Copyright: (c) Copyright D.A.Wyatt. 1995,1996
Citation: Freedom of information does not imply freedom to plagarise.


Introduction

  Introduction :

This is the HelpFile for the DiamondViper Windows95 Display Drivers.

You will find useful information about installing the drivers and configuring the Display Card.

Please select a Topic Section :

       Driver Installation Notes

       Setting RefreshRates

       Setting Card, Driver Options

       New Features


Installation

  Installation Procedure :

      During or Before first Installation of Windows95

      Changing from VGA or other Display Card

      Upgrading from previous version DiamondViper Driver

   Important Notes :

VESA LocalBus Cards including :

Diamond ViperVLB, ViperSE VLB, or SPEA V7-StormPro

PCI LocalBus Cards including

Diamond ViperPCI, ViperSE, ViperPro and ProVideo


If you are installing Windows95 for the first time

1. During Windows95 installation you may be asked to select the drivers for your card. (If not asked then choose VGA and refer to the VGA Procedure.)

2. Click on the Manufacturer Supplied Drivers button in the window and then the Have Disk button.

Insert the diskette containing the DiamondViper drivers (e.g. the diskette in A: drive) and enter the location of the driver diskette e.g. A:\ (if the diskette is in that drive)

3. Choose the appropriate option that matches the description of the card in your system and Click on OK.

After installation you can return to the Display Settings window where you can select your Monitor and then preferred resolution and color depth.

    Click here to start the Add New Hardware Wizard


If you have already installed Windows95 with VGA or other Driver

    Important Notes for users of VESA LocalBus Cards including :

Diamond ViperVLB, ViperSE, or SPEA V7-StormPro

1. Open the Control Panel folder and choose the Display Icon,

       or Using the mouse, right-click on an empty space in the main Desktop Window and choose Properties.

2. Click on the Tabbed Windows titled Settings and then click on the button Change Display Type.

3. You should first select the Monitor Model to match your system if this is already done skip to the next step.

4. Click on the Change button in the Adapter type window and then the Have Disk button.

Insert the diskette containing the DiamondViper drivers (e.g. the diskette in A: drive) and enter the location of the driver diskette e.g. A:\ (if the diskette is in that drive)

5. Choose the appropriate Card Type that matches the description of the card in your system and Click on OK.

6. Double check to make sure that you have selected the correct Monitor for your system since this is used by Windows to interpret the maximum resolution your system is capable of, regardless of the capabilities of the card. Note that this information is also used by the Display Driver if Auto Detect Maximum Refresh Rate is enabled.

7. The drivers will be installed and you will be returned to the main Settings window where you can select your preferred resolution and color depth.

8. Click on the Apply or Close buttons (but not Cancel) to confirm you choice. Windows will advise that the System needs to be restarted to enable the new Settings.

9. After the system restarts, and the next time you open the Display Properties window from Control Panel (or by right-clicking over an empty spot on the Desktop and selecting Properties) you can enter by choosing the window tab titled DiamondViper to select your Refresh Rate preferrence.

    Click here to open the Device Manager settings


If you have already installed a previous version driver

   Important Notes for users of VESA LocalBus Cards including :

Diamond ViperVLB, ViperSE, or SPEA V7-StormPro

1. Open the Control Panel folder and choose the Display Icon. or Using the mouse, right-click on an empty space in the main Desktop Window and choose Properties.

2. Click on the Tabbed Windows titled Settings and then click on the button Change Display Type.

3. You should first select the Monitor Model to match your system if this is already done skip to the next step.

4. Click on the Change button in the Adapter type window and then the Have Disk button.

Insert the diskette containing the DiamondViper drivers (e.g. the diskette in A: drive) and enter the location of the driver diskette e.g. A:\ (if the diskette is in that drive)

5. Choose the appropriate option that matches the description of the card in your system and Click on OK.

6. The drivers will be installed and you will be returned to the main Settings window where you can select your preferred resolution and color depth.

7. Make sure that you have selected the correct Monitor for your system since this is used by Windows to interpret the maximum resolution your system is capable of, regardless of the capabilities of the card. Note that this information is also used by the Display Driver if Auto Detect Maximum Refresh Rate is enabled.

8. After the system restarts, and the next time you open the Display Properties window from Control Panel (or by right-clicking over an empty spot on the Desktop and selecting Properties) you can enter by choosing the window tab titled DiamondViper to select your Refresh Rate preferrence.


Overview

  Setting RefreshRates :

Included in the drivers is a DisplayProperties ControlPanel Extension for supporting the DiamondViper Windows95 Display Drivers.

Using this utility you can select the prefered method of selecting the Refresh Rate, or change the Monitor's Sync Polarity and adjust the Monitor Alignment.The utility allows dynamic adjustment of the Size and/or Postion of the visible screen. Additionally you can change the default settings of your card to improve performance in certain application types, or enable the special features of your card.

