========================================================================= (C) 1993 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== ************ Topic 30 Fri Sep 18, 1992 B.REEVES2 [Alter Ego] (Forwarded) Sub: Photochrome - 19200 out of 32768 colors Move over Spectrum! Here comes Photochrome! Super HAM allows 4096 colors on both an ST and STE. Photochrome allows 19200 colors on an STE. Lets talk about it. 204 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 1 Fri Sep 18, 1992 B.REEVES2 [Alter Ego] (Forwarded) Hi, Has anybody here tried Photochrome? (Availible here on GEnie.) I tried it on some RAW files and I got _fantastic_ results! In addition to coverting to Spectrum 512 & 4096, it can convert to something called Super HAM (so called by the programmer because it works _better_ than HAM on the Amiga) which also has 4096 (on the ST too) colors, but is a heck of alot cleaner. And on STE's there is a mode called Photochrome which can have 19200 colors out of 32768. There is a small amount of perceptible flicker in this mode but in most cases it is not too distracting. RAW files are ray traced pictures. The program also has the ablity to convert Vidichrome RGB files to Super HAM format. Unfortunately I do not have access to any such files so I was not able to see how good a job it does, but if it does as good a job as it does on the RAW files then I guess I will just have to say, "Move over Spectrum. Here comes Photochrome!" If anybody has a Vidichrome RGB files they would like to upload here, I would gladly convert the pictures and upload the results if they are any good at all. Or if someone would convert their own pictures I would be mighty interested in seeing how the results compare to Spectrum. The main deficiency that I found in this program is that even though it can convert all types of Amiga IFF and HAM files, it doesn't do any scaling. This means of course that If you convert any image that is greater than 320*200, part of the picture will be cut off. The programmer claims to be considering adding a scaling feature. Sending in our shareware payments would be a good way of convincing him to do so. I plan too. Barry ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 2 Sat Sep 19, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] (Forwarded) Barry, I found PChrome *very* interesting. I saw no way whatsoever to save the image, though. How do you save the image that you have created? Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 3 Sat Sep 19, 1992 BLUE.MONDAY [] [] (Forwarded) Barry, Do you have a file number handy? I can't seem to locate it. Thanks. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 4 Sat Sep 19, 1992 B.REEVES2 [Alter Ego] (Forwarded) Al, To save picture converted by photochrome, press return while the converted image is being displayed and a file selector will open up allowing you to save the image. It defaults to drive A: but since the slide show program only seems to work with drive A: I guess this is alright. BLUE.MONDAY, Photochrome is file #25151, PCHROME.LZH. Barry ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 5 Sat Sep 19, 1992 C.HERBORTH [-Chris-] (Forwarded) I was so impressed, I uploaded about 2.5M of RAW images (that's how big they were archived)... ;-) A unix machine and a ray tracer are pretty handy... I've also uploaded POV-Ray, an awesome ray tracer. The binaries should be going up today, the source, sample files, and documentation are already up. I've used POV-Ray and its predecessor, dkbtrace, to create the RAW files I've uploaded. Since the PC RAW format generated by these programs isn't the same as the RAW format required by PhotoChrome, I've included a converter in the POV-Ray binaries. The RAW files I've uploaded are all in ST format. I'm working on a nicely GEM version of POV-Ray, which will create ST RAW images directly. TT binaries (68030 w/FPU) are also going up. Check out the Raytracing TOP in the graphics CAT for more info! -Chris- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 8 Mon Dec 07, 1992 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] (Forwarded) Hello all, just thought I would drop a note to all of you out there. Photochrome 3 is great!! Makes makin' SPX files a true breeze and is very fast to boot. I am sending my SW fee in today. (along with my disk to get the newest DMJ Gif) I hate to say this but this seems to be better than the reg'ed version of DMJ gif version 3. Any comments? later, dave b 6 Dec, 1992 22:28 ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 9 Mon Dec 07, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] (Forwarded) Does Pchrome run on a TT? I get a dark, locked-up screen when I try to load a picture. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 10 Tue Dec 08, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] (Forwarded) I agree the new PhotoChrome is GREAT! I was less than impressed with the last version, mainly because of display problems and lack of GIF and support, but also because of the lack of scaling for IFFs. But the new version has won me over big time! The PCS pics are so much better than Spectrum 4096 pics. There IS the slight flicker, but the nearly photographic display more than makes up for it. And it's so FAST! I belong to PixNet, which brings in megs and megs of GIFs every week. It was a nightmare to convert them all with DMJ GIF, but with PhotoChrome, it's nothing to go through a couple dozen GIFs in a relatively short session. It's not perfect, though. The new "Squash" routine is very nice. However, it seems to squash to fit the screen, rather than squashing an equal amount both vertically and horizontally. This causes some pics to LOOK squashed. It should allow you to squash equally in both directions. Also, it doesn't handle 89a nor GIFLITE GIFs well at all. Rather than telling you it's a bad file, it bombs. Not good. Still, all in all, a FANTASTIC program, and well worth a shareware payment! Regarding making SPX files, where did I miss that??? Are you confusing SPX with PCS? If not, HOW do you make SPX files with PhotoChrome? (tm) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 11 Wed Dec 09, 1992 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] (Forwarded) Terry, You did not miss how to make SPX files with Photochrome. It does make it very easy thouf--get your gif or whatever and it it is bigger than one screen chose 'select area' and select your first screen then do the same for however many 'screens' your picture has. Be sure to change the name of the saved file each time. Note; you also have to reload the gif for each screen. Then go to SPX creat (in the lib somewhere) and put the screens together. go have some tea---SPX of your gif or whatever. later, dave b 7:41:32 pm, Wednesday, December 9, 1992 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 12 Wed Dec 09, 1992 FAIRWEATHER [David] (Forwarded) What are the chances that we will ever see an EDITOR that lets us create our own Spectrum 4096, Superham or PCS pix??? Please??? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 13 Thu Dec 10, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] (Forwarded) Dave, Thanks for the info on creating SPX files with PhotoChrome. I'll give it a shot... I've been using PhotoChrome 3.0 a LOT the last few days, and I'm still amazed at the quality generated. I only hope he soon adds the ability to scale evenly. I've discovered it has a problem with GIFs that are less than 320x200. Rather than making a smooth enlargement, or adding black borders, it draws bars throughout the picture, as if the picture's been sectioned. Rather annoying, but fortunately I have STyle to scale these pics to 320x200 or greater. And pics < 320x200 are fairly rare, anyway. - Terry - ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 14 Fri Dec 11, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] (Forwarded) I just got through creating my first SPX file via PhotoChrome (thanks, Dave!). It was surprisingly easy. The pic I created fit three screens perfectly. It's nice using the STE palette for my SPX creations, but I've become so spoiled by 19200 color pics, that going back to 4096 is a big letdown. ;^) It's still kind of fun, though -- especially for those pics that PhotoChrome makes look fat when you squash them. I tried the slideshow viewer that came in the latest archive for the first time earlier, and found that I still have the same problem with the screen 'flashing' every few seconds. Using the application viewer I don't have that problem. However, I do have problems with mouse jumping and the sound of a key being held down quite often when I exit. Also, I've ran into a strange problem with it refusing the load a great many of my pics. I can move them to floppy or another location on my hard drive and they'll load. I wonder if it doesn't like BMG partitions... ((( Terry ))) SYSOPS: Shouldn't this topic be in the Graphics CAT? I almost didn't find it. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't in my topic list (in the Graphics CAT). It was only when I did a search from the beginning that I found it. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 15 Fri Dec 11, 1992 FAIRWEATHER [David] (Forwarded) I couldn't get the slideshow to work at all! Every time I try to launch it it immediately exits back to the desktop. What's the trick? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 16 Fri Dec 11, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] (Forwarded) David, Unfortunately, the slideshow viewer only reads .PCS files from drive A:. If you put some files on floppy in drive A: it should work. Is the application viewer working ok for you? ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 17 Sat Dec 12, 1992 R.KOHORN [RON] (Forwarded) When I use the viewer (thanks for letting us know it only works off A!) I get an unviewable picture using a Mega STe (TOS 2.06). Any suggestions? