



















       UniVBE_/Pro 5.0
       User's Guide
























                                    SciTech Software USA, 97 E. St. James #44
                                  San Jose, CA 95112 United States of America
                  SciTech Software Australia, Unit 5, 106 Southbank Boulevard
                                      South Melbourne Victoria Australia 3205













       COPYRIGHT

       UniVBE_/Pro is  copyright    1993-1994  SciTech Software.  All Rights
       Reserved. The product  names UniVBE/Lite,  UniVBE/Pro, UniCENTER  and
       UniPOWER are copyrighted by SciTech Software.

       UniVBE/Pro is  not copy  protected,   but   it is  copyrighted. As  a
       licensee of UniVBE/Pro,  you may only  use this  product on only  one
       computer at a time. You may install the product on multiple computers
       as long as there is no  possibility of the product being used  at the
       same time on different computers. You may make backup copies for your
       personal archival  use only.  The  documentation included  with  this
       software is copyrighted to SciTech Software, and may not, in whole or
       in part,  be copied,  photocopied, reproduced  or translated  without
       prior written permission from SciTech Software.

       THIS SOFTWARE  IS PROVIDED  "AS IS"  WITHOUT  WARRANTY OF  ANY  KIND,
       EITHER EXPRESSED  OR  IMPLIED, INCLUDING,  BUT  NOT LIMITED  TO,  THE
       IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF  MERCHANTABILITY AND  FITNESS FOR A  PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE  RISK AS TO  THE QUALITY  AND PERFORMANCE OF  THE
       PRODUCT IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PRODUCT PROVE DEFECTIVE,  YOU ASSUME
       THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

       IN NO EVENT WILL  SCITECH SOFTWARE, OR ANY  OTHER PARTY WHO MAY  HAVE
       REDISTRIBUTED THE PRODUCT AS  PERMITTED ABOVE, BE  LIABLE TO YOU  FOR
       DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL  OR CONSEQUENTIAL
       DAMAGES ARISING  OUT OF  THE  USE OR  INABILITY  TO USE  THE  PRODUCT
       (INCLUDING BUT NOT  LIMITED TO LOSS  OF DATA  OR DATA BEING  RENDERED
       INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU  OR THIRD PARTIES OR  A FAILURE
       OF THE PRODUCT  TO OPERATE  WITH ANY  OTHER PROGRAMS),  EVEN IF  SUCH
       HOLDER OR OTHER  PARTY HAS BEEN  ADVISED OF  THE POSSIBILITY OF  SUCH
       DAMAGES.

       Produced in Australia, and printed in the United States of America.

       UniVBE/Pro was written with Borland C++ and Borland  Turbo Assembler,
       and this manual was produced using Microsoft Word for Windows.

       All brand  and  product names  mentioned  in this  documentation  are
       trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.





       Contents


       Introduction .............................................2
            What is it? .........................................2
            Why use it? .........................................3

       Installation .............................................5
            Hardware requirements ...............................5
            Automated Installation ..............................5
            Command line options ................................6
                 -s .............................................6
                 -c .............................................6
                 -m .............................................7
                 -d .............................................7
                 -g .............................................7
                 -u .............................................7
                 -b .............................................8
                 -l .............................................8
                 -i .............................................8
                 -p .............................................8
                 -x .............................................8
            386 Memory Managers .................................8
            Whats the .INI file for? ............................9
            Upgrading your video card ...........................10
            Video modes supported by UniVBE .....................10

       Testing UniVBE ...........................................12

       UniPOWER .................................................13
            Problems with the Standby State .....................13
            What do the DPMS states mean anyway? ................13

       UniCENTER ................................................15

       Video cards tested with UniVBE ...........................16





















                                        - 1 -







       Introduction



       What is it?

       The Universal VESA VBE  (or UniVBE_ for short)  is a small  Terminate
       and Stay  Resident  (TSR) program  that  extends  the Video  BIOS  of
       SuperVGA  video  cards  to  make  them  compatible  with   the  Video
       Electronics  Standards  Association  (VESA)  recommended  Video  BIOS
       Extensions (VBE).  Many new programs like Microsoft  Flight Simulator
       5 rely on  a fully  functioning VBE in  order to  obtain the  highest
       performance possible.  UniVBE provides the latest VBE 1.2 standard so
       you can be sure these programs will not only work correctly, but will
       run as fast as possible on your system. UniVBE comes in two flavours,
       the Shareware or  unregistered trial  version (UniVBE/Shareware)  and
       the full professional version (UniVBE/Pro). The  professional version
       also includes  a high  performance 32  bit  protected mode  interface
       based on  the soon  to be  released VBE  2.0  standard, and  programs
       written to  take  advantage  of  this can  run  with  blinding  speed
       compared to normal VESA VBE implementations. The shareware version is
       not a  cut  down  version,  but  a full  featured  trial  version  of
       UniVBE/Pro. You have 21 days after  installing UniVBE to try  out all
       of its features, before you are  required to register your  copy with
       SciTech Software (if you received a Bundle version of  UniVBE/Lite or
       UniVBE/Pro with  some  application  software,  you  do  not  need  to
       register UniVBE).