Note : You should install a Monitor before using refresh-rate Auto-Detection. This can be done from with the Display Properties Dialog

Context Sensitive help is supplied through-out this utility. You can get pop-up help on any control, or setting, by right-clicking with the mouse on that item. Additionally Windows95 also provides a Help Tool, the ? button at the top right of the window. Click that button and then use the mouse to select the Control, FunctionWindow or StatusMessage that you wish to learn more about.

    Click here to open the Display Properties settings


New Features

  New features :

New features in the Driver :

VideoPower enhancements for DirectDraw applications including ActiveMovie and DirectVideo with acceleration of YUV (video) and RGB color-space conversion and scaling.

More Acceleration, including Geometric functions : Line, n-sided Polygon, PolyLine, Poly/ScanLine.

Inumerable Bug Fixes, including improved support for utilities like QUICKRES and changing color-depth-on-the-fly.

New features in ControlPanel Extension : Card Options, Driver Options, Video Power

VideoPower Allows indivual control over features of VideoPower and how it is used to accelerate video and graphics.

PCI BurstMode Improves the compatibility of PCI cards while allowing Burst Mode to be enabled on the PCI MotherBoard chipset.

Palettized, Greyscale Allows option for 8-bit mode in Palettized, direct color or GreyScale format

32K,64K Colors Select 15bit or 16bit operation for maximum compatibility or maximum color resolution.

More Control over level of Acceleration :

Accelerate GDI allowing you to selectively enable or disable the Graphical Operations that the driver accelerates.

DirectDraw options for selecting the capabilities the driver reports when accelerating games.

    Click here to install now


Card Settings

  Options & Settings :

Most features of the cards are quite complicated and so the driver attempts to use acceptable default settings while allowing individual control through the Registry or the SYSTEM.INI file. The ControlPanel Extension provides a simple user interface to these storage areas. Only after the driver has been installed and is running, may you use the control panel to modify these settings and the behavious of the display card. Alternatively some settings are kept in the SYSTEM.INI file and can be modified and saved before Windows is started this allows crash recovery in the situation where the settings cannot be modified via the Control Panel because the driver is not functioning or is unusable.

Controlling the Level of Acceleration from Safe Mode

Windows provides a standard method to adjust the level graphics hardware is used to accelerate GDI operations. This is available in the Graphics menu under the Performance options of the System Porperties. Using the slider you can preclude Hardware Cursors, Hardware Acceleration and ultimately prevent any hardware acceleration at all. While the ControlPanel Extension does provide individual control over how the hardware is used to accelerate Windows the perfomance can also be controlled via this method, additionally this control can be used from within Safe Mode and will apply even after Windows is re-booted normally. This allows recovery from system critical errors without modifying INI file settings via the Safe Mode boot method.

    Click here to open the Performance settings

Adjusting the INI File Settings from DOS

To adjust the INI values before the driver runs you must boot into DOS and modify the SYSTEM.INI file manually using a Text Editor. Look for the section under the heading [DISPLAY] and add or modify entries and values. If this section is not present you must insert it into the file. Note : Mixed Upper and Lower case can be used. A '1'denotes enabled, and a '0' denotes disabled. If the entry is not present it is set to the 'default', which is usually 'enabled'.

Some of the Settings available from SYSTEM.INI include :

[Display]

BurstModeFix = 1

; Enable PCI-BurstMode fix (default is '1' on PCI systems)

MemClkInDecaKHz = 4400

; Enforce a Memory Clock speed in MHz * 100 (the default depends on the Board Vendor)

CursorFix = 1

; Reduce cursor jumping, but reduce performance (the default is '0')

CyclesPerRowMiss = 5

; Use slower VRAM (default is '4')

IBM525PLL = 0

; Disable using the PLL on IBM525 Dacs (default is '1')

NOTE :  Modifying these settings manually should only be done as a last resort.


VESA LocalBus

  Special Note For VL-Bus Cards :

If you have a VESA LocalBus card such as a :

Diamond ViperVLB, Cardinal WarpSpeed

Weitek Power9000 VL-Bus

After re-booting the system the first time with new Display settings, you may get a warning message, informing you that the Display Adapter Is Not Configured Properly. This occurs due to a bug in the way Windows95 Plug&Play treats legacy ISA and VL-Bus cards.

To avoid this problem you should not restart the system immediately after installing the driver and selecting a new resolution. Instead you should click on No when asked to Restart and then move immediately to the Device Manager window where you will be able to configure your card settings for the system. Click on the Display Icon, then Propoerties, and finally Resources. There will be a message complaigning "... the resources used do not match known configurations..".

