hd7x@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Sanjay Aiyagari) (12/09/90)
In article <28678@usc>,burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) writes: > 2) People saying I must not be using a 256 color driver. > They are right, I am not. I am unclear about how to do this or > more importantly how to tell if I can do it. I would think so > just based on the fact that CSHOW (a non-windows) program can > show the GIF files in what I assume is 256 colors (its much better > than the dithered 16 color BMP I finally ended up with. So my new > question is how do I tell if my system is capable of this. You might > say RTFM which I've tried but its rather obscure. > > What I have is a 386sx clone with VGA built into the motherboard > and a Magnavox VGA color display model 9cm082. I recall the rep > saying it had the equivalent of a paradise vga card on it and I > did download the paradise drivers but when I installed that it CSHOW can display images in 256 colors by throwing away pixels and fitting the entire image into 320x200x256 which is displayable on any VGA. What you should do is install CSHOW for the Paradise card and see if you can use any of the "lettered" modes ("S" and higher). These are true superVGA modes. If you can use true 640x480x256, then you have the 512K video RAM necessary. If you don't have 512K video RAM, then your screen will just turn black and white with no graphic and you'll have to press Esc. In that case, you cannot use 256 color Windows drivers. > came on the disk with the system but they were for 800x600 and when > I installed that Windows said that 386 enhance mode couldn't use that > so I'd have to run in standard or real mode. It turns out I do run > in standard mode anyway to get my SOUNDER program to work but I > *hate* to be told I have to. > 800x600 should work on a Paradise card and Multisync monitor (if that's what you have; I don't know what the Magnavox 9cm082 is). However, if you only have 256K video ram, you will only get 800x600x16 (still much better than 640x480). If Windows said that a particular driver "could not be used with 386 enhanced mode" that just means it was written for Windows 2.1 and really should not be used at all. Download the real Paradise drivers from cica.cica.indiana.edu and try them. Sanjay Aiyagari (hd7x@vax5.cit.cornell.edu)