       Apart from making your programs run faster and better, UniVBE/Pro can
       also save  you money  and  help the  environment  at the  same  time!
       UniVBE/Pro fully supports the new VESA VBE/PM and DPMS  standards for
       Energy Star compliance, and comes with the UniPOWER_ power management
       screen savers. If you have one of the new Energy Star compliant video
       monitor that supports the  Display Power Management Standard  (DPMS),
       you can install the UniPOWER DOS and Windows screensaver  programs to
       power down the monitor when not  in use. This allows your  monitor to
       shut down and use less than 5  watts of power while you are  having a
       coffee break or otherwise engaged!

       And lastly, to help you configure your video card for optimum results
       with your  monitor,  UniVBE/Pro  comes with  the  UniCENTER_  utility
       program, that allows you to adjust  the centering and sizing  for all
       video modes  supported by  UniVBE/Pro.  Fantastic for  getting  those
       video modes to look just right!

       Note that  if  you  received  a  bundle  version  of  UniVBE/Lite  or
       UniVBE/Pro with some application software, the UniCENTER and UniPOWER
       utility programs  will  not have  been  included.  You will  need  to
       purchase the  full  registered  version of  UniVBE/Pro  from  SciTech
       Software in order to obtain these utilities.





                                        - 2 -





       Why use it?

       You may already have a vendor supplied VESA VBE TSR program  for your
       video card, or you video card may have VESA VBE compliance built into
       the BIOS, so why would you want to use this program?

       The simple answer  is that  most of  the vendor  supplied TSR's  that
       exist today, and  a lot  of the  not-so-new SuperVGA  cards that  are
       around implement an older version of  the VESA VBE interface  (if any
       at all), or they are just  plain buggy. For this reason, many  of the
       latest games  and graphics  related programs  that  use the  advanced
       features of the new VBE 1.2 standard will probably not work  with the
       TSR or BIOS that you currently have.

       UniVBE fully  implements the  VBE 1.2  standard,  which supports  the
       following advanced features:

            SuperVGA double buffering.  High performance animation  programs
            can  use  your  card  to  full  potential  to  implement  double
            buffering in all video modes. Smooth, flicker free  animation in
            800x600 and 1024x768 video modes with 256 colors is no  longer a
            fantasy. Or even the  new 32k and 64k  color modes, if you  have
            enough memory on your card.

            SuperVGA virtual screens.  Programs may  set up  a huge  virtual
            display resolutions,  and smoothly  scroll  a window  with  less
            physical resolution around within this buffer.

            Support for the 32k, 64k and 16.7 million color video  modes. As
            well as supporting the industry standard 16 and 256  color video
            modes for resolutions from 320x200 right up to 1600x1200.

            Speed. The bank switching code in UniVBE tends to run as fast or
            faster than  the routines  embedded in  the VIDEO  BIOS of  most
            video cards.

            Extremely small size. When the TSR is resident in  your computer
            it only requires about  5k of memory which  is smaller than  the
            size of most vendor  supplied TSR's that  support only a  single
            video card!

       The professional  version,  UniVBE/Pro  also includes  the  following
       features:

            High speed 32 bit protected  mode interface. Many of  the latest
            programs are being  developed in  32 bit  protected mode,  which
            changes many of  the rules  related to  obtain high  performance
            from  your  video  card.  UniVBE/Pro's  32  bit  protected  mode
            interface will give  programs written  to take  advantage of  it
            that extra zing of performance.

            Supports emulation of all  640x350 and 640x400 resolution  video
            modes on video adapters that do not directly support this. Works
            for all 256, 32k and 64k color video modes, which is perfect for
            high speed animation.


                                        - 3 -





            Supports  mapping  out  video   modes  not  available  on   your
            particular video card.

            Supports the  UniCENTER_  program  for adjusting  the  supported
            video modes for optimium performance on your video monitor.

            Can be loaded into  high memory. UniVBE/Pro  also comes with  an
            option to  force it  to load  high if  the  normal DOS  loadhigh
            command fails.

            Can be  unloaded from  memory once  installed for  use in  batch
            files.

            Supports the new  VBE/PM 1.0  standard for correctly  signalling
            power  management  states  to  DPMS  compliant  video  monitors.
            Supports the following states:
                 Standby
                 Suspend
                 Off






































                                        - 4 -







       Installation



       Hardware requirements

       UniVBE will run on any 80x86  based IBM PC compatible  running MSDOS,
       or an OS/2 2.x DOS  shell. In order to  take advantage of the  32 bit
       protected mode interface  of UniVBE/Pro,  you must have  at least  an
       80386  based  computer.  Currently  UniVBE  supports   the  following
       SuperVGA cards, and more are being added as they are released:

            ATI Technologies 18800, 28800, Mach32
            Ahead A & B
            Chips & Technologies 82c451/452/453/450, 655x0
            Everex EvNR
            Genoa Systems GVGA
            OAK Technologies OTI-037C/057/067/077/087
            Paradise PVGA1A, WD90C00/10/11/20/21/26A/30/31/33
            NCR 77C20/21/22E/32BLT
            Trident 88/8900/9000/8900CL/8900D/9200CXr/9400CXi/GUI9420
            Video7 VEGA, HT208/209/216
            Tseng Labs ET3000, ET4000, ET4000/W32
            S3 86c911/924/801/805/928
            Advance Logic AL2101/2201/2228/2301 SuperVGA
            MXIC 86000/86010 SuperVGA
            Primus 2000 SuperVGA
            RealTek RTG3103/3105/3106 SuperVGA
            Cirrus Logic CL-GD6205/15/25/35/45, 5402/20/22/24/26/28/29/30/34
            UMC 85c408
            Hualon HMC86304
            Weitek 5086/5186/5286 (on P9000 based boards)
            Compaq IVGS/AVGA, QVision QV1024/1280


       Automated Installation

       Installing UniVBE on your system is a snap. Simply following  these 6
       simple steps:

       1. Insert the UniVBE distribution diskette into drive A or drive B.

       2. Type 'A:INSTALL'  or  'B:INSTALL' (depending  on  which  drive you
          inserted the diskette into), and then press the Enter key.

