HP Visualize-FX Device-Dependent Information

HP Visualize-FX devices have two visuals in the overlay planes, both depth-8 PseudoColor. The first (default) overlay visual has 256 entries per colormap and no transparency. The second overlay visual has 255 entries per colormap and supports transparency.

To allow applications to determine which visuals are in the overlay planes, both overlay visuals are listed in the "SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS" property attached to the root window. The default overlay visual has a transparent type of "0" (None) while the transparent overlay visual has a transparent type of "1" (TransparentPixel).

If you need an overlay colormap that supports transparency, create the colormap using the visual that has transparency in its SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS property. To look at the contents of this property, you would use code similar to the following:

{
typedef struct {
    VisualID    overlayVisualID;
    Card32      transparentType;/* None, TransparentPixel, TransparentMask */
    Card32      value;          /* Either pixel value or pixel mask */
    Card32      layer;
} OverlayVisualPropertyRec;
 
OverlayVisualPropertyRec  *pOverlayVisuals, *pOVis;
XVisualInfo               getVis;
XVisualInfo               *pVisuals;
Atom                      overlayVisualsAtom, actualType;
...
    /* Get the visuals for this screen and allocate. */
    getVis.screen = screen;
    pVisuals = XGetVisualInfo(display, VisualScreenMask, &getVis, &nVisuals);
    pOverlayVisuals = (OverlayVisualPropertyRec *)
            malloc ( (size_t)nVisuals * sizeof(OverlayVisualPropertyRec) );
 
    /* Get the overlay visual information for this screen.  Obtain
     * this information from the SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS property. */
    overlayVisualsAtom = XInternAtom(display, "SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS", True);
    if (overlayVisualsAtom != None)
        {
        /* Since the Atom exists, request the property's contents. */
        bytesAfter = 0;
        numLongs = ( nVisuals * sizeof(OverlayVisualPropertyRec) + 3 ) / 4;
        XGetWindowProperty(display, RootWindow(display, screen),
                               overlayVisualsAtom, 0, numLongs, False,
                               AnyPropertyType, &actualType, &actualFormat,
                               &numLongs, &bytesAfter, &pOverlayVisuals);
        if ( bytesAfter != 0 ) {/* Serious Failure Here */} ;
 
        /* Loop through the pOverlayVisuals array. */
        ...
        nOVisuals = numLongs/sizeof(OverlayVisualPropertyRec);
        pOVis = pOverlayVisuals;

        while (nOVisuals >= 0)
            {
            if ( pOVis->transparentType == TransparentPixel )
                {/* Found a transparent overlay visual, set ident. aside. */};
            pOVis++;
            }
        XFree(pOverlayVisuals);
        /* There might be some additional checking of the found
           transparent overlay visuals wanted; e.g., for depth. */
        }
    XFree(pVisuals);
}

This program segment is not complete; however, its main purpose is to give an idea of how to find an overlay visual having transparency.

The HP Visualize-FX products are the first set of HP graphics devices that supports the OpenGL extension to X (GLX). If HP OpenGL is installed on an HP Visualize-FX system, then the GLX extension offers new entry points for obtaining more information about X visuals. As part of offering extended visual information, some extra X visuals appear in the X visual list. The extra visuals are simply duplicates of visuals that would normally appear in the X visual list. In case that the extra visuals cause problems with applications, a screen option can be used to disable them.

To disable the GLX visuals, add the DisableGlxVisuals Screen Option to the X*screens file. For example:

Screen /dev/crt/
    ScreenOptions
    DisableGlxVisuals

HP Visualize-FX devices have a total of 8 hardware colormaps. Two of the colormaps are dedicated to the overlay planes, and the remaining six colormaps are dedicated to the image planes.

Of the 2 overlay colormaps, one is permanently reserved for the default colormap. The other overlay colormap is available to applications.

Of the 6 image colormaps, two are reserved for the 12-bit PseudoColor visual. The other 4 image colormaps are available for applications using other image plane visuals.

A configuration tool is available to change the monitor type on HP Visualize-FX devices. Monitor resolution, refresh rate and stereo mode settings may be configured using the setmon tool. To change the monitor type, the setmon command can be executed directly or done through the SAM system administration tool.

The setmon executable is located at /opt/graphics/common/bin/setmon. Under SAM this component is located under the top-level "Display" folder, next to the "X Server Configuration" icon.

	NOTE: Changing the monitor type while the X server is running will necessitate killing and restarting the X server.