I think are are getting confused about what 16-bit means. The drivers
for Windows 98 are 32-bit drivers, what they are referring to is the number
of colours. Which 16-bit is a lot of colours any ways.
Sheldon
Original Message-----
From: bill cameron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 1999 12:20 PM
Subject: ati rage pro and importan video compatibility info
From: bill cameron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
the message below is a portion of the hj news letter, it is the most
recent
message.
while i do not agree that dan clarks assertion that very little differance
exist between 16 bit video and 32 bit video drivers are equal, mainly
because
of stability reasons.
until i read this news letter i was under the impression jfw 3 was 32 bit
all
the way.
maybe it is, but it requires old 16 bit code which means that the driver
itself could conflict with other software causeing differant symptoms on
differant systems.
another thing people need to understand is that hj definition of compatible
is
not my definition.
they imply cards work that do not, because they are afraid people will not
buy
jfw if they know of a potential problem.
personally i think honesty is the best approach.
also below is what a t i said about hj useing the 16 bit driver.
while i do understand a t i has no idea of the blind market and how it
lags
back, so new technology usually does keep us back one step.
so i included the dan clark news letter that gives the hj side of the
story.
plus it also tells the story i have been trying to put forth to this list,
as a
owner of a t i mach 64, which is not even 3 d, plus matrox cards, i can say
both work great but the
matrox reads better.
by the way the matrox 100 g cost about 70 dollars, is a p g, and has 8 meg
of
memory on board.
so reading between the lines it becomes pretty evident that hj does more
testing with matrox cards than any other.
one other tip, make sure that you are not loading anysoftware in start up
that
gives your video card extra capabilities.
such software drivers can play havoc with jfw.
statement from a t i
ATI says that people dumb enough to use apps (like JFW)
that make 16-bit calls to the vid card services deserve all they get. (
hj december news letter below, actually it is just part of it.
F. Video cards that work with BOTH JFW and MAGic.
If you want a video card which will work with all of our products, at the
time of this writing, here they are:
* Matrox Millenium II (AGP)
* Matrox Millenium MGA (PCI)
* Matrox G100 (AGP)
These cards work, at the time of this writing, with JFW in 95/98 & NT as
well as MAGic 95/98 & NT. So if you want a card that works fine in all of
our supported products and in all of our supported operating systems, one
of these should do the job.
G. More video card issues.
In the Windows 95/98 environment, most of the time, video card
manufacturers used 16-bit drivers. Now, more and more video card
manufacturers are using 32-bit video drivers.
There are basically no feature differences between the 16-bit driver and
32-bit in terms of colors, or resolution. Running with a 16-bit driver
installed in Windows 95/98 may sound like it is not enough and people may
want 32-bit drivers, just because it sounds newer and better. People can
still run high colors, high resolutions, and so on with 16-bit video
drivers in Windows 95/98. Currently, the technique we use with JFW for
intercepting what is on the screen in Windows 95/98 relies on a 16-bit
video driver being installed.
Henter-Joyce, Inc., is actively trying to work with many of the video card
manufacturers to come up with better solutions.
In the meantime, if you are wanting to use JFW and are thinking of video
card issues, here are a couple of suggestions:
* check our web site at http://www.hj.com/TechSupport/CSeries.html
This site has a list of cards and specifies which actual cards work or
don't work with JFW and MAGic. Here is one example of what you will find
there:
ATI 3D Rage Pro (AGP)
note from bill cameron, i did want to say does anybody realize how many
video
cards a t i has that have a similar name.
like the a t i rage lieutenant pro.
this is very confuseing.
Compatible with JAWS for Windows 3.2 in Windows NT.
Compatible with JAWS for Windows 3.2 in Windows 98/95. When working in
Windows 95, you must use 16-bit drivers available from the "link-ATI web
site-". Windows 98 works with Windows default drivers.
Compatible with MAGic NT 6.0, but not 5.10.
Not compatible with MAGic 2.0.
In the above paragraph, note that the words "ATI web site" is an actual
link to the ATI web site, so you can simply go directly from our web site
to theirs and find the driver you need.
* Also, if you have a video card already installed in your computer, you
may have a disk or CD ROM with additional video drivers on it that may have
come with your system that you can try.
* Another great way to find out is to take the free JFW demo to a computer
store and install it on their computer right there if you can.
As I mentioned, we are actively working to improve the video card
compatibility issues. This is something which takes a lot of time, and
drivers and video cards change sometimes so fast that we are not even aware
of the changes, until we begin seeing them in new computers. I hope this
simplified explanation will help those of you considering purchasing a new
computer.
In the meantime, remember to keep checking our web site for future updates.
Also, one more note of importance, Windows NT does not have these types of
problems. In general you should be able to use just about any video card
and driver in Windows NT with either JAWS for Windows or MAGic.
bill cameron
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-
Visit the jfw ml web page: http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~nallan/jfw
-
Visit the jfw ml web page: http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~nallan/jfw
