[AD] Important WIP 4.0 FeedBack Report From User .....from Victor L. Miller

[Vicmiller1@xxxxxxxxxx]

Hello .....from Victor L. Miller  (NYC / NJ Metro Area Programmer ) ......
Please respond to :     vicmiller1@xxxxxxxxxx

I want to take a minute to provide some direct feedback to the
Allegro Developer community ........

First Allegro has been Excellent ! ! ! 
Great Stuff Done By Great People !!!

I have been using the Allegro Libraries very successfully for a number of 
years ....
I am actually using the Allegro Library for science "visualization" projects
using "blitting"  "double buffering" and a number of other techniques ...
The best thing for me is that the Allegro Library provides powerful graphics
routines while hiding all the "ugliness" of WinAPI / SDK Windows Programming
(Who wants to worry about HINSTANCE and HWND  etc ???)
(I understand that the "ugliness" is there but hidden through DirectX  
"under-the-hood") ......

I am using (initially) the final DOS version 3.12 and now the WIP / Windows / 
DirectX  all the way up to the newest WIP_4.0 ..........
I am using MS Visual C++ with Allegro WIP to create a Win32 Application ......
Since DirectX is a MS "official" product we end up creating a 
"Windows Compliant" program .......and everything is fine / runs  .......

I have many "test " programs on a CD_ROM and I have been going to large
computer stores to try out Allegro WIP / DirectX under the new
Windows XP and Windows XP Professional  operating systems.

I am providing my findings  here for general information and awareness to 
the Allegro developer community .........

1)  Basically,  I have found that Allegro _WIP 4.0 and 3.937 work perfectly 
almost
all the time under Windows XP and Windows XP Professional .......
Tested in both AUTODETECT / FullScreen and "Windowed"  Modes
In other words the DirectX version of Allegro works fine, and usually
the DOS Allegro 3.12 (without DirectX) also works good under Windows XP and
Windows XP Professional ......

I had found in the past that the DOS version of Allegro  DID NOT RUN under
Windows NT and I think that Microsoft  under Windows NT did not allow
direct video "writes" to the video memory area .........that is when I made 
the
transition to the WIP / DirectX version of Allegro which did run under 
Windows NT
since the DirectX stuff was supported by Microsoft ......
In other words the Allegro WIP/ DirectX version creates a "Windows Compliant"
program .......and everything is fine .........

Now, I did have one (1) problem with a particular Gateway Laptop Computer
Model Solo 9550XL which is a high end new and huge laptop  ...... It was 
running Windows XP Professional  but I don't think the Windows XP 
Professional is the problem  .......  (I tried every compatiblity mode 
possible) ...
since the same test programs work fine on every other computer(s) running 
Windows XP Professional   (even without any compatibility modes) ........

Now I think the problem is  with the video board which on the problem machine
is :   32MegaByte 4x AGP  nVidia GeForce2 GO      .........
(they call it GeForce2 "GO" Board  - 32 Meg)  ........

No Matter What .....It Won't Run the Allegro WIP / DirectX  stuff .......
No Way ....No How .......
The problem is right at or around the video board mode setting / 
initialization (I think)
Yet, that same GeForce2 GO video board can be set easily with the Non-DirectX 
  DOS Allegro (3.12) ...........the test program works fine .........

None of the Allegro WIP / DirectX programs would run  3.937   4.000  etc  
......
The behavior is that it does create a window with the program title in the 
title bar
in other words the program launches and creates a window ......
but then it halts ....the farthest I was able to get is to bring up the
  gfx_mode_select_ex( )     screen  but it freezes right there ...............
My technique is to immediately go for gfx_mode_select_ex( ) so that I
can try many different modes with the one program .....
then the program does "stuff" like bitmap blitting , rotation, fonts, 
palettes, GUI, etc....
Almost all the problems I have had (Very RARE)  (ever) with Allegro boil down 
to 
setting a compatible video mode ....usually No Problem .....but this 
GeForce2 GO Board has a problem but only with the DirectX WIP Allegro .....

I also did a DirectX diagnostics (note the version is DirectX8.1 but that same
version is on many other machines that worked fine) and all is OK ......on the
trouble machine .......

Note that this same machine will run the older final DOS Allegro 3.12 version
of the test program with the same gfx_mode_select_ex( ) and so on and
everything works "blitting"  "double buffering"  "bitmap rotation"  etc .....

I am preparing some more "diagnostic"  versions of the test programs to see
exactly where the halt is .......and will be going back again ..........
I will be monitoring return values and more to see if I can isolate the 
trouble ......

Many Thanks,
Victor L. Miller    :-)
vicmiller1 @aol.com
Website:  http://members.aol.com/kimjulie1

Here is a code chunk of the initial part of the test program :

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  allegro_init();

  //Set the window title when in a GUI environment
  set_window_title("Hello World - Allegro DirectX - from Victor :-) ");

  install_keyboard();
  install_mouse();

/* Complete Video Mode Set-Up          */
/* Get The User-Selected Graphics Mode */
    destroy_bitmap(screen_bmp);
    set_color_depth(8);
    set_gfx_mode(GFX_AUTODETECT, 320, 200, 0, 0);
    set_pallete(desktop_pallete);
    set_mouse_sprite(NULL);
    show_mouse(screen);
 
//  Screen Default Values
    card_save=card;
    width=640;
    height=480;
      color_depth=24;
   
    gfx_mode_select_ex(&card, &width, &height, &color_depth);