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Rotate
Considerations
Revision 1.7 - 13th Feb 2008 |
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Desktop
rotational is sometimes utilised in a touch screen environment. There are two issues relating to rotate when
working in a touch environment:
1) Touch screen calibration
is automatically synchronized with the degree of rotation
When rotation takes place with a touch screen it is important that the
touch screen calibration is synchronised with the degree of orientation. Most
users of rotational software rotate the desktop between 0° (landscape) and 90° (portrait) but others may rotate between 0°, 90°, 180° and 270° rotation. Please note, that for automatic calibration adjustment to work
correctly it is important that the initial calibration made on a monitor that
can rotate is performed when the monitor is in landscape mode (i.e. not
rotated).
2) The touch
screen can be used to initiate rotation rather than the rotate utilities
supplied with the rotate software or video chip.
The utilities supplied to perform rotation may not we appropriate for a
touch interface and therefore it may be more desirable to initiate rotate via a
touch control.
This document describes the rotation support offered by UPDD in the main
operating systems.
Calibration synchronisation
Windows
UPDD
automatically handles the common usage of rotation between landscape and
portrait. In UPDD version 3.8.x and above the UPDD Windows daemon task hooks
Windows display resolution change messages and calls the UPDD rotate API calls
when the display switches between landscape (0°) and portrait (90°). This mechanism is disabled if the daemon
process receives specific rotate calls (either the Portrait or UPDD rotation
Windows message as described below).
Although UPDD has
specific rotational API calls it should not be necessary for end users to make
these calls as they are handled by the UPDD daemon process when the desktop
resolution changes from portrait to landscape or a support rotate
message is received.
Therefore, when
using a system that rotates the desktop, three options are available.
1. Automatic
Detection
The system rotates from landscape (0°) to portrait (90°). The UPDD daemon process automatically
sees the desktop resolution change and adjusts the calibration accordingly via
a UPDD API call. However, if the portrait mode is actually 270° the DWORD registry entry.
** HKEY_LOCAL_M
should be set to 270.
This option is recommended for situations where only 2 rotation modes, normal
and 90 or 270 are supported
This automatic detection method is
permanently disabled if methods 2 or 3 below are employed.
2. Application
broadcasting rotate messages
The application that performs the video rotation should send a Windows
registered broadcast message WM_UPDDRotateEvent with lParam=nnn where
nnn=desired rotate angle. If this message is seen the UPDD automatic rotation
detection is disabled (see important note below) and so the user must send
messages each time the rotation changes
This option is recommended when more modes are supported – e.g. 0 / 90 /
180 / 270 / 360. Some commercial rotate
software, see below, sends these messages that UPDD hooks (see UPDD aware
rotational software section below)
To register your app to use WM_UPDDRotateEvent
UINT upddrotatemsg =
::RegisterWindowMessage("WM_UPDDRotateEvent");
To set the screen rotation angle
::PostMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, upddrotatemsg,0,N);
where n is the angle (0, 90, 180, 270)
e.g. to indicate screen is inverted.
::PostMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, upddrotatemsg,0,180);
The driver retains the rotation information across a reboot and therefore it is
necessary for the application to send a WM_UPDDRotateEvent, stating the startup
rotate angle, if rotate is not maintained over a reboot (i.e the system starts
in landscape mode). Further, if the application is uninstalled and no longer
used to rotate but another method is employed to rotate between landscape and
portrait then UPDD must be reinstalled to reset rotate method flag settings.
1. Utilise an existing rotation method that is recognized by UPDD, as described below:
·
Pivot from Portrait Displays
One of the most common software rotational products ‘Pivot’, is
developed by Portrait Displays Inc and available on the web at www.portrait.com.
Pivot version 6.04 and above
UPDD version 3.4.x and above
OS – ALL Windows OS
Since version 6.04 the Pivot software sends out a Windows message when
rotation takes place. This message is intercepted by the UPDD daemon task and
calls the UPDD rotate API calls as appropriate.
·
iRotate from EnTech Taiwan
One of the most common hardware rotational products ‘iRotate’, is
developed by EnTech
iRotate version 1.04 and above
UPDD version 3.4.x and above
OS – Windows 98 thro XP with appropriate video chipsets and drivers (i.e
ATI, nVidia, Intel, S3, XGI and others)
Since version 1.04 the iRotate software sends out a Windows message when
rotation takes place. This message is intercepted by the UPDD daemon task and
calls the UPDD rotate API calls as appropriate.
· Silicon Motion Graphics
Starting with UPDD version 3.8.42 integral support for the Silicon
Motion Graphics chipset is provided. The UPDD software automatically recognizes
the presence of this chipset and enables the interface so no user action is
required other than to select the rotation mode using the standard SM
interface. This interface is understood to work with all current SM chipsets
including the SM712, SM722, SM731, SM500 and Lynx (including Lynx EM) products;
however we have only verified this with the Lynx chipset.
· ATI video chipsets
Latest ATI video chips, with rotation capabilities are supported.
