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Text File | 1993-01-05 | 49.2 KB | 1,122 lines

V39 and AA Compatibility Commodore Engineering and CATS Introduction The capabilities of the built-in Amiga graphics hardware did not change significantly between the introduction of the Amiga 1000 in 1985 and the release of the Amiga 3000 in 1990. The ECS chip set and the display enhancer added several new graphics modes and increased the functionality of existing modes -- yet the market demanded more. This document explains some of the features of the latest generation Amiga graphics hardware known as the the AA (double-A) chip set, and ways to ensure application compatibility with these and other V39 features and changes. Additionally, coding methods are outlined which will allow current software to automatically exploit some of the new features. New Hardware Features The most important capabilities of the new Amiga graphics hardware are summarized below. o Enhanced Bandwidth. A 32-bit wide data bus allows doubling of Chip memory bandwidth (up to 2x the normal bandwidth) and supports the input of 32-bit wide bitplane and sprite data. Bandwidth may be doubled again (to 4x) by using Fast Page Mode RAM. o More Bitplanes. The maximum number of bitplanes has increased to 8 in all resolution modes. This translates to a 256-entry color table for each available mode. o Larger Palette. Each entry in the color table may now be 25 bits wide (8 bits each for Red, Blue, and Green data plus 1 bit for genlock information). This translates to a palette of 16,777,216 colors. o HAM and HALFBRITE are available in all display resolutions and depths, allowing for greatly enhanced dipslay modes such as 8-bitplane HIRES HAM. o Enhanced Dual Playfield Support. Each playfield may now have up to 4 bitplanes. The bank of 16 colors in the 256-color table is independently selectable for each playfield. o Enhanced Sprite Support. Sprite resolution can be set to Lores, Hires, or SuperHires, independent of screen resolution. Attached sprites are now available in all modes. However, some new higher bandwidth modes may only allow one sprite (making an attached sprite impossible). Odd and even sprites may use their own independent 16-color bank from the 256-color table. Old format sprites are still 16 bits wide, but new format sprites may be 32 or 64 bits wide. Sprites may now optionally appear in the border region. The horizontal positioning resolution of sprites has increased to 35ns (equivalent to SuperHires pixel widths.) o Enhanced hardware scrolling support. The resolution of bitplane scrolling has increased to 35ns. o Hardware scan-doubling support. 15 kHz bitplanes and sprites may now be scan-doubled for flicker-free display on 31 kHz monitors, and for enhanced display sharing with 31 kHz bitplanes. o ECS compatibility. New chips will power-up in an ECS compatibility mode, which will allow many older self-booting programs to be run on new machines. Ensuring Compatibility This section covers programming techniques that will help ensure that your application will work as expected when running under V39 and on systems that use AA and future generation graphics hardware. Support of Release 2 is integral to supporting new graphics chips. One of the main reasons is the display database. Starting with the ECS chip set, not all machines have all display modes available. This will be even more true in the future. The only way to know if a particular mode is available is to check the display database. For a detailed explanation of how to properly open a screen using the display database information to check for available modes, refer to the Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual: Libraries, 3rd Edition. Also see the Amiga Mail articles entitled "An Introduction to V36 Screens and Windows" (page IV-3) and "Opening Screens and Windows on Any Amiga" (Page IV-17). Some other pertinent details can also be found in the Paris DevCon notes article entitled "Monitors, Modes, and the Display Database." Once a screen or other display has been opened, all manipulations should also be handled using system calls. In particular, these manipulations must be handled by the system software: o Allocation of graphics resources - use the graphics or intuition library o Palette manipulation - use the graphics library o Manipulating mouse pointer sprite - use intuition.library to select or change imagery; input.device to move it o Manipulating sprites other than the mouse pointer - use the graphics library o Manipulating icons - use the icon library o Allocating and changing colormaps and colortables - use the graphics library o Bitplane allocations - use AllocBitMap() under V39 and higher, and AllocRaster() under earlier releases, but please refer to the next section for important information about limitations of AllocRaster(). Furthermore, these manipulations should be handled by the system software whenever possible: o Drawing operations - use the graphics library and Intuition library o Blitter operations - if possible, use only use higher level blitter functions from graphics.library such as BltBitMap(), BltRastPort(), etc. If you must wait for a blit to complete, always use the system's WaitBlit() function, never your own. The system knows about and handles problems with the BLITTER_DONE signal that different revisions of the Agnus chip have. If you feel that must use the blitter hardware directly (sacrificing all hope for any RTG compatibility), be sure to properly OwnBlitter, then WaitBlit, then use blitter, then DisownBlitter. Remember that system structures are subject to change or extension. For new graphics hardware, structures likely to be extended are those associated with ColorMaps, ViewPortExtras, Sprites, and many others. To deal with changing system structures, developers should use system calls to allocate, create, and manipulate these structures. Many new "Get" and "Set" calls have been added to graphics.library to provide an upwards-compatible