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These release notes contain the following information:
For information about compilers, usage hints, debug registry keys, runtime installation tools, and using Intel RDX with Intel Realistic Sound Experience (RSX), see the Intel RDX 3.02 Developer's Kit Technical Notes.
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Minimum Configuration | |||
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Audio |
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Any sound card with DirectSound* drivers. | |
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Video |
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VGA-compatible card with DirectDraw* or DCI support. | |
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Processor |
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PC with an Intel486™; DX2 processor, running at 66 MHz, with 8 megabytes of RAM. | |
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Software |
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Windows* 95 or Windows NT* 4.0. Any supported 32-bit ANSI C compiler. We tested Intel RDX with Microsoft Visual C++* (v2.1, v2.2, v2.3, v4.0, and v4.1), and Watcom* C/C++ (v10.6). | |
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Recommended Configuration | |||
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Processor |
| PC with a Pentium processor, running at 90 MHz, with 16 megabytes of RAM. | |
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Software |
| Latest version of DirectX*. ActiveMovie* 1.0 or better. | |
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Note: The minimum configuration is adequate for most 2D applications. However, the video subsystem is particularly demanding on both system and memory resources. So you will need to use the recommended configuration to run some of the more demanding video samples provided.
License Definitions
The RDX Developer's Kit license (located in the rdx\doc\rdx directory) refers to the following items:
If your application uses or ships with Intel RDX, review the License.DOC file. It contains Intel's commercial redistribution requirements.
The Intel RDX CD supports the Windows 95 autoplay feature; however, if you want to install the Intel RDX Developer's Kit package manually, click on the Windows Start menu and then click on Run.
Type:
d:\rdx\setup\setup
where d is the letter of your CD-ROM drive. Then press ENTER. This starts the Intel RDX Developer's Kit installation utility. Follow the screen instructions to complete the installation.
If you choose to uninstall Intel RDX, the uninstall process might report that some components could not be uninstalled. Check the directory where Intel RDX was installed. Directories might not have been deleted because files have been added since the installation. Check the registry. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intel\RDX can have items leftover. Occasionally, uninstall reports that some components could not be uninstalled when, in fact, all components have been removed.
Directory Structure
If you selected to install all of the Intel RDX Development Kit components, you should see this directory structure on your hard drive:
| DEVINSTA\RDX\DLL | Intel RDX runtime install components for non-InstallShield* users | ||
| DEVINSTA\RDX\INSTSHLD | Intel RDX runtime install components for InstallShield users | ||
| DOC\RDX | All Intel core RDX documentation | ||
| EXTRAS | IMA-ADPCM driver for use with a Pentium processor | ||
| RDX\INCLUDE | Intel RDX Developer's Kit include files | ||
| RDX\LIB | Intel RDX Developer's Kit library files for MSVC | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\3CLIPS | Sample source for 3 video clips playing example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\ACTIVEPA | Sample source for active palette example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\AMSAMP | Sample source for the RDXAM example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\AVIFILES | AVI files needed for examples that need video clips | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\CMPRSAMP | Sample source for compressed sprite bitmap example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\DOC | Sample source for 6 simple Intel RDX examples | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\EVENTS | Sample source for events example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\IEXPLODE | Sample source for sprite explode example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\JOYSAMP | Sample source for joystick, collision, and 16-bit support | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\RDXD3D | Sample source for Intel RDX and Direct3D* 16 bpp example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\RDXPERF | Sample source for comparing system performance | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\SPRSAMP | Sample source for Intel RDX features example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\TVIDEO | Sample source for transparent video example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\VIDFLIP | Sample source for video effects example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\WALK | Sample source for video branch table example | ||
| RDX\SAMPLES\RDX\WAVDEMO | Sample source for digital audio example | ||
| RDX\SYSTEM\DEBUG | Debug version of the Intel RDX DLLs | ||
| RDX\SYSTEM\RELEASE | Release version of the Intel RDX DLLs | ||
| RDX\TOOLS\RDX | DirectDraw and Sprite Compression utilitie |
Fixes
Intel RDX 3.02 includes these improvements to existing functionality:
1. Fixed a problem with HAV objects that caused some systems to hang due to a deadlock involving DirectDraw and DirectSound if the audio card being used had a driver that grabs the Win16Mutex. This problem occurred when the following audio cards were used: Creative Labs Sound Blaster* AWE32* PnP, Diamond Multimedia Systems Monster Sound*, and IBM Mwave*.