· Mobile Intel Rotate enabled Chipset Family
Starting with UPDD version 4.0.2 integral support for the Intel rotate
enabled chipset is provided. The UPDD software automatically recognizes the
presence of this chipset (via an undocumented method, which may be subject to
change) and enables the interface so no user action is required other than to
select the rotation mode using the standard Intel interface Note that the UPDD rotate interface requires
the Intel rotate software to be present, which may not always be the case.
It is possible that the recognition method will also recognize other Intel
chipsets, however we have only verified that this method of recognition
identifies the 915GM/GMS, 910GML, 855GME and Extreme Graphics 2 (Ver. 6.14.10.4497) chipset but it may recognise others.
With this chipset rotate is supported on all monitors.
Rotate Method Identification
To
identify rotate methods that are supported by UPDD and exist on the system,
UPDD performs the following:
|
Rotation
method |
Identification
via file location |
|
Portrait |
[windows]\system32\wpfb.dll |
|
iRotate |
HKLM\SOFTWARE\EnTech\iRotate |
|
Silicon Motion Cougar |
[windows]\ system32\3drapi.dll |
|
Silicon Motion Lynx |
[windows]\ system32\smhook.dll |
|
ATI chips |
[windows]\ system32\atipdlxx.dll |
|
Intel chipset |
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ialmdevice0 |
Important
Notes
1)
UPDD only supports automatic rotate recognition on the
primary monitor in Windows except for the Intel video graphics chipset which
has been tested in a multi-monitor environment which could be extended to other
rotate methods if required.
2)
Direct video chipset support may be dependent on
the correct video driver being installed.
We have had situations where a newer driver has broken our direct video
chipset support and we have had to make changes to cater for the differences
introduced with the new driver. To this
end we recommend the usage of the software utility irotate which offers
our software a common interface to a rotate utility that is responsible for the
video chipset rotation process. We
believe that irotate is kept current with any driver changes and therefore
offers a future proof rotate solution.
At the time of writing (Aug 2007) irotate supported, ATI Radeon, Intel Extreme
Graphics, Matrox Parhelia, Nvidia GeForce, S3 DeltaChrome, VIA Unichrome, XGI
Volari, Some Rage128 Mobility and SiS drivers.
Supported Rotate method display
A
number of UPDD extensions are built into the UPDD Console and the Video
rotation extension shows if any of the supported auto-calibration or touch
initiation rotation methods have been found on the system.
This
dialog also handles the UPDD rotate system tray settings and quick method of creating
a toolbar to activate rotation if required, see Rotate
Utility below.
Mac OS X
Mac OS/X version 10.4
(Tiger) introduced video rotation where the video hardware supports it. UPDD
version 4 will work with rotated video in 2 scenarios.
1) Automatic when switching between landscape and a defined portrait mode.
Important note: No longer
supported with UPDD version 4.1.x. Will be reinstated if required.
Where the system is
switched between landscape and portrait modes UPDD will switch between these
modes without requiring calibration. Switching between landscape and portrait
mode requires two settings to be changed in the System Preferences, Display
dialog. First you need to select the degree of portrait rotation angle, either
90° or 270°. This will rotate the screen – at this point the screen will
not be calibrated. Next it is
important to select the corresponding portrait resolution. For example if
landscape mode is 1024x768, portrait mode will need to be set to 768x1024 – at
this point the screen will be calibrated. The OS/X preferences utility does not
adjust the screen size automatically, as one might reasonably expect, and the
dialog below is used after rotation has occurred to select the appropriate
portrait resolution, in this case 768 x 1024.
Unfortunately, we have
not found a way to programmatically determine the degree of rotation selected
for portrait but have found a way to determine that the resolution has been
switched to ‘portrait’, e.g. in the above example when 1024 x 768 becomes 768 x
1024 and it is the change of resolution that triggers the automated calibration
adjustment. Because we cannot determine
the rotation angle it has to be manually set in UPDD Console, Properties
dialog, Portrait Rotate option
to inform the driver
what rotation angle is being used in Portrait mode. This restricts automatic calibration working
to one defined portrait angle.
2) Manual when using any rotation angle
Any combination of any video rotation and screen size can be used so long as:
1.
4
or more points are used for calibration
2.
The
screen is recalibrated after the video display preferences are changed. Note
that the UPDD Console, Properties, "Portrait" setting is irrelevant in
this situation.
UPDD
only supports rotate on the primary monitor in Mac OS X.
Linux
UPDD
supports rotated video modes for supported video cards under both Xfree86 and
X.org. To check whether your card is supported then look at the appropriate
release notes found at http://xfree86.org or http://www.x.org respectively. If your card
supports the “Rotate” option as mentioned in the release notes then it is
compatible with UPDD. Supported rotations in X-Windows are 90 and 270 degrees.
