README.NT MATROX GRAPHICS INC. February 15, 1996
MGA Millennium Windows NT 3.5/3.51 Display Driver
Rev. 2.00.044 (3.5.44)
Table of Contents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Release description
- Product files
- Installation
- Changing resolution
- MGA Panel and QuickAccess
- Monitor selection
- Registry settings
- Hardware-accelerated 3D
- Notes, Problems, and Limitations
Release description
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the MGA Millennium Windows NT Display Driver, version 2.00.
It supports Microsoft Windows NT for x86 CPU's, versions 3.5 and 3.51.
This product includes:
- Display Driver
- MGA PowerDesk Panel
- 3D-DDI Driver, for OpenGL hardware-accelerated 3D
The driver supports 2, 4, and 8Mbytes MGA Millennium boards. Up to three
boards are also supported.
Product files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\MGAX64.TAG Tag file for Windows NT Setup
\MGAX64.SYS MGA Millennium miniport driver
\MGAX64.DLL MGA Millennium user-mode driver
\DDIRX.DLL MGA Millennium 3D-DDI driver
\OEMSETUP.INF MGA Millennium driver installation file for Windows NT
\TXTSETUP.OEM MGA Millennium driver installation file for Windows NT
\MGA.MON MGA monitor file
\MGASHK.EXE Service installation application
\MGAHK.EXE Service start-up application
\MGAPANEL.CPL MGA Panel applet
\MGAQUICK.EXE QuickAccess application
\MGA_ENG.HLP Help for MGA Panel applet
\MGA_ENG.DLL Language library
\CTL3D32.DLL Library copied for Windows NT 3.5 only
\README.NT This file
Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Refer to your MGA Millennium Owner's Manual to install your board in your
system.
If you are installing multiple MGA Millennium boards in your system, please
note that only one should be VGA-enabled through the on-board switch.
Multiple-board installations are similar to single-board installations.
The system will automatically assign separate addresses to each PCI board,
allowing the driver to issue commands to each board. In a multiple-board
configuration, all boards must run with the same resolution and pixel
depth (number of colors). The VGA-enabled board will drive the top left
monitor.
The general procedure for changing a display driver is the following:
- Open the ControlPanel/Display applet.
- Press the 'Change Display Type...' button.
- In the Display Type dialog box, press the 'Change...' button.
- In the Select Device dialog box, press the 'Other...' button.
- In the Install From Disk dialog box, type the location of the
Matrox MGA Millennium installation files (e.g. "A:\WINNT").
- From the displayed list, select a resolution and pixel depth
supported by your board and monitor, then press 'Install'.
Modes requiring 4 or 8 MBytes are specified in the displayed list.
Multiple-board modes are not available at driver installation time,
since the number of installed boards cannot be determined at
this time.
- Answer 'Yes' to the 'Installing Driver' dialog box.
- If the MGA Millennium drivers are already installed on your system,
you will be prompted to choose between the currently installed
drivers or new ones. If you select 'New', you will be prompted
for the path to the new driver files. This will default to the
path entered in the Install From Disk dialog box.
- In the Display Settings Change dialog box, you should select
'Restart Now' so that the new settings take effect.
- If your system does not reboot at the expected resolution, it is
probable that your board does not support the selected resolution/
pixel depth combination. Open ControlPanel/Display again and press
the 'List All Modes...' button to get all the modes available for
your particular board. You can also experiment with the 'Color
Palette' and 'Desktop Area' controls to select a new mode. Use
the 'Test' button to make sure that the new mode is supported by
your monitor.
Changing resolution
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whenever you want to change resolution, run the ControlPanel/Display applet.
The available modes are displayed through the 'List All Modes...' button.
If you are using a multiple-screen configuration, the driver will spread the
desktop over multiple monitors. Special multiple-screen resolutions will be
listed, where the horizontal or vertical resolutions are multiple of their
normal size. Selecting one of these resolutions will permit testing of
both monitors.
MGA Panel and QuickAccess
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The MGA Panel applet and the QuickAccess application should have been
copied to your hard disk when the MGA Millennium drivers were installed.
These applications work together to allow the user to access information
about their board(s) and to enable and use driver features.
MGA Panel can be started from Control Panel. It can currently display
five pages:
About displays information such as current version numbers and
current resolution.
Configuration allows the user to set the 3D switches (described in the
'Hardware-accelerated 3D' section), and to select a preferred
language.
Monitor allows building of a video parameter file, as described in
the 'Monitor Selection' section.