2. Fixed a clipping problem that caused HAV objects with the FX_SCALE2X effect applied not to be drawn if they were positioned with the x-coordinate in the range (-width * 2, -width] or the y-coordinate in the range (-height * 2, -height], where width is the source video frame width and height is the source video frame height.
ClipEd Removed
The ClipEd tool was removed from the Intel RDX Developer's Kit. It was a beta release and we have no further plans to support it. To enable users to create their own tools to add rectangle streams to AVI files, we are now supplying a basic specification of the rectangle stream layout via two header files that were used by ClipEd and the Intel RDX HAV implementation. The two header files are called RECTPUB.H and ICMEXT.H and are located in the RDX\INCLUDE directory.
Windows NT 4.0 Support
You now can use Intel RDX technology with Windows NT 4.0. Most of the core APIs, tools, and samples can be used in this environment with the following exceptions:
| Audio | An application that initializes the Intel RDX audio subsystem must call avDestroySys with AV_DESTROY_AUDIO before exiting. If it is not called successfully, the application may get an access violation or not terminate properly when shutting down. | ||
| Display | Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3* provides better support for DirectDraw 3.0 which resolves several display problems. | ||
| Joystick | The Intel RDX device joystick functions devStartJoystick and devReadJoystick are not supported. | ||
| Palette | The Intel RDX device palette functions devGetPalette and devSetPalette are not supported. | ||
| ModeX | The Intel RDX ModeX surface effect FX_MODEX_DISPLAY is not supported. | ||
| Full Screen | DirectDraw does not currently restore the proper display mode after full screen mode is used. This behavior occurs when the user presses ALT-TAB to leave and then returns to the full screen application or when the user exits the application. Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 contains a fix for this problem. | ||
| RDX D3D Sample | This sample runs only on Windows NT 4.0 if Service Pack 3 or greater is installed. It did not run with previous releases of Windows NT because Direct3D was not available. | ||
| ClipEd | Intel RDX does not install or support ClipEd for Windows NT 4.0 because ClipEd does not operate properly under this system. Currently, there are no plans to add Windows NT 4.0 support for this tool. |
Runtime Installation Tools
The runtime installation tools have been updated to install on Windows NT 4.0 systems and to better handle difficult installation scenarios. The "Runtime Installation Tools" section of the Intel RDX Developer's Kit Technical Notes was updated to reflect these changes.
Fixes
These improvements to existing functionality were made:
1. Resolved a threading problem that occurred in RDX AM running on Windows NT 4.0.
2. Fixed a color flush problem in 16-bit operation mode that appeared when the left margin of an RDX AM object was clipped.
3. Fixed some issues with using hardware-accelerated sprites and backgrounds. In some cases, video RAM for the image was not initialized properly.
4. Resolved display problems with restoring video modes.
Note: For a description of the relevant functions supporting the new features, see the Intel RDX 3.0 API Programmer's Reference and the Intel RDX 3.0 API Programmer's Guide.
High-Level Language Access
The Intel RDX Developer's Kit Release 3.0 supports new ways to access the core Intel RDX functionality. Depending on how you choose to program or script your multimedia application and the level of control you want to have, you can now access Intel RDX technology from base-level APIs, COM-compliant APIs, scripting APIs, or the Microsoft virtual machine for Java*. This means that you can program your application in C, Visual C++, Visual Basic*, Java*, or script languages such as VBScript*, JavaScript*, or others and access Intel RDX technology through one of the new interfaces.
Developers who are creating multimedia applications in C or C++ can use either the core Intel RDX APIs or the higher-level RDX COM Interfaces. If you plan to use the Intel RDX COM API's, install the Intel RDX COM Developer's Kit. Also, you can find these interfaces and related documentation on the Intel Web site (www.intel.com/ial/webmedia ) or the Microsoft Gallery for Java* Web site (www.microsoft.com/java).
2D Object Hardware Acceleration
This release now provides support for hardware acceleration of the most common Intel RDX 2D objects. The Intel RDX API has these new functions: bkgSetFlags, bkgClearFlags, bkgGetFlags, sprSetFlags, sprClearFlags, and sprGetFlags. These
functions allow you to control which backgrounds and sprites will use hardware acceleration.
16-Bit Color Mapping
A new 16-bit color mapping effect, FX_MAP_RGB16BIT, lets you map 16-bit surfaces to any display mode. It enables surfaces created with RGB_555 or RGB_565 color types to display to 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit display modes.