mechanism for reading and setting structure members which were previously accessed by program code either directly or through macros which accessed them directly. For future compatibility, do not directly access or change any structure or value for which a "Get" and "Set" call is available. And do not declare or AllocMem any structure for which a special allocation call is provided. Most of the new new "Get" and "Set" graphics calls for V39 are listed below. Note that some of these functions are workalike replacements for old gfxmacros which poked or peeked a structure, and others provide tag-based capability for getting and/or setting more than one attribute (Attr) of a structure: GetAPen(rp)(a0) GetBPen(rp)(a0) GetDrMd(rp)(a0) SetABPenDrMd(rp,apen,bpen,drawmode)(a1,d0/d1/d2) GetOutlinePen(rp)(a0) SetOutlinePen(rp,pen)(a0,d0) GetBitMapAttr(bm,attrnum)(a0,d1) SetWriteMask(rp,msk)(a0,d0) SetMaxPen(rp,maxpen)(a0,d0) SetRPAttrsA(rp,tags)(a0/a1) GetRPAttrsA(rp,tags)(a0/a1) Use the newest functions available. For compatibility reasons, it is sometimes not possible to change the behavior of an existing system function to provide enhanced capabilities. In such cases, new functions may be provided. For upwards compatibility, conditionally use the newest functions that are available. For example, when running under an OS earlier than V39, applications that wish to allocate a BitMap should use AllocRaster() and InitBitMap(). New or updated applications should use the new AllocBitMap() call instead when running under V39 or higher. See the V39 graphics library Autodocs for specifications of new functions such as AllocBitMap(). Hardware Compatibility The new chips power-up in an ECS compatible state that allows a large portion of older, self-booting (i.e., game) software to run even though these older titles often access hardware registers directly. However, directly accessing hardware should be avoided by any software that expects to run after the operating system has been started. Keep in mind also that it is difficult to maintain hardware register-level compatibility even on powerup as new and more enhanced chip sets are developed. Avoid directly programming the hardware whenever possible. In cases where applications _must_ access the hardware: o Applications must not write spurious data to, or interpret data from, currently unused bits or addresses. o Applications must set undefined bits to zero for writes and ignore them for reads. o Mask out all the bits except the ones the application is actually interested in. o Do not assume the initial state of any registers. o Do not read write-only registers or write to read-only registers. o Do not read or write BYTEs to the custom chip registers (they are WORD registers). Graphics and Intuition Issues The following notes detail some known coding practices that can cause software to function incorrectly on V39 and AA machines. o BitMap plane allocations unsuitable for new modes. This problem surfaces because the new chips have an increased fetch bandwidth. The data for each bitplane scan line must be properly aligned in Chip memory for new display modes to work. For instance, these allocation methods should all be avoided under V39 and higher: /* WRONG for AA */ for(planenum=0; planenum<DEPTH; planenum++) bitmap.Planes[planenum]=(PLANEPTR)AllocMem(RASSIZE(width,height),MEMF_CHIP); /* Also WRONG */ allplanes=AllocMem(DEPTH*RASSIZE(width,height),MEMF_CHIP); /* Also WRONG */ for(planenum=0; planenum<DEPTH; planenum++) bitmap.Planes[planenum]=(PLANEPTR)AllocRaster(width,height); The correct V39 method for allocating rasters is to use AllocBitMap() for graphics-level bitmaps or for CUSTOMBITMAP screens, or let Intuition OpenScreen() or OpenScreenTagList() allocate your bitmap. This method will allow you to get the greater bandwidth and more efficient displays available under V39 in a manner that will be upward-compatible with future enhancements. The new V39 graphics function AllocBitMap() properly handles all allocation and alignment issues. The Intuition OpenScreenTags() call uses AllocBitMap() under V39. If for some reason your existing code design prevents you from conditionally calling AllocBitMap() or OpenScreen() when running under V39 and higher, you may be able to at least get compatibility with the currently available higher-bandwidth modes by using AllocRaster() or AllocMem() after rounding your width up to a multiple of 64 pixels (absolutely no guarantees here; future chips may require greater alignment; we suggest you conditionally code to use AllocBitMap() for future compatibility). o Incorrect assumptions about BitMap->BytesPerRow. Applications that use system functions to initialize and allocate BitMaps and their elements should be aware that the value of BitMap->BytesPerRow may be different from the expected value, depending on the bandwidth mode chosen, the custom chip type, method of allocation, and the asked-for width of the allocated planes. Here's the explanation. First, due to fetch-alignment restrictions in AA, some modes require a higher granularity (BytesPerRow must be a multiple of 4 or 8, instead of just 2 under ECS). Second, BytesPerRow actually means two different things, which have always been identical, but aren't any more when using interleaved bitmaps. BytesPerRow officially means "the number of bytes you have to add to a pointer to a byte of the BitMap to get to the same place one row down". It no longer can be depended on to mean "the number of bytes in this row". To detect software compatibility problems related to BytesPerRow changes,it is extremely important to test on a machine with the AA chipset and Mode Promotion turned on in the IControl Preferences editor, and if the software supports various display sizes, to test with sizes which are not divisible by 64. Two typical symptoms of BytesPerRow problems are 1. skewing of the display, where the pixel data for every line is progressively further right or left, giving a diagonal appearance to the display, and 2. images