Mouse pointer problems with CV64 + CGX

[UberFreak]

Hi

I have an A4000 with CV64 (4MB), OS3.9 + BB1-3 and the latest CGX installed.
I'm experiencing problems with the mouse pointer's outline.
The two outline colors seem to change (blend?), depending on the background the pointer is on.

This is really annoying & so far I havent been able to find a solution.
I have all CGX settings & tooltypes at default.

I also have an A1200 with BVision, it has the exact same AmigaOS setup installed (just the monitor driver is different) and the problem doesn't occur there.


Any ideas would be welcome

 

[rkauer]

I remember to see this problem before...

How about that:

[SIZE=+2]Overclocking with CyberGraphX[/SIZE]​

Memory clock speed is set by a tooltype in the CyberGraphX monitor (found in devs/monitors). Note there may be variations in this name depending on which version of CyberGraphX you are running. If you find that this doesn't work, because you are using an old CyberGraphX v3, then try to update it or contact me. All you have to do is either edit or add MEMCLOCK=77 to the tooltypes. If you have not changed your memory, the maximum value you can use will be about 70. The default value is 55. If you use too high a value, your screen will be corrupt the next time you boot. While you are editing the tooltypes, I suggest you also add ADVANCEDCLK=YES as well. This will give you greater flexibility in editing your screenmodes later, and will help you get the most out of your overclocking. Once you have saved it, reboot. You will now find that blitting operations such as scrolling, filling, blit bitmap etc.. are now faster. You can also now edit your screenmodes for higher refresh rates to reduce flicker. For example, with MEMCLOCK=77, you will now be able to get 1024x768 24-bit noninterlaced at 69Hz without the "digital noise" which happens when anything is moving on the screen. This is because faster memory allows the internal DAC in the chip to work faster, providing higher resolutions.

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 17:04 ----------

Oh, and remember that both P96 & CGX patches the graphics.library, so if you are using anything other the originally supplied with the Workbench you'll have problems.

 

[UberFreak]

Thanks rkauer, although nothing I read there says anything about transparent/wrong mouse pointer colors ?

As for gfx lib, I have BB3 installed (no idea if it does anything to this library) but I have it installed on another CGX setup as well, without any issues.

 

[rkauer]

Did you moved the jumper JP1? It is used if the Buster is not the version #11.

 

[UberFreak]

Hi

I have Buster 11 and the jumper is set accordingly.

 

[rkauer]

Maybe worth a try in the other position?

 

[UberFreak]

No change

 

[d0pefish]

UberFreak PM'ed me because I posted on Amiga.org about 6 years ago (damn, I was only 19 then!) with this problem on the Voodoo3 with GRex and CGX4.

I never found a solution, but now understand why it happens. I grabbed a copy of the Voodoo3 Hardware Spec manual out of curiosity while I was helping strim test his PCI work on NetBSD - and it revealed why.

In layman's terms, from memory:
The Voodoo3 has a hardware assisted cursor - a sprite dedicated for the mouse pointer. It has an area of memory which your graphics driver sends the bitmap of the mouse pointer, and then it can be controlled by just setting its X and Y positions. This is much faster than the software way, which would be to use the CPU to manually draw over the screen with the image of your mouse pointer.

However, the Voodoo3's hardware mouse cursor only has 2 customisable colours and 2 "special" colours. One special colour is transparency, and the other is "inverse" - i.e. it will be the opposite contrast of whichever colour the pixel is overlapping, or a logical NOT of the pixel. This was something of a standard on PCs at the time, I believe - remember all the black+white mouse pointers from Windows 95, etc.

The CyberVision 64 uses a S3 Trio64 chipset. I can't find a hardware reference manual for it yet, but looking at Linux Xorg source code for it, it mentions "background" and "foreground" colours for the cursor - implying it may also be monochrome.

So, coming from your Amiga's native multicolour cursor, it's strange to see this.

Whether you see this or not depends on if your RTG system (Picasso96, CGX3, CGX4) has hardware cursor support, if the driver for your card uses the hardware cursor (if present), and whether the hardware cursor has more than 2 real colours.

I don't think I ever found a way to force a software cursor - maybe earlier versions of CGX3 used one?

I just drew myself a black+white cursor and accepted it.

 

[UberFreak]

Thanks for the detailed response d0pefish

Guess I'll just make me a new pointer, without the "inverse" color (which is exactly what I'm seeing).
Its quite strange I didnt find anything about this on forums (and Google) as it seems like a common issue!
In fact, your post on a.org was the only one I was able to find...