       The installation program will start, and you will be presented with a
       screen describing the installation configuration.

       3. Verify the  installation directories  for installing  UniVBE into,
          and change them if  necessary. If you are  installing the UniPOWER
          screensaver for Windows, change the Windows directory to the place
          where you have installed Windows. By default this is C:\WINDOWS.



                                        - 5 -





       4. Select the options  you wish  to install  (by default  all options
          will be turned on).

       5. Click the  'INSTALL'  button, and  the  installation  program will
          begin the installation process.

       6. Follow the instructions on the screen,  and eventually you will be
          prompted to enter  your name to  register UniVBE. Enter  your full
          name and hit the Enter key and  follow the instructions until your
          are returned to  the DOS  prompt (simply  click Cancel  to install
          UniVBE as the unregistered trial version).

       Thats it! When the  installation is completed,  you will be  returned
       into the  directory  that  you  installed  UniVBE  into  (by  default
       C:\UNIVBE). If you  selected the option  to update your  AUTOEXEC.BAT
       file, you will  need to  reboot your  machine before  UniVBE will  be
       active.


       Command line options

       UniVBE supports a number  of different command line  options. Running
       UNIVBE.EXE with the -h  command line option will  provide you with  a
       list similar to the following:

           -s<x>    - Force detection of SuperVGA (-s0 for list)
           -c<x>    - Force detection of SuperVGA chipset (-c0 for list)
           -m<size> - Force memory size to 'size'
           -d<x>    - Force DAC type (-d0 for list)
           -g       - Regenerate default .ini file
           -u       - Unload the Universal VESA VBE from memory
           -b       - Swap RED and BLUE bytes in 24 bit modes
           -l       - Force resident code to be loaded high
           -i       - Ignore a buggy underlying VBE BIOS
           -p       - Disable Power Management (PM) extensions
           -x       - Disable 32 bit protected mode interface

       Following is a detailed reference to all of the command line options:

       -s
            The -s command line option is  used to force UniVBE to  only run
            the detection logic for  a particular type of  SuperVGA chipset.
            It is possible that  the detection logic  for some of  the video
            cards  supported  by  UniVBE  will  hang  the  machine  in  some
            configurations. If this happens,  you can try forcing  UniVBE to
            only run the  detection logic  for your video  card for  maximum
            compatability. If UniVBE is  behaving strangely on  your system,
            this is the first option that you should try.

            Specifying a command line of -s0 will provide you with a list of
            all supported SuperVGA types.

       -c
            The -c command  line option  is used to  force UniVBE  to use  a
            particular chipset revision. Within each SuperVGA type, there is
            usually a  number  of  different chipset  revision  levels  that

                                        - 6 -





            UniVBE must  identify in  order to  work  correctly. UniVBE  can
            normally automatically  detect the  chipset revision  correctly,
            however you can use this option  to force a chipset  revision if
            UniVBE incorrectly  detects this.  Note that  this command  line
            option is handled for you in the automated installation program.

            Specifying a command line of -c0 will provide you with a list of
            all supported chipset revisions for your video card.

       -m
            The -m command line option is used to force  UniVBE to recognise
            a  specific  amount  of  video  memory.   Generally  UniVBE  can
            automatically  detect  the   correct  amount  of   video  memory
            installed on your video card,  however in some cases  UniVBE may
            detect this value  incorrectly, and you  will have to  force the
            correct amount (consult your  video card documentation  for your
            proper memory configuration). Note that this command line option
            is handled for you in the automated installation program.

            The amount of memory is specified  on the command line  in units
            of 1Kb, so the value for a 1Mb video card would be -m1024.

       -d
            The -d command line option is used to force  UniVBE to recognise
            the presence of a different type  of RAMDAC. The RAMDAC  is used
            by the video card  to convert the image  in video memory  to the
            correct colors to  be sent to  the video monitor,  and different
            RAMDAC's  support  different  maximum  color  resolutions  (some
            support only 256 colors, while  others support 32k, 64k  or even
            16.7  million  colors).  Generally   UniVBE  will  be   able  to
            automatically detect the correct RAMDAC installed  on your video
            card, however in some cases this may  be incorrectly identified.
            Note that this  command line option  is handled  for you in  the
            automated installation program.

            Note that UniVBE is unable to detect the presence of some 16 bit
            RAMDAC's, and these may be misidentified as 15 bit RAMDAC's.

            Specifying a command line of -d0 will provide you with a list of
            all supported RAMDAC's.

       -g
            The -g command line option is used to generate  the default .INI
            file for UniVBE/Pro. This is normally  handled automatically for
            you by the installation program, however you can use the command
            line option to  do this  manually if you  wish. In  order to  do
            this, you must  first install UniVBE/Pro,  then run with  the -g
            option to re-generate the .INI file, and  the finally un-install
            UniVBE/Pro and re-install again (the changes will  not come into
            effect until you re-install UniVBE/Pro).