saved with excess blank space at the right. NOTE - CATS intends to provide a developer tool, probably called "BumpBPR", which will force all Screen and AllocBitMap() BitMap widths to a multiple of 64 pixels to emulate the higher scanline alignment of higher bandwidth AA modes. This should allow developers to test for many BitMap->BytesPerRow problems on non-AA and no-promotion machines running V39. o Non-matching BitMap->BytesPerRow Some applications assume that two BitMaps of the same width, but allocated by different methods, will be swappable or block-copyable in various manners. This is often no longer the case. For example, a BitMap allocated by OpenScreen (which calls AllocBitMap) may have raster line storage widths rounded up to provide higher alignment for higher-bandwidth displays. But the raster lines of BitMap planes allocated with AllocMem() are generally rounded up only to a multiple of 16 with a hardcoded macro (RASSIZE), and for compatibility reasons, AllocRaster() currently still performs only the same rounding to a multiple of 16. o Interleaved BitMaps For interleaved bitmaps, BytesPerRow is quite a bit larger than the number of bytes in this row. Screen grabbers and screen printers seem to be the primary victims of this change. For compatibility, the Workbench screen is non-interleaved if it opens before IPrefs has run. If opened or reset after IPrefs has run, the Workbench screen will be interleaved, so under V39, the Workbench screen in a normally booted environment is likely to be interleaved. GetBitMapAttr( bm, BMA_WIDTH ) can return the true width of a BitMap in pixels. However, this is not the width to be used when saving a BitMap as an ILBM since this width may be rounded up for alignment reasons. o Incorrect assumptions about the internal structure of BitMap plane data. New types of BitMaps may have a significantly different layout. For example, new V39 interleaved BitMaps are allocated as one contiguous block of Chip memory and and are internally different from non-interleaved plane data. Interleaved BitMaps consist of line 0 of plane 0, followed by line 0 of plane 1, line 0 of plane 2, on through to line 0 of plane n. Then the pattern repeats with the data for the next line. This BitMap layout reduces the color flashing effect which normally accompanies the blitting of individual planes. Interleaved BitMaps can be requested by applications under AA. Note however, that callers are not guaranteed to receive an interleaved BitMap whenever they ask for one. The BMF_INTERLEAVED flag to AllocBitMap() is considered a request, not a requirement. If no sufficiently large continuous block of chip memory is available, it may not be possible to allocate the BitMap interleaved. In that case, AllocBitMap() will attempt to allocate an ordinary BitMap instead. Applications should be written so as not to be sensitive to whether or not a BitMap is interleaved. In those rare cases when it might matter, GetBitMapAttr( BMA_FLAGS ) can be used. o Incorrect assumptions about the Display Database. Data about a display mode could change between one version of Kickstart and another, between different models of the Amiga and even between similar models. Treat the data in the display database as dynamic! Information that was available under V37 may not necessarily be available under V39. For instance, VGA and A2024 mode information is no longer in ROM and unless they are added by the user, there will be no information about these modes available. Never cache information about the DEFAULT_MONITOR_ID modes because the default monitor can be changed by the user with the promotion feature. Use the 2.1 asl.library screen mode requester to present your user with choices which are actually available (Note - 2.1 asl.library works under 2.0 Kickstart, and a free amendment to distribute 2.1 asl.library is available for 2.0 Workbench licensees). o Direct handling of ViewPorts. Applications that use low-level graphics calls to create the View directly may have problems in V39. MakeVPort() and MrgCop() can now return an error. In addition, the gap required between ViewPorts may now need to be significantly larger than on pre-AA chips, where it was never more than 3 non-interlaced lines (6 interlaced lines). The V39 graphics function CalcIVG() (Calc Inter Viewport Gap) may be used to determine how many blank lines will be needed above a ViewPort. Note that Intuition currently uses at least 3 lines, or MAX(3,CalcIVG(v,vp)) (substitute 6 for 3 if interlaced). Also note that for old display modes with old depths and 4-bit-per-gun colors, the gap is unchanged from that under the ECS and original chip sets. o Incorrect use of PAL or NTSC flags. The common method of determining whether a machine is running in PAL or NTSC mode has always been to check for the PAL bit in GfxBase->DisplayFlags: BOOL IsPAL; IsPAL=(GfxBase->DisplayFlags & PAL) ? TRUE : FALSE; One classic reason for desiring such a PAL/NTSC determination is to decide what size or type display to open. The other common reason is to determine what clock constant to use in serial or audio period calculations (Amigas built as PAL machines have a slightly different system clock crystal frequency than Amigas built as NTSC machines, and serial/audio period calculations are dependent on this frequency). Because V37 and V39 are more adaptable, this bit may longer be counted on to mean the user's preferred display mode, nor to even signify the probable clock crystal in the user's system. For accurate serial and audio period calculations, you need to determine whether the system has a system clock crystal designed for PAL or NTSC. There is no totally foolproof way of doing this. Under 1.x through 2.x, your best indicator of whether a system has a PAL system clock crystal is the GfxBase->DisplayFlags PAL bit. This bit should tell you the hardware default of the machine, and should only mislead you if the user has moved the PAL/NTSC jumper or has run a PD program to change the bootup mode between