Collection of Morph/collectionofmorphcarat1997.iso/PROGRAMS/VPIC.ZIP/CONFIG.DOC

Text File | 1993-08-13 | 13KB | 208 lines

    CONFIGURING VPIC

    VPIC must be configured to run correctly with your display board.  The  con-
    figuration process tells VPIC:
    1. The title you want for the menu.
    2. What VGA chip you have, so it can use the proper bank switching routine.
    3. How much memory you have (in 64K banks).
    4. The menu color you want (background:foreground).
    5. How to set the various modes you want to use.

    This method is used instead of trying to autodetect the VGA chip and  memory
    (unless you have a board that supports VESA) because:
    1. Some chips are very hard to detect, and memory on board is even harder.
    2. As new VGA chips are released, there is a delay before the detection is
       implemented in the program.
    3. The WHICHVGA program is provided to autodetect the VGA chip and memory,
       but it fails on some chips.
    4. The config file provides more user control than automatic means.

    If you aren't sure which VGA chip your board uses,  you  can  run  WHICHVGA,
    which will try to identify your VGA chip and the amount of memory you  have.
    WHICHVGA now tries to identify your SuperVGA chip and memory three ways;  by
    reading ports, checking for VESA, and reading the first 640 bytes  of  Video
    BIOS. The info is saved in a file called WHICHVGA.TXT,  which you can  read.
    If this doesn't work, you can try to compare the graphics  mode  numbers  in
    your manual to the mode numbers in the various  configuration  files.  As  a
    last resort, you can remove the display board and look at the label  on  the
    large chip with leads coming out all four sides.

    If WHICHVGA comes back with VESA, that means that your  board  supports  the
    VESA standard, which offers a standard interface for VPIC to  your  SuperVGA
    display adapter. It defines the SuperVGA extended modes that your card  will
    do, and has a standard interface for setting the mode  and  bank  switching,
    etc. You  may  have  received  a  VESA  `Terminate and Stay Resident'  (TSR)
    program with your VGA board. If so, you are encouraged to use it,  since  it
    more or less guarantees that VPIC will work with your display card. The only
    disadvantage of VESA is concerned with scrolling the VGA screen, since there
    is no standard interface for setting the top of screen beyond 16 bits  (line
    81 at 800x600x256, line 102 at 640x480x256, or  line  204  at  320x200x256).
    This version of VPIC automatically reads the VESA  info  from  your  display
    BIOS, and uses the VESA interface. If you enter VPIC  with  the  /v  option,
    VESA info is ignored and VPIC uses the  configuration  file  info;  this  is
    helpful when VESA returns info VPIC isn't expecting or wrong info; the older
    S3 cards (Orchid Fahrenheit 1280, Diamond Stealth, etc)  return  wrong  VESA
    info, and need the /v option so they use  the  configuration  file  info.  A
    generic VESA.CFG file is supplied for you to play with  to  try  to get your
    VESA card to work; see below on what each entry means;  again,  you  have to
    use the /v option to enable this configuration info. The CIRRUS54.CFG config
    file is an example of how to modify the generic VESA.CFG.

    If the top line in VPIC says VESA,  then VPIC is using VESA info returned by
    your SVGA card.  If the only resolution listed is 320x200, there is probably
    a problem with your memory manager.  To verify this, try booting with from a
    DOS floppy with no memory manager. I only exclude B000-B7FF (used by Windows)
    and C000-C7FF (Video ROM),  and  I found that stealth mode confuses the SVGA
    VESA routines, so I don't use stealth.  On the other hand, the Trident 8900c
    returns VESA hi-color modes which it cannot do, so you have to lock (Alt F7)
    it into 256 colors.

