(Formerly) The Dragon Reborn

fVDI, the Fenix/Free/Fast VDI

Version 0.95 (main engine) released a long time ago! [2000-02-20]

About a year ago (it's now the end of November 2006), fVDI became the first VDI ever to support anti-aliased text display! This is a minor extension of the FreeType2 (v2.2.1) vector font support that went in last year, but it looks absolutely amazing! Unfortunately, only the ARAnyM driver (and not yet with the OpenGL native side code) supports this at the moment, and most Atari hardware will never be capable of dealing with this at decent speed.
Other not so recent updates include a generic bitplane driver and a partial implementation of the new raster functions added in NVDIv5.
Take a look at the ChangeLog (2006) to see what's been happening lately.

The sources for fVDI have been available in a public read access CVS SVN for quite some time now, but it has been pointed out to me that there has been no information on this page about how to access it. So, here we go:

Web interface via viewvc (2011)

cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.klockars.net:/home/cvs login
(no password)
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.klockars.net:/home/cvs co fvdi

Web Interface via SVN@SourceForge (2013)
(or Sourceforge Commit Browser)(JavaScript)(2016)

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/fvdi/code/trunk fvdi-code
 or
svn checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/fvdi/code/trunk fvdi-code

The latest versions (2006) of the fVDI engine ('040 binary), Eclipse/RageII driver, ARAnyM driver, bitplane driver and fVDI configuration file can be found via these links.
The build information contains data about the version of fVDI contained here.

Miscellaneous stuff can be found in the (partial) fVDI ftp archive (2011).

I'd been planning for a long time to write my own VDI. Mainly because I wanted to experiment with some ideas I had for speedups on my AB040, but also simply because there wasn't a free one available.
When the Fenix project (2003) got to the point where substitutes for the various parts of TOS/GEM needed to be implemented, I decided that the time had come to actually do something.

ChangeLog (2006) 

2006-12-04 - johan
Changed to the latest stable release of FreeType (2.2.1).

2006-11-29 - standa
Hopefully NVDI compatible spdchar.map handling now in place. Default
NVDI mapping added. Can use our 'Czech KEYBCS' spdchar.map table
with no problem. IMHO 98% of character mappings should be correct.
Adding the #include  to the
ft2_ftsystem.c to get FreeType2 2.2.1 build working.

2006-11-27 - johan
Cache flush enabled after driver load.
Turned on supervisor memory access flag in engine binary.
fVDI engine version bumped to 0.968beta.

2006-11-25/26 - standa
Using the newly created lib_vrt_cpyfm_nocheck to mono/8bit expand text
(fixes vst_fg_color() using Papyrus X demo text color rendering).

2006-11-15 - standa
Underline effect doesn't need to keep a font glyph cached (done in the
text rendering function directly.
Fontextra.ref_count introduced to fix fundamental Fontheader memory 
management bug that must have been causing crashes and rendering
errors because of use of unallocated memory.

2006-11-13 - standa
Some vertical font alignment tuning. Still not completely right IMHO.

2006-11-12 - standa
Implementing algorithmic FreeType font vst_effects() algorithms.
Left the 'outline' for later.

2006-07-14 - standa
FreeType antialiased rendering uses the glyph->minx too now. No weird
kerning anymore.
Glyph debugging added for debug > 3.

2006-06-05 - johan
Reversed bit order for 32 bit vr_trnfm.
Fix for debug output of return values.
Correction of colour selection for mono-expand blit in ARAnyM driver.

2006-06-02 - johan
Correction for vq_devinfo debug output.

2006-05-26 - johan
vqt_ctab now uses correct palette address and returns real colour values.
Made vrt_cpyfm disregard clip rectangle for non-screen destinations.

2006-05-19 - johan
Fixed bug in creation of extra handle table.

2006-04-26 - johan
Bug fix for bitplane driver mouse cursor removal.

2006-04-25 - johan
Made vrt_cpyfm disregard clip rectangle for non-screen destinations.
Fixed a bug that made vq_ctab sometimes use an incorrect palette address.
Made vq_ctab return the real colour values.

2006-04-19 - johan
Fixed a bug in the creation of extra handle tables.

2006-03-07 - johan
Various optimizations in the bitplane driver mouse drawing code.

2006-03-05 - johan
Made vst_arbpt() do something useful for non-vector fonts.
Made vst_font() call vst_point() for size setting.

2006-03-01 - johan
Fixed alignment for vst_charmap.
Some further optimizations for FreeType2 rendering from cached bitmaps.