PAL and NTSC. Under V39 (and probably above), new BootMenu options now allow the user to software-select PAL or NTSC as the default graphics environment. This can modify the GfxBase->DisplayFlags PAL bit, but obviously does not change the system clock crystal. Therefore, under V39 and higher, a new DisplayFlags bit called REALLY_PAL has been added to signify the whether the motherboard hardware jumper setting appears to be PAL. Therefore, under V39 and higher, the best bit available for determining NTSC or PAL hardware is the new REALLY_PAL bit. If your software needs to determine the characteristics of default displays, prior to V37 look at DisplayFlags PAL bit. Under V37 or higher, instead use GetDisplayInfoData() to get information about the modeid LORES_KEY or HIRES_KEY, and then check the DisplayInfo.PropertyFlags for properties such as DIPF_IS_PAL (which will be true for both PAL and DblPAL). If your software instead needs to determine the characteristics of the user's preferred display mode to work in (as evidenced by the mode of their Workbench or other default public screen), you can GetDisplayInfoData() on the modeID of the default public screen. Be aware however that this modeID might not be any of the PAL or NTSC modes, but rather VGA or some other mode. #include <graphics/displayinfo.h> Bool IsPAL; struct Screen *screen; ULONG modeID = LORES_KEY; struct DisplayInfo displayinfo; /* Open graphics.library, etc. */ /* Above, modeID is initialized to LORES_KEY. You should inquire * about LORES_KEY or HIRES_KEY if you are interested in the * display characteristics of default displays (for example, what * OpenScreen() will provide if you don't use tags to ask for a * display mode with an explicit monitor like PAL or NTSC or VGA). * * Do the following LockPubScreen part if you are instead interested * in the display characteristics of the modeID of the user's default * public screen (usually Workbench). */ if (screen = LockPubScreen(NULL)) { modeID = GetVPModeID(&(screen->ViewPort)); UnlockPubScreen(NULL,screen); } /* Now get information about the modeID */ if (GetDisplayInfoData(NULL, (UBYTE *) &displayinfo, sizeof(struct DisplayInfo), DTAG_DISP, modeID)) { /* True if PAL or DblPAL */ if (displayinfo.PropertyFlags & DIPF_IS_PAL) IsPAL = TRUE; else IsPAL = FALSE; } o Incorrect assumptions about ColorMaps and ColorTables. The color system has undergone significant changes so new V39 graphic functions should be used to manage color whenever possible. ColorMaps should always be allocated using GetColorMap(); freed using FreeColorMap(); colors changed using LoadRGB4/32(), SetRGB4/32(), or SetRGB4/32CM(); and colors queried using GetRGB4/32(). Specifically, the value ColorMap->ColorTable and the structure it points to should never be poked or read directly. The color functions with names containing ``32'' are new V39 functions for getting, setting, and loading color registers. These new functions treat color guns (R, G, B) each as 32-bit values for handling not only the 8-bit color available in AA but also any conceivable future needs. Use of these new 32-bit color functions is required to display the 16 million different color shades available under AA and V39. The old 4-bit color manipulation functions can only provide 4096 different colors. Use these new 32-bit color functions to ensure the future compatibility of your V39 applications. When using 4 or 8-bit R/G/B values, scale your values to 32 bits. Scale 8 bit R/G/B values to 32 bits by duplicating the 8-bit value in all 4 bytes of the 32-bit value. Scale 4-bit values to 32 bits by duplicating the 4 bit value in each nibble of the 32-bit value. 4-bit red value $3 becomes $33333333 8-bit red value $1F becomes $1F1F1F1F 8-bit red value $03 becomes $03030303 The graphics.library VideoControl() function should be used to get, set, or clear the special features associated with ColorMaps. o Poking Copper lists or copinit. The structure and order of Copper lists will change for all modes, so any program that relies on poking the Copper lists will likely break. Certain programs (especially games) make assumptions about copinit and poke it directly. These programs will break with the AA chips and V39 unless the AA machine is running in a non-AA old-chip emulation mode. Note again that copinit has changed, and will continue to change. Do Not Touch. o Dangerous bits in the display hardware. Many bits in the custom chip registers that were previously undefined now have a function. Beware of poking the following bits. o In BPLCON0: bits 0, 4, 5, 6, and 7 o In BPLCON2: bits 7, 8, 9 o In BPLCON3: bits 0,1,6,7, and bits 9 through 15 o Illegal use of the processor to write to bitplane and sprite data registers. Bitplane and sprite data registers should NOT be written to by the processor. The correct way for data to be fed to the chips is by setting up DMA that points to the data in Chip memory. o Illegal re-use of sprites on the same line. Attempting to re-use sprites on the same horizontal line by redefining the sprite data is illegal and unsupported. Sprites may only be re-used vertically, and then only with at least a one line gap between re-uses. See the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual for an example of sprite re-use. o Incorrect allocation of sprite image data. Because of the increased fetch bandwidth of the new chips, sprite image data must be properly aligned in Chip memory. Under 2.0, the best way to allocate this memory is to call the Exec library AllocMem() function. Use the new AllocSpriteData() call for allocation of new mode sprites under V39 and higher. o Forgotten FreeSprite() call. Sprites may now have a number of different modes. However, under Intuition, these modes are global to all sprites. If a program gets a sprite in a particular mode, but then does not free it, Intuition (and all Intuition-based programs including Workbench) are forced to use sprites in the mode of the forgotten sprite. In general, it is good practice to not use sprites