From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Video Vendors that DO support OS/2?
Date: 16 Apr 92 00:13:41 GMT
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago

In article <5105@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> alanr@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Alan N Rovner) writes:
>I've been following the discussion regarding availability of OS/2 SVGA
>video drivers and so far am disapointed.  ATI, Diamond, Tseng and others
>basically have told the OS/2 user base to get lost.  All right then, are
>there any vendors that *do* offer OS/2 SGVA support now or in the near-term
>future?  I am about to buy a new video card and this will surely affect my
>buying decision.  I will support a company that supports OS/2, and vice versa.

Funny you should ask!

I just had a terrific conversation (about half an hour) with Stone Lee
at Trident.  He wrote Trident's OS/2 2.0 drivers (more below).  He
said that IBM was quite helpful in getting SuperVGA support into OS/2
2.0 and helping him get the drivers out the door.  Trident had drivers
ready on 3/31/92, the day GA was electronically released.  I
congratulated him on that effort and wondered if other vendors weren't
slightly envious.

Anyway, he said that in March IBM held a seminar specifically for
SuperVGA card makers.  He said that everyone (ATI, Video7, etc) showed
up.  They were invited to stay in Boca to finish their drivers.  He
stayed three weeks, but he said most other vendors left after a week.
Consequently Trident is on the ball, the others aren't.

Anyway, I was chatting with Stone about my troubles with my Trident
card.  It turns out nearly everything is solved, but that he was
unable to test on the 512K model card and, thus, a glitch may have
crept in, and he seemed eager to hear about how things were going.

Three important bits of information: SVGA ON must be run from a full
screen DOS session (we all know that now); Trident's Windows drivers
(for full screen high resolution Win-OS/2) come compressed.  You must
use the EXPAND utility (on Disk 9 in the OS/2 GA package and not
automatically installed) on these drivers before installing.  And
IOPL=YES must be in your CONFIG.SYS file.

And the news is even a bit better: custom refresh rates are, in fact,
supported.  The mechanism for customizing refresh rates is a bit
cumbersome, but it works.  Use SVGA OFF first from a DOS full screen
session.  Then use the TVGACRTC utility under DOS full screen to
customize your refresh rates.  Install the device driver, once
customized.  Then shutdown and reboot.  Open a full screen DOS session
(now running under the influence of the device driver), then turn SVGA
ON.  The mode switching control file will be written with the new
information on customized refresh rates.

Stone said IBM was working on a more user friendly SuperVGA support
utility, perhaps for incorporation in a CSD.

Trident now supports the following: 640x480 (256 colors) (I haven't
been able to get this one to work on my setup), 640x480-256 with
virtual desktop, 800x600-16 with seamless Windows, 800x600-16 with
virtual desktop, 800x600-256, 768x1024-256, 1024x768-16, and
1024x768-256.

Stone said that the present drivers are essentially straightforward
ports of the OS/2 1.x drivers.  Consequently running DOS programs in
windows on the desktop is not quite done.  I recommend running DOS
graphics programs full screen for the time being, and enabling
ALT_HOME_BYPASS.  If you don't you could risk a system crash until the
device driver support is all in place.  Trident and IBM need to work
together to smooth out any remaining problems and are doing so.

I'm working on a new Trident package which will include EXPANDed
Windows drivers, better DDP files, and better documentation.

Now, on my setup (512K Trident 8900c card), I still have the following
minor problems:

(1)  CGA-like "snow" when IOPL=YES, SVGA ON, and standard DISPLAY.DLL
VGA 640x480-16 driver in use.  Disappears when IOPL=NO (with no loss
of functionality).

(2)  I have been unable to get the 640x480-256 OS/2 desktop driver
working (the one without the virtual desktop).

Note that the two drivers with virtual desktops require a Trident card
with 1 MB of memory.  Stone said a 640x480-256 driver with a smaller
virtual desktop (1024x512) was in the works for 512K Trident cards.
-- 
Timothy F. Sipples       Keeper of the OS/2 Frequently Asked Questions
sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu  List, available via anonymous ftp from
Dept. of Economics       128.123.35.151, directory pub/os2/faq, or via
Univ. of Chicago  60637  netmail from LISTSERV@BLEKUL11.BITNET.