Folks, where was the problem in getting 16-bit color on the XGA-2 under NT4?

xga.drv, xga.vxd, vga256.dll?

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https://comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware.narkive.com/nFRUs4Xe/w98se-mca-adapters

my email is refusing to send.

Louis Ohland wrote:

Folks, where was the problem in getting 16-bit color on the XGA-2 under
NT4?

xga.drv, xga.vxd, vga256.dll?

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What is the special sauce? 16 is 16-bit? Why then 64?

Ryan Alswede wrote:

We clearly see the modes in XGA driver in the leaked NT code are support for 64k color 16 bit 256 etc .
XGA1_MODE_1024_768_16_CO
XGA1_MODE_1024_768_64_CO

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XGAKIT.ZIP IBM XGA Graphics routines. C and ASM Source. C Demo program. https://www.ardent-tool.com/video/XGAKIT.ZIP

Ryan Alswede wrote:

I tried to change the driver to use the standard 16-bit color palette load method but it just blue screens.

Also tried pairing the xga2.sys with the framebuf.dll which is use in a lot of virtual machines as the video driver. It sees all the 256 color modes and one 65536 color mode. If I try to use the one listed 65536 color mode the screen redraws to long

and distorted, the colors are very dark so no luck there.

Looking in the leaked 2000 SP1 retail build source code the only reference left in the source to xga is this one comment:
*... unless the display driver is xga.drv,
* because XGA cards aren't really VGA compatible

Yes looks to be true so far.

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Ryan, are you using an XGA card or XGA-NI [XGA-2]?

"standard 16-bit color palette load method"

For which "standard"? VGA? XGA?

"If I try to use the one listed 65536 color mode the screen redraws to
long and distorted, the colors are very dark so no luck there."

I assume the 640x480x 64k palette bypass mode [aka direct color mode]?

Ryan Alswede wrote:

I tried to change the driver to use the standard 16-bit color palette load method but it just blue screens.

Also tried pairing the xga2.sys with the framebuf.dll which is use in a lot of virtual machines as the video driver. It sees all the 256 color modes and one 65536 color mode. If I try to use the one listed 65536 color mode the screen redraws to long

and distorted, the colors are very dark so no luck there.

Looking in the leaked 2000 SP1 retail build source code the only reference left in the source to xga is this one comment:
*... unless the display driver is xga.drv,
* because XGA cards aren't really VGA compatible

Yes looks to be true so far.

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