VPIC 6.0 ANNOUNCEMENT VPIC 5.1e is the last version with a $15 price tag. The newer features which users are requesting will require significant time to incorporate, and will require a price increase. Version 6.0 will start adding advanced features to VPIC, and the base price will be $25. The shipping and handling for the latest version with about 1M of pictures is the same, at $5 inside the USA and Canada and $10 foreign, and now includes a printed manual. The program will retain the fast, easy, intuitive operation that VPIC users have come to expect. Registered VPIC users may upgrade to version 6.x for $10, plus shipping and handling if you want the latest version from me; also includes about 1M of good GIF pictures (please specify VGA, SuperVGA, or 1024x768, and hi-density disk size [3.5" or 5.25"]). The first of these advanced features is a directory tree, which is already in place in version 6.0 and available now. This makes changing directories a snap; you press Alt F9, or click the mouse on DIR, and VPIC presents a 4 column folded directory tree on the menu screen with subdirectory levels indicated. Then you simply cursor over to (or click the mouse on) the directory you want, and the viewable files instantly appear in the menu. To make this even faster, the first time you run VPIC and request a directory tree, VPIC scans the current drive and saves the data to a file. The next time you request a directory tree, VPIC simply reads the file and the directory tree appears almost instantly. The file ($$drivex where x is the drive letter) is saved in the same directory where VPIC is located, so VPIC can be run from anywhere (if it is in your path) and the drive files can be found. The other drives are listed on line 2 of the directory tree, and you can press the drive letter, or click with the mouse, to get a directory tree of that drive. You also have the option to rescan the drive if you have added or deleted directories. The second feature is a really good 16 color palette selection for viewing 256 color pictures in 16 color modes (ie, VGA 640x480x16). The third is VESA 1.2 support, so all modes (including hi-color) are automatically detected if your display board supports the VESA standard correctly. The older S3 boards (Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 and Diamond Stealth) didn't, so you have to do vpic /v to make vpic ignore VESA info. Also added means of telling vpic which hi-color mode (32K, 64K, 0r 16.7M) to use for Targa's. Other features in the works are: TIFF support 24 bit BMP and PCX support. Color Reduction for 15, 16, and 24 bit files (Targa, TIFF, BMP, PCX). Extended and Expanded memory support. Intelligent resizing of the picture to the screen. Cutting a portion of the screen to a new file.