Information displays hardware information about the board(s) installed
in the system.
PowerDesk allows the user to define and enable hot keys for zooming
(PixelTOUCH), for centering the top window (CenterWINDOW),
and to start the MGA Panel and the Display applets. The
QuickACCESS check box can make the QuickAccess icon visible
on the desktop.
On Windows NT 3.51, QuickAccess is a floating toolbar that allows zoom in,
zoom out, and window centering. It can also invoke the MGA Panel. It is
started automatically as a service, immediately after log on.
On Windows NT 3.5, QuickAccess cannot display its floating toolbar, but it
does trap the hot keys defined in MGA Panel. QuickAccess should have been
installed in your Startup group, and its icon should not be deleted.
The Monitor page of the MGA Panel replaces the MGA Monitor applet supplied
with versions 1.x of the drivers. The files required to run MGA Monitor
will be deleted when the system is rebooted after installation of the
Rev. 2.0 drivers.
Monitor selection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After installation, the display driver expects that refresh rate information
will be set through a video parameter file called MGA.INF. If this file is
not found, the driver will check for Display Data Channel (DDC) capabilities
and use DDC timings if available. If your monitor is not DDC compliant,
the driver will assume that your monitor is capable of handling all
resolutions from 640x480 up to 1600x1200 at a 60 Hz refresh rate.
In all cases, it is highly recommended that you select a monitor through the
MGA Panel. When a monitor is selected, the MGA.INF file is created in
your SystemRoot\system32 directory. Refer to the MGA Panel Help for more
details on monitor selection.
A change of monitor selection will take effect the next time Windows NT is
booted.
Advanced users who would rather select refresh rates through the ControlPanel/
Display applet can set the 'User.MgaInfoFile' value in the registry to 0 (see
the 'Registry settings' section for details). The next time you reboot,
refresh rates available for each mode will be returned to the Display
applet. The system will probably reboot in the 640x480x8 mode, and a
warning message will be displayed. This is normal, since the system could
not find the hardware default setting that was used previously for refresh
rates. You can now select refresh rates from the list displayed by
ControlPanel/Display. If your monitor is DDC compliant, the list of modes
will be built from an internal table of video parameters and according to the
capabilities reported by your monitor; otherwise, the internal table will
be used. In any case, you should test any new mode to make sure that your
monitor actually supports the new resolution/refresh rate combination.
Registry settings (for advanced users only)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information held in the Windows NT registry can have a direct effect on the
whole system. Introducing incorrect values can cause serious problems and
may make it necessary to reinstall Windows NT. The changes outlined below
should have effects limited to the MGA Millennium drivers. However, if you
accidentally modify values that make your system unusable, please note that
it is often possible to undo the damage by using the 'Last Known Good
Configuration' option at boot time.
The configuration of the MGA Windows NT driver and of MGA Panel is saved in
the registry. The most important parameters can be modified through the
MGA Panel, but others can be accessed only through the Registry Editor.
Most users will find that the default values are best for their system.
However, specific problems will be solved through these switches. The
values are:
User.AlternateLines when set to 1, allows lines defined by integer coordinates
to be drawn using the faster AUTOLINE opcode of the
drawing engine. The convention used to determine which
pixels contribute to a given line is slightly different
in AUTOLINE and in Windows NT. Setting AlternateLines
to 1 trades off compliance with the Windows NT conventions
for performance. A value of 0 will enforce compliance.
Lines defined by non-integer endpoint coordinates are not
affected by this setting.
The default value of User.AlternateLines is 0.
User.CenterDialogs when set to 1, allows centering of dialog boxes and
pop-up windows on the top left display of a multiple-
screen setup. The centered windows can still be moved
over the whole desktop. A value of 0 will have no effect
on the position of these windows.
There are serious side-effects to this feature. For
instance, testing a multiple-screen mode from the
ControlPanel/Display applet will actually test only the
corresponding single-screen mode. Other side-effects
include toolbars that will not use the whole desktop, and
screen savers that will work only on the top left screen.
The default value of User.CenterDialogs is 0.
User.ComplexBlt when set to 1, allows the hardware to accelerate some
complex raster operations (ROPs) by executing a sequence
of simple ROPs (ORing, ANDing, etc...). A value of 0
will result in complex ROPs being performed in software.
The complex ROPs are performed directly on the display
through a succession of simple ROPs. Artifacts (flashing)
in the target display area may become visible when an
intermediate result in video RAM is displayed on a given
refresh cycle, to be replaced by the final image on the
next cycle.