other than the pointer when coding software that is meant to be Intuition-compatible. o Illegal use of Intuition pointer data. Intuition's pointer handling has become much more sophisticated. People playing tricky games with the pointer data may get into trouble if they make assumptions about the data format of the Intuition pointer which can change depending on the display mode. o The old SetPointer() and ClearPointer() functions still work, giving compatible Intuition pointers. Likewise, the pointer imagery in devs:system-configuration will be used until a pointer.prefs file is received. However, due to growing complexity in the pointer subsystem, calling SetPointer() or ClearPointer() from within an input handler or inside Begin/EndRefresh() runs a risk of deadlocking. There are currently some patches in place to help prevent a deadlock, however we warn people to stick to simple rendering functions only when inside LockLayer(), LockLayerInfo(), BeginRefresh(), BeginUpdate(), etc. and not to call Intuition or other high-level system functions inside of LockIBase(). As well, great care should be taken inside an input handler (it's generally best for the handler to signal a high-priority task which actually does the work). Don't be the application that dies under the next release when an inappropriate function that happened to work now deadlocks because its handling has become more sophisticated. See the Autodocs for these functions for more information on what other system calls are OK to use with these functions. o Intuition and Graphics are involved in a scheme to maximize compatibility with older sprite-using applications. The AA chipset supports variable sprite resolution and width, but the setting affects all sprites. If an application requests a specific sprite width (through the old graphics.library/GetSprite() call or the new graphics.library calls (GetExtSpriteA() and ChangeExtSpriteA()), and Intuition's sprite is not compatible with that request, then graphics.library will blank Intuition's sprite and notify Intuition. Intuition will rebound by generating the most suitable pointer sprite which is compatible. o Using an attached sprite for the Intuition pointer was quasi-supported under 2.0. It no longer works. o The pointer information returned by GetPrefs() is no longer kept up-to-date, since the pointer data can exceed the storage space available in struct Preferences. (The ROM default pointer will be returned in all cases). (Like V37, V39 ignores the pointer data in calls to SetPointer() after the first one, for reasons such as this). o Pens for Screens The handling of defaults for the pen array is a bit involved because of compatibility issues. The only change for old applications should be those who pass an SA_Pens array of {~0}. They will get the new values for BARDETAILPEN, BARBLOCKPEN, and BARTRIMPEN. This will only affect the color of their screen title bar, and the color of the menus of any window on that screen which requests new-look menus (WFLG_NEWLOOKMENUS). Applications that specify no SA_Pens array or ones who specify an SA_Pens array with at least one explicit pen provided get V37-compatible defaults. Our options were limited because the request for default palette and default pens were too loosely coupled (until SA_LikeWorkbench). o Screen.BitMap is becoming obsolete. The original Screen structure has an embedded instance of a BitMap structure, which can not grow to support current needs. When Intuition allocates a non-CUSTOMBITMAP screen's BitMap, it now uses AllocBitMap(), and just copies the old struct BitMap portion into the embedded &screen->BitMap. Intuition internally now references the true BitMap (obtainable as screen->RastPort.BitMap) instead of &screen->BitMap. We recommend that applications do the same. This is the direction we're headed anyways for RTG, and is needed for double-buffering. There are currently some patches in Intuition to handle people who are poking the Screen.BitMap depth or planes. Such poking is strongly discouraged. See the new V39 Intuition function ChangeScreenBuffer(). o OpenScreen failure if too deep Since all modes and all depths are no longer available on every systems, OpenScreen will fail if you request a mode/depth combination that is not displayable. This can be an issue both for applications which may have been counting on allocating extra planes this way, or counting on having extra planes which would not be displayed. There is a new SA_ErrorCode value, OSERR_TOODEEP. o Console compatibility Applications which draw graphics in the console portion of the window, but use console scroll commands may not work if they are drawing their text in other than pen 1 or pen 0 when only the bitplane for those colors is scrolled. Applications that use pen sharing on their own screens should allocate and set pens 3-7 if they plan on using those colors in console. The console device still uses pens 0-7 just as it always has. Promotion-Related Issues Under V39 and AA, when Mode Promotion is turned on, display modes which use the default monitor (e.g. display modes which are not explicitly PAL or NTSC) are promoted to scan-doubled or de-interlaced modes such as DblPAL or DblNTSC to provide a flicker-free display. Mode Promotion, on or off, is controlled system-wide by the IControl Preferences editor and the availability of the DblNTSC or DblPAL monitor. Mode promotion can change the behavior of the system in a manner which may be incompatible with certain applications. o The overscan limits of DblNTSC (DblPAL) are a little less than the overscan limits of NTSC (PAL). (For 3.01, the DblNTSC (DblPAL) limits have been extended and are now comparable to, but still less than, NTSC (PAL)). o It may be harder to center a DblNTSC or DblPAL screen on certain multiscan monitors than it was to center a hardware de-interlaced NTSC or PAL screen. (3.01 provides additional centering flexibility which helps solve this problem). o An interlaced screen is promoted to a non-interlaced screen, which