#HDDRIVE yes or no!
11 messages in this thread
Paul,
A couple of questions on the new board. Will it do deinterlacing?
Will it run (display) AGA programs? Projected release date? Does it take
a zorro or a video slot? Compatible with 386 Bridgeboard? (ie could it be
used as a VGA or SVGA display? (wishful thinking there huh) How much
memory does it have on board? Is it expandable? ect.
I have really been wanting an Opal board but the lack of a deinterlacer
has stopped me from purchasing one.
Maybe you can talk CBM into letting you ship AmigaDos 3.1 with it!
…Steve
====>>> Motorola 68030 Inside <<<====
I'm not going to give away the whole store here, but…
Re: Deinterlacing – not quite sure I understand your question, but we've done a
graphics card that plugs in a Zorro II or Zorro III slot, not the video slot.
I.e., It's a graphics card and not something that's constrained to video
display rates (like OpalVision). While on the subject, you know our IV24 does
it all however, compatible with video but still capable of deinterlacing, even
incoming video! Anyway, our new card does high resolution graphics at
appropriate refresh rates, interlaced or non-interlaced, but most people will
want the latter.
Re: running AGA programs – we will not be giving A2000 and A3000's exact AGA
capability. Our attitude is why stop at the 8 bit HAM of AGA? We think
everyone should have inexpensive rock solid 24 bit graphics instead. We will
be able to run Workbench and a number of well behaved applications. Our
display modes will be in the display database (i.e., available to any well
behaved application). On our current EGS110/24 for example, we've run Real3D
at 1600×1280 resolution!!!!! I believe our card will have Amiga video pass
thru which will allow AGA modes to pass-thru if the card's used in a 4000 and a
user really needs an AGA mode.
Later,
Paul.
P.S. – Still not sure how the subject got to be "HDDRIVE…"
Paul:
While on the subject of the IV24, I have an interesting question for you.
Is there any particular reason that when you go into the deinterlaced mode
that it screws up the composite and S outputs as well? What good is an
S-Video signal synced at 31.5khz? It would make MUCH more sense if the
composite & S sync were either locked at 15.75khz, or are individually
adjustable seperate from the RGB's settings.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Sorry, but the circuitry is too tied together to allow 15.75KHz S & Composite
output PLUS 31.5KHz RGB. That would require quite a bit more circuitry (and
dollars).
Paul,
My question re deinterlacing means; On a 2000 running apps like
autopilot, Superbase ect in interlace, will your board deinterlace the
signal going to a VGA or multisync monitor? Will games and programs that
are AGA only run with the new board?
…Steve
====>>> Motorola 68030 Inside <<<====
No, our new board does not de-interlace the incoming Amiga's signal. It can
pass it thru, untouched.
I think I should try and make myself very clear – our new board does NOT give
the Amiga AGA capabilities. I think people should try to realize what that
would require, it's a LOT more than just a 256 color non-interlaced screen.
Take HAM8, 4+4 dual playfields, lots of new sprite capabilities, etc. There's
no way we're about to try and reverse engineer the AGA chipset.
Our board (in our humble opinion) goes BEYOND AGA. We believe that people want
fast 24 bit graphics, that are easy to process (unlike HAM8). We also believe
the Amiga GUI is not really setup for 24 bit, which is why we not only emulate
Workbench (in any mode Workbench supports, which is up to 8 bit displays), but
we include the EGS UI, which is vastly superior to Intuition, but
programmatically, very similar. Better use of color, font sensitive, tear off
menus, complete color independence (i.e., an app can assume it's running on a
24 bit display even if the actual current display mode isn't, and EGS does all
the dithering, etc), etc.
Regards,
Paul.
Paul,
Thank you for the time to answer my questions. I still have one more
though! Deinterlacing is a must for me and I use Microways Flicker Fixer,
would your board allow the 24 bit image to run thru to the FF to give me a
24 bit deinterlced signal? (does this make sense?)
The new GVP board does sound very intriquing! What would you say the
benefits of it over some of the other new graphics cards in the same price
range?
…Steve
====>>> Motorola 68030 Inside <<<====
Hi Steve. I learned today that our new card can pass through just about any
signal, including a de-interlaced signal such as the one coming out of our IV24
(in 31KHz mode), and I have no doubt, the flickerfixer, as well.
Regarding how it competes with other cards, I guess you'd have to be specific,
as in, what card, what interests you, etc.? OpalVision for example, is only a
video scan rate card, and is a slow frame buffer. Great paint software though,
no question. There is a couple of other cards out there, but you might want to
look at the companies behind them. We have a joke at GVP that goes something
like "yeah they give great warranties, but the warranties usually last longer
than the companies do!"
Paul.
Paul, excuse me for jumping in here, but I couldn't resist your "what do
you want in a video card" question. 🙂 I have 2 different needs, which
might be difficult to build into one card. I think a lot of the 3d
animators are in the same boat. For 3d modeling, a huge shallow screen
would be best. Something like 2k x 1k 16 colors. When it comes time to
render, shift back to 768×482 24 bit. What would be ideal would be some
kind of AGA mode for animation playback. If the board had it's own
expandable RAM array, anim playback could be independant of the
CPU/chipRAM bandwidth.
While we're on the subject of hardware products… How about a Zorro card
with the same chips the Clones use to talk to floppy drives? That would
bypass the lock C= and Chinon have on those custom HD drives. It could
also make possible using those cheap tape drives. Perhaps something like
that could be 'tacked on' to an existing product, like the IO Extender?
Just a thought….
Jim
[Wheels turning]
Thanks for the feedback, Jim. One thing you should be aware of is that our
current EGS110/24 can do 1600×1280 (or more) in 256 colors or even 24 bit I
believe, and can also drop down to just about any resolution you want. 24 bit
anims can defiinitely play on it in real time. Real 3D for example, seems to
run fine at 1600×1280 with our drivers. I don't know about other packages.
Programs can run at high resolutions if they are either a) well written (use
Amiga display database or work on Workbench, etc), or b) use EGS drivers.
Anyway, our card is certainly a killer, and probably closest to what you want
to do. As you're probably aware, to get this speed, it plugs directly on our
own 32 bit bus on the back of our A2000 based accelerator cards.
Regards and thanks again,
Paul.
Ahh…. I had forgotten about the EGS110/24. Seems we don't hear much
about it lately. Does this new board connect directly to the accellerator
cards as well?
Jim