Compressed Images
When Intel RDX processes a sprite, it compresses the image data for faster draw time. Now, you can capture this compressed image, store it in a buffer, and copy it to a bitmap object when needed. If you plan to reuse an image, this saves Intel RDX from compressing the image every time you load it. The new Intel RDX API bitmap function, hbmpGetCompressedImage, retrieves the compressed image and its length. Another new function, hbmpSetCompressedImage copies compressed image data from a buffer to a bitmap object.
We provide a new tool, the Intel Sprite Compression Utility, called SPRCMPR.EXE that allows you to create compressed sprite files for use with Intel RDX. It is a console command-line utility that encodes and compresses Windows bitmap files off-line, provides a choice of optimization algorithms, and handles common palette problems associated with images. The Intel Sprite Compression Utility User's Guide describes this tool.
We expanded the capability of hbmpLoad to support loading compressed images produced by the new Intel Sprite Compression Utility.
Sample Programs
This release includes a new sample program (CMPRSAMP). It demonstrates using the new get and set compressed image functions (hbmpGetCompressedImage and hbmpSetCompressedImage).
Runtime Installation Tools
The runtime installation tools have been updated to also install the higher-level Intel RDX COM components and scripting interfaces. The behavior of the RDXINST.DLL function InstallRDX was changed to support installing these new items, so be sure to review the updated Runtime Installation Tools section of the Intel RDX Developers Kit Version 3.0 Technical Notes.
Fixes
These improvements to existing functionality were made:
1. Video synchronization has been improved to perform better on systems with slow CD-ROMS. Previously, under these circumstances the system would appear to hang for a long duration of time.
2. The vidGetPalette and vidSetPalette functions now work properly with the Cinepak* codec.
3. When calling the avDelete function with an AV object that currently has loops, an unhandled exception no longer occurs.
4. The hBmpGetBits function now properly copies all of the image for 16-bit-per-pixel bitmap objects (HBMPs).
5. The bkgGetData, sprGetData, and tleGetData functions, when used with sequences, now hand back the correct sequence handle.
6. The IMA-ADPCM Audio Compression Manager driver, IMAADP32.ACM, was updated to allow the driver to run on a system with a brand new install of Windows* 95 that had not previously been used to play back any IMA-ADPCM wave files. Prior to this release, the driver would crash in this scenario.
Note: For a description of the relevant functions supporting the new features, see the Intel RDX 3.0 API Programmer's Reference and the Intel RDX 3.0 API Programmer's Guide.
General
1. Currently, an Intel RDX application must make all API function calls from a single thread. If using the AV API, the thread must also run at normal priority (THREAD_PRIORITY_NORMAL). See the appropriate Microsoft Windows documentation for more information.
2. When using NuMega BoundsChecker* with Intel RDX, it frequently reports "freed handle is still locked" warnings inside the Intel RDX DLLs. These warnings may be ignored since they do not reflect anything wrong with the Intel RDX DLLs. In Win32 applications it is legal to free handles without first unlocking them.
Mixer and 2D Graphics Functions
1. After a system crash, the window watch mechanism that provides correct clipping information for screen repaints might fail to work. At this point, the display might no longer track the window frame.
2. The shearing effect for grids does not support drawing partial tiles in scan lines. As a workaround, use surfaces that are 8 pixels wider than the desired width. Refer to the iexplode sample for an example.
3. All bitmaps must have a width that is a multiple of four pixels.
4. The only bitmap transparency style supported is color key.
5. The function devQueryMode relies on DirectDraw to provide valid video mode information. However, DirectDraw drivers for some video cards under DirectDraw 1.0 do not accurately report 16-bit color modes. If a query reports an RGB_555 mode, it may actually support the RGB_565 mode instead. To work around this problem, first try to create a surface with RGB_555 and set its destination to a window. If this fails, delete the surface and try again with RGB_565.
Example:
colortype = RGB_555;
srfCreate(WIDTH, HEIGHT, colortype, &hSurf);
if (srfSetDestWindow(hSurf, hWnd) != ERR_OK)
{
srfDelete(hSurf); |
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| colortype = RGB_565; |
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| srfCreate(WIDTH, HEIGHT, colortype, &hSurf); |
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| if (srfSetDestWindow(hSurf, hWnd) != ERR_OK) |
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| { | |
. . . |
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} |
}
6. When mapping 16 bit-per-pixel surfaces to 24 bit-per-pixel displays, the resulting image quality may be poor.
Video
1. Intel RDX does not provide support for the PL_DECOMPRESS flag used by both avPreload and hfilPreload. If you try to use it in this release, Intel RDX returns an ERR_UNSUPPORTED error code.
