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Geek



Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 26
Geek 02 Jun 2005, 13:39
I have been looking for the graphics card that is most widely used,
because if I support it in my OS then more people will be able to use it, which increases the public abuility to create drivers for difrent video cards.

would someone please let me know what the most widely
used Video Card is that can be easaly supported by an OS. Cool Question Cool

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Post 02 Jun 2005, 13:39
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f0dder



Joined: 19 Feb 2004
Posts: 3175
Location: Denmark
f0dder 02 Jun 2005, 23:53
GeForce and radeon cards, I would say Smile
Post 02 Jun 2005, 23:53
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jdawg



Joined: 26 Jun 2005
Posts: 39
jdawg 28 Jun 2005, 19:31
Maybe a better way to do it would be to design a driver that adapts universally to different cards based on the values contained in the registers, when you detect the card. That way a person using your OS could still install the OEM drivers if they chose, and you could save yourself some typing
Post 28 Jun 2005, 19:31
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Redragon



Joined: 27 Nov 2004
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Location: U.S.
Redragon 28 Jun 2005, 19:48
same here f0dder, i would say GeForce and Radeon
Post 28 Jun 2005, 19:48
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T&K(r)



Joined: 10 Jul 2005
Posts: 18
Location: Poland - > Krakow
T&K(r) 10 Jul 2005, 22:33
jdawg say that :

Quote:
Maybe a better way to do it would be to design a driver that adapts universally to different cards [...]


I think that designing driver that support from VESA1 to VESA3 standard will be the best way to support all commonly used cards ( even 10 years old like old S3, CirrusLogic or Trident ( VESA1) ).
Driver that support VESA now we can name OEM driver

( WindowsXP OEM drivers it's writed with that way (i think) )

Also is good think to support RADEON and/or GeForce/RIVA cards

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Post 10 Jul 2005, 22:33
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Chewy509



Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Posts: 297
Location: Bris-vegas, Australia
Chewy509 11 Jul 2005, 03:30
f0dder wrote:
GeForce and radeon cards, I would say Smile

By volume of parts shippped, it's Intel, followed by nVidia and ATi. Yes those crappy onboard integrated graphics make up a lot of volume! (That includes, PC's, laptops, servers, etc).

However the OP is better sticking with VESA, as getting docs from ATi or nVidia can be next to impossible, well at least for the current cards/chipsets.
Post 11 Jul 2005, 03:30
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T&K(r)



Joined: 10 Jul 2005
Posts: 18
Location: Poland - > Krakow
T&K(r) 11 Jul 2005, 22:57
I wrote that incuding VESA standard becouse i think that is it's commonly used in new graphic cards, but when i saw SIS's card integrated with SIS mainbord i forgot about it. This card have AGP,a lot of memory and many more, but can't even handle simple Vesa Svga mode ( in DOS ) by using this simple code:
Code:
 
mov ax,4f02h
mov bx,101h   ;640x480 8bit
int 10h
    


I think that most compatible( and old-card compatible) will be 13h mode with virtual_screen_scrolling, or MODE-X support ( can handle up to 400x600 or square_ratio_400x300 ) with Virtual_screen

What is Virtual screen:
Code:
__________________
I          I      I
I   real   I      I
I   screen I      I
I          I      I
I__________I      I
I virtual screen  I
I                 I
I_________________I 1024x768 or more
    


more old compatible card support can't be done ( what about old HERCULES cards Smile )

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Post 11 Jul 2005, 22:57
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tom tobias



Joined: 09 Sep 2003
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tom tobias 12 Jul 2005, 13:10
I may well be in error, for example, I have not checked the sis web site, but, in my opinion, sis uses either trident, or s3, graphics controllers, both of which, I believe, do support svga modes, but perhaps with a limitation on the color quantity. For sure, the trident at least, will support 1280 x 1024 with 8 bits for color.
Post 12 Jul 2005, 13:10
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T&K(r)



Joined: 10 Jul 2005
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T&K(r) 12 Jul 2005, 16:14
When i think about SIS card - i thinked about SIS 6326 AGP integrated with SIS's mainboard ( I don't remeber what model ) - it can't work with Svga modes in DOS, also in Ms Win can't run modes < 640x480.

Why this card can work with for example 640x480x16bit mode in windows, but can't do in DOS ?

