blog:pc98_devcode

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blog:pc98_devcode [2020/08/22 10:11] – [Packed-Pixel or Chunky Video Modes] johnblog:pc98_devcode [2020/08/22 10:48] (current) – [PC-9821 PEGC 256 Colour Graphics Hardware] john
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 So you've got your NP21Kai PC-98 emulator up and running, or you've resurrected an ancient NEC PC-9801 or PC-9821 and you've decided you want to do some C programming for it. So you've got your NP21Kai PC-98 emulator up and running, or you've resurrected an ancient NEC PC-9801 or PC-9821 and you've decided you want to do some C programming for it.
  
-Where do you start? Well, first, get a working development environment up and running. [[blog:pc98_devtools|You can get one here]]. +Where do you start? Well, first, get a working development environment up and running. [[blog:pc98_devtools|You can get one here on the development tools page]]. 
  
 Next you will want to figure out how to do some interesting things with the hardware, as otherwise it's just a normal command line DOS machine.... Next you will want to figure out how to do some interesting things with the hardware, as otherwise it's just a normal command line DOS machine....
 +
 +===== Pre-Requisites =====
 +
 +After [[blog:pc98_devtools#makefiles_Compiling|compiling]] your code, your application will need the following to run:
 +
 +     * A VCPI memory mapper running (EMM386, VEMM486 or similar)
 +     * A DPMI server running
 +     * A copy of GO32-V2.exe in the same directory as your application
 +
 +The VCPI memory mapper should be started at boot, but the DPMI server only needs to be run at the time your application starts.
 +
 +A copy of DPMI.EXE and GO32-V2.EXE are including on the development tools page.
 ===== Non-hardware Specific Examples ===== ===== Non-hardware Specific Examples =====
  
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 ===== PC-9821 PEGC 256 Colour Graphics Hardware ===== ===== PC-9821 PEGC 256 Colour Graphics Hardware =====
  
 +There are several generations of custom graphics hardware on the PC-98:
 +
 +     * PC-9801, GDC: 640x400, 8 colour, 96KB VRAM (later 192KB)
 +     * PC-9801VF, GC: 640x400, 16 colour, 96KB VRAM (later 192KB)
 +     * PC-9801VX, EGC: 640x400, 16 colour, 256KB VRAM, added raster operation functions, bitblt and bit shift functions
 +     * PC-9821AP, PEGC: 640x400, 256 colour, 512KB VRAM, added packed-pixel and planar addressing modes
 +
 +The systems are //generally// backwards compatible, so a PC-9821 //should// be able to run software designed for early PC-9801 machines... cpu speed dependent, of course.
 +
 +My focus is on the later PEGC, 256 colour systems, since (a) this is the hardware I actually own, and (b), its most similar to DOS VGA or modern framebuffer hardware.
 ==== Packed-Pixel or Chunky Video Modes ==== ==== Packed-Pixel or Chunky Video Modes ====
  
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  return 0;  return 0;
 </code> </code>
 +
 +It is this section of code which I used to test the functionality of the various DPMI services on PC-98 DOS. The only one which would correctly return all of the various dpmi calls was the **MS-DOS 6.22 DPMI.EXE**. There may be other third party DPMI services, but since this one comes with DOS itself, it's probably the easiest (and most reliable) one to obtain.
  
 //Note: You may want to create your DPMI memory info structure (__vram_dpmi__) and VRAM selector object (__vram_dpmi_selector__) as globals, since anything writing to the framebuffer (see next example, below) will need to access them.// //Note: You may want to create your DPMI memory info structure (__vram_dpmi__) and VRAM selector object (__vram_dpmi_selector__) as globals, since anything writing to the framebuffer (see next example, below) will need to access them.//
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    * _farpokeb(), _farpokew(), _farpokel()  - To set individual bytes (8), short (16) or long (32) words    * _farpokeb(), _farpokew(), _farpokel()  - To set individual bytes (8), short (16) or long (32) words
    * _farpeekb(), _farpeekw(), _farpeekl()  - To get individual bytes, short or long words    * _farpeekb(), _farpeekw(), _farpeekl()  - To get individual bytes, short or long words
-   * [[http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/libc/libc_583.html|movedata()]] - To transfer contiguous blocks of memory+   * [[http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/libc/libc_583.html|movedata]] - To transfer contiguous blocks of memory
  
 You //can//, therefore write directly to the framebuffer if you wish, but it's probably easier to create a local buffer which you write into first, compositing all of your display elements, and then transfer the entire buffer in one operation to the framebuffer hardware. You //can//, therefore write directly to the framebuffer if you wish, but it's probably easier to create a local buffer which you write into first, compositing all of your display elements, and then transfer the entire buffer in one operation to the framebuffer hardware.
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      // vram_buffer - is the structure in local memory we have written our graphics into      // vram_buffer - is the structure in local memory we have written our graphics into
      // vram_dpmi_selector - is the VRAM framebuffer DPMI selector we created earlier.      // vram_dpmi_selector - is the VRAM framebuffer DPMI selector we created earlier.
 +     // 0 - is the offset into the far memory we want to copy to, in this case we are copying the entire region, so it is 0
 +     // GFX_ROWS * GFX_COLS - is the number of bytes to copy from the source... this should be 256KB in this case
      movedata(_my_ds(), vram_buffer, vram_dpmi_selector, 0, (GFX_ROWS * GFX_COLS));      movedata(_my_ds(), vram_buffer, vram_dpmi_selector, 0, (GFX_ROWS * GFX_COLS));
 </code> </code>
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 ==== Planar Video Modes ==== ==== Planar Video Modes ====
  
 +Planar access in 256 colour mode is only supported on a small subset of PC-9821 machines according to http://radioc.web.fc2.com/column/pc98bas/pc98disphw_en.htm.
 +
 +    * PC-9821Ap, Ap2 (Ap3 is specifically //not// supported)
 +    * PC-9821As, As2
 +    * PC-9821Ae 
 +    * PC-9821Af
 +    * PC-9821An
 +    * PC-9821Ce, Ce2
 +    * PC-9821Cs2
 +    * PC-9821Ne
 +
 +For this reason (it limits the use of any of your code to the small number of machines above), I am //not// intending to cover this specific mode. 
 +
 +There is a vanishingly small amount of existing software which uses this mode - the most well known being the [[https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x/issues/1061|PC-98 Windows 3.1 256 colour PEGC driver]].
 ===== PC-9821 EGC 16 Colour Graphics Hardware ===== ===== PC-9821 EGC 16 Colour Graphics Hardware =====
  
 +TO DO
 ==== Planar Video Modes ==== ==== Planar Video Modes ====
 +
 +TO DO
  • blog/pc98_devcode.1598087491.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2020/08/22 10:11
  • by john