has obvious implications on custom copper-lists and copper-list pokers. o The higher resolutions/depths of the AA chipset require higher alignment restrictions on bitplanes. Fortunately, most applications either let Intuition allocate their screen's BitMap or else they have a custom BitMap whose width is a multiple of 64 pixels (the highest alignment currently required by AA). However, if the custom BitMap is an unusual width, it may not be sufficiently aligned for the hardware. Such a screen can come up skewed when promoted. o Coercion of displays in back to match a promoted or explicit DblNTSC or DblPAL front display may result in a lower resolution mode for unsuitably aligned back displays. "1x" modes require 16-pixel (word boundary) alignment of each scan-line. "2x" modes require 32-pixel (longword boundary) alignment, while "4x" modes require 64-pixel (double-longword boundary) alignment. Here is a short reference: o 140 ns pixels (lores in 15 kHz modes, extra-lores in 31 kHz modes) 1-8 planes require 1X o 70 ns pixels (hires in 15 kHz modes, lores in 31 kHz modes) 1-4 planes require 1X 5-8 planes require 2X o 35 ns pixels (super-hires in 15 kHz modes, hires in 31 kHz modes) 1-2 planes require 1X 2-4 planes require 2X 5-8 planes require 4X As the graphics.library AllocBitMap() function takes care of allocating suitably-aligned BitMaps for you, you do not need to worry about alignment when using modern system calls. o The AA hardware does not allow dual-playfield non-interlaced screens to be scan-doubled, so they will appear half as tall as their non-promoted counterparts. o Like earlier chipsets, the AA chipset still supports eight sprites. In much the same way as ECS and original chipsets lose sprites when overscan is increased, many of the new modes have insufficient spare cycles to fetch data for these sprites. A promoted screen may have fewer sprites left than the corresponding 15 kHz mode, meaning that some sprites other than the pointer sprite may vanish. NOTE - If the system is aware that additional sprites are needed, it will attempt to drop a display's bandwidth (if possible) to allow additional sprites. To cause this to happen, either GetSprite() your sprites before opening your display, or RemakeDisplay() after doing your GetSprite() calls. o There is currently no 31 kHz mode having 1280 pixels per line. That would require 17.5 ns pixel speeds, which is twice what the AA chipset is capable of. Therefore, SuperHires screens are promoted to 640 pixel-per-line screens, which generally can scroll. This is required for systems which have a VGA-only monitor, but otherwise might not be the desired way to display this mode. To prevent promotion of SuperHires to Hires, an application could ask explicitly for PAL or NTSC SuperHires. However, keep in mind that future chipsets may be capable of de-interlacing 1280-wide displays, and this would be defeated if NTSC or PAL is explicitly requested. Also remember that a user with a VGA-only monitor can not display these modes. The V39 BestModeIDA() function may be used to determine the best available mode. o Applications that specifically request the NTSC or PAL monitor when opening a display will receive non-promoted PAL or NTSC, suitable for genlocking, etc. For interlace modes, this will not be a flicker-free display. Therefore, productivity and design applications that wish to offer an explicit PAL/NTSC choice should use the display database or 2.1 ASL screen mode requester to allow the user to choose a flicker-free display mode that is available on their system. Other Compatibility Issues o Library Vector Offsets and SetFunction(). In general, some new LVOs supersede old ones. While the old ones still work, software that calls SetFunction() based on the old LVOs may no longer catch what they were hoping to. An example from V37 was people who called SetFunction() on AutoRequest(). Most system requests go through EasyRequest() now. A V39 example would be SetWindowPointer() replacing SetPointer(). o Test for Memory by Poking Breaks Apparently, some games test for RAM at $200000 by writing a pattern there and immediately reading it back. On the A1200 bus, such games will be fooled. Never test for RAM by poking/peeking. Always use Exec's memory allocation functions, or the Exec TypeOfMem() function which can tell the caller whether (and what type of) memory exists at any particular address. o Preferences file format changes The format of some Preferences files have changed of necessity to support new system capabilities, and these files may continue to change. The documentation which has been provided only shows some chunks which may be encountered in a system Preferences file. There is no guarantee that new chunks will not be added, or that the current chunks will continue to be used. Do not read or write system Preferences files. Instead use other provided system mechanisms for reading and setting such items (for example, use device-specific commands or structures for controlling device preferences, functions such as QueryOverscan() and LockPubScreen() for determining display characteristics, etc.) o Changes to support for width-scaling of fonts Under V37, different widths of one YSize of a scalable font could be opened with a tagged OpenDiskFont() by first running a patch called setpatchwtam. Under V38, this patch program does nothing, and an incorrect already-opened width may be returned. Under V39, the correct requested width should again be returned, and these loaded width-scaled fonts are both hidden from AvailFonts() and should not be accidentally provided if application just does OpenFont() for the same YSize. o Self-modifying, copied, and directly loaded code Self-modifying code without proper cache control has been breaking since the 68020 was introduced. The larger caches of the 68030 and 68040 processors make it even more necessary to use the exec cache control functions such as CacheClearU() which have been available since V37. The cache control functions make