DMDX Help.


Auto mode notes.

    As of 01/24/13 and version 4.1.2.2 of DMDX it is no longer absolutely necessary to use TimeDX to time video modes and otherwise inspect your machine's ability to run DMDX.  Instead DMDX's Auto mode can be used.  The DMDX installer no longer drops "pure" shortcuts to DMDX and TimeDX on the desktop but instead drops a shortcut that runs DMDX with the -auto parameter that instructs it not to throw an error if a setting that would normally be setup by TimeDX is found, but to instead either take the default action or in the case of a video mode request take a good guess at what the likely timing parameters will be.  In the past this wasn't possible, these days it appears that the reliability of Windows drivers is high enough that we can forgo the rigmarole of using TimeDX.  I still recommend using TimeDX to ascertain the machine's ability to run DMDX however having to time each and every video mode used was getting old when DMDX's guesses made based on what more modern operating systems tell it have been performing perfectly well.  And actually the introduction in later versions of DMDX has a test mode section that's going to be more than good enough for most people's testing and it's flicker fusion test is actually just as rigorous as anything TimeDX would be doing.

    There are a few minor caveats (beyond the general hands off nature of letting one's software make all the decisions itself) in that auto mode will issue a warning if you specify the duration of a display in ticks (retrace intervals), after that it shuts up.  Initially developed for remote testing where no experimenter setup of a machine was possible and indeed one had no idea what was available the assumption was that you use millisecond times to specify frame durations because you had no idea how long a tick is.  Also as of version 6.3.1.6 if the DirectDraw legacy renderer is in use under Windows 8 or later the number of back buffers will be reduced to one as it appears every third display is lost when two buffers are used with the emulated renderer.

    In addition the default video mode is no longer the ancient 640x480 8 bits per pixel video more prevalent when DMDX was being developed, DMDX peeks at what the desktop is using and uses that instead.  Basically <VideoMode>, long an essential staple of item file use is optional with Auto mode.

   As of version 5.2.1.1 a small tweak to auto mode was made where if DMDX.EXE is executing from folders other than a Program Files directory it assumes auto mode is active (makes running from USB sticks and debugging in general easier).  Given that the installer no longer drops classic DMDX shortcuts any more (Windows 10 occasionally refuses to allow two different shortcuts to the same program to be put in the start menu so the last time I noticed it doing so I opted to just keep the auto mode one) about the only way to invoke classic mode DMDX where TimeDX is essential is to double click the DMDX.EXE file in it's Program Files / DMDX folder in the windows explorer or to create your own shortcut to it.  This should not inconvenience anyone as most of the time if DMDX finds a registry key to control something it will use it and only automatically assume values if the registry key is missing, the exception to that rule are the video modes themselves.  Here if auto mode is active DMDX always goes with it's automatically generated parameters.  If this is a major inconvenience for someone I can make it check the registry keys first should someone find a video mode that DMDX's auto mode makes bad decisions about.
   
   
   
   


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