    The current VPIC config file VGA chips and the VGA chip manufacturers are:
    VGA Chip    Manufacturer/version        Comments
    =================================================================
    ACUMOS     Acumos                  Voltane, No. 9 GXiTC, others
    AHEADA     Ahead ver A             Older Ahead cards.
    AHEADB     Ahead ver B             Ahead VGA Wizard/Deluxe.
   *ATIOLD     ATI, 1024x768x16 mode 65h   ATI ver 1 chip, VGAWonder.
   *ATINEW     ATI, 1024x768x16 mode 55h   ATI ver 2 up chip, VGAWonder+.
               For the ATI Ultra, be sure to run ATI's HDILOAD program first to
               activate the 8514A interface for the 1024x768x256 mode.
    CIRRUS     Cirrus CL-GD 500/600    MaxLogic MaxVGA boards NOT SUPPORTED YET.
    CHIPSTECH  Chips & Technology 82C452   Cardinal, Older Boca.
    EVEREX     Original Everex chip
    EVBIOS     Everex 673, etc         Has bank switching built into BIOS.
    GENOA      Genoa (Sim ET 3000)     5300/6300 = 256K, others = 512K.
    HEADLAND   Headland HT-208         Used on VGA-1024i.
    NCR        NCR                     Boca, PVGA 1024i, etc
    OAK        Oak
    PARADISE   Paradise                Older Paradise cards.
    PRIMUS     Primus                  Used in Galaxy 2000 cards.
    REALTEK    Realtek                 Used in RTVGA boards.
   *S3         S3 GUI Accelerator      Used on Orchid Fahr 1280, Diamond Stealth,
                                        Genoa Windows VGA, etc.
    TRI88BR    Trident TVGA 8800BR     Used on older Trident boards, 128K banks.
    TRI88CS    Trident TVGA 8800CS     Used on older Trident boards (Maxxon)
    TRI89      Trident TVGA 8900       Latest Trident VGA chip, 1M memory avail.
    TS3000     Tseng ET 3000           Used on early Genoa, Orchid, others.
    TS4000     Tseng ET 4000           Recent Orchid, STB, other, 1M memory.
    TS4000HI   Tseng ET 4000 HiColor   Does 32K colors to 800x600, 1M memory.
    WD90C      Western Digital WD90C00  Recent Paradise cards, same operation.
    VIDEO7     Video 7                 Earlier Video 7 boards, BIOS bank switch.
                                        Hewlett Packard SVGA.
    ZYMOS      Zymos Poach 51          True Tech HiRes and others.
    VESA       VESA Standard           For boards which have VESA in BIOS.
    * For ATI boards, certain modes may not be enabled (such as 800x600)  unless
      you choose the proper (or custom) monitor in ATI's INSTALL program. On the
      older S3 cards, VESA returned the wrong info, so use the /v option.

    As new chips become available, they will be added to this list. Run WHICHVGA
    to find your VGA chip (works most of the time), and then run CONFIG and find
    a CFG file using that VGA chip. Check that the modes agree with the graphics
    modes in your manual (16 and 256 color modes only); if they match your  card
    exactly, use that CFG file by pressing ENTER. If not, copy the closest  file
    to a new filename with extension CFG and change the modes to agree with your
    manual. Make the title and menu color whatever you like  (see  CONFIGURATION
    FILE FORMAT). Then  rerun  CONFIG,  pick  that  file,  and  press  ENTER  to
    configure VPIC. There are numerous configuration files which come with VPIC,
    but there are so many boards out there that I can't list all of them.

    MENU CONFIGURATION
    To configure VPIC, make sure that VPIC, CVPIC,  CONFIG,  and  all  the  .CFG
    files are in the current directory. By running the CONFIG program, VPIC  can
    be configured from a menu. CONFIG lists all the configuration files (with  a
    .cfg extension) in the current directory, and shows you the contents of each
    as you move around the list using the cursor keys. ESCape aborts the  CONFIG
    program without changing VPIC, and ENTER configures VPIC for the highlighted
    file. Pressing a letter key jumps to next filename starting with that letter
    (or number). The mode descriptions include ax, bx, cx, dx, X, Y,  and  color
    fields from the config file; see below. You can try to match these with your
    manual if you aren't sure which SuperVGA card you have.

    MANUAL CONFIGURATION
    You can use CVPIC to configure V