This is code for the video, "I finally got this ATI VGA Blitter working!" on my YouTube Channel, PCRetroTech.
The code is very messy and just hacked together.
The interest in this surprised me, as I'd assumed I'd be one of very few people with this chipset.
If anyone is interested in having me work on this in return for some VERY nominal monetary support for the project, here is what I think I could still add:
- Clean up this code and fully document it
- Make it work on Mach8/Mach32 without the IBM adapter interface (who knows, maybe that'd be enough to get it to work on an XT, but no guarantees there)
- Support some of the ATI specific video modes including 16 bit colour
- Add keyboard control
- Sync to vertical retrace (might be needed on CRTs)
If you'd be interested in supporting a project like that, please get in contact with me via email (goodwillhart@googlemail.com) and if there's sufficient interest I'll get to work.
Depending on the level of interest, I could be induced to add support for loading arbitrary (simple, compact) models created using Blender.
This code can be built using Turbo C 2.0 and Turbo Assembler 2.01 (WinPCWorld is your friend).
To build it, rename blitx.asm to triangle.asm and blitx.c to hdidemo.c (where x is the version you are interested in) and run make. There are seven different versions of the program which do progressively more complicated things.
Note that all except version 7 should run on any card that is compatible with IBM 8514/A at the register level. This includes the Mach 8 and Mach 32, the WD9500 and the 82C480. Version 7 is ATI specific.
To build the code you will need afidata.h, callafi.h and ibmafi.h from the original IBM driver disk distributed with the 8514/A. See 8514/A Demo Diskette on this page http://mail.lipsia.de/~enigma/neu/ibmpc.html
You will also need to run hdiload.exe from the same diskette before running this program.
Enjoy!
William from PCRetroTech