2006-03-01 - standa
Made it possible to have file debug output go to a non-seekable device.

2006-02-28 - standa
vst_charmap() and vst_map_mode() implemented. Highwire maps characters
directly to UNICODE when NVDI >4.0 is available. Highwire displays
everything nicely again.
Initial spdchar.map load implemented. Will test and enable later on.
Warning! The Virtual vwk structure has changed! Recompile all the drivers!

2006-02-27 - standa
Virtual* propagated into all FT2 functions as they need DPI information
eventually.
Font ID is now an adjusted family_name+style_name hashcode (stays the
same if you add a font to your setup - if doesn't conflict with any
previously added font).

2006-02-26 - standa
Hardcoded 95DPI for the FT2 vst_font() height until we adjust the code
to propagate the vwk and get wvk->screen.pixel.height * 25400.
Pixmap glyph storage added to get bitmap from getbitmap_info even when
antialias is on.
Little un-#if0ying in ft2.c.

2006-02-24 - johan
Proper prototypes for stack change calls.
Fix for too long names in vqt_xfntnames().

2006-02-23 - standa
Fixed an obvious bug which might have caused a buffer overflow for
'non-antialias' mode and bitmap FT2 fonts.
A memory optimization in PIXMAP glyph pitch size.

2006-02-23 - johan
Replaced a bunch of strcpy() with strncpy().

2006-02-22 - johan
Significant optimizations for FreeType2 rendering from cached bitmaps.
Fixed rendering bug for overlapping characters.
File cache system consistency check added.
Bug fix for problem with zero size FreeType2 font request.

2006-02-21 - standa
FT2 antialiasing with a small help of the aranym driver which is now
able to expandArea() with 8bit chunky data (mfdb_standard = 0x0100).
Small adjustments in fixed witdth fonts detection and short font
name in the vqt_fontheader().

2006-02-21 - johan
FT2 alternative for vqt_fontheader -> PapyrusX knows about font names.
A couple of bug fixes.

2006-02-20 - standa
FT2 alternatives for vqt_xfntinfo(), vqt_getbitmap_info() and
vqt_advance() -> PapyrusX displays the text quite reasonably now.

2006-02-20 - johan
Nearly complete implementation of vqt_xfntinfo.
Preliminary implementation of vqt_fontheader.

2006-02-18 - johan
Added whole file caching system for FreeType2 engine.
Made it possible to redirect debug output to a file.

2006-02-10 - johan
Added a couple of debug options for the bitplane mouse.
Made memory settings more configurable for the RageII driver.

2006-01-20 - johan
Changed some 'int' parameter and return types to 'long' among the libc
replacement functions, to enable calls from modules with any size 'int'.
Added memchr() and memrchr().
Extended sprintf() to cover just about everything.

2006-01-19 - johan
The bitplane driver finally has a fast mouse drawing routine.

2005-12-20 - johan
Minor fix for the Bconout redirection.

2005-12-16 - standa
Made ARAnyM debug output not go through the cookie (CVS MiNT
kernel says PRIVILEGE VIOLATION if the cookie structure address
space is accessed (utility.c).
Bconout option implementation: redirects Bconout(con) output
to puts(), from the moment the physical screen workstation is opened,
and returns it afterwards (now the CVS XaAES boots again with lineafix).

2005-12-15 - johan
Some improvements to the memory allocation debug facilities.

2005-12-13 - johan
Made it possible to preallocate memory.
Added extensive memory allocation debug facilities.

2005-12-13 - standa
Fixed a forgotten 0x4000 flag use for vector fonts also textlib.c.

2005-12-12 - johan
Corrected a bug concerning allocation of the negative palette indices.

2005-12-09 - johan
Corrected a bug that recently crept in regarding names for fonts
handled by the FreeType2 engine.

2005-12-07 - johan
Fixed the colour selection in the bitplane driver.
Corrected OR mode fill for the bitplane driver.
The mouse cursor for the bitplane driver is now clipped against the
screen and has correct colours and hotspot.
Removed redirection for keyboard handling.

2005-12-06 - johan
Corrected the pixel size setting for the monochrome and bitplane drivers.

2005-12-05 - johan
Made some changes to enable gcc build for 68000.

2005-12-04 - johan
Added line drawing support to the bitplane driver.

2005-12-02 - johan
A few more bug fixes for the bitplane driver.

2005-12-01 - johan
Fixed a serious bug concerning colour handling in the bitplane driver.

