Accessing Full Range of Video memory

[Slasher]

Hi,
as we all progress in our efforts, I'd like to know if anyone has info on how to access all of the video memory available on new video cards eg
how can i use all of the memory on 4mb,8mb,16mb,32mb ...... video cards?
I know about the LFB modes of VESA, what i mean is being able to use some part of this video memory to store data which is not part of the display or graphics.
i.e using the first 2mb for the LFB and the rest for various data items which might not have anything to do with graphics.

[Tim]

I wouldn't bother using video memory for anything other than graphics, since reading from video memory is horrendously slow.

[DarylD]

On the newer cards, I assume most modern OS's will use the remaining non-framebuffer ram for storing graphics images that will be blitted to screen, i.e. icons/mouse pointers/pre-processed fonts. Copying from VRAM to VRAM is super fast.

Daryl.

[Perica]

..

[DarylD]

You need to find out how to code individual graphics cards to make use of the extra memory, it isn't really practical through VGA/VESA modes.

Its definately an advanced topic!

Daryl.