GFX9000 is (was) a great hw. The only problem is that is 'external' to msx. More people think about GXF as an extension, not as a part of a standard.


Really this is an extension because it's hw is not nearly compatible to older generation msxes. For example:

v9958 is +/- backward compatible with v9938
v9938 is +/- backward compatible with tms99x8 (used in msx1)

But V9990 is another thing. So, no text modes, no msx1 modes, no msx2 modes or msx like sprites, different mapping in i/o ports different meaning/behaviour of vdp port/registers. Not a part of standard, only a beautiful hw. (That msx should had, in my opinion beginning from msx2)

I once made MSX's smallest textscroll ever in 1024x424 resolution on the GFX9000.. Hard to make out on a TV screen But if you want to use the GFX9000 in SymbOS, you should use eighter 512 x 424 interlaced or 512 x 212. (Or gain some more Y-pixels with overscan) Those are viewable on a normal TV/RGB-monitor.

Hm, I never liked interlace before. And also the 9938 can display 512x212 with at least 16 colours, so I don't if it makes sense to support the GFX at all?

Well, the GFX is MUCH, MUCH faster.. and has more colors. Besides, if the GUI was on the GFX9000 screen, you could launch games, etc on the other vdp. As an example, Magic is a tsr program, a Moonblaster Wave replayer with nice graphics/skins with playlist running on the gfx9000 screen, as you can still use DOS on the old vdp.

q) how many active GFX9000 users exist in the world?
a) 1/1'000'000 of the MSX2+ active users

q) how many active MSX2+ users exist in the world?
a) 1/1'000'000 of the MSX2 active users

q) how many active MSX2 users exist in the world?
a) 1/1'000'000 of the MSX1 active users

q) how many active MSX1 users exist in the world?
a) 0

:-)
just kidding, maybe this could be the subject of a nice poll

Well, actually, the number of GFX9000 owners and users is minimum comparing with the total amount of MSX users and owners. It can be an option, as you have the right of use it as it exists, but... see it as an option, NOT as the main graphic support. Let's support first V9938, let's push it into his its limits, and there when this is finished, let's make another options.

Please be serious about it: Symbos first must be for all MSX users, then let's expand it.

Although the MSX standard is very flexible and allow the user to create almost any type of extension, GFX9000 is to me an extension that is outside the scope of MSX. Its like replacing the body of a T-Ford with one from a new BMW. Who really wants a car that looks like a BMW but performs like a T-Ford?
I don't mind new hardware but to me extensions that enhances the usability of the MSX but maintain the characteristics are much more interesting, such as IDE, SCSI, Obsonet, USB, ....

But of course, it would be cool if SymbOS would support GFX9000. It would probably boost the interest for the GFX.

prodatron> GFX9000 is a nice feature, but you shouldn't make it a high priority. It has some nice features (and Algo wasn't kidding with the MUCH either :-). But the target audience is not nearly as big as with standard msx2. However, converting it should be almost trivial. I doubt it would take more than a couple of hours. But for now I think you have plenty to do

Quote:

Hm, 3,58MHz like the CPU it seems... Did anyone ever tried to play Sinclair Spectrum tunes on the MSX?

AY-3-8912 ZX SPECTRUM
AY-3-8910 MSX

See that Spectrum and MSX uses different (but similar) PSG chips

Regarding the GFX9000 discussion: I read the VDP9990 manual and don't think, that it would be very hard to implement. The two problems are:
- no good emulator support
- not many users
So first I will concentrate on Mode5 and 7. When I have the 16colour modes up an running in a good way, I will again have a look on the GFX9000 and the MSX2+ modes.

Regarding the sound chip: It has never been a problem to convert Spectrum (8912), Atari ST (8910) and CPC (8912) sounds between these three systems, but I don't know about the MSX. But as the Atari ST has the same like the MSX I don't see big problems. I just need to adjust the period values. I hope I can test this today.

Quote:

GFX9000 is emulated in OpenMSX, as long you do nothing fancy and stick to B-modes it works quite well... right?

As the manual says: it's working for lots of stuff, but can indeed be quite buggy as it's not complete. openMSX 0.6.0 has e.g. no timing yet for GFX9000 VDP commands, so they are infinately fast. If you try a beta of the current CVS this will be improved a bit. (But these are very rough values still.... we need measurements!) Also some bugs are fixed then. Check on our IRC channel (#openMSX on irc.freenode.net) for a binary or compile it yourself if you like

I didn't know there were many troubles in P mode. Stuff like Bomberman by Bitboyz works fine e.g. The most trouble I have seen with the X-Tazy demo (although it runs OK for the biggest part nowadays) and the PowerBasic demos, which are still quite bad.

There's not much other GFX9000 software to try yet. AFAIK all other public stuff runs quite OK.

manuel : the Golden Power Disk 12 freezes in openMSX on the menu. Do you have an idea about the problem ?

Freezes? Are you sure? I tried it and although you don't see a cursor, it's not frozen. You can use the up and down keys.

Select an item with the RIGHT key. (Note that the scrolling seems to bug a bit.... )

/me spots thread pollution

Quote:

Freezes? Are you sure? I tried it and although you don't see a cursor, it's not frozen. You can use the up and down keys. Select an item with the RIGHT key. (Note that the scrolling seems to bug a bit.... )

Thanks for the tip ! I thought that selecting was with the spacebar ... But what's confusing is the fact that you don't see the selection when using up and down keys (at least on my Windows system).