2005-11-30 - johan
Various improvements for the bitplane driver.
Added fill routine from the EmuTOS VDI to the bitplane driver.
Added mouse drawing support to the bitplane driver.

2005-11-29 - johan
Restored the Calamus clip rectangle handling. It is necessary since the
code is actually "borrowing" the original workstation opened by the AES.

2005-11-28 - johan
Added a bitplane driver written in C, based on a significantly modified
version of the EmuTOS VDI blit routines. Definitely needs more work,
but it can at least display a desktop (sort of ;-)

2005-11-23 - standa
Basic ft2 bitmap font support (tested with MS Win .fon fonts).
Performed tests of type-1 as well as TrueType fonts.

A few implementaiton notes:
* font->underline == 0 is used to determine whether metrics for the
  particular font->size were loaded
* font->flags & 0x8000 is FreeType2 handled font flag
* font->flags & 0x4000 is scalable font flag

2005-11-22 - standa
Calamus does all the clipping for the external driver on its own.
Removing wrong wdwidth formulas from the aranym and Calamus drivers.

2005-11-22 - johan
Fixed previously unknown bug in the dispatcher that crashed Calamus.
fVDI engine version bumped to 0.965beta.

2005-11-21 - johan
Modified version of Standa's Calamus support added.
Implemented vsm_string.

2005-11-17 - johan
Made it possible to force call to the fVDI mouse movement vector.
Fix for vbl handler install/remove.

2005-11-15 - johan
Fixed bug that made it impossible to do operations on non-fVDI handles
if running in standalone mode.
Partially implemented vq_devinfo.
Debug messages added for non-fVDI workstation open.
Made it possible to force VDI fallback (old VDI workstation open).

2005-11-09 - johan
The Atari character set is now mapped to Unicode for TrueType fonts.
Significant optimizations for TrueType rendering from cached bitmaps.
Check for other GDOS is now always done at startup.
Disabled vector font size debug code.

2005-09-24 - johan
The 16 bit driver can now be built using gcc.

2005-09-20 - johan
The ARAnyM driver now queries the host about the type of mouse cursor
handling to use, and informs the engine if the host takes care of moves.

2005-08-14 - johan
Some debug code addded to text functions to try to figure out what was
going wrong with the old vector font size limitation.
	
2005-08-12 - johan
Made it possible for C functions to call with separate stack.
Converted a bunch of text functions to C.

2005-08-10 - johan
All vq_extnd variants converted to C.

2005-08-09 - johan
All palette handling converted to C.

2005-08-04 - johan
Partial implementation of v_getbitmap_info.
Implemented vs_ctab and vdi<->index conversions.
Added text acceleration support to ARAnyM driver.

2005-08-02 - johan
Fixed problem with large number of open virtual workstations.
Fake implementations of a number of vector font functions.
Some bug fixes and minor improvements.
	
2005-07-26 - johan
New memory allocation algorithm that requests largish blocks from the OS
at once, splits them into pieces to satisfy requests, and keeps released
blocks around for reuse.
FreeType support upgraded for version 2.1.10.
Change to allow FreeType font files to be kept open for longer intervals
under some circumstances.
Partial vr_transfer_bits implementation.
Fake implementations of the colour table related functions.

2005-07-18 - johan
Initial support for vr_transfer_bits.
Debug printouts for non-implemented VDI functions.
Signed/unsigned support for structer.
fVDI engine version bumped to 0.965beta.
	
2005-07-09 - johan
Fixed bug that caused polygon fill to overwrite low memory.
Fixed bug concerning filled rounded boxes.

2005-07-06 - johan
Added default size selection for vector fonts.
Fixed bug that caused for example QED to fail to draw vector fonts.
Fixes for Lattice C support.
Began conversion to new driver interface.

2005-07-01 - johan
Bug fixed and improved label handling for FVDI.SYS.
Miscellaneous small fixes to make the RageII driver build with gcc.

2005-06-29 - johan
Changed vq_gdos response if requested.
Made '=' a token separator for better FVDI.SYS handling.
Implemented vst_arbpt (only allowed for vector fonts).
Faked vst_height by making it equivalent to vst_point.
vqt_name updated to report vector font information (assumes TrueType).
Improved debug output.

2005-06-11 - patrice
Removed the function from last entry.

2005-06-08 - patrice
Function to get real frame buffer bit organization in ARAnyM driver.
	
