
*************************************************************************

             Viper PCI/Viper VLB Win95 Preliminary Drivers 
                     Release Notes - 22 June, 1995

*************************************************************************

Updates:
        5 Apr 95 - Initial pre-release
	6 Apr 95 - Fixed palette bugaboo w/ dos boxes in Viper.VxD
       11 Apr 95 - Fixed problem w/ 'Shutdown to MSDOS mode'
       12 Apr 95 - Fixed a DIB problem (improved AVI performance)
       13 Apr 95 - Found the b440 DOS window problem in the VXD.
       19 Apr 95 - Fixed problem w/ Visual Basic forms in all color
                      depths also removed 2 invalid modes from viper.inf
       21 Apr 95 - Fixed Shutdown/DOS hang problems (?)
       25 Apr 95 - Fixed minor palette init problem that caused color
                      shifts with "Desert" and like schemes when changing
                      resolutions.
        3 May 95 - Fixed Viper.INF to prevent spurious filenotfound error

Before installation, reset Win95 to the 'standard VGA driver', reboot,
then install using Win95 Display Properties / Settings / Change Driver /
Have Disk...

You still need a VIPER.INI file (created by VPRMODE) stored in c:\viper
or another path pointed to by SET VIPERPATH=

Note: You may need to edit WIN.INI, and remove the [DrawDib] section to
   allow Video for Windows to retest the new driver and optimize itself.
   This hopefully will be done automatically in a later version...
   This is only needed for a upgrade from a version before 11 April
   to a more current one!

(See 'Known Problems' at end...)

These drivers support 256 colors, 32768 colors, and 16777216 colors.
These drivers support 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x900, and
   1280x1024 resolutions.


		256	32k	16M
		====================
640x480		1MB	1MB	2MB
800x600		1MB	1MB	2MB
1024x768	1MB	2MB	-na-
1152x900	2MB	-na-	-na-
1280x1024	2MB	-na-	-na-


This is a very unofficial release! These drivers have not yet received
thorough application testing. They _have_ been 'smoke tested' w/ the
DCT.


Test Matrix:  (these tests were all done w/ the 5Apr version, later
              versions are just being tested on PCI versions, unless
              another VLB specific problem crops up)...

	board/mem/version	Bios tested	256	32k	16M
	===========================================================
	Viper PCI 2MB A7	3.10		x	x	x
	Viper PCI 2MB B2	3.09		x	x	x
	Viper VLB 2MB E4	3.13		x	x	x
	Viper VLB 2MB D3	2.04		x	x	x
	Viper VLB 2MB A7	1.12		x	x	x


Known Problems:

    *   At 16bpp (32k colors) or 32bpp (16M colors), stretched .AVI
        files are rather slow (many frames dropped).  Also, at 32k and
        16M colors, AVI files in "MS Video One" format perform poorly.

    *   Color/Animated cursors are NOT supported.  Sorry!

    *	These drivers have not undergone much application compatibility
        testing yet.

    *	Bitblt performance is only optimized for 256 color modes.

    *	DO NOT TRY TO RUN THE OLD DIAMOND VIPER CONTROL PANEL!  IT WILL
        GPF!

    *	Do not try to use the DPMI Diamond power management application
        either, it won't work right.

    *   32k color color mode has some drawing problems (noteably,
        the copying files status display has a magenta background...)

    *   'BitEdit' (a unsupported tool from the MSDN Library) causes
        stack faults at 16 and 32bpp pasting large bitmaps. This seems
        to be a problem in BitEdit, it is calling the driver with no
        stack space left. It appears that BitEdit causes USER to
        recursively call itself numerous times, consuming nearly all
        the available stack, until a DeviceBitmapBit driver call
        crashes in the prolog.


Contacting DIAMOND
 ------------------
 Diamond can be reached through a number of ways:
 
 Postal Service  : Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc.
                   2880 Junction Avenue
                   San Jose, CA  95134
 Voice (Main)    : (408) 325-7000
 Voice (TechSppt): (408) 325-7100 [M-F 6-7; Sat 8-4 Pacific]
                                  [plus 24hr automated help]
 FAX (Main)      : (408) 325-7070
 FAX (Support)   : (408) 325-7171
 BBS (to 2400)   : (408) 325-7080
 BBS (9600+)     : (408) 325-7175
 CompuServe      : GO DMNDONLINE
 America Online  : GO DIAMOND
 WEB Server	 : http://www.diamondmm.com
 FTP Server      : ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com
 
 
 
 All product names listed are trademarks or copyrights of their
 respective owners.
 =====================================================================
 Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc.                 (c) 1993-95
 (408) 325-7000                                   All Rights Reserved
 =====================================================================
  $Id: readme.tx@  05/03/95 16:45:00  MDEXTER Exp $
 =====================================================================

