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Table of Contents __________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Introduction ................................................... 1 Installation ................................................... 1 Manual installation ......................................... 2 Command Line Options ........................................... 3 /? - Help ................................................... 3 /D - Diagnostics ............................................ 4 /Mx - User mode ............................................. 4 /U - Unloading .............................................. 5 80x25 ... 132x60 - Set alphanumeric mode .................... 5 The Optional SETMODE Utility ................................... 5 How To Contact Us? ............................................. 6 ___________________________________________________________________ ii (c) 1993 Himalaya Software Introduction ___________________________________________________________________ Introduction Thanks for using VPRVESA, the newest VESA VBE (VESA for short) driver for the Diamond Viper. What are the benefits of this driver versus the Diamond VESA driver? * The driver will load itself into High Memory (the region between 640KB and 1MB) if there is a memory manager (like EMM386, QEMM-386, and 386MAX) loaded. It doesn't leave holes in the base memory (below the 640K boundary). If you don't have a memory manager loaded - God forbids you - it will act as a normal TSR and takes up just under 3KB of memory. * It supports both 15-bit and 16-bit HiColor modes, whereas Diamond's VESA driver only supports 15-bit HiColor modes. * 640x400x256 (VESA mode 100H) is supported. Games like Links/386 Pro and The Seventh Guest work like a charm with this video mode. * Dual buffering for the 640x400x256 video mode. This means that programs like Flight Simulator 5, which use dual buffering for animation purposes, will work on your Diamond Viper. The only drawback is that you will need 2MB of VRAM installed. If you only have 1MB of VRAM, the games will produce video output, but since the second frame buffer is not available, the screen will flicker. * Up to four user modes can be specified when loading VPRVESA. User modes can be defined by the (optional) companion program SETMODE. If you want a resolution of 1024x1024, just define it with SETMODE and VPRVESA will support it. * It complies to the VESA VBE 1.2 standard, which means a program can set the DAC color resolution from 6 bits (256000 colors in the palette) to 8 bits (16 million colors in the palette). You see, this program has more functionality than the Diamond's VESA driver, and it takes up less space in your precious DOS memory! Installation Installing the VPRVESA program can be done either manually or by using the INSTALL program, which is available to all registered users. ___________________________________________________________________ VPRVESA User's Manual 1 Manual Installation ___________________________________________________________________ When running the INSTALL program from the diskette, it first will search for the directory where the other Viper utilities are stored in (usually C:\VIPER). If it can't find that directory, it will ask the user where this directory is located. Next, it will ask the user the name, serial number, and access key printed on the registration card you have received once you have registered. Case is not significant in the name, you can use upper- and lowercase letters just as you want. After this, it will copy the file from diskette to your fixed disk. When this copy has been completed, it will ask you if the AUTOEXEC.BAT file may be changed. If you say no, you must change this file manually, see the next section. The original AUTOEXEC.BAT file will be backup up with the name AUTOEXEC.BAK. Now, the installation is finished and you can return to DOS. To load the VPRVESA driver you must reboot your machine by using Ctrl-Alt-Del. Manual installation If you have the ShareWare version of VPRVESA, you will have to copy the files manually to the directory where the other Viper utilities are located, usually C:\VIPER. You can do this by typing the following line at the command prompt: C> COPY A:*.* C:\VIPER in which C:\VIPER is the directory in which you have copied the files. Also, you have to add the following lines to the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: SET VIPERPATH=C:\VIPER C:\VIPER\VPRVESA in which C:\VIPER is the directory in which you have copied the files. These lines set the VIPERPATH variable, which is needed by all other Viper utilities and drivers, and load the VESA driver. You must remove the following line from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file if it is specified: VPRMODE VESA since you don't need Diamond's VESA driver anymore. ___________________________________________________________________ 2 (c) 1993 Himalaya Software Command Line Options ___________________________________________________________________ You may wish to add the C:\VIPER directory to your PATH, so the VPRVESA program can always be accessed. Just add the following line to the very end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\VIPER This concludes the manual installation process. A final note on loading the VESA driver: you don't have to load the program into high memory with the LH, LOADHIGH, and LOADHI commands. VPRVESA will load itself into high memory if it is available. Command