl and its subkeys. Hardware-accelerated 3D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Mini-Client Driver (MCD), which is part of the Millennium/Mystique display driver, allows for hardware-accelerated 3D, with a few restrictions: - Currently no acceleration is available when multiple cards are in use. - The MCD does not support 8bpp (256 colors) and 24bpp (16777216 colors) modes. The 15bpp (32K colors), 16bpp (64K colors), and 32bpp (True Color) modes are the ones that can be hardware- accelerated. - Limitations to the available resolutions are to be expected. All 3D modes require extra memory to handle double buffering and/or Z buffering, and this memory is no longer available for display. The 3D driver can be configured through MGA PowerDesk or through two registry switches: User3D.DoubleBuffer when set to 1, allows a back buffer to be allocated from the Matrox Millennium or Mystique memory. It should be set to 0 if no back buffer is required. This value should be set to 1 if 3D animation is to be fully accelerated. User3D.ZBuffer when set to 1, allows a Z buffer to be allocated from the Matrox Millennium or Mystique memory. It should be set to 0 if no Z buffer is required. This value should be set to 1 if 3D rendering is to be fully accelerated. User3D.TextureMapping when set to 1, allows the hardware to accelerate texture mapping. It should be set to 0 if texture mapping is to be done through software. The default value for the User3D switches is 1. Setting all values to 0 effectively disables the hardware-accelerated 3D. The recommended way of modifying them is through the Performance tab of MGA PowerDesk rather than through the Registry Editor. The back- and Z-buffers can be allocated on a per-window basis. This makes the availability of 3D-acceleration difficult to ascertain, since it would be possible to get 3D-acceleration for a small window even when offscreen memory is scarce, while a request for full-screen buffers would fail even when relatively large areas of offscreen memory are available. Notes, Problems, and Limitations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Systems using more than one PCI bus It is possible that a switch to a full-screen Command Prompt, or any change of mode, will result in a blue-screen crash if a card is installed on a PCI bus other than bus 0. The problem is under investigation. Moving the card to a different PCI slot is a possible workaround. There are systems where Windows NT reports conflicts between adapters installed beyond the PCI bridge. In this case, the Matrox Millennium/Mystique miniport driver cannot access its own card. If your system appears unable to find the card, try moving it to a different PCI slot. The Service Pack 3 should address many of these problems. DirectDraw on multiple cards DirectDraw cannot currently handle direct access to a desktop spread over multiple cards. Applications that require DirectDraw will not run on such a desktop. DirectDraw on virtual desktops Some DirectDraw applications cannot currently handle virtual desktops. It is recommanded that DirectDraw applications be run from normal desktops. ActiveMovie in full screen Running clips in full screen at 256 colors with ActiveMovie may result in a corrupted display while the clip is being played. The problem appears to come from the application. Corruption using the 3D-Maze screen saver This problem appears only after installing the Service Pack 2 for Windows NT 4.0. The problem is apparently fixed by the Service Pack 3. GLDemo textures Textured objects in GLDemo will be Gouraud-shaded instead of textured in 3D-accelerated modes on Millennium II. This problem is apparently fixed by the Service Pack 3. Zooming by 4 at 1152x864, 256 colors on Millennium A hardware limitation results in a vertical band of pixels being displayed at the right edge of the screen, beyond the 1152 limit. Running Winstone 97 The CenterPOPUP feature should be disabled (which is the default setting) when running the Winstone 97 benchmark. Some tests may time-out when CenterPOPUP is enabled. Multiple cards using VESA settings The total number of resolutions available when multiple cards are installed in a system can be much larger than the number allowed by the internal list of modes used by Windows NT, which is approximately 280. This is particularly true when 'VESA settings' is selected in the Monitor page, since there is a four-fold increase in the number of resolutions available from every card. When a resolution is missing from the list of modes, Windows NT considers it as not available. To alleviate this problem, all 15bpp resolutions are removed from the list when more than one card is installed and 'VESA settings' is selected. It is however recommended that 'VESA settings' not be used with more than one card, and that all resolution changes be done through MGA Display Properties rather than through Display Properties. This will ensure access to all resolutions supported by the installed cards. DDC refresh rates at higher resolutions and number of colors DDC(PnP)-compliant monitors report their capabilities on a resolution basis. That is, a monitor could report that it supports the 1600 x 1200 resolution at 85Hz. It may happen that the card can support this at 256 and 64k colors, but that bandwidth limitations will allow only 75Hz at 16M colors. In this case, the lower refresh rate will be flagged as 'VESA' in the Color Palette box. It is possible that the image on your monitor will have to be re-sized and/or re-positioned.