Picasso II just arrived!! Yayyy! What next?

[dougal]

I just received my Picasso II RTG graphics card :-)

I can't wait to get home at 11 in just over 2hrs time to try it out.

I'd like to be prepared since i only have 1.5 hours break... Besides inserting into the Zorro slot, what do I need to do ?

Do i need to install the drivers first before plugging in a VGA monitor ? Can I use an LCD or CRT ? I still have the stock 68000, must i install the Picasso II drivers instead of P96 or Cybergraphics ?

Any tips ?

I am waiting for the following parts: A2630 and an external scandoubler but till then i'd love to try out my Picasso II.

Happy mood  :-)

[arti040]

Do i need to install the drivers first before plugging in a VGA monitor?

Hi mate!
Not necessarily. You can do it whenever You want.

Can I use an LCD or CRT ?

If Picasso 2 can handle it, sure.

I still have the stock 68000, must i install the Picasso II drivers instead of P96 or Cybergraphics ?

68000? Wow, probably it is the one of these few cases, where OCS will be much faster than GFX card ;-) Anyway, older versions of P96 supports 68000, so You can use one of them.

[dougal]

Ok quick update:

LCD (the one i tried) did not work [Maybe will have better luck when my SD/FF arrives]

1024x768 is interlaced [Maybe will have better luck when SD/FF arrives]

Slows down the Amiga pretty badly [Will it make a BIG difference when my A2630 comes?]

At 256 colors its eating away my Chipmem REALLY REALLY badly.. Even at 640x480

I'm NOT using P96 (Because i have a 68000) i am using the Picasso II drivers from Villagetronic.

I can't get more than 256 colors... Is this cause i'm not using P96?

Other than that card is working well... Any Tips.? .. PLEASE!!

[dougal]

Even at 640x480 8 colors its really slow

[arti040]

Ok quick update:
LCD (the one i tried) did not work [Maybe will have better luck when my SD/FF arrives]

Use Picasso96Mode and set any non-interlaced resolution with at least 60Hz.
I assume, 800x600 will be maximum, what You can reach.

1024x768 is interlaced [Maybe will have better luck when SD/FF arrives]

Yes, Picasso 2 has poor pixel clock. One and only reasonable resolution is 800x600x16bit, mentioned above.

Slows down the Amiga pretty badly [Will it make a BIG difference when my A2630 comes?]

Yep, 68000 and Zorro in segmentation mode... but difference should be noticeable. On my A3000 with 030/25Mhz is quite OK. I've got Retina Z3, but still - ECS 4/8 colors in PAL seems to be much faster here ;-)

At 256 colors its eating away my Chipmem REALLY REALLY badly.. Even at 640x480

Dunno...

I'm NOT using P96 (Because i have a 68000) i am using the Picasso II drivers from Villagetronic. I can't get more than 256 colors... Is this cause i'm not using P96?

Probably yes. 256 col. on WB can be a limitation of Picasso default software.

[spirantho]

Let's just put it this way - I think you'll be more happy with it when you have an '030.

As it is that poor 68000 is getting a little overworked! It was never meant for true colour displays or even 256 colours.

The Picasso II isn't a fast card. I have one in my A1500 (68030@50) though as it's quite fast enough for most things. I use it on my Sony Bravia 40" TV, but unfortunately it just doesn't have the chipset speed to do a 720p display, so I have to use 800x600 (16-bit). Still waaay better than OCS though... at least when you have a 68030!

[orb85750]

Mine is quite good in my stock A3000 (25 MHz).  But I can't do anything beyond 800 x 600 resolution or the screen becomes a flickery mess.  I quite happy with it anyway, as 800 x 600 is good for me (so far).

[mechy]

the picasso II is better than nothing, but you have to realize that A2000's zorro 2 is really slow which is lucky to push maybe 2-3MB/s, couple that with only 2MB on board the Picasso II card and you suck most of that up when u run it up in the higer resolution. 800x600x16 is probabaly as good as it gets and it will not be speedy (well,better than ecs!).
The 030 and some fast ram will help the situation alot especially with 32bit ram.

Mech