Amiga Graphics Cards

[SuperPlay]

Hi Folks

Having a quick read-up on Amiga graphics cards and have a couple of queries relating to them in Winuae:

I understand that there are RTG Graphics cards, Video Port adapters and BusBoards to support PCI cards

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=77762


Q1) In WinUAE there is an RTG section and under chipset you can select Video Port Display adapters, which makes sense.

However I am unsure what type the cards are listed under 'Expansions/Graphics boards' can someone elighten me :-)


Q2) Using classic WB by default it uses the 'UAE Zorro III' RTG board.

Is there any benefit in changing this to another card such as the Picasso IV; Would you do this for example if the software you ran only supported the Picasso IV or are there other reasons?


Thanks

[Pat the Cat]

Indeed. Some Amiga software IS dependent on type of graphics card.

A standard Amiga cannot display 24 bit graphics, but an Amiga with a 24 bit graphics card can do so.

So the different card types are there for compatibility, for Amiga software that expects a particular card, and will not run without it (or be emulated without an emulated card of that type).

It didn't start that way, the Art Department software from ASDG ran happily on any Amiga, and mapped all graphics operations to a 24 bit buffer... but could only display approximations of the 24 bit data (without a graphics card).

RTG was a way of offering a common standard for 24 bit cards, but not all programmers stuck to the rules... for instance, Newtek, for obvious reasons. ("It's Toaster software, it needs a Toaster attached"). Toasters are not emulated, but there is a lot of people who want to run Toaster software on a PC...

(whisper) Because Lightwave still costs a lot on a PC...

[Toni Wilen]

Yes, they are mainly for using software that requires some specific board. Or to use Cybergraphics under emulation (uaegfx can't support it because there is no public driver development documentation!). Or to use graphics board under emulated Linux, Netbsd or even Amix

[Pat the Cat]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Or to use Cybergraphics under emulation (uaegfx can't support it because there is no public driver development documentation!).

Ah, another puzzle solved. Thank you Toni.

I think I'm going to be posting it a lot... maybe I should just put it on my sig instead.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Pat the Cat

Toasters are not emulated, but there is a lot of people who want to run Toaster software on a PC...

tell them they can use the Videotoaster Software on winuea or real amiga without toaster hardware.

[Pat the Cat]

Originally Posted by emufan

tell them they can use the Videotoaster Software on winuea or real amiga without toaster hardware.

Hmmm... no disrespect, but I have a policy nowadays of avoiding pushing links to software onto people unless I've checked them out. To some extent, anyway.

There's quite enough chaos and confusion and malware out there without me adding to the problem, even with the best of intentions.

But thank you.

[emufan]

hmm, ok - at least you put it in consideration - that's good. all the binaries are amiga 68k programs.
so there will be no harm to anything, just progress after eight years we already have the sourcecode.
and you can compile it on your own - all information are provided.

[Pat the Cat]

My bad, it's not a link to software, it's a link to an explanation...

... funnily enough, from the exact thread I was thinking about!

[emufan]

i already made a howto install the VideoToaster software for the enduser aswell.
first you have to join the zone group - so you can download the new binaries

[SuperPlay]

Thank you for the replies, appreciated :-)