The Software Area: what happened in 2000

Last updated on March the 18th, 2001.

  • VGATV for DOS driver
    On version (2k.366):

      - S3 ViRGE (325) support added. Just a mere identification problem. Mode 1024x768 in HiColour isn't supported, as on the other S3s, because it is defined as 2048 pixels wide. In addition, 320x200 modes (256 and more colours) don't work. In 256 colours mode, it will work with the correct colours 1 out of 3 times or so, but on the Hi and TrueColor modes, it will have strange video artifacts. Other modes work fine. My test board only has 2Mb of RAM, so some modes aren't available, but I think they'll work as well as the other Trio S3s.

      - Intel i810/i815 integrated graphics chipset support added. Some features aren't yet implemented as I don't have a test board and my current beta tester is out of time :-)

      - PCI VGA adapter detection added. Some video chipsets are now better detected via the PCI bus. This also includes, of course, AGP cards.

      - The previous feature brings on a new problem: how to detect the "correct" card. If you have 2 video cards installed, one AGP and another one PCI or ISA, VGATV might detect the wrong card. It will always use the primary card, but if detection fails, you might not get the benefits of it. So, the new switch /S:"n" has been added. This tells the detection code to (S)kip "n" cards before settling with the next found card. Typically, "n" will be 1.

    On version (2k.241):

      - S3 Trio32/64 HiColour modes added. Mode 1024x768 isn't working, because it is defined as 2048 pixels wide, and that's not supported on VGATV.
    On version (2k.239):

      - This version corrects NTSC support, which had been broken on the last version.

      - S3 Trio32/64 support added, to some extent. 15/16 bit colour modes are not working. All others are. I'm trying to figure out a way of adding support to these modes, without being too specific on the Trios, as there are probably other S3 chipsets with the same issue (which I described on the mailing list).

      - Forgot to tell you that 1152x864x16.7M colours on the Trio3D is also not working, due to the same problem 1024x768 suffers.

    On version (2k.236):

      - Using an S3 Trio3D/2X AGP, this version supports all video modes except 1024x768x16.7M colours, due to the way it is defined. 1280x1024x16.7 works fine though. 1600x1200 modes also work on this board! I haven't yet tried other S3 cards, but it's possible the driver works as it is with ViRGE cards, and possibly also the Savage, though I don't have these.

      - Due to a number of small bug fixes and other enhancements, several other video chipsets might benefit with this release. Please, try it out!

      - Even though its a bit of old news, its confirmed the full support of Realtek cards. RTG3103 is no longer autodetected: one must force it using the /REALTEK switch.

    On version (2k.230):

      - Text modes fixed for good. I *really* thought 43, 50 and 60 line modes were working ok. Must have been on my very first version of VGATV, since none of the ones I had worked ok.

      - So, what we have are those modes working fully. However, due to size constraints, you can't have all 43 lines displayed. With an 8x8 character matrix, the best we get are 34 lines, using up all of the visible screen. I could get a tad more, but then all extra lines would go overscan and out of sight.

      - Also, programs that redefine the character sets with their own, will also work now. Previously some programs corrupted the screen while exiting or would have stretched/cut fonts. As far as I can tell, non-US codepages are displayed correctly. I use codepage 860 (Portuguese) and I have all Portuguese characters. If it doesn't work for you, we'll have a problem because the fix above also made this work.

      - Even though I don't have confirmation if it works, the Realtek code has been changed a bit. Hopefully what was wrong is corrected now, but since I can't test it on my board, I can't tell. The detection routine has also been tested. Should work for all Realtek chipsets except the first one, RTG3103, the one I have...

    On version (2k.227):

      - Realtek cards support. Sort of. Needs polishing...

      - Font redefinition problem fixed. And another one created.


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