旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � VIDEO GRAPHICS ARRAY - PALETTE TOOL V3.01 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� (C) Copyright 1988 by clySmic software. All rights reserved. I. INTRODUCTION This program allows VGA (PS/2 Model 50, 60 or 80) or Display Adapter/2 or 100% compatible VGA clone owners to: � View the quarter-million color palette they've been hearing about, � Set any attribute (0 - 15) to any color, � Have the colors "stick" with most programs, � Load and save their favorite settings in palette files, and � Use the program in a command-line mode. II. FILES INCLUDED � VPT.EXE................The VGA Palette Tool. � VPT.MAN................This documentation. � LOCK.COM...............A small TSR that locks EGA and VGA palette registers (optional). � TSTPATN.EXE............A television test pattern to judge colors with. III. INTERACTIVE MODE Command: VPT VPT operates in text mode and allows setting of any or all of the sixteen attributes available in text mode. There are three sliders (one each for Red, Green, and Blue), each of which can assume any of 64 values (0 through 63). The current values are displayed next to the sliders on the right side of the screen. Key(s) Action ----------------- ---------------------------------------- Left/Right Arrows Moves the R,G, or B slider between 0 and 63 to control the intensity of the R, G, or B signal. Control Left/Right As above, but moves five positions instead of one. PageUp/PageDown Selects an attribute between 0 and 15 to work with. B Backdrop mode. This makes the current attribute the background and places text with all sixteen attributes on the screen so you can see the combinations. Any key exits this mode. D Loads the default, boot-up colors. L Loads the colors from a file of your choice, if no file is specified, STD.VPT is assumed. You don't need to add the .VPT extension. S Saves the colors to a file of your choice, if no file is specified, STD.VPT is assumed. Note: all .VPT files are saved to the directory VPT is found in, NOT the current directory (unless VPT.EXE is there!) O Sets the overscan (border) color to the current attribute. NO guarantees are made about the "stickyness" of this setting. End Exits VPT. Keys Used While Loading or Saving a File: Backspace Erases the last character in the file name. Ctrl-Backspace Erases all the characters in the file name. IV. COMMAND-LINE MODE Command: VPT [option] Where [option] is one of the following (capitalization does not matter): /L[filename] This loads the specified file, if there is one. If there isn't, you will get an error message. If [filename] is not specified, STD.VPT will be assumed. /C[filename] Like /L above, but does an ANSI clear screen afterwards and displays no messages. /D This loads the default palette. These are the colors assigned by IBM and are the ones you would see if you didn't use VPT. /X This resets the "palette load on mode change" option to true (see TECHNICAL INFORMATION, below, for an explanation). /? Presents a help list recapping your options. Any other option will generate an error message. The main reason for command-line mode is to include VPT in batch files. First you would run VPT interactively, find the colors you like, save them in the STD.VPT file, then include a line like the following: VPT /L in your batch file. This will load your saved colors when you run the batch file. VPT.EXE should be placed in a directory on your PATH. If you don't wish to see the informational messages produced by VPT in command-line mode, you can redirect the output to the null device (a.k.a. the bit bucket) as follows: VPT /L >NUL: Note that error messages *cannot* be redirected and will still be seen. V. MORE EXAMPLES VPT /L123PAL Loads the palette file 123PAL.VPT. This assumes you created such a file using the interactive mode of VPT. VPT /C Loads STD.VPT and clears the screen. VPT /? Brings forth help. VI. TECHNICAL INFORMATION � GENERAL VPT works by making BIOS calls that manipulate the DAC (digital to analog converter) color registers; each register (there are 256, to allow for the 300x200x256 mode) contains 18 bits, 6 each for Red, Green, and Blue. Each RGB value can go from 0 to 63, all the combinations makes for 262,144 possible colors. You can show up to sixteen of these at a time in the text modes, each of the sixteen "attributes" can be any color (or all the same color) out of the quarter-million. � MODE SETS Normally BIOS resets the EGA and DAC color registers whenever a mode set is done. VPT makes its colors stick across a mode change by using the "Default Palette Loading During Mode Set" BIOS call to disable this action. If, for some reason, you desire to return this to its default, boot-up condition, use VPT /X. Then a subsequent mode change, like MODE CO80, will cause the default conditions to prevail. � REGISTERS, REGISTERS EVERYWHERE The DAC color registers are mapped through the EGA palette registers, so, for instance, the attribute "Brown" (6) maps to the color $14 on an EGA (out of its 64 possible colors); on the VGA, DAC color register $14 contains $2A,$15,$00 for the R, G, and B values (these are all default values). In order to not to be foiled by EGA-aware programs, VPT resets the EGA palette registers to their default values each time it is run. If a program remaps the EGA registers, and then counts on a mode set to return them to normal when it exits, the registers will *stay* remapped because of the disabling of the "palette load on mode set". Simply type VPT /C (for instance) and it will remap the EGA registers to their default values. Note that EGA-aware programs will still use their own colors while the program is running, VPT doesn't prevent that. � PALETTE FILES The saved palette files have an extension of .VPT which you NEVER need to type when using VPT. For DOS 3.x users, they are stored in the same directory that VPT is run from. For instance, say VPT is stored in the C:\BIN directory, that directory is on your PATH, and you are in C:\ZUUL. The palette file will be stored in C:\BIN. For DOS 2.x users, the file will be stored in the root directory. DOS 1.x users are quite out of luck, why do one have advanced video but DOS 1.x anyway? VPT attempts to check for a valid palette file by not loading any files that aren't exactly 49 bytes long. You will get a 'bad .VPT file' message. If a file is 49 bytes long and has a .VPT extension but *isn't* a VPT palette file, it will get loaded anyway. The colors should be interesting. � REFERENCES VPT was written based on technical information from IBM's Display Adapter/2 Technical Reference. There is very little discussion of some aspects of the VGA, but all the BIOS calls are there (even if they're not explained well). If anyone has any other sources of tech info (especially about the MCGA) please let me know. VII. CAVEATS I don't believe VPT will run correctly on the MCGA in the Models 25 and 30. I only have Model 50s and 60s to test it on, but since part of the program relies on mapping through the EGA palette registers (which the MCGA doesn't have), I don't see how it could work. I also am not sure if the VGA detection routine in VPT would think the MCGA is a valid VGA or not. EGA-aware and VGA-aware programs still will run with their own colors, all (okay, almost all, who knows what's out there?) other programs will use the colors VPT sets. If you want to "lock" the colors you set against any programs that try to change them using BIOS, set your colors, then run the TSR program LOCK.COM included in this package. This program can be removed and re-run by using a TSR control package like TurboPower's excellent MARK and RELEASE (available on CompuServe and probably everywhere else). VPT uses only BIOS calls and should run on the *real* VGA clones that are now just becoming available; however, the pseudo-VGAs (really EGAs with 640x480 mode) won't run it - they still have only 64 colors total (and will cause grief down the road for their buyers, I suspect). Any test results are welcomed. VIII. ENHANCEMENTS I would like to add MCGA support in a future release. I am also working on a TSR that would load the EGA registers with the default values upon a mode change. This would prevent the situation when you are using an EGA aware program that exit by doing a mode change and assumes that will reset the EGA. With VPT loaded it won't and one has to type something like VPT /C afterwards to clean up the colors. All suggestions are welcome. IX. ALL THAT LEGAL BROUHAHA The program is copyrighted by clySmic software, but may be copied and posted on BBS systems, as long as it is not altered, it is credited to clySmic, and all files are kept together. -- Ralph Smith, clySmic software CIS 76156,164