From: Dr. Michael Weller (eowmob@exp-math.uni-essen.de)
Date: Tue 02 Mar 1999 - 14:27:42 IST
On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Tony Nugent wrote: > On Mon Mar 01 1999 at 16:40, "Andy K. Jalics" wrote: > > > Dear Svgalib Enthusiasts, > > I have a S3 Virge/DX (4mb) that I am quiet happy > > with and that I think is fairly well supported. However, as soon as GLIDE > > support is avaible for 3Dfx's Banshee (Voodoo, 3D and 2D acceleration), I > > plan to buy one. An XFree server exists that seems to meet my criteria, > > but I was wondering if any drivers exist in svgalib for the Banshee? I'm > > almost 100% sure that there aren't, so my real question is has anybody had > > any success with a Banshee and the svgalib VESA driver? > > I have one of these magnificant beasts in my box at home. The X > server works just fine, so do svgalib apps - but not in all the very > high resolution / colour-depth modes. However, I can get at least > 1024x768 x 8bpp or it could have even been 16bpp (I'm not sure - is > there an easy way to tell). > [...] As far as I know the Voodoo/3dfx based/style boards they are basically a plain SVGA card plus a Voodoo card. Both are completely independent. If A Voodoo mode is used, the video signal of the SVGA is simply ignored and and internal monitor switch switches to the Voodoo which is an own stand alone graphics card (and AFAIK only capable of relatively few screen resolutions in comparision to the SVGA). The API of svgalib as of now and majority of svgalib applications as of now make support for the Voodoo chip itself (it's accel features) pretty pointless IMHO, so all you get is support for the accompanying video card. svgalib does not even know there hangs a voodoo around in addition. > Very, VERY nice card. Stunning, in fact. These new 3D cards are > definitely the way of the future... \offtopic on Sigh.. While I agree that 3d cards are a nice thing to have (well, in other Unix workstations we had them years ago already, yawn...) and although even the Voodoo might not be the best one to have on a PC (really, I don't know. At least 3dfx gives good linux support AFAIK) I can not other than shake my head over quickly glued together hacks on PC hardware.. Boy.. the future are two graphics cards on a single interface card with a monitor switch? And the S3 SVGA put on it? It's some incompatible extension of an IBM8514/A chip which is another addon (again using more or less two graphics cards with a monitor switch (but on a single chip this time)) to a VGA card which is an (this time compatible) extension of EGA which is an extension of CGA which is an extension of some ancient Monochrome card. Oh and EGA (or VGA?) also includes a Hercules emulation.. If this is the future of computer graphics, I really prefer the past. Everything was slower and less capable then today. But at least it was the best which could be done at this time. During this time, hacking was still fun, not pain. \offtopic off Michael. -- Michael Weller: eowmob@exp-math.uni-essen.de, eowmob@ms.exp-math.uni-essen.de, or even mat42b@spi.power.uni-essen.de. If you encounter an eowmob account on any machine in the net, it's very likely it's me.
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