*** Rendition V2x00 Reference Drivers - Release Notes ***
Version: 3.0 beta4, build 5166b - April 27, 1999
Quick Summary:
BETA Release.
New D3D core (vs beta3 driver)
This driver is Windows 98 native.
Windows 95 compatible.
Multi-Mon supported.
RRedline API supported.
DirectX 6 supported.
OpenGL ICD integrated.
(Remove old standalone ICD's)
New MiniGL provided (see MiniGL directory)
New control panel (Win95 and Win98)
Some bug fixes and stability improvements.
RELEASE NOTES:
The Win9x Beta4 driver is a worthwhile install for most Rendition
users. Many issues that have been communicated to us have been
resolved. While these drivers are still BETA drivers and do
contain bugs, they are a major improvement when compared to any
of the previous BETA releases. This BETA release contains the new
Verite Control Panel. Use the new Control Panel with extreme
caution. There are many new features that have yet to be fully
tested and may cause undesirable behavior if used incorrectly.
The beta4 release adds a new D3D rendering architecture that
fixes many longstanding Direct3D bugs. But because the D3D core
is new and is still undergoing development, there may be new bugs
that have surfaced. We are eager to get feedback from end-users
regarding any new problems that this driver exposes so that we
can fix them before we take this driver out of 'beta' and label
it 'gold'.
Basic features and uses for the control panel:
First and most important ---- USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
Settings that are chosen on the Verite Control Panel do NOT
go into effect until APPLY or OK is clicked and even then
you may get a Message Box prompting you for a confirmation
of the selected operation or configuration. Also, some
settings will not be saved after reboot. (We are working on
it).
The one exception is the CRTC positioning controls. Those
update real-time.
BEFORE SETTING REFRESH RATES, MAKE SURE A MONITOR IS
INSTALLED
A monitor *.inf file must be installed for correct behavior.
Setting Refresh Rates: There is now more than one way to set
the refresh rate. In the middle of the right hand side of
the Verite Property sheet there is a Refresh Rate group of
text boxes and radio buttons. The current refresh rate is
displayed next to the label (Refresh Rate) of that group.
You may choose Default, Optimal, from a list of Predefined
refresh rates, or (drum roll, please) create your own using
our newly implemented Custom Refresh Rate Control. (this has
not been thoroughly tested but is known to basically work).
Custom Refresh Rate Control: When one chooses the Custom
radio button and clicks APPLY, whether or not a custom
refresh rate has been entered, the CRTC box on the left hand
side of the Control Panel will now contain "live" buttons
that will allow adjustments to the position, height and
width of your current display. One must be cautious when
using these controls. They are for advanced users and should
be approached with care. Also, these are very new to this
driver set and have yet to be thoroughly tested. Use these
controls at your own risk and only if you are confident that
you will not harm your system in so doing.
CRTC Position Controls: When you move the mouse cursor over
the buttons in this control group, you should notice that
where your cursor is pointing determines the function that
can be executed and is displayed as a text string directly
over the button when your cursor is pointing at it. When you
have selected a button corresponding to the function you
would like to exercise, hit the mouse button ONE CLICK at a
time and watch the result before continuing. Make sure the
setting is correct.
*** You may notice a blanking of the screen when using
these. This is to be expected right now. Just wait until
your display returns before continuing.
Enabling TV-Out: To enable TV-Out, check the TV check box,
choose NTSC or PAL, Underscan or Overscan, FlickerFilter(if
needed), then click on APPLY at the bottom of the Property
Sheet. Not all combinations of the above settings will
function. Try the settings that you would like. If it does
not work, let us know. TV out support in this driver has
been improved but still is in beta, and is less stable than
the rest of the driver.
Bilinear Filtering and DirectDraw settings: Testing for
these settings is in progress. Whether or not they function
correctly has yet to be verified.
Known Issues:
1) The BIOS is no longer the means by which the clock rate
is determined or set. If your BIOS usually sets the clock
rate to a rate higher than 55/111 then you should copy the
provided VERITE.INI file to your Windows directory. If you
are experiencing the "white dots," this should fix the
problem.
2) The Verite Control Panel does NOT save settings upon
reboot or restarting Windows for most settings. The Color
control does.
3) The Control Panel will allow you to try enabling TV-Out
in these supported modes:
Brooktree: 640x480x16bpp
Chrontel: 640x480 and 800x600 - all color depths.
4) In TV-Out, depending on which BIOS you are using, going
to a Fullscreen DosBox will not function correctly. The TV-
out display will be garbled. However, you can Alt-Enter back
to the Desktop.
5) In TV-Out, OpenGL games may cause a 'flashing' effect.
6) The CRTC positioning controls are currently being tested.
They may allow you to choose settings that are undesirable.
7) In D3D, some rendering artifacts may appear. We are
currently in the process of refining the D3D driver
architecture. Some anomalies are to be expected. Your
feedback regarding these issues is appreciated.
8) Problems with F22-ADF and European Air War have been
fixed. If you still encounter problems, let us know.
9) Depending on the video memory on board, fullscreen DVD
playback will be limited accordingly. eg. on a 4MB board,
you will not be able to play full screen DVD at 720x480
resolutions on a 1024x768x16 desktop.
10) If the card is playing in TV-Out mode, then Win98 will
display a Macrovision error if you attempt DVD playback.
Therefore DVD playback is restricted to PC-Monitor mode only
at this point.
11) Issues related to refresh rates lower than 60Hz in PAL
TV-Out mode are currently being looked at.
12) Changing resolutions in TV Out mode may cause a hang.
13) Version 222 of Unreal has known problems with this
driver. We encourage you to use v220, which should work
fine. We are working on this issue.
14) Hangs caused when running alongside certain Adaptec SCSI
controllers have been fixed.
Application Notes:
We have implemented a workaround for the Half Life menu bug.
If you have trouble seeing the main menu in Half Life when
running at 640x480 resolution, do the following: "set
PageFlip=0" in the environment or via regedit: Rendition-
>s.w.->opengl->(dword)PageFlip=0, however there's a
performance penalty. A more general fix is still in the
works.
Another Half Life tweak:
'gl_polyoffset 16' (in the half-life console) will alleviate
the z-fighting problems for decals.
The following are known bugs with this driver and Quake 3:
1) Color depth switching problem: Changing r_colorbits from
0 (default) may cause problems on win98.
2) Wireframe's missing: r_showtris fails to show a majority
of wireframes unless r_drawstrips is enabled.
3) Powersave problems: Intermittent hangs when returning
from powersave/suspend mode.
Please let us know what you think of this driver release and what
your experiences with it are, both good and bad. Post into the
Rendition discussion forums, found at:
http://www.rendition.com/forums.html or at
news://news.rendition.com/.
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.