Matrox Millenium - Microsoft DirectX; DirectX Installation Required!; Direct3 D Limitations

10 Matrox Millennium Installation Guide
On-line documentation

You can access
MGA PowerDesk for Windows 95
on-line documentation through the
MGA
PowerDesk
folder.

A
readme
file is also in the MGA PowerDesk folder.

For context sensitive help where available, press [F1] or click the “
?
” icon in the title bar
and then the item you want help on.
Microsoft
®
DirectX™
MGA PowerDesk for Windows 95 supports
DirectDraw
,
DirectVideo
and
Direct3D
. These
interfaces (and others such as
DirectSound
and
DirectInput
) are collectively referred to as
DirectX
.
DirectX was developed by Microsoft so that programs could support advanced hardware features
without being written specifically for each hardware model. Programs that use DirectX use the
Microsoft DirectX interface, which in turn uses the MGA DirectDraw driver, which supports
DirectVideo and Direct3D. The DirectX interface is in the form of Dynamic Link Library (DLL) files.
DirectX installation required!
The Microsoft DirectX interface must be installed to ensure that programs that use DirectX function
correctly and so these programs can benefit from Matrox hardware acceleration. Many programs
install DirectX as part of their installation procedure. Check the
Display Properties
dialog box
Æ
MGA Settings
tab
Æ
Advanced
button
Æ
Information
tab
Æ
Microsoft DirectX Version
label to see if
Microsoft DirectX is present, and if it is, to see the version number. To install Microsoft DirectX:
1
Insert the Matrox CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive.
(Windows 95’s autorun feature will start the
mgasetup
program.)
2
Click on
Microsoft DirectX
list item
Æ
Install
button
Æ
Next
button to begin installation.
3
Click on
Reboot
to restart your computer and for the changes to take effect.

Depending on the version of Microsoft DirectX on your CD-ROM, you may have to install
Microsoft DirectVideo
separately. If it appears in the
mgasetup
list, install it as well.
Direct3D limitations
The Matrox Millennium is a high performance graphics card that provides acceleration for 3D
rendering in hardware. The Millennium accelerates 3D operations such as flat and Gouraud shading,
Z-buffering, and color dithering in hardware. However, the Millennium does not provide full support
for 3D texture mapping in hardware. As a result, programs that require the use of texture mapping
and other more complex 3D functions will use the Millennium’s fast 2D acceleration, and your
computer’s CPU will perform rendering.
Programs that require only those 3D features supported by Millennium – including many CAD
and multimedia programs – will be fully 3D accelerated in hardware by the Millennium.