it possible to flush the processor caches after modifying code in place, copying code to a different memory address, or placing code into memory via any mechanism that bypasses LoadSeg. Cache-control functions are also provided for DMA controllers which DMA data into memory. o IFF code Older IFF sample/example code contains many hardcoded limits and accesses some structures which may no longer be accessed directly. The older code (and even the code listed in the Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual: Devices, 3rd Edition) also would not load more than 32 color registers. The new IFF code, NewIFF39.lzh, attempts to use the latest system functions wherever possible in a conditional backward-compatible manner. The new code provides support for the full AA color palette, arbitrary display modes, the clipboard, overscan and autoscroll screens, and loading/saving of 24-bit ILBMs. Please see the ILBM Compatibility notes for additional information on ILBM compatibility and support of AA features. o Tablet driver writers should test that their tablets now work with console drag selection (known not to work in the 2.04 OS). o Pre/Post DMA Cache functions and 68040 For those of you with DMA devices that need to use the CachePreDMA() and CachePostDMA() calls: Be careful as incorrect use of these calls may look like they work fine in 68000/68020/68030 systems but may cause strange system behavior and even major system slowdown on 68040 systems. The correct way to use these calls is: original_length=length; CachePreDMA(address,&length,0); /* Optional, multiple ones here for breaking up * DMA operations within the single larger DMA block * defined in the first call to CachePreDMA() */ CachePreDMA(....,....,DMA_Continue); /* * Very important to call CachePostDMA() with the * exact same values as CachePreDMA() */ CachePostDMA(address,&original_length,0) Also, you must make sure they match up. If they do not, the system will not be able to figure out that the DMA that was starting has finished. Internally, the OS needs to track these things for the 68040 and higher processors and may need to track them even more in the future. o An upcoming release of 3.0 (3.01?) will support the dos.library SetVBuf() function. From V36 to V39 this call did nothing. It will now properly change buffering modes, sizes, etc. For programs using Dos buffered IO calls (FGetC, FPutC, FRead, etc) this can make a major improvement in IO performance if the buffer size is increased (and if the buffering mode is changed when writing to BUF_FULL). For additional information on OS changes, take particular note of all BUGS and NOTES entries in the sytem autodocs. Taking Advantage of New Features By simply using system features and functions which were introduced in Release 2, you can write adaptable software that can automatically grow and support many new system software and hardware capabilities. Add a bit of conditional code to treat color guns (R, G, and B) as at least 8-bits each, and to conditionally use the new 32-bit V39 color setting and getting functions, and your application can provide full AA palette support. Here are some strategies for adapting to new system capabilities. o Use the asl.library requesters if available. They are localized, they cut down on the amount of code you have to maintain, and they grow with the system. 2.0 Workbench licensees may get a free amendment to distribute the 2.1 asl.library which contains the screen mode requester. o Adapt to previously impossible deeper modes. Properly written software can use the calling syntax of the current graphics and Intuition library functions to open the screen modes with larger numbers of bitplanes. These modes are simply deeper bitplane versions of existing modes: Lores 6,7, and 8 bits; Hires 5,6,7, and 8 bits; SuperHires 3,4,5,6,7, and 8 bits; and VGA 3,4,5,6,7, and 8 bits. Note that the display database must be checked to see if the user's machine supports the desired mode and number of bitplanes. Intuition's screen functions can be used to open these previously impossible screens, but programs cannot rely on Intuition to throw out all "bad" possibilities. For example, V36 Intuition will open an 8-bitplane Lores screen, but this is a waste of memory if the new chip set is not present since the 3 extra bitplanes will simply go unused. Programs will therefore need to explicitly check the display database to find out what the chips support. In V39, Intuition will check the chips for you and fail to open a screen which is "too deep". There is a new SA_ErrorCode value, OSERR_TOODEEP. Note on Mode IDs. The currently defined display database mode IDs have all been moved from <graphics/displayinfo.h> to the new include file <graphics/modeid.h>. Do not attempt to create your own display mode IDs by OR'ing together monitors and modes unless the include file explicitly allows it. Do not try to draw conclusions about display characteristics by interpreting bits in the display mode ID. Instead, pass the mode ID to the display database functions to discover the display characteristics (see the example below and other examples in Amiga Mail, Devcon Notes, Amiga RKRM: Libraries manual, and the new screen mode requester example). The complete example listed below will check the display database entry for a LORES screen and open a screen with the maximum allowable number of bitplanes (assuming there is enough Chip memory). On an Amiga with any chip set up to and including ECS, this code will open a 5-bitplane screen. On a machine with the AA chip set, the screen will be 8 bits deep. The code will then draw one vertical line for each available color using Intuition's preferred palette (which can be set by the user with Preferences). The example requires V36 or a later version of the OS. /* maxdepthlores.c */ #include <exec/types.h> #include <intuition/intuition.h> #include <graphics/displayinfo.h> #include <dos/dos.h> #include <clib/exec_protos.h> #include <clib/intuition_protos.h> #include <clib/graphics_protos.h> #include <clib/dos_protos.