PC Hardware A Beginner’s Guide

(^274) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
Three very different types of fog are used in 3D graphics:

Linear fog This is the easiest technique to apply. The fog color is increased
linearly as an object moves away from the camera.
 Lookup table fog A fog lookup table lists how much of an influence the fog
should make for each point of depth. As the object passes certain distances
from the viewer, the distance is found in the table and the corresponding
fog intensity is applied.
 Exponential fog This technique matches the effect of real fog and progressively
fades an object in or out in relationshi pto its distance from the viewer.

Installing a Video Card

To install a new video card in a PC, follow this process:

1. First, make sure you are following appropriate ESD safeguards (see Chapter 24)
   to protect your video card, the PC, and yourself. Remember that you shouldn’t
   wear an ESD wrist strap or any form of body grounding when working with
   the monitor. Leave the new video card in its antistatic packaging until you are
   ready to install it.


2. Remove the old video card both physically and logically from the system.
   Completely uninstall the previous video card’s drivers and switch over to the
   Standard VGA Display Driver for Windows. The display may be bad until a
   few more adjustments are made. Disconnect any cables attached to the card
   and remove it by grasping it by the upper corners and pulling firmly upward.

OR

IfyouarereplacingthePC’sintegratedvideosystem,whichmeansthatthevideosys-

tem is built into the motherboard, it must be completely disabled before you can install

the new video card. Check the documentation of the motherboard and chipset for in-

structions on how the integrated video adapter is disabled. Most likely you will need to

change a jumper value or disable the port in the BIOS configuration data using the BIOS

Startup program.

If you are unsure of the type of video card or adapter in use, you can use the DOS De-

bug command to display this information. Follow the instructions listed below in “Deter-

mining the Type of Video Card in a PC” on how to use the DOS Debug command.

1. Wth any luck, you determined the adapter interfaces available on your PC
   before you bought the card and made a choice. If you plan to use a PCI interface,
   be sure the card is a PCI card; if you plan to use an AGP slot, you should have
   an AGP card. Now is a very good time to verify this. The PCI slots are the long