Select the Set Configuration Manually button and then OK to save the settings.

Note : For users of Weitek P9000 VLBus Cards (not-including Diamond ViperVLB) you will have to ensure the Memory Address shown in the Resources window matches the Jumper settings on your card. Please consult your hardware manual to confirm these match.

After confirming resources you can click on OK and you will then be asked to Shutdown the system, and this time you can click on Yes.

    Click here to open the Device Manager now.


PCI LocalBus

  Special Note For PCI-Bus Cards :

If you have a P9000 or P9100 PCI LocalBus card such as :

Diamond ViperPCI, ViperSE, ViperPro or ProVideo

A new option Support BurstPCI is available in the Card Options window to enable use of your DiamondViper PCI card with PCI BurstMode Writes enabled. This new option is enabled by default if a PCI motherboard is detected, however you must modify your BIOS setup manually. You can still disable this feature if you like, for improved graphics performance.

Background : The Weitek P9001 (PCI interface for P9000) and P9100 chipsets were designed in the very earliest days of PCI standard and do not properly support the target initiated disconnect cycle. This can cause problems while doing PCI burst writes. Previously you may have been instructed by your vendor to disable PCI BurstMode Writes from you MotherBoard's BIOS setup menu. Or you may have received a special BIOS from your vendor which disables BurstMode on certain known-problem PCI chipsets.

Beginning from Driver Version 2.10 this should no longer be necessary. The driver has been modified to enable host memory-to-screen BitBlt acceleration while still retaining BurstMode enabled capability for other PCI cards in the system. After installing the new driver you may wish to try re-enabling PCI-Burst support in your BIOS and try it out !

Note :

1. This feature is not relevant to VESA LocalBus (VLBus) cards.

2. Some motherboards (e.g. Intel™ Plato) do not offer BIOS option for enabling or disabling this feature.

3. Maximum acceleration is still available by disabling the Support BurstPCI option in the Card Options window.


Monitor Adjust
By using these control you can make small adjustments in the visible screen's Horizontal or Verical size and position.

Note : If, after effecting an adjustment, your monitor loses sync or starts jittering or becomes unstable you can press the <ESC> key to return to default settings.


Monitor Size
By using these control you can make small adjustments in the visible screen's Horizontal or Verical size.

Note : If, after effecting an adjustment, your monitor loses sync or starts jittering or becomes unstable you can press the <ESC> key to return to default settings.


Monitor Alignment
By using these control you can make small adjustments in the visible screen's Horizontal or Verical position.

Note : If, after effecting an adjustment, your monitor loses sync or starts jittering or becomes unstable you can press the <ESC> key to return to default settings.


Refresh Rates
Shows the current Display Mode and the preferred method of choosing Refresh Rates.


Current Mode
Displays the Display Mode the card is currently in, showing the Resolution and Color Depth.

Note : If changed, the selected refresh rate and all screen settings will apply to this mode only, by default.


Vertical Sync Polarity
This determines the polarity of the Vertical Sync signal sent to the monitor.

Note : Please consult your Monitor User's Manual before changing these settings.


Horizontal Sync Polarity
This determines the polarity of the Horizontal Sync signal sent to the monitor.

Note : Please consult your Monitor User's Manual before changing these settings.


Use VESA DDC
Enables support for Plug and Play Monitors. You must also install a "Plug and Play Monitor (VESA DDC)" in the Settings window, click on Change Display Type.

The Display Card will use the VESA DisplayDataChannel (DDC) to ask the Monitor for the best Refresh Rate it is capable. The driver will try detecting DDC2 and then fallback to DDC1, however DDC1-only Monitors will require the screen be blanked while communicating.

Note : This feature is not available on all cards.


Default Refresh
The display driver will use only the lowest Refresh Rate available for that mode, this is usually about 60Hz.

Note : This does not mean the mode will work on any monitor.


Auto Detection
The display driver will make it's own determination on the best Refresh Rate suitable for your monitor.

Note : You should install the correct Monitor Type for this feature to work effectively.


Apply To This Mode
Changes you make will be saved along with the current display Resolution and Color Depth and will only apply to that mode.


Apply To All Modes
The Refresh Rate you select will be forced on all Modes regardless of Resolution or Color Depth. This preference should only be used if you have choosen a setting that later doesn't work in a particular mode and you wish to re-enter that mode to re-set that preference.

Note : Even when forced the display driver will not allow a refresh rate that the card is not capable of, however there is no way of knowing if the Monitor also can support it.


Card Hardware
These are the details of the vendor hardware and card specific chips, as detected by the driver.

    Click here to open the Device Manager now.


Current Refresh Rate
These are the Refresh Rates supported by the Display Card in the current Resolution and Color Depth.


