dear paul
thanks for the tests of MATLAB & PsychToolbox under Mac OS X DP4. You hit
3 errors/warnings.
All Mac drivers are called by using a Control or a Status call. You
further supply an argument that specifies the action. (This argument is a
number, usually specified by a mnemonic string, e.g. cscSetEntries. "csc"
stands for Control and Status Call.) If that action is not supported,
then the driver is supposed to say so, by returning -17 (Control) or -18
(Status). Some of the actions are optional; some are "required" according
to Apple's documentation of video drivers.
PROBLEM 1:
Classic Mac OS Compatibility/333 (.Display_Video_Apple_BB200 version 1)
8 bit dacs. 1024x768 60 Hz.
??? SCREENInfo.c: cscGetPageCnt error -18
This says that the supplied video driver refused the request to get a
page count. I think this is a "required" action, so I think this is a
bug. In fact, it's a rarely used feature, so it's easy to understand why
they haven't implemented it yet. I've never before encountered a video
driver that failed to support this action, but nearly all provide a
pretty useless fixed answer of "1" page available.
PROBLEM 2:
Warning: Warning. Error -17. Couldn't set gamma.
This says that setting gamma is not supported. I think this action is
"optional". Normally we make this call solely to set a default linear
gamma. However, for video cards with 10-bit DACs, setting the gamma is
the ONLY way to specify the desired contents of the CLUT with full 10-bit
precision. I'll write to Apple and ask if they might provide gamma
setting.
PROBLEM 3:
??? pixelSize/depthMode 8 unavailable in display mode 11.
That's an annoying limitation. I'm guessing that this driver supports
only 16 and 32 bit modes, dropping support for 8 bit mode. Again, this is
a limitation, but not a bug. We could live with this, but many programs
assume 8-bit mode is available, so they'll all need to be changed.
If you're game, it would be interesting to see results from another test
program. It's an application called TimeVideo. Just run it and send me
the report. Hopefully it'll run to completion and print lots of warnings,
documenting which actions are supported.
You can download TimeVideo from the web:
http://vision.nyu.edu/VideoToolbox/Download.html#TimeVideo
best
denis
thanks for the tests of MATLAB & PsychToolbox under Mac OS X DP4. You hit
3 errors/warnings.
All Mac drivers are called by using a Control or a Status call. You
further supply an argument that specifies the action. (This argument is a
number, usually specified by a mnemonic string, e.g. cscSetEntries. "csc"
stands for Control and Status Call.) If that action is not supported,
then the driver is supposed to say so, by returning -17 (Control) or -18
(Status). Some of the actions are optional; some are "required" according
to Apple's documentation of video drivers.
PROBLEM 1:
Classic Mac OS Compatibility/333 (.Display_Video_Apple_BB200 version 1)
8 bit dacs. 1024x768 60 Hz.
??? SCREENInfo.c: cscGetPageCnt error -18
This says that the supplied video driver refused the request to get a
page count. I think this is a "required" action, so I think this is a
bug. In fact, it's a rarely used feature, so it's easy to understand why
they haven't implemented it yet. I've never before encountered a video
driver that failed to support this action, but nearly all provide a
pretty useless fixed answer of "1" page available.
PROBLEM 2:
Warning: Warning. Error -17. Couldn't set gamma.
This says that setting gamma is not supported. I think this action is
"optional". Normally we make this call solely to set a default linear
gamma. However, for video cards with 10-bit DACs, setting the gamma is
the ONLY way to specify the desired contents of the CLUT with full 10-bit
precision. I'll write to Apple and ask if they might provide gamma
setting.
PROBLEM 3:
??? pixelSize/depthMode 8 unavailable in display mode 11.
That's an annoying limitation. I'm guessing that this driver supports
only 16 and 32 bit modes, dropping support for 8 bit mode. Again, this is
a limitation, but not a bug. We could live with this, but many programs
assume 8-bit mode is available, so they'll all need to be changed.
If you're game, it would be interesting to see results from another test
program. It's an application called TimeVideo. Just run it and send me
the report. Hopefully it'll run to completion and print lots of warnings,
documenting which actions are supported.
You can download TimeVideo from the web:
http://vision.nyu.edu/VideoToolbox/Download.html#TimeVideo
best
denis