Re: [Fractint] Fractint on XP
Just to add another wrinkle to what Tony says, I was able to run makecfg and a fractint.cfg file was successfully created. But I still can't get the resolutions above 640 x 480 to work. So it's obviously no guarantee. Bill
Very grateful for all suggestions. Bill, tks for the informative postings you've sent me - such info is invaluable. I'm now experimenting with various options on the basis of these people's experiences - no results as yet, but if I ever find a way I'll post and let you know. John said: why don't you dedicate your old machine to DOS and Fractint? I probably will, at least for a time if I'm not successful with XP. However, my old P166 can take FOREVER at generating and I was actually looking forward to some speedier fractaling on a Pentium 4 :) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com
Bill: Had the same problem at first in Win2000. If you ran makefcg.exe in a WinXP dos box you won't get the correct Vesa register addresses if there are any to be found. You have to boot your PC froom a Dos boot floppy disk and then run makefcfg.exe. TG ----- Original Message ----- From: <BillatNY@aol.com> To: <fractint@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 10:37 PM Subject: Re: [Fractint] Fractint on XP
Just to add another wrinkle to what Tony says, I was able to run makecfg and a fractint.cfg file was successfully created. But I still can't get the resolutions above 640 x 480 to work. So it's obviously no guarantee.
Bill
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Hi, The chapter about DOS in computer history is about to be finished. Fractint arose from an era Microsoft decided to sell their 'interrupt handler' as (*D*isk) *O*perating *S*ystem. There was (nearly) no hardware abstraction. Fortunately things changed. Fractint should now incorporate a driver for Microsoft's hardware abstraction 'DirectX'. This should obsolete all the built-in drivers (presently the VESA-driver is the only important driver. The other drivers belong to hardware that became 'hazardous waste' long ago). I like the text-mode user interface. The DirectX driver would imho involve many changes :-( Perhaps a port to cygwin/mingw with ncurses/pdcurses and libSDL would be at least painful (XFractint already uses ncurses) !? .... recently I found a driver called "VDMSound" (http://ntvdm.cjb.net/). It's a tool/DLL that emulates a complete Soundblaster-16/MPU401 ... just for playing old DOS games in Win2000/XP. And they are also planning a VESA-Emulation :-) .... My personal experiences with VESA & DOS-Box: The VESA-BIOS is there and works (gives correct adapter-ID an correctly lists all modes). As soon as I switch to modes >= 640x480x256 my monitor display turns off ;-( The monitor is not the problem: under pure DOS all these modes worked (640x480x256 even with 100 Hz). Tony Parker wrote:
Bill:
Had the same problem at first in Win2000.
If you ran makefcg.exe in a WinXP dos box you won't get the correct Vesa register addresses if there are any to be found. You have to boot your PC froom a Dos boot floppy disk and then run makefcfg.exe.
TG ----- Original Message ----- From: <BillatNY@aol.com> To: <fractint@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 10:37 PM Subject: Re: [Fractint] Fractint on XP
Just to add another wrinkle to what Tony says, I was able to run makecfg and a fractint.cfg file was successfully created. But I still can't get the resolutions above 640 x 480 to work. So it's obviously no guarantee.
Bill -- Michael *Weitzel* ... all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy ...
Michael Weitzel wrote:
The chapter about DOS in computer history is about to be finished.
Actually, there are many people, companies and organizations still using DOS. If I asked everyone here the question of "How many of you are still stuck with DOS?", then it would be everyone that is still running FractInt in a Microsoft environment. But if the same question is asked to the public in general, then you may be surprised by the results. If you think this is a joke, you're lucky. Estimates of DOS applications still critical in corporate environments range from about a million to tens of millions in the USA (a higher percentage overseas). Some companies report they can't move users away from Windows 9x to NT/2000/XP because the newer operating systems block software from reaching important hardware functions. (The company I recently started consulting for relies on two DOS products that have not been updated since 1993 and 1997.) Before you laugh at the predicament of these people (and their IT folks) and pity their DOS-supporting ways, look closely at your total user community in your own company. Walk around the floors with wood highlights on the cubicles and you won't see DOS one (or 6.0 for that matter). But don't think you're clear of DOS. Take a walk around the company areas with concrete floors, such as manufacturing, shipping, and maintenance, and you will find DOS aplenty. Your industrial scale in shipping that uses a serial cable to connect to the computer that figures freight cost? Probably DOS. Repair equipment that provides diagnostic readouts for vehicles? Probably DOS. Overseas operations? Almost assuredly full of DOS applications. Take an inventory of DOS applications in your company, and do it honestly. Some DOS users will have ignored upgrades beyond DOS. Sincerely, P.N.L. ------------------------------------------------- http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/PNL_Fractals.html
On 11 Oct 02, at 10:07, Michael Weitzel wrote:
Fractint should now incorporate a driver for Microsoft's hardware abstraction 'DirectX'. This should obsolete all the built-in drivers (presently the VESA-driver is the only important driver. The other drivers belong to hardware that became 'hazardous waste' long ago).
I still think it better to turn Fractint into an open-source fractal generation engine (usable as a DLL) callable by a separate UI. This would free it from dependence on any particular OS. DirectX is useless except under Windows, and many of us are getting away from Windows (for many and varied reasons!), but implementing a way for Fractint to use DirectX (if possible from a DOS-mode prg) might be interesting. Although this reminds me of a time using Windows on an IBM PC750. The video hardware supported 1600x1200 (as did the monitor), but the Windows video drivers only supported 1024x768. Fractint's built-in video support was able to run at 1600x1200. If it had been solely dependent on DirectX, it would have been limited to what Windows supported.
I like the text-mode user interface. The DirectX driver would imho involve many changes :-( Perhaps a port to cygwin/mingw with ncurses/pdcurses and libSDL would be at least painful (XFractint already uses ncurses) !?
Actually, moving it to X windows would enable it to work under Windowss, assuming X support is available for Windows.
recently I found a driver called "VDMSound" (http://ntvdm.cjb.net/). It's a tool/DLL that emulates a complete Soundblaster-16/MPU401 ... just for playing old DOS games in Win2000/XP. And they are also planning a VESA-Emulation :-)
Hmm, the VESA emulation sounds interesting. I wonder how this would fit with Scitech Display Doctor's SNAP universal graphics driver architecture. David gnome@hawaii.rr.com
participants (6)
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Anna Baron -
BillatNY＠aol.com -
David Jones -
Michael Weitzel -
Paul N. Lee -
Tony Parker