High Resolution Screen Modes

Question about which tools to use, bugs, the best way to implement a function, etc should go here. Don't forget to see if your question is answered in the wiki first! When in doubt post here.
Post Reply
SquattyDog

High Resolution Screen Modes

Post by SquattyDog »

I have already accomplished a simple, low-resoultion GUI for my OS.  I have scoured my BIOS and video card mauals but haven't had any success in finding out how to enable high-resolution screen modes on my video card.  Does anyone know how I would go about enabling a hi-res modes on a video card?  If you have information on a specific card that would be useful too.  Thanks for your help.
Stefan

RE:High Resolution Screen Modes

Post by Stefan »

Ralf Brown's Interrupt list
If you have a recent (8 or so years) video card, you want VESA VBE.
RMode Interrupt 0x10, AX = 0x4F00.
It even comes with drawing primitives (line, circle, etc.)!
And bochs supports it.
SVGALib and XFree86 Driver "VESA", if you're using GNU/Linux.

Web RBIL:
http://www.ctyme.com/intr/rb-0273.htm
Sentient

RE:High Resolution Screen Modes

Post by Sentient »

I have a FX5200 (Geforce FX) NVidia based card, and, to be honest, VBE is really not an option for it.

When I list all the supported modes, there are no 1024x768 modes.
tom1000000

RE:High Resolution Screen Modes

Post by tom1000000 »

VBE is disappearing as a standard, I don't think its worth the effort of supporting it.

Its clumsy and was primarily designed for real mode eg MS-DOS. There's no need for it as far as graphics chip manufacturers are concerned, because they Windows drivers instead.

Better off lookin at the Linux code and writing proper drivers for your graphics card. Maybe more difficult but you get much better performance.
Post Reply