Answer: Because VGA Bios witch is loaded when compuer start can't work in this resolutions. Windows's SiS Driver don't use VGA BIOS for this resolution - it using their own part of code witch is accesing directly to SIS card registers.

To get DOS SVGA modes on this card you must use for example SciTech drivers, or VESA driver manufactured by SIS - part of this driver overwriting previus writable VGA parts of BIOS - so DOS calls to change mode may be done.
To write own display driver programmer must know all about SIS card registers and more.

Problem with no low_modes in Windows can be solve be updating display driver.

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Post 12 Jul 2005, 16:14
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jdawg



Joined: 26 Jun 2005
Posts: 39
jdawg 24 Oct 2005, 23:14
What I meant is that when you first send an interrupt to any port or address you supply it with a function code. Depending on what the function code is you recieve different information back from that port or address. I'm only saying that a thourough probe of the card before a driver is built would provide a much more accurate driver for it. That way you only provide things that the card would natively support.
Post 24 Oct 2005, 23:14
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Adam Kachwalla



Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 150
Adam Kachwalla 16 Jun 2007, 06:42
ATA, GeForce, nVIDIA
Post 16 Jun 2007, 06:42
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Hayden



Joined: 06 Oct 2005
Posts: 132
Hayden 16 Jun 2007, 16:30
Many people forget to check the video mode list before setting a video mode. Also some cards like ATI and SIS have non-standard i/o ports, so to get them to work properly, legacy bios or vesa bios interrupts are a must.

an old school generic 'vbeaf.drv' works a treat for o/s dev, but good ones are hard to find now.

checkout www.vesa.org for the free specs...

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Post 16 Jun 2007, 16:30
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rhyno_dagreat



Joined: 31 Jul 2006
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rhyno_dagreat 17 Jun 2007, 05:12
I think, if you want to do hardware acceleration, go for some of Intel's GPU docs to get an idea as to how they implement it, as they have documentation which ATI (AMD now?) and nVidia refuse to give out. It might be able to give you an idea as to how you're going to go about this feat.
Post 17 Jun 2007, 05:12
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pool



Joined: 08 Jan 2007
Posts: 97
pool 10 Jan 2008, 11:12
..


Last edited by pool on 17 Mar 2013, 11:41; edited 1 time in total
Post 10 Jan 2008, 11:12
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edfed



Joined: 20 Feb 2006
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edfed 10 Jan 2008, 11:19
nowadays...
by contiguous coding, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a mounth, i think, 1 year
Post 10 Jan 2008, 11:19
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MHajduk



Joined: 30 Mar 2006
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MHajduk 10 Jan 2008, 11:40
edfed wrote:
by contiguous coding, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a mounth, i think, 1 year
Creative work isn't like a work in a coal-mine. Shocked There are necessary breaks for rest. In other case it won't be "creative" work, but drudgery.
Post 10 Jan 2008, 11:40
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edfed



Joined: 20 Feb 2006
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edfed 10 Jan 2008, 11:49
so, if you make some pauses, multiply the time by 3 or 4

because the time to re-dive into this no human work. it needs a constant concentration.
Post 10 Jan 2008, 11:49
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MHajduk



Joined: 30 Mar 2006
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MHajduk 10 Jan 2008, 11:59
Right. I especially agree with this "coefficient" (3-4 times). Smile

From my private observations I can formulate such remark: it's good to work very hard for some time (say, 1-2 weeks) on some problem, but after you have to "drop & forget" it for some time (say, month). After this time some unsolved ("impossible") problems become trivial.
Post 10 Jan 2008, 11:59
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edfed



Joined: 20 Feb 2006
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edfed 10 Jan 2008, 12:05
sleeping helps a lot to find solutions...
but before to sleep, you shall think about the problem to solve.
Post 10 Jan 2008, 12:05
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Madis731



Joined: 25 Sep 2003
Posts: 2139
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Madis731 10 Jan 2008, 13:40
Actually ATI and nVidia both incorporate UDA (Unified Driver Architecture) which in turn means write-once-use-everywhere principle. They've got all the necessary info in that "tiny" (~40MB) packages. Of course for MenuetOS (just an example) you can forget all those profile thingies like which settings to apply on World of Warcraft Razz
Then you can loose all the support for DX/OGL at first to get the driver working with only primitive blit and sprite support.
... 300KB driver Wink easy

BUT, the only problem is, there is nowhere to start from Sad
Post 10 Jan 2008, 13:40
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