please dont write all in caps it is the online method of yelling.
vesa is the closest thing to a standard for video card stuff there are two versions out there 1.2 and 2.0 both provide info on video modes and display bit depths. version 1.2 provides a 64k segmented window into video memory version 2.0 allows a linear mode to access all at once
vesa is a bios accesed function usually provided by a vesa bios rom on the card. it is a frame buffer acces (no 3d function) only
within windows of course there is gdi, directdraw, and direct3d there are numerous revisions of these gdi and direct draw give more or less similar functions as vesa while direct3d obviously allows 3d functions
