Re: [MiNT] VDI? (was Re: an urgent GEM question :-)

[Lonny Pursell <atari@bright.net>]

on 12/26/08 6:37 PM, Johan Klockars wrote:

>>>>> I am not sure.  Can only give my perspective.  If fvdi won't drive the
>>>>> display on my Hades then it's a show stopper.  I think ozk managed to do
>>>>> that, maybe even for the Milan.  I forget just how far he got with it.
> 
> It's not up to fVDI itself to drive your display. That's a driver matter.
> If oVDI could do it and is indeed open source, just port the driver
> and you're "done".
> As I mentioned earlier, it's extremely simple to get fVDI to draw on a
> display.

Yes, I realize that, it's somewhat modular. I was generalizing, I don't
expect you to do it, just whoever.  But who will port it?  That's always the
problem, it's easy to just say that to someone.  I can't do it.  So I'm back
to square one. It's unusable to me.  Both my machines have video cards that
currently have no associated driver for fvdi.
 
>>> Fvdi would also have to at least meet the current feature set of the
>>> nova/nvdi software as well.  All the available biplanes and virtual modes
>>> supported, proper video mode generator (very important), etc.  If one has to
>>> lose some features, you can guess the out come. ;)
> 
> It should be pretty obvious that a hobby project by one programmer has
> a somewhat difficult time matching something that has likely sold tens
> of thousands of copies.
> Give me half a million dollars or so and I'll see what I can do.  ;-)

An end don't care how it got there, only that if they replace their old
drivers, the same functionality is there. That's just the reality of it from
the end users point of view. I was not suggesting anyone was lazy or
anything like that.

But the thing if is someone is going to suggest it be the 'default vdi' then
to me it should at minimum drive all the current crop of cards already in
use. I know you didn't suggest this.   ;-))
 
> I guess that's the point of making a more visible CVS, though.
> Together it is easier to get somewhere. The sources have always been
> available, but besides for ARAnyM, no one has ever done anything
> except me.

That's fine.  More heads are better than one.  Having it on the CVS might
help it get some drivers down the road.

> Anyway, fVDI actually does not have to do what you say, since it is
> perfectly capable of working as a "device driver" for NVDI. That is,
> NVDI can use fVDI as a back end to draw on any display that fVDI
> supports. So, until every feature you need is implemented in fVDI,
> just use NVDI on top (or below, to setup modes and deal with the mouse
> cursor, etc, if that's what you need).

I already do this with the Nova+Nvdi driver going on 9 years now.   Hades
was purchased in Nov 2000.  ;o)  But as I noted I don't have the basic
driver so I'm stuck and I can't even do as you suggest.  The Mach64 in the
Hades requires the nova driver, NVDI alone can't drive my setup.

The special version of nvdi for the Rage Pro was flakey, so I ditched it. As
in sold it.  Ozk has it and the card actually, I sent it to him.
 
>> it's clear that "our" free VDI should meet what NVDI already has, but
>> which is the best starting point fVDI or oVDI? (problably merging both
> 
> Does anyone know what oVDI has that fVDI doesn't?
> Well, except more things implemented in plain C code.

He did get the et6000 working.  Pretty sure he asked me to test it on
et4000, but I never got around to testing that.  There also looks to be some
work done or started on the standard Atari modes as well.
 
>> Also would be nice to avoid different persons to work in difference
>> VDIs (like happen with the AES), we are so few to waste resources, but
> 
> Definitely. I've never understood the Atari developers' need to do yet
> another version of everything. I would never have begun fVDI (eleven
> years ago now) if there had been something else to use (or if there
> had been a way to write NVDI device drivers). I just needed something
> that could drive the then upcoming Eclipse (ATI Rage) graphics card,
> and to experiment with FastRAM buffered screens on my Afterburner.
> fVDI has been working fine for both those things for more than ten
> years, and now with ARAnyM for seven years as well.

I to am perplexed why complete projects get done over.

-- 
Lonny Pursell    http://www.bright.net/~gfabasic/