       -u
            The -u command  line option  is used to  unload UniVBE/Pro  from
            memory. This  allows  you  to  create  batch  files  to  install
            UniVBE/Pro into memory, run  a specific program and  then remove


                                        - 7 -





            UniVBE/Pro  from  memory  when  you  are  finished  running  the
            program.

       -b
            The -b command line option is used to swap the RED and BLUE byte
            ordering in 24 bit  or 16.7 million  color modes. On  some video
            cards (most noteably  the Diamond  cards that  include the  SS24
            RAMDAC) the order of the RED  and BLUE bytes in video  memory is
            different to  that supported  by most  other  video cards.  This
            command line option is used to force these order  to be changed.
            If the colors look ridiculous in the 24 bit video  modes of your
            favorite applications,  then  you  probably  need  to  use  this
            command line option.

       -l
            The -l command  line option is  used to  force UniVBE/Pro to  be
            loaded high.  This  is  similar  to the  normal  MSDOS  LoadHigh
            command,  however  because  of  the  size  of  the  non-resident
            portions of UniVBE/Pro sometimes this command will fail and load
            UniVBE/Pro normally into  low memory.  This command line  option
            will then force UniVBE/Pro to relocate the resident portion into
            high memory, leaving only a few hundred bytes in low memory.

            Note that  this  option is  fully  compatible with  your  normal
            LoadHigh command, and  can be  used in combination  with any  of
            these commands.

       -i
            The -i command line option is used to force UniVBE/Pro to ignore
            an underlying VBE BIOS if one is present.  By default UniVBE/Pro
            will use pass through  techniques to support  functions provided
            by the underlying BIOS that UniVBE/Pro does not provide. In some
            severe cases  the  underlying  BIOS  is  buggy  and  will  cause
            UniVBE/Pro to  behave incorrectly,  so you  will  need to  force
            UniVBE/Pro to ignore it.

       -p
            The -p command  line option is  used to  disable the VBE/PM  and
            DPMS power  management features  of UniVBE/Pro.  You would  only
            want to use  this option if  you have a  vendor supplied TSR  or
            BIOS that  you wish  to  use instead  of  UniVBE/Pro's built  in
            support.

       -x
            The -x  command  line  option is  used  to  disable the  32  bit
            protected mode interface  provided by  UniVBE/Pro. Normally  you
            will want to  leave this option  active, however this  option is
            useful for  testing  purposes  to  ensure  that  software  works
            correctly both  with and  without the  protected mode  interface
            installed (and to see how slow it runs without it!).


       386 Memory Managers

       Sometimes  a  386  memory  manager  can  conflict  with  the  correct
       operation of UniVBE  for certain  video card  configurations. If  you

                                        - 8 -





       have a 386  Memory Manager installed  such as  EMM386, QEMM, QRAM  or
       386MAX and when attempting the install UniVBE the machine just hangs,
       or an application attempting to use UniVBE hangs you possibly  have a
       memory manager conflict. Specifically  if you have  an ATI Mach32  or
       Mach64 based video  card (Graphics Ultra  Pro, Graphics Ultra  Turbo)
       you will need to exclude the video BIOS region for correct operation,
       so proceed to  step 2. To  attempt to solve  this, try the  following
       steps (you might  also like  to refer  to the  documentation on  your
       memory  manager  -  QEMM   for  instance  has   a  long  section   on
       troubleshooting such installation problems):

       1. First do a  clean boot  (with no memory  managers or  TSR programs
          installed apart from HIMEM.SYS  and MSDOS) and  attempt to install
          UniVBE. If UniVBE  works in  this configuration,  then you  have a
          conflict, and proceed  to step 2.  If UniVBE still  does not work,
          then you possibly have a video card that is not fully supported by
          UniVBE - please contact  SciTech Software and let  us know so that
          we can attempt to rectify this in a future release.

       2. Use the  EXCLUDE  option of  your  memory manager  to  exclude the
          entire video  BIOS  region,  reboot your  machine  and  attempt to
          install UniVBE once again. For EMM386 and  QEMM the command to put
          on the command line is:

                      X=C000-CFFF

       3. If step  2 is  successful, you  can try  to  reduce the  amount of
          memory excluded with the above option  which will provide you with
          more high memory for TSR programs. To do  this, lower the value in
          the second number  from CFFF to  a value  such as C7FF  and lower.
          C7FF will probably work with most configurations.


       Whats the .INI file for?

       For most installations, UniVBE will automatically determine the video
       modes that your card supports. However on some  video configurations,
       some video modes that UniVBE thinks are possibly available aren't and
       so an error will occur if a program tries to set the  video mode. The
       UNIVBE.INI file is used to remove  support for those video  modes. If
       you  selected   the  'Generate   UniVBE.INI  file'   option  in   the
       installation program,  the  installation program  will  automatically
       determine which modes  are not available  and produce an  appropriate
       UniVBE.INI file for you.  If you did not  select this option, or  the
       automatic UniVBE.INI file generation procedure does not work  on your
       system, you can edit the UniVBE.INI yourself.

       The format of  the UniVBE.INI  file is  simple. All  the video  modes
       removed by the program are listed under the section '[remove]' in the
       .INI file. They are listed  as the hexadecimal internal  mode numbers
       used by the TSR  (see the section 'Video  Modes supported by  UniVBE'
       below for more information). An example UniVBE.INI file might be:

            [remove]
            10D
            10E

                                        - 9 -






       The UniVBE.INI file is also used to contain the information generated
       by the UniCENTER program  to adjust the centering  and sizing of  the
       video modes supported by UniVBE.