Line Options There are some other command line options you can use with the VPRVESA program. Some options are only valid when loading the VPRVESA program, others can be used when the VPRVESA program has been loaded or just to change the video mode. Here is a list: /? Show a help screen with all available command line options /D Show diagnostics screen /Mx Include user mode with resolution x /U Unload the VPRVESA driver 80x25 Set the screen to alphanumeric mode with 80 characters by 25 lines 80x60 Set the screen to alphanumeric mode with 80 characters by 60 lines 132x25 Set the screen to alphanumeric mode with 132 characters by 25 lines 132x43 Set the screen to alphanumeric mode with 132 characters by 43 lines 132x50 Set the screen to alphanumeric mode with 132 characters by 50 lines 132x60 Set the screen to alphanumeric mode with 132 characters by 60 lines /? - Help This shows a short help screen with all available options. ___________________________________________________________________ VPRVESA User's Manual 3 Command Line Options ___________________________________________________________________ /D - Diagnostics Use this option, which is only valid when loading the VPRVESA program, to find out your BIOS version, how much memory is installed on the Viper card and some other useful things. When you encounter difficulties with some programs, type VPRVESA /D when loading the VPRVESA program. A few extra lines will be added to the normal VPRVESA screen, prefixed by a percentage sign ('%'). If you want to contact us with your - VPRVESA related - problems, be sure to include these lines in your mail. /Mx - User mode These switches have the form of VPRVESA /Mhorxver where hor and ver are the horizontal and vertical resolution of the mode requested, i.e. VPRVESA /M1024x1024 You can use this option only when loading the VPRVESA driver, so if you want to change the user modes already loaded, you first have to unload the VPRVESA program with the /U switch. Up to four user modes can be specified on the command line, separated by spaces or tabs. Now, what is an user mode? It is a customized video mode, not normally used by Diamond. The VESA VBE specifications have default video modes of 640x400, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024. The VPRVESA program adds the modes 1152x900 and 1600x1200. But what if you want square pixels in a high- resolution mode, like 1280x960? By using the SETMODE utility, you define this customized video mode. It will be saved in the VIPER.INI file. Now, when loading the VPRVESA driver, you can specify up to four user modes. In this version, only 256-color modes are supported; the next version will include the 4 user modes in any available color depth (HiColor and TrueColor, if you have enough VRAM installed). ___________________________________________________________________ 4 (c) 1993 Himalaya Software The Optional SETMODE Utility ___________________________________________________________________ /U - Unloading Whenever you want to unload the VPRVESA program, just type: VPRVESA /U This only works when no other program has taken over the INT 10H vector (the interrupt vector used by the VPRVESA program). This means you can not unload the VPRVESA program if you have loaded a mouse driver (which also used INT 10H) after the VPRVESA program. This is why the INSTALL program puts the loading of VPRVESA at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If the INT 10H vector is not take over by any other program, the VPRVESA program will remove itself from memory, freeing the memory it has used. 80x25 ... 132x60 - Set alphanumeric mode Use these commands to change to a different alphanumeric video mode. All standard VESA modes are supported, as well as the standard 80x25 alphanumeric mode. The Optional SETMODE Utility For a small fee, you may purchase the SETMODE utility, which replaces the Diamond's VPRMODE utility and accompanies the VPRVESA program. What does this program do? * It let's you center all video modes supported by your monitor. You can center only one video mode (or more), you don't have to center all video modes like the VPRMODE program if you just want to change 640x480. * You only define one color depth (8-bit); the other video modes (16-bit and 24-bit) are automatically calculated from this one video mode. * You can specify the refresh rate for all video modes. This can be useful in situations where you experience interference with other equipment using the same frequency, like fluorescent lamps. Also, the higher the frequency, the more stable your display is going to be. ___________________________________________________________________ VPRVESA User's Manual 5 How To Contact Us? ___________________________________________________________________ * The video mode parameters are automatically updated in the resident VPRVESA program, so you don't have to reload VPRVESA. You can create customized video modes (like 1024x1024) which can be used by both the VPRVESA program as Diamond's Windows drivers. How To Contact Us? You can contact Himalaya Software at any of the following addresses. Our normal business hours are 10:00 to 17:00 weekdays, central European time. By mail: Himalaya Software Nederrijn 2 2641 TT Pijnacker The Netherlands By telephone: Voice: ++31 - 1736 - 98254 FAX: ++31 - 1736 - 98254 Electronically: CompuServe: 100041,1671 Internet: 100041.1671@compuserve.com __________________________________________________________________ 6 (c) 1993 Himalaya Software