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> struct Library *IntuitionBase; struct Library *GfxBase; void Quit(char *whytext,LONG failcode) { if(*whytext) printf("%s\n",whytext); if (IntuitionBase) CloseLibrary(IntuitionBase); if (GfxBase) CloseLibrary(GfxBase); exit(failcode); } void main(void) { ULONG modeID = LORES_KEY; DisplayInfoHandle displayhandle; struct DimensionInfo dimensioninfo; UWORD maxdepth, maxcolors; ULONG soerror = NULL,colornum; struct Screen *screen; if ((GfxBase = OpenLibrary("graphics.library",36))==NULL) Quit("graphics.library is too old <V36",RETURN_FAIL); if ((IntuitionBase = OpenLibrary("intuition.library",36))==NULL) Quit("intuition.library is too old <V36",RETURN_FAIL); if ((displayhandle=FindDisplayInfo(modeID))==NULL) Quit("modeID not found in display database",RETURN_FAIL); if (GetDisplayInfoData(displayhandle,(UBYTE *) &dimensioninfo, sizeof(struct DimensionInfo),DTAG_DIMS,NULL)==0) Quit("mode dimension info not available",RETURN_FAIL); maxdepth=dimensioninfo.MaxDepth; printf("dimensioninfo.MaxDepth=%d\n",(int) maxdepth); if (screen=OpenScreenTags(NULL, SA_DisplayID ,modeID, SA_Depth ,(UBYTE) maxdepth, SA_Title ,"MaxDepth LORES", SA_ErrorCode ,&soerror, SA_FullPalette ,TRUE, TAG_END)) { /* Zowee! we actually got the screen open! * now let's try drawing into it. */ maxcolors=1<<maxdepth; printf("maxcolors=%d\n",(int) maxcolors); for(colornum=0;colornum<maxcolors;++colornum) { SetAPen(&(screen->RastPort),colornum); Move(&(screen->RastPort),colornum,screen->BarHeight + 2); Draw(&(screen->RastPort),colornum,screen->Height - 1); } Delay(TICKS_PER_SECOND * 6); CloseScreen(screen); } else { /* Hmmm. Couldn't open the screen. maybe not * enough CHIP RAM? Maybe not enough chips! ;-) */ switch(soerror) { case OSERR_NOCHIPS: Quit("Bummer! You need new chips dude!",RETURN_FAIL); break; case OSERR_UNKNOWNMODE: Quit("Bummer! Unknown screen mode.",RETURN_FAIL); break; case OSERR_NOCHIPMEM: Quit("Not enough CHIP memory.",RETURN_FAIL); break; case OSERR_NOMEM: Quit("Not enough FAST memory.",RETURN_FAIL); break; default: printf("soerror=%d\n",soerror); Quit("Screen opening error.",RETURN_FAIL); break; } Quit("Couldn't open screen.",RETURN_FAIL); } Quit("",RETURN_OK); /* clean up and exit */ } o Open on Workbench. One of the easiest ways to help a given program peacefully coexist with new hardware is to allow it to open on the Workbench screen (or on any public screen). Software written this way should be robust enough that it can find out from the system any information it might need about the display environment, and, if it understands the kind of screen that it's on, use the appropriate graphics.library calls to manipulate its windows. Here's some example code that determines the depth of the default public screen and opens a window on it. If it were part of a real application, this code would tell how many colors the screen has. Add some conditional V39 palette sharing code and you can even have your own color registers to use, if available, or closest matching register to share. /* depthawarevisitor.c */ #include <exec/types.h> #include <intuition/intuition.h> #include <graphics/displayinfo.h> #include <dos/dos.h> #include <clib/exec_protos.h> #include <clib/intuition_protos.h> #include <clib/graphics_protos.h> #include <clib/dos_protos.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> struct Library *IntuitionBase; struct Library *GfxBase; struct Screen *screen = NULL; void Quit(char *whytext, LONG failcode) { if(*whytext) printf("%s\n",whytext); if (screen) UnlockPubScreen(NULL, screen); if (IntuitionBase) CloseLibrary(IntuitionBase); if (GfxBase) CloseLibrary(GfxBase); exit(failcode); } void main(void) { struct Screen *screen; struct DrawInfo *drawinfo; struct Window *window; UWORD depth; if ((GfxBase = OpenLibrary("graphics.library",36))==NULL) Quit("graphics.library is too old <V36",RETURN_FAIL); if ((IntuitionBase = OpenLibrary("intuition.library",36))==NULL) Quit("intuition.library is too old <V36",RETURN_FAIL); if (!(screen = LockPubScreen(NULL))) Quit("Can't lock default public screen",RETURN_FAIL); /* Here's where we'll ask Intuition about the screen. */ if((drawinfo=GetScreenDrawInfo(screen)) == NULL) Quit("Can't get DrawInfo",RETURN_FAIL); depth=drawinfo->dri_Depth; /* Because Intuition allocates the DrawInfo structure, * we have to tell it when we're done, to get the memory back. */ FreeScreenDrawInfo(screen, drawinfo); /* This next line takes advantage of the stack-based amiga.lib * version of OpenWindowTags. */ if (window = OpenWindowTags(NULL, WA_PubScreen ,screen, WA_Left ,0, WA_Width ,screen->Width, WA_Top ,screen->BarHeight, WA_Height ,screen->Height - screen->BarHeight, WA_Flags ,WINDOWDRAG|WINDOWDEPTH|WINDOWCLOSE| ACTIVATE|SIMPLE_REFRESH|NOCAREREFRESH, WA_Title ,"Big Visitor", TAG_END)) { printf("depth=%d\n",depth); /* All our window event handling might go here */ Delay(TICKS_PER_SECOND * 10); /* Of course, some other program might come along * and change the attributes of the screen that we read from * DrawInfo, but that's a mean thing to do to a public screen, * so let's hope it doesn't happen. */ CloseWindow(window); } Quit("",RETURN_OK); /* clean up (close/unlock) and exit */ } o If necessary, use tag-extended older structures with 1.3 functions. If you are not yet able to drop support for 1.3 systems, use tag-extended structures such as ExtNewScreen and ExtNewWindow to provide V37 and V39/AA enhanced capabilities with 1.3-compatible code. See the RKM Libraries volume Intuition chapters for examples which use these tag-extended structures. An example of such coding is the NewIFF39 code. **************************************************************************** MARK RICCI - Please get this table and all of the footnotes that follow it from Dan Baker's ProPage V39 Notes Compatibility doc. **************************************************************************** Table 1: New AA Display Modes (In Addition to Modes Supported by ECS)