Using Fractint 20 in XP
Apologies if this has been raised before; I've just joined and don't know if there are any archives, or where to find them. Although 18 worked fine in a DOS prompt under Windows 95/98 (don't laugh), now I have a shiny new computer running XP, 18 and 20 both crash this (resulting in a, rare IME, BSoD) if I try to run them under a Command Prompt. Hence I have to run them under DOS-Box (0.72). * How do I set up DOS-Box to run Fractint (or the like) with maximum power? * How do I avoid the corruption of the output screen when I switch out of drawing and back within Fractint, or when I switch away from DOS-Box and back? BTW, 20 seems to have lost the Palette Editor, and not gained the promised 32767-pixel limit (the latter according to the help, which still says 2048). Can anyone enlighten me?
Robert,
Although 18 worked fine in a DOS prompt under Windows 95/98 (don't laugh), now I have a shiny new computer running XP, 18 and 20 both crash this (resulting in a, rare IME, BSoD) if I try to run them under a Command Prompt. Hence I have to run them under DOS-Box (0.72).
Did you try creating a shortcut to Fractint, then set the properties to run Fractint full screen (2 places)? If you have a machine where the manufacturer has tuned the XP video drivers to work with the hardware, you should be able to get this to work. I have a laptop that came with XP that works fine. I also have a laptop and a desktop where I installed a generic XP, and neither will work properly with Fractint.
* How do I set up DOS-Box to run Fractint (or the like) with maximum power?
Set cycles=max in your dosbox.conf file. I don't remember having changed anything else.
* How do I avoid the corruption of the output screen when I switch out of drawing and back within Fractint, or when I switch away from DOS-Box and back?
Try going to a text screen in Fractint first. In general, it isn't a good idea to switch away from Fractint while an image is being generated/displayed unless using disk video modes.
BTW, 20 seems to have lost the Palette Editor, and not gained the promised 32767-pixel limit (the latter according to the help, which still says 2048). Can anyone enlighten me?
Try the latest developer's version (20.04p08) located at the developer's web sites: www.fractint.org or www.fractint.net Jonathan
On Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:46:56 -0500, "Jonathan Osuch" <osuchj@avalon.net> said:
Robert,
Did you try creating a shortcut to Fractint, then set the properties to run Fractint full screen (2 places)?
Just tried that, as soon as I read your email. New shortcut worked fine... until I tried switching out of Fractint (whilst in a text screen), at which point I got the same BSoD as before. :( Since Windows progs can grab focus and thus force a switch (and hence the BSoD if I have Fractint running), this needs to be resolved...
If you have a machine where the manufacturer has tuned the XP video drivers to work with the hardware, you should be able to get this to work.
Unfortunately my laptop (a Crappard-Bell) was optimised for Vista -- the reason I'm running XP is because of Crappard-Bell's cheapskate policy of making users roll their own recovery discs (which can only be done once, so if it doesn't work (as it didn't for me), you're screwed). Still, I find XP better than Vista, with the sole exception of dial-up networking.
Robert,
Did you try creating a shortcut to Fractint, then set the properties to run Fractint full screen (2 places)?
Just tried that, as soon as I read your email. New shortcut worked fine... until I tried switching out of Fractint (whilst in a text screen), at which point I got the same BSoD as before. :( Since Windows progs can grab focus and thus force a switch (and hence the BSoD if I have Fractint running), this needs to be resolved...
On the Misc tab of the properties screen for the shortcut, try having "Allow screen saver" unchecked, "Always suspend" checked, and setting the Idle Sensitivity to Low. Also, try setting the startup parameter textsafe=save, either on the Cmd line: of the Program tab of the shortcut, or in your sstools.ini file. Jonathan
In article <1212770307.21647.1257144725@webmail.messagingengine.com>, "Robert Baker" <mandy@rjbaker.fastmail.co.uk> writes:
BTW, 20 seems to have lost the Palette Editor, and not gained the promised 32767-pixel limit (the latter according to the help, which still says 2048). Can anyone enlighten me?
Are you talking about the limit on the size of the image in disk video modes? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "not gained the promised 32767-pixel limit". -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
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Robert Baker