       Upgrading your video card

       When the time comes to replace  the video card in your system  with a
       new one, rest  assured that UniVBE  will probably  work just as  well
       with the new video  cards as with your  old one. However when  you do
       so, you will  need to delete  the UNIVBE.INI  file from your  \UNIVBE
       directory, and then  should re-install UniVBE  in order to  correctly
       generated a new UniVBE.INI file for the new video card, or use the -g
       command line option  to do  so manually. You  will also  need to  re-
       center all of your video modes using the UniCENTER program if you did
       this with your old video card.


       Video modes supported by UniVBE

       UniVBE fully  supports the  VESA VBE  1.2 standard,  which defines  a
       number of standard video modes numbers.  The new version of  the VESA
       VBE specs will allow the vendor  to extend the video numbers  used to
       whatever values they wish, so we have taken the liberty to extend the
       mode numbers  used by  the UniVBE  to  include modes  not  originally
       specified in the VBE 1.2 specs, but supported by a number  of popular
       video cards on the  market. Depending on  how well your  applications
       have been written, they may or may not be able to use those modes. If
       you are a developer wishing to take advantage of these  modes, please
       consult the SuperVGA Kit  (available from SciTech Software)  for more
       information and programming examples.  Specifically, the video  modes
       supported are (along with internal modes numbers used by UniVBE):

               102   - 800x600 16 color
               104   - 1024x768 16 color
               106   - 1280x1024 16 color
               123   - 1600x1200 16 color
               11C   - 640x350 256 color
               100   - 640x400 256 color
               101   - 640x480 256 color
               103   - 800x600 256 color
               105   - 1024x768 256 color
               107   - 1280x1024 256 color
               124   - 1600x1200 256 color
               10D   - 320x200 32k color
               11D   - 640x350 32k color
               11E   - 640x400 32k color
               110   - 640x480 32k color
               113   - 800x600 32k color
               116   - 1024x768 32k color
               119   - 1280x1024 32k color
               125   - 1600x1200 32k color
               10E   - 320x200 64k color
               11F   - 640x350 64k color
               120   - 640x400 64k color

                                       - 10 -





               111   - 640x480 64k color
               114   - 800x600 64k color
               117   - 1024x768 64k color
               11A   - 1280x1024 64k color
               126   - 1600x1200 64k color
               10F   - 320x200 16m color
               121   - 640x350 16m color
               122   - 640x400 16m color
               112   - 640x480 16m color
               115   - 800x600 16m color
               118   - 1024x768 16m color
               11B   - 1280x1024 16m color
               127   - 1600x1200 16m color
               128   - 640x480 16m+A color (32 bits per pixel)
               129   - 800x600 16m+A color (32 bits per pixel)
               12A   - 1024x768 16m+A color (32 bits per pixel)
               12B   - 1280x1024 16m+A color (32 bits per pixel)
               12C   - 1600x1200 16m+A color (32 bits per pixel)

       UniVBE also fully  supports the new  32 bits  per pixel 16.7  million
       color video  modes popular  on the  latest video  cards. These  modes
       usually run much faster than the equivalent 24 bit modes, but take up
       considerably  more   memory   (you  need   at   least  2Mb   to   run
       640x480x32bit).

       Note however that even though  UniVBE may support a  particular video
       mode, this  mode will  only be  available if  there  is enough  video
       memory installed, and  if the underlying  video hardware can  support
       it. UniVBE fully supports the 640x350, 640x400 and 640x480 modes with
       256/32k and 64k  colors on  all video  cards that  have enough  video
       memory, using proprietry emulation techniques if the underlying VIDEO
       BIOS does not directly support it.

       UniVBE does not provide  support for any of  the extended text  modes
       that your video card  may provide, but will  provide support for  any
       extended text modes  supported by  an underlying  VESA VBE  compliant
       BIOS or TSR. Thus if your video card already has a VBE compliant BIOS
       or you install your vendor supplied VESA VBE TSR for your  video card
       before installing UniVBE, an automatic pass-through mechanism will be
       used to ensure the extended text modes still work correctly.

















                                       - 11 -







       Testing UniVBE

       UniVBE is  also installed  with  the SVTEST16.EXE,  SVTEST32.EXE  and
       VBETEST.EXE  programs  for  testing  the  operation  of  UniVBE.  The
       SVTest16 and  SVTest32 programs  are  16 bit  real  mode and  32  bit
       protected mode  applications  built  with  the  SuperVGA  kit.  These
       programs will allow you to fully  test all the different  video modes
       that UniVBE  supports.  The VBETest  program  is  a stress  test  and
       conformance testing program to full test the VESA  VBE implementation
       for compliance. You might  want to run this  program on your  current
       VBE BIOS or TSR,  and then run  it with UniVBE  installed to see  how
       much better UniVBE is.

       If UniVBE/Pro is installed,  the SVTest32 program  will use the  high
       speed 32 bit  protected mode interface  for maximum performance.  You
       can try turning off this interface with the -x command line option to
       see how much slower the program runs without it.






































                                       - 12 -







       UniPOWER


       UniPOWER is a power management screen  saver that will shut  down any
       DPMS compliant video monitor via the VESA VBE/PM  interface (provided
       by UniVBE/Pro).  UniPOWER comes  in  two flavours,  the  UniPOWER.EXE
       screensaver for DOS and the UniPOWER.SCR screensaver for  Windows. By
       default  the  installation  program  for  UniVBE  will  install  both
       UniPOWER for DOS and UniPOWER for Windows.