2. The FX_SCALE2X effect does not function properly on transparent Indeo® video interactive 4.1 video tracks in the non-exclusive playback mode. To work around this problem, play back the video in exclusive mode by specifying the AV_PLAY_EXCLUSIVE flag when you call avPlay.
3. If you apply or remove the FX_SCALE2X effect to a video track while it is playing, the current video frame may be drawn incorrectly. This can occur if you are drawing the surface the AV object is attached to more frequently then the frame rate (that is, drawing not just when the current image changes). To work around this problem, we recommend that you stop the video and then change the state of the FX_SCALE2X effect. Afterwards, restart playback by calling avPlay.
4. If the current video frame is closely monitored during playback, it will occasionally jump backwards or forwards. This occurs whenever the AV system is doing internal synchronization.
5. Synchronization of AVI files that contain all key frames, playing from slow CD-ROM drives, sometimes cause calls to srfDraw to stall for about a half second.
6. The frequency of the HTIMER associated with an HAV object must be greater than or equal to the HAV object's video track frame rate. If it is less than any video track's frame rate, the error value ERR_INVALID_PERIOD will be returned when avPlay is called.
7. A memory corruption problem in the Indeo video interactive 4.1 codec involving transparent AVI files has been identified. If your application crashes inside a call to avDelete or avRemoveVideoTrack and uses transparent AVI files encoded with this codec, then this is most likely the problem. If you are using NuMega BoundsChecker, this problem will be occasionally reported as a "dynamic memory overrun" in IR41_32.AX or IR41_32.DLL. The Indeo team has a new codec with version 4.32 that fixes this problem. Final testing of the fix was not completed in time to make it available with this release. We expect to make it available on Intel's Web site during 4th quarter of this year.
8. On rare occasions, when playing back AVI files using the debug Intel RDX DLLs, the output debug message "RDX AV: Internal flush warning" is displayed in the debugger. It is a warning that an internal flush was requested that was not necessary. We have not encountered any negative side effects as a result of this occurring.
Audio
1. When the system is heavily burdened, it is possible for audio to fall far enough behind that a repeating audio snippet is heard for a short duration of time.
2. Audio tracks were not designed to perform seamless repeats.
3. When 16-bit CD-ROM drivers are being used, hfilLoad may fail when used to load a WAV file from the CD-ROM drive. If this occurs on your system, try to obtain and install the latest 32-bit drivers.
RDX AM
1. There is a limitation on rendering video streams from a 16-bit RDX AM object to an 8-bit display. The color in the video stream may be rendered with poor quality due to the way Windows handles device-independent bitmaps.
2. Under certain conditions, a call to fgGetPosition may return successfully, but the retrieved value is zero.
Collision Detection
Collision detection supports only objects that are on the same surface and only collision rectangles.
Timers and Events
Be careful not to define an event that changes objects because it may get called while the main thread is rendering those objects to a surface. The reverse is also true. If an event is defined to do the drawing to a surface, it might get called while the application is modifying the objects that are supposed to be drawn. To prevent this, you can use a callback on the timer so that the application can implement mutual exclusion.
Joystick Support
1. The API instructions devStartJoystick and devReadJoystick return the error ERR_PENTIUM_REQUIRED when it is not used on a Pentium processor.
2. If you use the joystick instructions, the processor you use must also support the RDTSC Pentium class instruction. Some Cyrix processors do not support this instruction.
These document files are in Adobe Acrobat Reader (.PDF) format. You can get a copy of the Acrobat Reader from http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/.
In addition, this release includes these documents:
These files are in Microsoft Word format. You can use WordPad, which is usually installed as an accessory with the Windows operating system, to view these files.
All documents in this release of Intel RDX were composed using Microsoft Word for Windows version 7.0 and were formatted using the Hewlett Packard LaserJet* 4Si/4SiMX PS printer driver for printing on 8.5" x 11" paper.
* Other product and corporate names may be trademarks of other companies and are used only for explanation and to the owners' benefit, without intent to infringe.
* Legal Information © 1998 Intel Corporation