More info on SciTech's Display Doctor

Hetz Ben Hamo got the exclusive scoop from SciTech, makers of the Display Doctor, with more information about what the soon-to-be-released beta will have, as well as future plans. This is good stuff-more games, more display-related materials (obviously). Click below to get the full message.

Hi,

Thanks for your interested in the SciTech Display Doctor for Linux beta. The beta release is not ready at this time as we are building the list of interested parties ready for the beta release. We hope to have the beta release ready in the next 1-2 weeks, and we will send you more information at that time.

Since many of you are most likely wondering exactly what SDD for Linux is (see we were deliberately vague in our announcement), this is what is in store for you:

• Support for every display mode imaginable (320x240/400x300/512x384 low res game modes up to 2048x1536 regular and 2048x1152 HDTV 16:9 aspect ratio modes).
• Complete, generic refresh rate control and display mode centering.
• Full 2D hardware acceleration support for just about every chip on the planet.
• Direct fullscreen console graphics libraries available using the SciTech MGL or SuperVGA Kit graphics libraries.
• XFree86 driver running on top of our drivers, fully accelerated.

Planned features that may make it into the first Linux release:

• SVGALib wrapper to run SVGALib games like Quake using our display modes and device support.
• fbcon console driver support using our display drivers.
• Full multi-head support using any old PCI graphics card (up to 8 in one system!).
• Full support for both hardware and software stereo LC shutter glasses, with complete refresh rate control support (> 120Hz!).

Planned features for future versions:

• GGI/KGI driver so that GGI can utilise SDD device support technology.
• Full 3D hardware accelertion via our native SciTech Nucleus API and via OpenGL (based on Mesa).

Best Regards,

SciTech Software - Building Truly Plug'n'Play Software!
Kendall Bennett | Email: [e-mail]
Director of Engineering | Phone: [phone]
SciTech Software, Inc. | Fax : [phone]
505 Wall Street | ftp : ftp.scitechsoft.com
Chico, CA 95928, USA | www : http://www.scitechsoft.com

Hano makes the observation, and I agree, that the future development of gaming stuff, video-this makes things much better. This is commercial software, but the rumors are that the price will be pretty darn reasonable, and may be shareware.