       The UniPOWER.SCR program  is a standard  Windows screensaver, so  you
       can use it just like you use all your normal Windows screensavers. By
       default the installation  program will  have installed and  activated
       the UniPOWER for Windows screensaver. However you can change  the way
       that UniPOWER for  Window operates.  First you  need to  open up  the
       Windows Control  Panel,  and then  hit  the  'Setup' button  for  the
       installed screensaver (which  should be  'UniPOWER DPMS'). This  will
       bring  up   a  dialog   box  allowing   you   to  modify   UniPOWER's
       configuration.  Extensive  online help  is provide  for UniPOWER  for
       Windows,  so  please  consult  the  online  documentation   for  more
       information.


       Problems with the Standby State

       By  default  when  you  installed  UniPOWER,  the  Standby  state  is
       disabled. Some monitors do not support this particular state,  and on
       some video card  configurations, this  state is  difficult to  signal
       correctly. You  may  notice that  when  the  Standby state  has  been
       activated, the video monitor goes  directly in the Off  state, rather
       than the Standby state. If this happens then your video card  was not
       able to correctly  signal this  state to  the video  monitor, and  it
       should disabled.

       If you wish to  activate the Standby  state, be sure  to test it  for
       correct operation  with your  video monitor  using  the provide  TEST
       button in the UniPOWER for  Windows configuration dialog box.  If the
       state is not working correctly, you  will not damage your  video card
       or your monitor, but the  monitor will incorrectly detect  this state
       as the Off state.


       What do the DPMS states mean anyway?

       In late  1993  the Video  Electronics  Standards Association  (VESA  )
       completed and ratified  the Display  Power Management Signalling,  or
       DPMS standard. The DPMS standard allows normal VGA or  SuperVGA video
       cards to communicate with DPMS compliant video monitors via a special
       signalling system. This  signalling system allows  the video card  to
       tell the monitor to go into a number of different  power management or
       power saving   states, which  effectively allow  the monitor  to  turn
       itself off when  it is not  in use.  The primary  benefit of this  is
       dramatically decreased  (up  to  90%!) power  consumption  when  your
       computer is sitting idle, but it also saves you money.

                                       - 13 -






       There are basically four states that a DPMS compliant monitor  can be
       in, and  they  are  usually enter  into  one  after the  other  in  a
       sequential fashion. Each of the different states provides  a tradeoff
       between minimum power consumption and minimum recovery time (the time
       it take before you can see  the picture again!). The  following table
       outlines the currently defined power management states, and  how they
       relate to each  other. Also  included are some  ballpark figures  for
       power consumption  and recovery  times, but  you  should consult  the
       documentation that comes  with your video  monitor for more  accurate
       figures:

       State   Power    Recovery Time                          Notes
       On      100%     N/A         Normal use
       Standby < 80%    ~1 sec      Minimal power reduction (optional)
       Suspend < 30 watts           ~4 secs                    Substantial
       power reduction
       Off     < 5 watts            ~8-20 secs                 Lowest   level
       or power - non operational

       Note that the Standby  state is optional and  may not be provided  by
       some monitors.



































                                       - 14 -







       UniCENTER

       If you have  installed the  UniCENTER utility program,  it will  have
       been placed into the  directory where you also  installed UniVBE/Pro.
       To use  UniCENTER, first  change to  the  directory where  UniVBE  is
       installed (the following example assumes the default installation):

            CD \UNIVBE

       Then run the UniCENTER program with the following command:

            UNICENTR

       You will then be presented with a hierarchy of menus allowing  you to
       display and  adjust  the  parameters  for each  of  the  video  modes
       supported by your  UniVBE/Pro installation. To  adjust a video  mode,
       simply follow the instructions on the screen and using the arrow keys
       to move and size the image. When you are finished hit the enter key -
       if you adjust the image too far and it goes out of  sync, hit the ESC
       key and you will be dropped back to the previous menu.

       When you have finished,  exit UniCENTER and  the adjustments will  be
       saved into  the  UNIVBE.INI  file  (note  that  you  must  re-install
       UniVBE/Pro for the changes  to take effect). That's  all there is  to
       it!






























                                       - 15 -







       Video cards tested with UniVBE


       The following is a  list of video cards  that have been fully  tested
       and are known to work correctly with UniVBE (if you want to  add your
       card to the list, please forward the details to SciTech  Software and
       it will be added):

       Thoroughly tested by SciTech Software:
       Thoroughly tested by SciTech Software:
       Thoroughly tested by SciTech Software:

