Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on July 17, 2003 08:50 AM
And what the fuck is a modeline? I've been working with computers for years, and I still don't understand them.
You have mode lines in your config file? Why? Modern versions of XFree86 don't need them unless either
your monitor is strange or limited and needs custom timings to get decent resolutions, or
you want to use a non-standard resolution
For example, the other day I wanted to play a game that creates a window of like 512x300. It can't scale the window. So I created a mode line for 512x384 (4x3 aspect ratio, y'know) just by guessing at the numbers - well, educated guessing, I do know what they mean - and it worked, and now I can play basically full-screen.
Please don't argue that I should not be allowed to do that. It is very nice to be able to create a resolution/refresh rate perfectly matched to my card / monitory capabilities and my own preferences. I hate being constrained to a predefined list of "VESA standard" resolutions. (For example, "what's the highest resolution this XXX monitor can do at 70 Hz?" Answer: probably not a VESA standard resolution, but something in between - I did a 1856x1392 not long ago.)
I needed to use custom video timings on Windows awhile back (due to limitations of the A-D electronics on a DLP projector) and guess what? It's driver-dependent! Most drivers don't expose any way to provide alternate video modes at all, and for the ones that do (like the 3DLabs Wildcat series), it's generally undocumented. Give me XF86 any day.
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Re:ditch X
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 17, 2003 08:50 AMYou have mode lines in your config file? Why? Modern versions of XFree86 don't need them unless either
For example, the other day I wanted to play a game that creates a window of like 512x300. It can't scale the window. So I created a mode line for 512x384 (4x3 aspect ratio, y'know) just by guessing at the numbers - well, educated guessing, I do know what they mean - and it worked, and now I can play basically full-screen.
Please don't argue that I should not be allowed to do that. It is very nice to be able to create a resolution/refresh rate perfectly matched to my card / monitory capabilities and my own preferences. I hate being constrained to a predefined list of "VESA standard" resolutions. (For example, "what's the highest resolution
this XXX monitor can do at 70 Hz?" Answer: probably not a VESA standard resolution, but something in between - I did a 1856x1392 not long ago.)
I needed to use custom video timings on Windows awhile back (due to limitations of the A-D electronics on a DLP projector) and guess what? It's driver-dependent! Most drivers don't expose any way to provide alternate video modes at all, and for the ones that do (like the 3DLabs Wildcat series), it's generally undocumented. Give me XF86 any day.
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