Coder's Guild Mailing List

Re: VBE 2.0

Posted by Thomas Mathys on 2000-10-23

> Hey, I was just wondering - I thought the VBE 2.0 was a STANDARD?? I
> mean, if you go to VESA's site (vesa.org), it says the 2.0 BIOS
> extensions were agreed upon in 1994... and the book "More Tricks of the
> Game Programming Gurus" by Sams Publishing has a chapter on the VBE.
> 
> "[Now, in 1995] we are at a point where almost where almost all new
> computers are supplied with VESA-compliant SVGA cards. In another year
> or so, you'll be able to forget about VESA incompatibilities
> altogether."
> 
> Hmm... year 2000. Y2K. Why is it that SO MANY cards don't support the
> VBE?? I wrote a program and sent it to a few friends.  I sent it to 4
> people. Turns out, their cards don't support this so-called "standard".
> One just bought a brand new computer with a 32 MB video card (forget
> which one - came with 3D glasses). Is it me or is something wrong? And
> is there anything I can do about it? Thx.
> 
> Cheers,
> Sharvil Nanavati

well, most new cards i've seen have at least a vesa 2.0 bios, but those
bioses often don't support those nice lo-res modes, such as 320x240x32.
i guess this is because vesa 2.0 is important for dos programs, and who
writes dos programs nowadays ? (ok, some do:)

so most gfx cards come with at least usable windows drivers, but only
a lousy vesa 2.0 bios. and if the card for some reason isn't supported
by display doctor, well...

so i guess you can't do much about it, except writing software for a
more
modern os

thomas