CORTEX 5.9.5a

Currently, the newest official version of CORTEX (5.9.5 for DOS) can be found at http://www.cortex.salk.edu/. This page is dedicated to documenting some additions to the CORTEX code made by myself and Ryan Kelly. All of the changes we have made are to the dual-computer version of CORTEX using the DirectX Receive program (i.e., wcsend.exe and DXrecv.exe). The code on this site is provided "as-is", and any general questions about Cortex should be directed to the Cortex Discussion Forum.

In order to compile CORTEX, we needed to configure several programs properly. I've made a page with detailed instructions for compiling CORTEX here.

CORTEX Downloads

• c595a_20040618.zip (14.2 MB), Last updated: June 18, 2004
  Version 5.9.5a of CORTEX with modifications from 5.9.5 for the wcsend.exe and DXrecv.exe programs. Be aware that although this program has been tested and works in our hands, it may contain bugs that we have created with these changes. You should test it out thoroughly before using it for any important purpose.

• readcortex_header.m (3 KB), Last updated: July 20, 2005
  This is a Matlab function that reads the additional CORTEX header information available by using the write_header() function.

What's new since 5.9.5:

• Changes to the Send Program (wcsend.exe)
  • getCndsFileName(), getExternsFileName(), getItemsFileName(), getTimingFileName()
    These commands already existed for the Windows version of CORTEX, we implemented them for the DOS version. They allow you to get the condition, extern, item and timing file name using these function from within your timing file. These new functions are added into the file _userfns.c, and also required changes to statefns.h and ufnlst.c

  • getGraphicsSpecs functions:
    • void getGraphicsSpecs(CSS_ARGS) - returns all of the arguments from the GRAPHICS_SPECS line in the cortex.cfg file
    • int getGraphicsSpecs_xdim() - returns the horizontal dimension of the screen (in pixels)
    • int getGraphicsSpecs_ydim() - returns the vertical dimension of the screen (in pixels)
    • int getGraphicsSpecs_fps() - returns the refresh rate of the screen (in frames per second)
    • float getGraphicsSpecs_hpix() - returns the number of pixels per degree of visual angle in the horizontal dimension
    • float getGraphicsSpecs_vpix() - returns the number of pixels per degree of visual angle in the vertical dimension
    • int getGraphicsSpecs_bpp() - returns the number of bits per pixel for the screen
    These functions were all added in the file matt.c, and also required changes to statefns.h and ufnlst.c

  • writeHeader()
    This function, if called from the timing file, will write a series of codes into the CORTEX data file. This data includes all the relevant filenames (condition, item, externs, timing) and the data in the external parameter file, along with the GRAPHICS_SPECS information from the cortex.cfg file. If this function is called, the first event code written will be the number 65535 (which tags the file to indicate it has extra header information). The code 255 is used to space out this header information, and all of these header codes will be greater than or equal to 255 (to distinguish them from existing codes used by CORTEX). If you use the Matlab function "readcortex" (linked above for download) it will read in the header information (if present) and return it in a structure. This function is added into the file _userfns.c, and also required changes to statefns.h and ufnlst.c

  • We have changed the functionality of the "Disk - Get" menu option. Now, when a .set file is loaded with this option (containing a saved CORTEX setup) it will load the parameter file if it was specified in the saved setting. This avoids an annoyance/bug where if you tried to run an experiment without loading the necessary external parameter file CORTEX would crash. Now, the external parameter file is loaded automatically if it is available. This capacity was added via a new "HELPcreate_extern_nomenu" function in the CSSIO.C file and also required changes in main.c

  • Some additional code was added into csssim.c to get it to allow for faster "escape" from a run (the "escabort" function).

• Changes to the Receive Program (DXrecv.exe)
  • Changes to allow wide surfaces
    In previous versions of CORTEX, if you tried to load and display an image larger than the screen dimensions it would crop the image to fit the screen. This was because older DirectX graphics cards would not allow you to load such images, and it could cause system instability and a crash. Now, this capacity (called "WIDESURFACES") is present on most or all graphics cards. The new version, requiring changes both to the Receive and the Send code, tests to determine if your graphics card supports the DDCAPS2_WIDESURFACES flag. If it does, the image will not be cropped to the display resolution (which is useful if you want to animate by panning around a very large bitmap image, for instance). This added functionality required changes to the initgks.cpp, window.cpp and dxgks.hpp files, as well as some changes to the send program code. This feature has not been adequately tested on older machines that have cards that do not support wide surfaces.