VMODE! ****** Last updated by Roedy Green on 96/10/25 Sets the video mode or displays what the current video mode is. A replacement for the DOS MODE command. Abstract ******** VMODE! sets/displays any video mode using words or numbers. VMODE! is a replacement for the DOS MODE command. Includes MASM/OptASM source. By Roedy Green of Canadian Mind Products. Copyrighted but may be copied freely for Non-military use only. Usage: VMODE! MONO, VMODE! 6, or just plain VMODE! to display the current video mode Examples: ********* VMODE! CO80 VMODE! CO40 VMODE! BW80 VMODE! BW40 VMODE! MONO VMODE! 6 all set the video mode. VMODE! by itself just displays the current video mode. You can use any mixture of upper and lower case. e.g. Vmode! mono VMODE! Mono will both work Standard video modes ******************** IBM VGA cards use the following modes. Most other companies follow IBM's lead, and then offer some extra modes. mode text graphics colours name 0 40x25 16 out of 256k BW40 1 40x25 16 out of 256k CO40 2 80x25 16 out of 256k BW80 3 80x25 16 out of 256k CO80 4 320x200 4 out of 256k 5 320x200 4 out of 256k 6 640x200 2 out of 256k 7 80x25 monochrome MONO 8..12 not used 13 320x200 16 out of 256k 14 640x200 16 out of 256k 15 640x350 monochrome 16 640x350 16 out of 256k 17 640x480 2 out of 256k 18 640x480 16 out of 256k 19 320x200 256 out of 256k Headland Video Seven Proprietary Modes 64 60x43 65 132x25 66 132x43 67 60x60 68 100x60 69 132x28 70..95 not used 96 752x410 16 out of 256K 97 720x540 16 out of 256K 98 800x600 16 out of 256K 99 1024x178 2 out of 256K 100 1024x178 4 out of 256K 101 1024x178 16 out of 256K 102 640x400 256 out of 256K 103 640x480 256 out of 256K 104 640x540 256 out of 256K 105 640x600 256 out of 256K * not yet implemented There are probably other modes beyond these that I do not yet have documentation on. GETTING THE LATEST VERSION ************************** Look for the latest version at my Web site: http://mindprod.com Warning ******* VMODE! is a willing slave that will do whatever you ask. It will attempt to put your screen into any video mode you request -- even if your screen is incapable of supporting that video mode. What happens when you do this? It depends on your BIOS, video BIOS, and your hardware. Here are some of the things that can happen: 1. It ignores you and leaves you in the old video mode. 2. It puts you into an alternate video mode that it can handle. 3. Your machine freezes up. Try reset or power off to thaw it. Trouble Shooting **************** Hexdadecimal ============ VMODE! 0D will not work because VMODE! does not support hexadecimal. Instead try: VMODE! 13 Nothing Happens =============== You run VMODE! MONO for example, and nothing happens. VMODE! displays nothing it all. This is exactly the what is supposed to happen. VMODE! only displays messages when something goes wrong. However something did happen behind the scenes. VMODE! set the mode to MONO. If you are already in MONO mode, things will look just the same, except the screen will be cleared. If you go into an exotic mode, the differences from the one you were in may not be immediately apparent. Try typing a DIR command to see how text shows. Proprietary Video Modes ======================= VMODE! checks specially for the Headland Video Seven line of Super VGA cards and lets you access the proprietary video modes accessed via the INT 10 extended functions. At this time VMODE! does not have special handling for any other brands simply because I don't yet have documentation on how to do it. Hint hint... Dual Screens ============ VMODE! may not work if you have two different video cards in your machine. Adventurous souls might experiment with the source code, experimenting with the FudgeEquip routine to tune it to your hardware. Name ==== VMODE! is quite a "mouthful" to type. You can simply rename the program to something short like this: RENAME VMODE!.COM V.COM If you want to do it up brown, replace the string VMODE! with V in all the source code and documentation. You can simply make a copy have thus use either name: COPY VMODE!.COM V.COM DESQview ======== DESQview is very motherly and does not like you changing video modes or playing with dual screens. If you bat an eye she will put thing back the way they were. Do your experiments outside DESQview. GETTING THE LATEST VERSION ========================== Look for the latest version at my Web site: http://mindprod.com It would also be helpful if you mentioned the URL or source of where you got your copy. I want to make sure that site is kept kept up to date. Acknowledgements **************** The people on BIX with the following handles all helped with beta testing: alexw, ddunfield, ligo, blade_runner, agurski, tjeffries, schneider, ntiedemann, tjeffries, hfishman, chartman, lsultan Harvey Fishman convinced me to add full Video 7 support for the proprietary modes. Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products #101 - 2536 Wark Street Victoria, BC Canada V8T 4G8 tel:(250) 361-9093 mailto:roedyg@mindprod.com http://mindprod.com -30-