DOS ain't dead

Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) INTEL (Users)

posted by Misha , RU, 18.07.2010, 02:07

I spent two evenings in battle with the Intel tool. First of all, it compiles TSR program which is about 73kb and beeing loaded, it makes free base memory about 430 kb and most old games i tried didn run. So I used Duke3d to test things out.
And here are results:

1. Scaling on internal display. Well, I disabled scaling, but it works ONLY for SVGA modes, so, default text mode, and all graphics up to VGA stubbornly scales to fit screen, no matter what options i tried. I suppose this is somehow related to the fact that info tools (I tried ASTRA and vbediag) dont recognise any modes below SVGA (they show only 1024x576 (0x160) as native and 640x480). I have no idea why. Also need to say that any custom port attributes like custom scaling/aspect ratio dont work, at least with internal display.

2. External display. By default, my BIOS dont recognize ANY external displays. With the help of this tool, at last I am able to see something on external display (NEC CRT). But the colors are ALL corrupt (like showing only 16 colors in 256 col mode, blue text on dark blue background in text mode, etc.) Pixel shape and resolutions are good, however.
Maybe dos, unlike windows, need monitor drivers?

Well, there is one positive moment: I found a way to support SVGA modes above 640x480, I just chose 'user defined' DTD as 800x600 and marked it 'native' and now i can use 800x600 with some clipping at bottom of screen.
Yes, picture quality without scaling and disabled dithering is WAY better, just like on a CRT monitor.

So, biggest problem now is that I cannot use external monitor. Any advices how to solve that are welcome.

---
[X] Don't use LFN

Complete thread:

• Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Misha, 27.06.2010, 00:36 (Users)
  • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Arjay, 27.06.2010, 01:04
    • Direct download link to TPPATCH in common ZIP file format - Arjay, 27.06.2010, 01:21
    • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Misha, 28.06.2010, 03:01
      • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Rugxulo, 28.06.2010, 07:07
  • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Laaca, 27.06.2010, 01:13
  • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Rugxulo, 27.06.2010, 08:44
    • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Laaca, 27.06.2010, 10:44
    • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Misha, 28.06.2010, 03:52
      • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Rugxulo, 28.06.2010, 07:26
        • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - DOS386, 28.06.2010, 11:27
          • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Misha, 29.06.2010, 03:28
            • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Laaca, 29.06.2010, 05:19
            • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Rugxulo, 29.06.2010, 14:07
          • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Arjay, 29.06.2010, 08:46
          • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Rugxulo, 29.06.2010, 14:02
            • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - DOS386, 29.06.2010, 15:25
              • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VGA modes) - Misha, 29.06.2010, 23:42
                • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - DOS386, 30.06.2010, 16:34
                  • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - RayeR, 11.07.2010, 02:28
                    • Modding the VESA BIOS - Laaca, 13.07.2010, 01:17
                    • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - Misha, 13.07.2010, 14:21
                      • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - Rugxulo, 13.07.2010, 17:26
                        • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - Misha, 14.07.2010, 13:55
                          • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) INTEL - DOS386, 14.07.2010, 14:34
                            • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) INTEL - Rugxulo, 14.07.2010, 18:57
                              • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) INTEL - Misha, 18.07.2010, 02:07
                                • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) INTEL - Zyzzle, 18.07.2010, 08:42
                                  • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) INTEL - Misha, 18.07.2010, 16:53
                                • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) INTEL - Arjay, 18.07.2010, 18:15
                        • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - RayeR, 17.07.2010, 01:40
                          • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - Laaca, 17.07.2010, 11:54
                            • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - RayeR, 17.07.2010, 15:06
                              • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (VESA modes) - Laaca, 17.07.2010, 22:36
  • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - DOS386, 27.06.2010, 14:49
    • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Misha, 28.06.2010, 05:11
      • Bunch of questions on FreeDos (memory managers) - Rugxulo, 28.06.2010, 07:13