AmigaOS 4.x to support about 180 Graphics card chips

[poweramiga2002]

This is great news Hyperion you rule the Amiga scene this is truly utter greatness this means my radeon 9000 will work

[Tafka]

Typical, just after I ordered a Radeon 9100.

 :-)

[Rogue]

Tafka wrote:
Typical, just after I ordered a Radeon 9100.

 :-)

You know that a Radeon 9100 is actually a relabelled 8500?

[Georg]

Hmm ... looking at this SNAP SDK it seems they did not think about ~"non-native-endianess 15/16 bit
pixel formats".

For example little endian 15/16 bit modes (PC gfx
card) on big endian machine (Mac/A1).

One cannot describe such pixel formats with
red/green/blue shifts/masks alone. As RECTFMT_RGB15PC for example looks like this
in memory:

 GGGBBBBB 0RRRRRGG

No problem to describe as mask/shift operations
on little endian machines, but on big endian machines you have to additionally swap bytes before
the WORD (pixel) write.

[Skyraker]

This IMHO is very good news, it covers most chipsets in 2D from the off with ongoing support (if i'm not mistaken) for new cards....

I wouldn't expect many 3d drivers to ship with OS4, I imagine they will be provided after release, as and when they become available.

Regards

[mikeymike]

People keep asking me "where I get my information from" - when two companies partner, it doesn't just become an "all your information are belong to us" situation - plus, whatever work these SciTech guys have done so far will have to be adapted to A1/AOS4 as drivers have to have a lot of per-system optimisations.  Reading into the press release (and that's the only info I have), it will speed up driver support for AmigaOS4, but it doesn't mean that AmigaOS4 instantly has driver support for all the cards that SciTech have done work for.

To add to that, what if their work on some of the graphics chipsets out of this "170" quoted number were guarded with confidentiality agreements of sorts, that they weren't allowed to use the work for other projects/companies... all I was saying was, don't assume that AOS4 will have support for that many cards!

Look how long it has taken Windows to get the amount of default install driver support it has now with Win2k/XP - and that's a company that has it all.

[whabang]

Reading into the press release (and that's the only info I have), it will speed up driver support for AmigaOS4, but it doesn't mean that AmigaOS4 instantly has driver support for all the cards that SciTech have done work for.

Nonetheless, it will be a LOT better than the VGA/VESA mode that Windows is using.

so their licenseing scitech snap? so what?>.. they will have 2D on some cards...big deal... as far as this bieng a 'kick in teeth to naysayers' its just more 'talk' and we've seen 'talk' for years now... if all the 'talk' was right.. OS4 would be done and OS5 would be out by now...

I believe it 'when I see it'....

[billt]

>What about the Forefront Radeon drivers? I was
under the impression that they wanted to provide
>Radeon drivers and will sell them?

Well, we still have the OS3.x folks to sell to that might not be able to afford an AmigaOne or have access to a PowerUP card. We currently have Workbench working on the Radeon cards we have in-house, so our driver may still be of use while this SNAP thing is in development for OS4. Plus, there are other related opportunities lurking in the shadows. Hyperion's decision to add support for more hardware to the OS is an important one for the users, and I think SNAP sounds pretty cool myself, speaking as a user. Don't worry about us. Just be happy that some very cool things are going to come from Hyperion's annoucnement here.

[Tafka]

You know that a Radeon 9100 is actually a relabelled 8500?

Yes, see my radeon8500/9100 post.  I've ordered a 9100 anyway.

[Crumb]

@downix:
"You read that right, 2D. SNAP's vast majority of support is for 10+ year old VGA, EGA and CGA chip solution! Way to go Hyperion, you just evolved AOS4 to support chipsets that can't even match OCS capabilities! "

so a geforce is beaten by OCS? oh yeah! A500 rules!

[Crumb]

@downix:

The drivers being ported are 2D only, with 3D to be added later.

mmm like MorphOS and the Radeons? :-P

[downix]

Crumb wrote:
@downix:

The drivers being ported are 2D only, with 3D to be added later.

mmm like MorphOS and the Radeons? :-P

Which would get done sooner, 3D support for 4 variations on a chip design, or 3D support for 60+ variations on 20+ chip designs?

My money is on MorphOS having complete 3D support for their 2D-only-for-now 3D cards than AOS4.

This is extremely good news.
Another advantage to choose AmigaOne over a Peg.  :-D

I stand firmly by my decision.

[EntilZha]

Thanks for calling us liars

[hagar]

I think this is good.

If I'm going to buy an AmigaOne, I will not buy one of those
very expensive graphic cards. If it is possible for me to run OS4 with any of the old cards I got at home, thats even better.

(But then I save money for the 21th World Scout Moot in Taiwan 2004, so I doubt I will spend _any_ money on anything amiga related during the next 12 months),