Re: Second Sight Card

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article ab3189@wayne.edu (Charles A. Plater) writes...

>I'm looking into getting a Second Sight card for my GS, so that I can
>(hopefully) use the Apple MultiScan 15 monitor that I have at home.
>I have a few questions:
>
>1) Will the card work with the Apple Multiscan 15?

    I would assume so, but you will require an SVGA->Mac video adapter.
The Second Sight works identically to an IBM compatible video card, so
it cannot connect directly to Macintosh video displays with DB15 cable
(I've never seen a Second Sight, but my guess is it uses a sub-miniture
15 pin female connector--like any standard SVGA card).

>2) How do the finder and other non-secondSight aware applications look when
>displayed via the Second Sight?  Are things stretched out so that they don't
>look right?

    Well it reads the SHR video data and then shadows it to the Oak
chip, redrawing the graphics from scratch on either a 640x400 or a
640x480 screen. For one things graphics will draw _slowly_ as the
card is not able to keep up (I recall people saying they could see
the screens being drawn in the Finder, even with an accelerator!).
The actual screen being shadowed is still only 640x200 pixels, so 
I'm not so sure the aspect ratio will be corrected. It will most
likely look squished or stretched and still _not_ do WYSIWYG.

    If your using an SVGA monitor, there will be no scanlines BUT
you will get chunky square pixels over the GS's small round ones.
Also, dithering will become noticable, no longer will colors in
the 640 mode appear solid (e.g. the Finder backround will appear
as vertical blue and white stripes, not periwinkle blue). Oh, and
if you try and run games or anything with lots of animation, many
frames will skip or things will be choppy.

>3) I remember hearing that the text displayed the the SecondSight card (ie.
>when in P8) is not the same as the regular Apple // text? Is this true?  What
>kind of font is used?

    Yep, it replaces the Apple 40/80 columns text font with the PC
ANSI font used by the Oak chip. This also means mousetext will be
replaced by the closest ANSI equivalents (and there are very few
that match). Generally this is _much_ more readable than the Apple
font--considering it's larger, better definded, bolder and lacks
scanlines running horizontally through it. On most monitors, it
should also refresh at 70 Hz if they're capable (meaning you get
less flicker and reduced eye strain).

    Overall it actually degrades the quality of your image: Big
chunky pixels, several poorly supported or _not unsupported_ at
all video modes, SLOW drawing to screen, kills dithering effect
in 640 mode, etc. In the end, your going to want to keep your
old AppleColor RGB connected along side an SVGA monitor for
full compatibility (which if funny, since that is a throw back
to the days when people used to keep a monochrome monitor for
text and a color composite monitor next to it for graphics and
games. People used to always ask why I had two monitors next
to my own Apple II Plus; yes, I was lucky enough to have color
back in the early 80's). :-)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca