MMV7VGA.DRV (providing 256 colors with high resolution for the Video 7 VGA display adapter)The 256-color high-resolution display will be the dominant display used by most multimedia computers. The OEM computer market has already selected this display as the preferred display. OEMs producing multimedia upgrade kits are encouraged to recommend the 256-color high-resolution display to their customers and to provide options to their customers so they can easily obtain this hardware. Multimedia application developers should also author for this display to create the most competitive products.
The Multimedia extensions provide enhanced display drivers for the 256-color high-resolution displays as well as new display drivers for standard VGA displays. Our goal is to create an environment for 256-color images by improving the existing 256-color drivers and providing additional drivers that can adequately
display these images with standard VGA hardware when necessary. The Multimedia extensions add the following VGA display drivers:
MMV7VGA.DRV (providing 256 colors with high resolution for the Video 7 VGA display adapter)
MMWD480.DRV (providing 256 colors with high resolution for the Paradise VGA display adapter or other display adapter based on the Western Digital 90C11 display processor)
MCGA256.DRV (providing 256 colors with low resolution for standard and high-resolution VGA display adapters)
VGAGRAY.DRV (providing 16 shades of gray with high resolution for standard VGA display adapters)
VGAPAL.DRV (providing a changeable with 16 colors for standard VGA display adapter)
The multimedia 256-color high-resolution display drivers are optimized versions of the Windows 3.0 display drivers. The video performance of the Multimedia display drivers has been improved on both 80286-and 80386-equipped systems. Multimedia computers with an 80386 processor will realize additional perfor-mance improvements. When these drivers detect an 80386 processor in the system, they use 80386-specific code in place of 80286 code.
The low-resolution MCGA256.DRV display driver provides advantages on standard VGA and high-resolution 256-color displays. Reducing the number of display pixels lets standard VGA displays use 256 colors. The reduced number of pixels also lets games update the full display quickly and be more responsive. Games will benefit from this display driver on both types of VGA displays.
The VGAGRAY.DRV and VGAPAL.DRV display drivers provide the high-resolution needed for multimedia applications with a gray-scale mapping of the image color or a reduced color palette. Both of these drivers can provide an acceptable presentation of 256-color images on standard VGA displays.
Users can select the display driver they want using the Display applet in the Control Panel used for the Multimedia extensions. Your application, along with the user's hardware and other critical applications, can influence a user's selection by its image-display requirements.