2005-06-07 - johan
Support for forced mouse positioning.
New option to suppress debug information for specific VDI functions.
	
2005-06-01 - johan
Module initialization fails if module uses unsupported interface version.
Various minor bug fixes for mouse/vblank support.

2005-05-30 - johan
Improved dependency handling.
Added interrupt handler for Natfeat events in the ARAnyM driver (irq option).
An fVDI driver is now a module.
Added an event() function for mouse/vblank support.
Vertical blank handler when standalone (unless a vblank event occurs).
vq_mouse, vq_key_s and vex_* support (requires event() to be used).

2005-05-25 - johan
ARAnyM driver now always passes OK clip data to native side.
The driver initialize() function is allowed to return with failure (0),
but nothing is done yet about that (fVDI crash likely on v_opnwk).
Some very minor changes for conv2gas and structer.
Proper dependency handling in the engine Makefile.
Loading of modules (such as for mouse handling) supported.
Fake NVDI and Speedo cookies if requested.
Added information about FreeType support and integer size in fVDI
version message at startup.
A bunch of .cvsignore files added.
	
2005-05-22 - johan
Forced the ARAnyM fVDI driver to set itself up according to getBpp().

2005-05-11 - johan
Bug fixes for the internal FreeType support code.
FreeType support now works without external libraries!

2005-05-11 - patrice
Added getBpp() function to the ARAnyM fVDI driver.
Needed when using fVDI driver with OpenGL rendering.

2005-05-09 - johan
Miscellaneous additions to make it possible to build fVDI with
FreeType support without depending on external library code.
(Still untested functionality, but it builds OK.)
Minor change to vqt_name for vector font support.
FreeType stuff checked into CVS.

2005-05-07 - standa
Fatal Return stack issue fixed. Now the FreeType2 again works with
the changed asm parts.
Fix in lib_vqt_extent() where the justifications didn't necessarilly
work due to register number confusion.

2005-05-06 - johan/standa
Updates to support Standa's new FreeType2 machinery.

2005-04-28 - johan
Fixed problem that caused 32 bit (without -mshort) gcc build to hang.
Made the engine understand that v_clswk on pass-through handles are of
no concern to fVDI drivers.
	
2005-04-25 - johan
Support for redirection of vex_wheelv to an underlying VDI.
	
2005-04-24 - standa
Buildsystem switch to GNU make

2005-04-23 - johan
ARAnyM driver synchronized with the ARAnyM CVS repository (relevant
changes have been added to this file).
ARAnyM driver now builds using gcc!
Fix for a bug concerning negative mouse x-coordinates in the ARAnyM driver.
Updated ARAnyM debug printf usage.
Bug fixes and conversions to C for arcs and rounded boxes.
fVDI engine version bumped to 0.964beta.

2005-03-20 - standa
For the ARAnyM driver:
 Ensure the wk->screen.pixel.* values are setup from the actual fvdi.sys
 values in any setup_wk() call.
 The problem was that the setup_wk() used to selfmodify the value based
 on the ones got from common driver init() method. The method setup_wk()
 is called twice however before the open_wk().

2005-01-24 - standa
For the ARAnyM driver:
 openwk() and closewk() added to the NF api -> boot bug fixed.
 Large cleanup in the m68k part.

2005-01-20 - standa
For the ARAnyM driver:
 Some warning cleanup.
 Uneffective assumenf and noshadow features removed.
 Bitplane modes are now marked as bitplane.
 Fixing some issue with palette setting. The palette is system wide (not
 per virtual workstation).

2004-11-01 - pmandin
For the ARAnyM driver:
 Moved some code around, for the host resolution to be read.

2004-10-24 - johan
A couple of 16 vs 32 bit fixes. GNU build now works almost 100%!
Added support for workstation close.
	
2004-10-17 - johan
Finally, support for the GNU suite!

2004-09-24 - pmandin
For the ARAnyM driver:
 Added functions to read screen size really set by the host.

2004-09-09 - johan
Conversion of various functionality to C.
New header files for functions and global variables.
Fix for programs that use upside-down clip rectangles.
Escape functions debugged.

2004-01-05 - standa
For the ARAnyM driver:
 Palette handling reworked. Old non-NF dispatch removed.

2003-02-05 - johan
Support for rounded boxes. Polymarker code added.
Bezier call code converted to C.
Miscellaneous improvements, cleanups and bug fixes.

2003-01-21 - standa 
ARAnyM driver NatFeat calls dispatch casts added in c_mouse_draw
call.