            Actix GE32+ ISA 1Mb (S3 86c801 TrueColor DAC)
            Actix GE32+ VLB 1Mb (S3 86c805 TrueColor DAC)
            Diamond Stealth VRAM ISA 1Mb (S3 86c924)
            Diamond Stealth 24 VLB 1Mb (S3 86c805 TrueColor DAC)
            STB WINDX ISA 1Mb (S3 86c911)
            NCR 77C32BLT VLB 2Mb (TrueColor DAC)
            Cirrus Logic 5422 ISA 1Mb (TrueColor DAC)
            Cirrus Logic 5226 VLB 1Mb (TrueColor DAC)
            Cirrus Logic 5428 VLB 2Mb (TrueColor DAC)
            Orchid Kelvin VLB 2Mb (Cirrus Logic 5434 TrueColor DAC)
            Tseng Labs ET3000 ISA 512k
            Orchid Pro Designer II ISA 1Mb (Tseng Labs ET4000)
            MegaEva/2 ISA 1Mb (ET4000 HiColor DAC)
            MegaEva/32i/VL VLB 2Mb (ET4000/32i TrueColor DAC)
            Video 7 VRAM II ISA 1Mb (HT209)
            ATI VGA Wonder ISA 512k (18800)
            ATI Graphics Ultra Pro VLB 2Mb (Mach32 68800-6 TrueColor DAC)
            Trident 8900C ISA 512Kb/1Mb
            Trident 9000 ISA 512Kb
            Oak OTI-037C 512k
            Oak OTI-067 512k
            RealTek RTVGA 3106 ISA 1M
            Paradise VGA Plus Card ISA 256k (8 bit PVGA1A)
            Paradise ISA 256k (16 bit PVGA1A)
            Paradise Windows Accelerator ISA 1Mb (WD90C31 HiColor DAC)
            Cardex C33 VLB 2Mb (WD90c33 TrueColor DAC)
            Western Digital in Toshiba T4440C Laptop 512k (WD90C30)
            Western Digital in Toshiba T6600 Laptop 512k (WD90C26A)
            Everex Viewpoint VRAM ISA 1Mb (Ev623 + Tseng ET4000AX)

       Reported to work from UniVBE users:
       Reported to work from UniVBE users:
       Reported to work from UniVBE users:

            UMC 85c408 512k with HiColor DAC
            HMC 86304 256k, 512k
            Trident 9000i 512k with HiColor DAC
            Trident 8900C 1Mb
            Trident 8900B 1Mb
            MXIC 86000 512k
            Avance Logic ALG2101 1Mb with HiColor DAC
            Oak OTI-077 1Mb
            Oak OTI-087 1Mb with HiColor DAC
            Oak OTI-067 256k
            Western Digital WD90c31 1Mb with TrueColor DAC (AT&T 20c492)
            Western Digital WD90c33 1Mb with TrueColor DAC (Sierra SC15025)

                                       - 16 -





            NCR 77C22E 4Mb
            Tseng Labs ET4000AX 1Mb with TrueColor DAC (SS24)
            Tseng Labs ET4000/W32 1Mb with TrueColor DAC (AT&T 20c490)
            Tseng Labs ET4000/W32i 2Mb with TrueColor DAC (Sierra SC15025)
            Tseng Labs ET4000/W32i 1Mb with TrueColor DAC (Sierra SC15025)
            Tseng Labs ET3000AX 512k
            Primus P2000 2Mb with TrueColor DAC (AT&T 20c492)
            Acumos AVGA2 512k (actually a Cirrus 5421 equivalent chipset)
            Cirrus Logic 5420 512k with HiColor DAC
            ATI Graphics Ultra Pro 2Mb with TrueColor DAC (TI34075)
            Weitek 5186 256k (on a P9000 board)
            Western Digital WD90c24 1Mb with HiColor DAC
            RealTek RTG3105 512k
            Trident 9000B 512k
            Cirrus Logic 5426 2Mb
            Chips & Technologies  82c450 in  Macintosh Quadra  800 with  DOS
            card.








































                                       - 17 -


                 Log of BUGS and problems with UniVBE(tm)
                 ----------------------------------------

This file documents known problems with the Universal VESA VBE. SciTech
Software have done their best to try to fix all known problems, but some
still persist and may well be limitations in the particular video controller
hardware and may not be fixable.

Trident 8900 chipsets:

    - The Trident 8900 chipset does not seem to be able to page flip
      the 1024x768 16 color video mode, even though it works for all
	  other video modes. Probably a bug in the chipset, since it does
	  seem to work on the newer 8900C video cards.

Tseng Labs ET3000AX chipsets:

	- The 800x600x16 color mode seems to wrap the 256k boundary, and at
      this stage there is no known solution.

Weitek 5186/5286 chipsets:

	- For the moment the support seems to work, however there is a small
	  bug that causes the card to do strange things after a mode has been
      set a number of times. This is currently being looked into.

Compaq QVision chipsets:

	- The Compaq QVision cards are detected however the support is
	  currently not working. This is currently being looked into.

S3 chipsets:

	- The S3 86c911 has some severe bugs in the extended CRT addressing
	  code in 1024x768 16 color modes. Page flipping works but looks
	  disgusting (bottom 1/8th of the screen is trashed). This bug is
	  fixed in the 924 and later chipsets.

	- Seems to be some bugs in the B-step 801/805 chipsets that cause the
      UniVBE to do strange things. Works on all the ones that we have
	  tested.

320x200x256 standard VGA mode:

    - Many SuperVGA chipsets seems to disable the bank switching registers
      in the VGA standard 320x200x256 video mode, and hence extended page
      flipping techniques do not work. This may be solveable for some
      chipsets, or it may well be a hardware related problem (backwards
      compatability with the standard VGA). The chipsets that are known to
      currently suffer from this are:

        Cirrus Logic 54xx
        ATI
        Video7
        NCR
        Oak

                Log of changes for the Universal VESA VBE
				-----------------------------------------

Version 5.0 (18 August 1994)

	- Added high performance 32 bit protected mode interface to UniVBE so
	  that 32 bit PM apps can copy the bank switching code directly into
	  their own address space.