As mentioned in the documentation for your video card, the device section in
the X config file should be either configured for Option “Rotate” “CW”
(clockwise) or Option “Rotate” “CCW” (counter-clockwise). An example of a Device section set up for
rotation is below:-
Section “Device”
Identifier “VideoCard0”
Driver “nv”
VendorName “Videocard vendor”
BoardName “VESA driver (generic)”
Option “Rotate” “CCW”
EndSection
The
touch controller should then be recalibrated.
UPDD
only supports rotate on the primary monitor in Linux.
Rotate utility - Invoke video rotation via touch
This
utility is currently only available for Windows systems and only invokes
rotation on the primary monitor.
Using
rotate services offered by software rotate utilities or rotate enabled video
chips, desktops can be rotated through various rotation angles, normally 0° to
90°/270° (Landscape to Portrait) or 0° to 180° for systems
that can be viewed from top or bottom. Software is often supplied that can be
used to switch to the desired degree of rotation and the method employed does
not always lend itself to quick selection in a touch only environment.
The
section describes how we have implemented a touch method to perform graphical
rotation that uses a toolbar and system tray utility
to initiate rotation.
Please note - these touch rotation
methods can only be employed if UPDD detects a rotation method that it supports
to initiate rotate. At the time of writing UPDD Rotate initiation will only
work with iRotate and Silicon Motion chip sets as shown in the UPDD Extension, Video Rotation dialog,
Touch Control column; e.g.
Unless there is a green tick in
the Touch Control column UPDD rotate utilities cannot be used to rotate the
video!
Toolbar
In
UPDD Version 4 toolbars can be associated with UPDD specific functions which
include a rotate action. To create a rotate toolbar you can use the standard
toolbar dialog and associate a rotate function, as shown below:
In
this Windows example a toolbar, Rotate, has been created with the ‘Add a new
toolbar’ function. Using the ‘Change cell options’ a the UPDD Rotate Action has
been associated with the toolbar to rotate between 0° and 90°. Thereafter the ‘Calibrate toolbar’ is used to
calibrate the toolbar on the touch screen.
The toolbar can also be associated with a Toolbar image if required so
that the user can have a visual reference to the rotate toolbar. The UPDD rotate action can be used to rotate
through any combination of degrees of rotation or associated to one specific
rotation angle by only enabling the checkbox next to the required rotation
angle.
Once
the Rotate toolbar is created and calibrated, touching the rotate toolbar on
the touch screen will rotate the display using one of the supported rotate
methods which caters for external rotation requests.
The
UPDD Extension, Video Rotation dialog
offers a quick link to create and calibrate a rotate toolbar used to initiate
rotation, as shown:
By
default this rotate toolbar will rotate between 0° and 90° but can be changed
as required. If more than one method is found then rotation could cause an
issue. In this situation, if you have a
supported hardware chip consider uninstalling the software methods.
System Tray rotate utility
When
a rotate interface is identified that can support rotate requests from UPDD, as
shown in the UPDD Extension, Video Rotation
dialog and if the system tray rotate utility is enabled then a UPDD Rotate
system tray icon will be shown 
that can also be used to rotate the screen
though the enabled Rotate states.
Rotate confirmation
If either
the rotate system tray utility or the rotate toolbar is set to confirm before
rotation the following dialog is shown:
Initial Rotation Mode
At
system startup most systems will power up in landscape mode (0° rotation) although some can power up in the
previous rotated mode. For calibration accuracy it is important that the driver
knows the initial rotation mode. If, prior to reboot, the previous Windows
session was rotated using Pivot software, one of the supported video chipsets,
or the WM_UPDDRotateEvent message it is important that the driver is
informed of the initial rotate state
at start up using the same method. Automatic detection is deliberately disabled
in the assumption that one of these methods will be used at startup to inform
of the start up rotation angle and to ensure there is no conflict between one
of these methods (which can identify and inform of all 4 rotation angles and
auto-detection that can only identify 2 rotation angles).
If none of the
above methods were used to perform rotation the UPDD daemon process will
auto-detect rotation but only be able to inform the driver of landscape (0°) or Portrait (90°/270°) initial rotation (depending on the UPDD
PortraitAngle registry setting **).
It is important
that correct orientation settings (swap X/Y) are set if the system is starting
in a rotated mode. If the number
of calibration points is 4 or more then the calibration procedure will
automatically calculate the orientation and therefore it is highly recommended
that in this environment 4 calibration points or more are used. If this is not the case and orientation is
incorrectly set the calibration may be incorrect when starting with a rotated
desktop.
Toolbar Considerations
UPDD Toolbars are
described in the Toolbar document. Toolbars are
either associated with a physical area on the pointer device or
associated with a position on the desktop.
Toolbars can also have associated images that are displayed on the desktop
at the position of the toolbar. When a
display rotates the position of the toolbar is recalculated if the toolbar is
associated with the desktop. If the
toolbar is associated to a physical area on the pointer device and has an
associated image then the image position is recalculated.
Contact
For further information or technical assistance please email the technical support team at technical@touch-base.com