2002-10-21 - johan
ARAnyM driver NatFeat support.
Miscellaneous minor improvements and cleanups for ARAnyM driver.

2002-08-03 - johan
Fixes to make the ARAnyM driver work with the new native API.
A couple of minor bug fixes.

2002-07-10 - johan
Version bumped to 0.96 due to incompatibility with old drivers.
Driver API updated to make it mostly independent of the fVDI structures.
Some driver API conversion layer changes for generalization.
Fix for the PureC local label problem.
A couple of minor bug fixes.

2002-07-03 - johan
Various fixes to make the engine and drivers build properly
with both Lattice C and PureC.
ARAnyM driver synchronized with the one from the ARAnyM CVS.

2002-07-01 - johan
Added support for the VDI screen ESC functions.
Workaround for a local label problem with the PureC assembler.
This file added to the repository.

2002-06-27 - johan
Update to reenable PureC compilation.
Removed engine dependency on compiler.inc.

2002-06-08 - johan
Somewhat improved debug functionality.
	
2002-06-07 - johan
Fixed a bug in v_justified.
Got file headers from January into the repository.

2002-05-16 - johan
Updated ACC to support gcc and new GEM libraries.

2002-05-15 - johan
Minor updates to draw.s, blit.s, types.inc and vdi.inc.

2002-05-14 - johan
Updated profiler to support gcc.

2002-05-13 - johan
Added union support and GPL file headers to structer.

2002-05-11 - johan
Updated readme.now and fvdi.sys.

2002-01-20 - johan
RageII and mach64 file headers added.

2001-12-15 - johan
Various file headers added and modified.

2001-11-29 - johan
ARAnyM driver implementation of polygon fill and some fixes.

2001-11-18 - johan
ARAnyM driver added.

2001-11-01 - johan
Some compilation setup corrections.

2001-10-29 - johan
Support for standalone (no other VDI used) operation added.

2001-10-27 - johan
CVS repository created.

Update [2000-03-19]

The following is a list of the major new things in fVDI v0.95 compared to v0.85.

So, what can fVDI do?

Implementing a complete VDI is of course a rather large project but there's actually not very much left to do now on the normal VDI screen support (with some of the most useful GDOS/NVDI extensions). The list of things that don't work will be updated when I hear about more problems (or when some of them are fixed).
Making a list of what works doesn't seem useful right now, since most things actually seem to do so!

Programs (I know of) that exhibit problems

Name

Symptom

Cause

Cure

Date

Thing

Some versions seem to get confused and use the wrong icons or colours for them.

TOS 4.04 probably lacks something that WDIALOG supplies.

Seems fine with a patched WDIALOG (reported that TOS 4.04 didn't support colour icons, for some reason).

000319

ImageCopy

Quits on startup

Uses lineA variables in strange ways

Easy to patch

990831

What about speed?

The monochrome device driver is now close to NVDI's speed for most things and even faster for some (especially if you have an '040).
The 4 bit (16 colour) driver is also fast, but only draws text, mono-expand blits and patterned fills in black and white right now.

I'll put some GEMBench, VDIBench (a program by Magnus Kollberg and myself) and Kronos numbers here later.

Take a look at the technical page for detailed information on what fVDI does and how (design page).

Portability

fVDI has been designed for ease of portability from the start. The amount of code needed to make it run on new hardware is as small as it could possibly be. The functions needed are only (for the current version):

Also, some simple setup code is necessary to tell the fVDI engine about the graphics mode that's going to be used. Later on there will be a need for hardware setup and a few other things as well (at the moment fVDI simply doesn't support that at all).

The fVDI v0.85 archive contains the complete source code for the 15/16 bit device driver. To make things easier to understand, I've written a complete implementation of area fill in C, which can be used as a starting point for further development.

A neat idea (IMHO)

One very interesting project would be to write partly native versions of fVDI for some of the Atari emulators. Letting fVDI take care of the details but implementing the accelerated functions in native code should, without much work, give some very nice graphics mode support in for example STonX, PaCifiST, TOSBox or GEMulator (STEmulator already has something similar built in). Writing blitting routines and such for standard PC graphics modes is simple enough, and it should even be possible to use Windows GDI and/or DirectDraw calls.

ARAnyM now does exactly this, using the SDL library!

If you try fVDI out (2006), please contact me.
Note that even if the latest release archive is quite new, you might want to check if there's a newer beta available.
Comments, suggestions, bug reports, help offers etc are all very welcome.