VOGONS


First post, by IMeganElisabeth

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I’m using SciTech Display Doctor with VirtualBox in order to have 32 bit color along with higher resolution and am wondering if I should go this route with PCem as well or if there is a better option for a Windows 98 SE system? To get the highest supported color/resolution possible. Thank you very much.

Reply 1 of 13, by Zup

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What about using your emulated VGA drivers?

In Virtualbox, you need a "generic" VGA driver for Virtualbox because their emulated video card has no drivers for Windows 98. In PCem you can choose a video card that has drivers for Windows 98 (i.e.: any S3 based video card) and installe that video card drivers.

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Reply 3 of 13, by IMeganElisabeth

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Zup wrote:

What about using your emulated VGA drivers?

In Virtualbox, you need a "generic" VGA driver for Virtualbox because their emulated video card has no drivers for Windows 98. In PCem you can choose a video card that has drivers for Windows 98 (i.e.: any S3 based video card) and installe that video card drivers.

Thank you very very much. I see now they’re completely separate in this regard.

Reply 5 of 13, by IMeganElisabeth

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leileilol wrote:

You'll want to emulate the ATI Mach64 for that. Disregard all advice intended for Virtualbox/VMWare.

What are the highest color/resolution combinations I’m able to achieve with this? Display Doctor allows for 1600x1200 with 32 bit color. Would I be able to use Display Doctor with Windows 98 SE in PCem if ATI Mach64 doesn’t allow for this high of a combination?

Reply 6 of 13, by DosFreak

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Just try pcem with any video card that's supported and install the video card drivers for it and see what resolutions you have. The generic drivers are usually used if there is no video card driver for the video card as is the case with vmware,virtualbox or a real pc. The generic drivers use VESA and are limited by what the driver supports and how much video memory the card has. Typically you didn't run at high resolutions and color in the days of 9x anyways.

1600 x 1200 = 1920000 pixels
1920000 x 32 = 61440000 bits
61440000 / 8 = 7680000 bytes
7680000 / 1024 = 7500 kilobytes
7500 / 1024 = 7.324 megabytes

http://www.danielsevo.com/bocg/bocg_screenres.htm

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Reply 7 of 13, by IMeganElisabeth

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DosFreak wrote:
Just try pcem with any video card that's supported and install the video card drivers for it and see what resolutions you have. […]
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Just try pcem with any video card that's supported and install the video card drivers for it and see what resolutions you have. The generic drivers are usually used if there is no video card driver for the video card as is the case with vmware,virtualbox or a real pc. The generic drivers use VESA and are limited by what the driver supports and how much video memory the card has. Typically you didn't run at high resolutions and color in the days of 9x anyways.

1600 x 1200 = 1920000 pixels
1920000 x 32 = 61440000 bits
61440000 / 8 = 7680000 bytes
7680000 / 1024 = 7500 kilobytes
7500 / 1024 = 7.324 megabytes

http://www.danielsevo.com/bocg/bocg_screenres.htm

Thank you very much. So really then it’s more about the driver than anything. It’s 7 MB for what I’m wanting then basically? Do any of the video cards working with PCem allow for this? Even the MACH64 only has 2/4 I believe. So the display doctor driver I’m using in VirtualBox must be somehow picking up the 7 MB of memory needed? Or could I try display doctor with a 2/4 MB card and it might somehow be able to upscale to higher resolution/color?

Reply 8 of 13, by DosFreak

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You're not going to be playing any games at 1600x1200 in pcem unless you just want to be difficult to prove a point (2D games). Stick with 16bit for the desktop and 24bit or 32bit at lower resolutions for the games that need it (not many). It's hardware and driver. VirtualBox and Vmware provide more video memory than pcem does.

The only upscaling you're going to see with 9x is an external hardware device or if the emulator or host provides that function. I don't know what your obsession with SDD is unless you're trying to troll which isn't going to work. Is it really that difficult to download a video card driver and install it?

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Reply 9 of 13, by IMeganElisabeth

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DosFreak wrote:

You're not going to be playing any games at 1600x1200 in pcem unless you just want to be difficult to prove a point (2D games). Stick with 16bit for the desktop and 24bit or 32bit at lower resolutions for the games that need it (not many). It's hardware and driver. VirtualBox and Vmware provide more video memory than pcem does.

The only upscaling you're going to see with 9x is an external hardware device or if the emulator or host provides that function. I don't know what your obsession with SDD is unless you're trying to troll which isn't going to work. Is it really that difficult to download a video card driver and install it?

I’m understanding correctly that not many games allow for higher resolution that 800x600 with 9x games right? They won’t scale to the desktop resolution and will only stick to their own unless allowing in game setup? Ah. Now it makes sense.

I assure you in no way am I trolling. I never once have and never intend to. Absolutely not. This is what I will do. I have the MACH64 and see it will do 800x600 at 32 bit. So this should cover the majority maximum color/resolution 9x games allow if I’m understanding.

Reply 11 of 13, by EriolGaurhoth

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ZellSF wrote on 2019-02-19, 11:47:

On a bit off-topic, but I've always been curious: is there any video driver that can do 1280x720 in PCem?

I use the Phoenix S3Trio64 for my PCem build over the ATI cards because you can get 32-bit true color in 1024x768, whereas I've only ever been able to get 24-bit color at that resolution with the Mach64.

I've been able to put my S3Trio64 up to 1280x1024 (no widescreen options, at least not using my Windows 95 build) but it can only display 256 colors at that resolution.

Reply 13 of 13, by SpareEnderboy

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leileilol wrote on 2019-02-18, 05:29:

You'll want to emulate the ATI Mach64 for that. Disregard all advice intended for Virtualbox/VMWare.

Mach64 GX or Mach64 VT2?
Those are the 2 graphics card under the ATI Mach64 series I got in my PCem roms.
EDIT: I used the Mach64 Gx. It works fine, but I had 2 graphics drivers. Removed the SVGA one.