The default value of User.ComplexBlt is 1.
User.DeviceBitmaps when set to 1, allows use of off-screen memory for
caching bitmaps. This will allow the hardware to
accelerate drawing to bitmaps. A value of 0 disables
bitmap caching, allowing the CPU to draw onto all
bitmaps. Bitmap caching is internally disabled when
a desktop requiring more than one board is in use,
regardless of the registry setting.
The default value of User.DeviceBitmaps is 1.
User.MgaInfoFile when set to 1, allows use of the MGA Panel applet to
control refresh rates. A value of 0 will allow the
Display applet to list available refresh rates. See
the 'Monitor selection' section for more details.
The default value of User.MgaInfoFile is 1.
User.SynchronizeDac when set to 1, will require the driver to wait for a
vertical sync before programming the ramdac with a new
pointer shape or a new palette. If you notice stray
pixels flashing around the pointer, setting this flag
to 1 might fix the problem. Setting it to 0 will result
in slightly better performance.
The default value of User.SynchronizeDac is 0.
User.SynchronizeEngine when set to 1, will require the driver to wait for
the Millennium hardware to be ready to accept new data
before programming the next operation. Setting it to 0
will result in better performance.
On most x86-based systems, the PCI logic should ensure
that such a check is redundant. If you're experiencing
problems that might be related to timing (with
communication programs, for instance), setting this value
to 1 may be of help.
The default value of User.SynchronizeEngine is 0.
Modifying keys and values in the registry is done through the Registry
Editor. The Registry Editor can be invoked in the following way:
- Open a Command Prompt window.
- Type 'regedt32'. The Registry Editor will come up.
To examine or to modify the values that govern the behavior of the MGA
Millennium driver:
- Select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE window.
- Travel down to the key named:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\mgax64\Device0.
You will find the values in the right window pane. To modify any of them:
- Double-click on the selected value.
- In the DWORD Editor, change the value to '0' or '1'. The new value
will take effect the next time you reboot.
Hardware-accelerated 3D
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The DDIRX.DLL file supplied with the MGA Millennium drivers allows for
hardware-accelerated 3D, with a few restrictions:
- Hardware-accelerated 3D is available only for Windows NT 3.51.
- The 3D DLL does not support 8bpp (256 colors) and 24bpp (16777216
colors) modes. The 15bpp (32K colors), 16bpp (64K colors), and
32bpp (True Color) modes are the ones that can be hardware-
accelerated.
- Limitations to the available resolutions are to be expected. All
3D modes require extra memory to handle double buffering and/or Z
buffering, and this memory is no longer available for display.
The 3D driver can be configured through three registry switches:
User3D.DoubleBuffer when set to 1, allows a back buffer to be allocated
from the MGA Millennium memory. It should be set to
0 if no back buffer is required.
This value should be set to 1 if 3D animation is to
be fully accelerated.
User3D.ZBuffer when set to 1, allows a Z buffer to be allocated from
the MGA Millennium memory. It should be set to 0 if
no Z buffer is required.
This value should be set to 1 if 3D rendering is to
be fully accelerated.
User3D.SubPixel when set to 1, allows the 3D-DDI driver to perform
rendering with sub-pixel precision. It should be
set to 0 otherwise.
This value should be set to 1 if high quality 3D
rendering is to be performed. Faster rendering can
be achieved by setting the value to zero, although
some artifacts may then appear near object boundaries.
The default values for the User3D switches is 1. The recommended way of
modifying them is through the MGA Panel 'Configuration' page rather than
through the Registry Editor.
The available 3D modes are listed in the MGA Panel help. The 'List 3D Modes'
button on the 'Configuration' page can also provide this information.
Notes, Problems, and Limitations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MGA Panel and QuickAccess with NT 3.5
With Windows NT 3.5, the MGA Panel will come up with a white
background, instead of a grey one. The full MGA Panel functionality
is still available, but the QuickAccess floating toolbar is not.
The QuickAccess icon appears in the Startup group, so that it is
started automatically to service the hot keys defined in MGA Panel.
Deleting it from the Startup group is not recommended.
HCT/DispTest
The DispTest application for testing full-screen VGA modes may crash
the system when some modes are tested. An updated BIOS is required.
Screen 13/13 is wrong when viewed in a window.
Systems using more than one PCI bus
There are systems where Windows NT reports conflicts between adapters
installed beyond the PCI bridge. In this case, the MGA Millennium
miniport driver cannot access its own board. If your system appears
unable to find the Millennium board, try moving it to a different PCI
slot.
