#VIDEO PROBLEM – Weird!
9 messages in this thread
So now I have a really weird problem. I have a Diamond Viper VLB that
I had set up as a P9000 using the VIBCFG procedure. Everything was
fine until today, when I loaded 3DS and my screens were compressed to
half their size. The only thing that is new on my system is a video
driver for the Borland C++ debugger. I can't figure out what else it
may be. I haven't tries rebooting, and cleaning my memory. I'll try
that now and let you know what happens.
Nope. That didn't fix it. This was my setup:
MAIN-DISPLAY Diamond Viper P9000 640x480x256 MATERIAL-DISPLAY "
640x480x256 RENDER-DISPLAY " 800x600x65000
The renderer works fine, but the MAIN-DISPLAY has to be changed to 16 colors to
work, and the Material Editor doesn't work at all.
Like I said, I had this et up and fine, but now, I don't know what's happened.
Any ideas? James
James, before you do anything else, delete the 3dadi.cfg file and try
the VIBCFG thing again. Make sure you use Vibrant's Diamond VIPER
P9000 driver, and not the other, generic P9000 driver! The "screen
commpression" you describe sure sounds like some sort of
hardware/monitor timing incompatibility. You can easily change scan
rate timings by using the Viper's VPRMODE.EXE and the Custom Monitor
settings. Set all displays to their lowest scan rate and try 3DS each
time. If you have the docs to your monitor, you should be able to
match the scan rates straight-away.
<<James, before you do anything else, delete the 3dadi.cfg file and
try the VIBCFG thing again. Make sure you use Vibrant's Diamond VIPER
P9000 driver, and not the other, generic P9000 driver! The "screen
commpression" you describe sure sounds like some sort of
hardware/monitor timing incompatibility. You can easily change scan
rate timings by using the Viper's VPRMODE.EXE and the Custom Monitor
settings. Set all displays to their lowest scan rate and try 3DS each
time. If you have the docs to your monitor, you should be able to
match the scan rates straight-away.>>
So I did this and at first it didn't work. I wanted to set my
MAIN-DISPLAY for 640x480x256, but it was either 640x480x16 or
800x600x65000. It wouldn't let anything in between without the
compression. So I stuck with the 800×600. Very small fonts! The same
for MATERIALS, although that's not as big a deal. The RENDER works as
before.
I guess since I set my VPRMODE to 800x600x65000, that's the only res.
I'm going to get. I wonder if I set both 640x480x256 and the above, I
wonder if that would cover both…
Is there any draw backs to running the MAIN-DISPLAY at 800x600x65000, memory
wise? It seems to redraw quicker, but everything looks so small. Maybe it's
just an adjustment.
Anyway, I can work now, and that's what's important.
Thanks very much for the help! James
Although running the Main Display at anything over 256 colors is not
reccomended, if it works, fine, I guess. I still can't imagine getting
screen compression/distortion at, say, 800x600x256/60hz, but not at
800x600x65000/60hz! Analog monitors' scan rates, as far as I know, are
not directly affected by color depth alone, but are by screen
resolution. Please make sure you have used VPRMODE's CUSTOM MONITOR
setting, and adjusted *all* resolutions/color depths to their lowest
scan rates, and save the .ini file. This really should allow the
Viper's 800x600x256 and 640x480x12M modes to work with most monitors.
-Alan
PS- Are you rendering at 640x480x12M? If so, and you are using the Vibrant
driver, I would think that that mode should do fine for Medit as well…
Hi Alan,
I haven't gotten around to saying hi to all of you since SIGGRAPH so here's
a big HELLO and I have fond memories of shooting the *&%^ over pizza and
beer.
>> main display over 256 colors….>>
There was a small thread regarding CHKED.PXP coming up with no colors for
some machines running over 256 colors in the MAIN display… Other than that,..
See Ya.
Jonas[ADESK]
Thanks, Jonas. Nice to hear from you. Yeah, that PXP box could be a factor…
-Alan
<<Please make sure you have used VPRMODE's CUSTOM MONITOR setting, and adjusted
*all* resolutions/color depths to their lowest scan rates, and save the .ini
file. This really should allow the Viper's 800x600x256 and 640x480x12M modes to
work with most monitors.>>
This is what I did. My mistake is that I had setup the VIPER only for
800x600x65000/60hz. My other res' were set at 72hz. Oops! I think that happened
when I hooked up a Sony 1604, just to see what it was like. Anyway, I've reset
everything and it all works beautifully. The MAIN-DISPLAY is set at 256 colors,
and the MATERIALs at 800x600x65000. Beautiful rendering! Actually matches what
I have in RENDER-DISPLAY!
One more question. I have 16megs of RAM but still get some paging and swapping,
especially with the MATERIALS set at 65000 colors. Is this the trade off to
using higher resolution? I wasn't sure if DRAM is accessed for screen res or
not…
Thanks VERY much for the help to set me straight!
James
You are most welcome, James. I'm glad to help. The Viper VLB is just
naturally more complicated than many other cards 'cause it lets you
DO more. Kind of like a comparison between PCs and MACs<g>.
You say that you get MORE swapping with that materials setting?
Hmmm…don't really know if that should affect it, but I would
recommend a Medit display of 640x480x16.7M — the same for most
render displays. Main Display on a 14" monitor is nice at
800x600x256, and awesome at 1024x768x256 on a 17". No need to waste
the *24-bit* capability of your equipment, the Materials display, the
the great rendering capability of r3, so get those rendering and
Materials displays up to 24-bit/16.7 colors!
<<the great rendering capability of r3, so get those rendering and
Materials displays up to 24-bit/16.7 colors!>>
I've set it there and it beautiful. I especially like being able to
see a material that I'm not working on, for comparison sakes. Almost
feel like I'm working on the Big Boys <g>