	- Added support for emulating 640x350 and 640x400 resolution modes on
	  all video adapaters that do not directly support these modes. Works
	  in all 256, 32k and 64k color video modes! Great modes for games!!

	- Added support for the VBE/PM Power Management interface for controlling
	  VESA DPMS (Display Power Management System) monitors.

	- Added support for 1600x1200 video modes.

	- Added support for 32 bits per pixel TrueColor modes.

	- Added the ability to force UniVBE to load the resident portion into
	  and MSDOS Upper Memory Block. Shareware version will also now refuse
	  to load high with the MSDOS LOADHIGH command.

	- Split into UniVBE/Lite and UniVBE/Pro versions.

	- Added UniCENTER utility.

	- Added UniPOWER.SCR Windows Screen Saver.

	- Added UniPOWER.EXE DOS Screen Saver.

	- Added automatic install program.

	- New online registration scheme.

	- Reduced internal memory consumption to lower the amount of memory
	  required to go resident.

    - Bug fixes and extra chipset and mode support for various adapters.

    - Fixed the -c0 command line option to detect the installed SuperVGA
	  if not specified on the command line.

	- Added option to ignore underlying VBE BIOS if causing problems.

Version 4.3 (20 March 1994)

    - Added support for 8 bit wide DAC's when certain RAMDAC's are
      installed. Updated RAMDAC detection code.

	- Added support for extended CRT offset register programming for
	  supported SuperVGA cards. This allows gigantic virtual displays to
	  be set up on cards with lots of memory, and also allows virtual
	  screens to be enabled for the HiColor and TrueColor modes which
	  usually overflow the standard VGA CRT offset register. Support was
      added for the following cards (unsupported cards will have to live
      with the standard VGA offset register values for the time being):

		ET4000
		NCR
		S3
        Cirrus Logic
        Compaq QVision

	- Added new online registration process so registered users can convert
	  shareware versions to registered versions once they have the correct
	  id code.

	- Fixes for following chipsets:

			- ET4000/W32i
			- Cirrus Logic 5426/28
			- NCR 77C22E, 77C32BLT
			- S3 801/805/928
			- Paradise
			- Avance Logic
            - Oak OTI-067, OTI-077, OTI-087
			- ATI 28800-5
			- Chips & Tech 45x, 655x0
			- MXIC 860x0
			- RealTek RTG310x
			- Trident 8900/9000

    - New support added for the following chipsets:

            - ATI 68800 (Mach32)
			- Compaq QVision 1024 and 1280
			- Weitek 5086/5186/5286 (support chips for P9000 boards)
			- UMC 85c408
			- Hualon HM86304
			- Trident 8900CL/GUI9420

Version 4.2 (22 Oct 1993)

    - First shareware release.

    - Fixed a number of bugs relating to register not being correctly
      preserved, which could solve some of the problems with certain
      programs.

	- Improved method to force SuperVGA id from the command line.

	- Added option to swap the RED and BLUE bytes in 24 bit modes for
	  compatability with some video cards.

	- Improved the RAM DAC detection code, so it works correctly for
	  more DAC's (like the ATT 20c49x series).

	- Fixed bug in Trident detection code and finally!! fixed the page
	  flipping for Trident cards in the SuperVGA 256 color video modes
	  for cards with > 512k of video memory.

    - Fixed wierd bug relating to running Windows 3.1 on top of the
	  Universal VESA VBE. I hope this is now fixed.

Version 4.1 (24 Sep 1993)

	- Added support for > 1Mb of RAM for Cirrus 5426/28 chipsets. Also
	  fixed page flipping problem in 640x480x16 color mode.

    - Fixed buffer size problems for S3's

    - Removed all cli/sti instructions in bank switching routines. These
      seem to have been a cause of a number of problems and are not
	  required anyway.

	- Fixed problems with DAC detection not resetting the DAC correctly
	  for Diamond SS24 DAC's. Also added code to reset the DAC if not
	  done correctly by the BIOS.

	- Fixed support for Page flipping on AL2101 and read/write bank
	  support.

    - Fixed page flipping on some cards like the ET3000 in the 256 color
      modes (I hope).

Version 4.0 (18 Sep 1993)

    - Added support for the ET4000/W32 and OAK OTI-087 SuperVGA's.

    - Fixes for the following video cards:

            - Paradise
            - Cirrus Logic
            - S3

    - Added special protected mode support interface. You can now copy
      relocatable versions of the bank switching and page flipping code
      into your own programs to run at high speed. This will work in
      both 16 and 32 bit protected mode (note that the interface is
      _not_ the same as the interface to the actual VBE routines, but
      much simpler and lower level for simplicity and speed).

    - Major changes and restructuring of the code in the Universal VESA
      VBE. This makes it take less memory when installed, a lot simpler
      to modify and add support for new video cards. The Universal VESA
      VBE is now completely autonomous from the MGL package.

    - The Universal VESA VBE now only requires 3k of memory when resident,
      through re-engineering the internals. It nows takes the same amount
      of memory not matter how many video cards are supported. All but
      the code required for the installed SuperVGA is removed from
      memory when the TSR goes resident.

    - The Universal VESA VBE no longer has any 386 dependant code in it,
      so will work even on old 8086 machines.

    - Added 64k color mode support for the RealTek

Versions 3.3 and below

	Previous versions of this software were named the Universal VESA TSR,
	but the name was changed at the request of VESA to the Universal VESA
	VBE, which describes more accurately what the program does.
                                       