Advanced Settings
Allows you specifically enable/disable chip, card and driver options, features and settings.


Card Settings
Enable or Disable card-specific features and settings.


VideoPower Settings
Enable or Disable features and settings for cards with The Weitek VideoPower video-coprocessor installed.


Use DAC Palette
Enable using the DAC's palette in 256 Color Modes.

Note : The only recommended setting is Enabled


Use GreyScale
Set the Dac to work in GreyScale in 8bit mode. All 256 colors will be represented in shades of Grey.


Use 15bit
Use 5:5:5 (15 bit) pixels in Hi-Color color modes, giving a maximum of 32,768 colors.

Note : This mode has better compatiblity but less colors.


Use 16bit
Use 5:6:5 (16 bit) pixels in Hi-Color color modes, giving a maximum of 65,535 colors.

Note : This mode has better more colors and will not use any more memory.


Max Cursor Size
You can select a maximum hardware cursor size of 32x32 or 64x64.

Note : 64x64 hardware cursors are only available on certain cards.


Hardware Cursors
Enable or Disable using hardware accelerated cursors.

Note : Changing this setting will NOT affect your ability to also use software color and animated cursors.


Double Buffered Mode
Enabling using Graphics Double Buffering may improve Video, Game and/or 3D performance. It will not improve normal Windows applications performance.

Note : Enabling Double Buffering does not work for all DirectX applications and may actually decrease performance for those applications which do not know how to work with only 2 buffers.


Enable Interrupts
Enabling using hardware interrupts may improve Video, Game and/or 3D performance.

Note : Not all cards support using vertical refresh interrupts. Consult your card users manual.


Support BurstPCI
Enabling this option will improve compatibility with PCI MotherBoards that support Burst-Mode e.g. Intel™ Triton Chipsets.

Note : Disabling this option improves performance for VL-Bus MotherBoards, and and older PCI Motherboards.


Interrupt Selection
Select the interrupt line used by the display card. Please consult your Display Card users manual.

Note-1 : Not all cards support using vertical refresh interrupts.

Note-2 : PCI card users do not need to change this setting.


Enable VideoPower
Enable using the Weitek VideoPower video-coprocessor to accelerate Video Playback.


Dual Capture Buffers
Enabling using double buffering for Capturing will grealy improve performance when both Capturing and Displaying (preview) Live-Video. It will not improve normal Windows applications performance and may decrease overall video performance since more memory is used.

Note : This feature is only available if you have a Capture-option or Daughter-Card for interfacing live-video to VideoPower.


Smooth Scaling
Enable using the Bi-Linear Interpolative Scaler engine in the Weitek VideoPower video-coprocessor.

Note : Enabling this feature will improve video playback quality when the image is scaled above the original size.


Reduce Tearing
Instructs the Weitek VideoPower video-coprocessor to co-ordinate drawing with the Monitor Sync signals so that video tearing is reduced. This feature is useful when rendering a large video or into a scaled-up window.

Note : Enabling this feature may decrease video playback performance when the image is small.


VideoPower Speed
Changes the speed at which the Weitek VideoPower video-coprocessor runs. Higher speed means faster rendering of video, however there are many early versions of VideoPower that cannot run at the same speed as the P9100, and if incorrectly set will corrupt the video and possibly other regions of the frame buffer.

Note : If video playback is corrupted choose a lower speed.


Priority
The P9x00 Driver set, this ControlPanel Extension and including associated Help File are © Copyright D.A.Wyatt 1995,1996. All rights reserved.

E-mail contact : <davidw@tpts1.seed.net.tw>


Priority
Determine the desired priority when using VideoPower to accelerate video playback.

Note : This setting only affects priorities when both Video and Graphics tasks perform simultaneously.


Version
This is the version number of the Display Driver and components.


Driver Acceleration
Controls which GDI functions or groups of functions will be accelerated by hardware.Enabling an option will improve performance. Disabling an option may possibly fix an application compatibility problem.


Driver Acceleration
Controls how the hardware is used to accelerate DirectDraw.


Multi Buffers
Enabling the use of multiple buffers (e.g. Triple Buffering) if requested. Slower but more compatible.

Note : This will decrease the available memory as a temporary swap buffer needs to be allocated.


Double Buffering
Sets the maximum number of surfaces to two. This works best with the double buffered design of the P9100 & P9000.

Note : Some DirectX software demands more than two buffers and will default to full software emulation.


Flip Emulation
Emulates multiple flipping surfaces by using the hardware Blt'er.

Note : This will decrease the available memory as a temporary swap buffer needs to be allocated.


Weitek
These drivers, are designed to work on the DiamondViper Family of graphics accelerators and video co-processors. This includes the Power9000, Power9100 and VideoPower chipsets.