
VESATST V1.0
------------

This program is used to determine whether the VESA-graphics library that
is used in Moray V2.5 is able to run in the 256-color modes that your
graphics card supports.

Please run the program without any parameters. This will test the 800x600
256-color mode. 
You should first see a testpattern (described below) being built up on the 
screen. Then you'll hear a sound. If the test pattern displays correctly, 
you can press ESC at this stage and you will be returned to DOS. Pressing 
any other key will conduct a benchmark test of the graphics card using those
routines which Moray uses most heavily. The results of this benchmark are
logged to MORAY.ERR. The benchmark may take a while (up to a minute).

If this initial run failed in some way (distorted screen, no switch to 
graphics mode), please call the program like this:

  VESATST -L -G4

This will do some logging to the ERR file. I'll need this info. Please 
then go on to call the program with the following parameters:

  VESATST -G6                this tests 800x600x256
  VESATST -G8                this tests 1024x768x256

If any of these calls fail, please add the -L parameter and check the  
resulting ERR file.


The Test Pattern
----------------

First, you should see a moiree pattern being built in white, by lines drawn
from the top edge to the bottom edge and from the left to the right edge.

In the middle is a light-grey box with a text saying 'CAN YOU READ THIS?'
in it.

Below this is a grayscale bar going from black at the left to white
at the right.

Below this are seven small rectangles containing the colors red, green,
blue, yellow, purple, cyan and white. The name of the color is written
inside the square. The red square has a pattern of rectangles in different
colors in it.

Around the center of the screen are white lines that originate from an
outside ellipse and form an inside ellipse.
Outside of this array of lines is a dotted ellipse.

Along the two sides of the screen you should see a few of the red rectangles
(with the colored insides) in columns.

Below the colored bars in the middle screen, you'll see a white rectangle
appear and things will happen inside this rectangle.
First it'll be filled with random colored lines, then random colored filled
rectangles, then random colored vertical lines and finally random colored
horizontal lines. None of these things may be painted outside the white
rectangle.

Then you'll hear a tone and the program will wait for a keypress. Pressing
ESC will return you to DOS, any other key will do the benchmark.


The Benchmark
-------------

This will test text output, vertical lines, horizontal lines, short lines,
long lines, filled rectangles and framed rectangles.
After this the result is appended to the ERR file.

This is an example of what I get with my ATI Mach64 graphics card on a P133 in
a Windows 95 DOS box:

         Vertical Line Drawing:   1598 ->  15.980s ->    626 lines/s
       Horizontal Line Drawing:    921 ->   9.210s ->   4343 lines/s
            Short Line Drawing:   2010 ->  20.100s ->   4975 lines/s
      Random Long Line Drawing:    735 ->   7.350s ->   1361 lines/s
      Filled Rectangle Drawing:    631 ->   6.310s ->   1268 rects/s
      Framed Rectangle Drawing:   2690 ->  26.900s ->    929 rects/s
        Text Character Drawing:    154 ->   1.540s ->  25974 chars/s


The latest version of SciTech Display Doctor (formerly known as UniVBE),
Copyright by SciTech Software, which supports the VESA 2.0 spec, will boost 
performance and you will see something like the following results (it speeds
it up tremendously!). Note especially that lines speed up between 15x (for 
long ones) to 37x (for short ones)! This will make those redraws really fast. 
It is available from ftp.scitechsoft.com or http://www.scitechsoft.com.

This is for the same ATI Mach64 and P133 in a Windows 95 DOS box with 
UniVBE V5.1 installed:

         Vertical Line Drawing:     76 ->   0.760s ->  13158 lines/s
       Horizontal Line Drawing:    120 ->   1.200s ->  33333 lines/s
            Short Line Drawing:     54 ->   0.540s -> 185185 lines/s
      Random Long Line Drawing:     49 ->   0.490s ->  20408 lines/s
      Filled Rectangle Drawing:    241 ->   2.410s ->   3320 rects/s
      Framed Rectangle Drawing:     81 ->   0.810s ->  30864 rects/s
        Text Character Drawing:     49 ->   0.490s ->  81633 chars/s