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 18 Sat Dec 12, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] (Forwarded) Ron, Since it uses 8 MHz timing, you'll likely have to go to 8 MHz and/or turn off your cache in order for it to work on your machine. It works similar (I think) to Spectrum. -----8<----- I've created several very good SPXs using PhotoChrome's ability to easily cut out the frames (thanks again, Dave!). I think I'll upload a few of them (along with a PCS or two) this call. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 19 Sat Dec 12, 1992 M.POCHE [Mick] (Forwarded) Ron - Are you sure you are in 8Mhz mode when trying to view the pictures? They are garbage in 16Mhz! - Mick ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 20 Sat Dec 12, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] (Forwarded) >Since it uses 8 MHz timing, you'll likely have to go to 8 MHz and/or >turn off your cache in order for it to work on your machine. It works >similar (I think) to Spectrum. Well, what I had in mind was the ability to do the conversion at 16mhz, and only stop down to 8 for the actual display, somewhat like the SPC3375 program does, loads and decompresses at 16 and slows for the display.... ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 21 Sat Dec 12, 1992 FAIRWEATHER [David] (Forwarded) Yes the app viewer seems to work fine. I have noticed though that it eventually cuts out back to the desktop if you try to leave one picture showing indefinitely. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 22 Sat Dec 12, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 17:55 EST Sheesh, how many PhotoChrome topics do we need!? ;^) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 23 Sat Dec 12, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 17:59 EST >NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] (Forwarded) > > Well, what I had in mind was the ability to do the conversion at > 16mhz, and only stop down to 8 for the actual display [...] I'm not sure if this is possible. But it's quite fast converting from even the largest GIFs at 8 MHz. It's a lot faster than even DigiSpec. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 24 Sat Dec 12, 1992 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] at 19:43 EST Terry, This is the real topic; I made a mistake because I got line noise and we ended with two topics; topic 30 is the only active topic. *******Brian********* Written on Saturday 12 December 1992 at 06:59 p.m. AST ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 25 Sun Dec 13, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 13:49 EST I've downloaded this program and some of the .pcs pics in the library. But I'm not sure if this works on my TT!?!?? When I run the photo program a nice colorful screen comes up. But what I'm trying to do is VIEW the pcs pics that others have created. I've also run what seems to be the pcs viewer program but after double clicking on it, it returns to the desktop. I read that I should put my pcs pics on a floppy in A, and I did that. But then all I get is a darkened screen and then have to reboot to get out of it. 1. Does it work on the TT? 2. How do I exit from a pic being viewed from floppy A? 3. Will it view pics other than on A? - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Sunday, December 13, 1992 8:55 am ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 26 Sun Dec 13, 1992 REALM [Joey] at 16:42 EST Jason, My guess would be it doesn't work on a TT. I think it was mentioned you have to be in 8Mhz mode plus I believe it's Spectrum like in nature. I don't know for sure, I'm just guessing from what I've read here. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 27 Tue Dec 15, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 03:02 EST Joey, I think you're right -- it doesn't work on a TT. But since there are SPC viewers that work on a TT, it would be nice to see one that showed PCS files, too. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 28 Tue Dec 15, 1992 ST.LOU [Lou Rocha] at 10:57 EST Al, et al ... I can't seem to get the PCSVIEW.PRG working. I run it, it blanks the screen then comes back to the desktop. Should I read the manual, or what ? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 29 Tue Dec 15, 1992 R.MARTIN22 [NETWORK 23] at 23:33 EST LOU: PCSVIEW only reads PCS's off drive A (superBUMMER). Put some .PCS there and the viewer will work fine. Live And Direct [9:51 PM-15/Dec/92], Rod Martin, Network 23/ST Connection ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 30 Wed Dec 16, 1992 ST.LOU [Lou Rocha] at 00:44 EST Thanks Rod... boo hoo.... BTW, where did you read that? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 31 Wed Dec 16, 1992 T.GIRSCH [T.J.] at 00:45 EST LOU: In the PCHROME3 archive, there is a file called PCSCLICK.APP or some such. Highlight it, select "Install Application" and give it an extender of PCS. Then save your desktop. From now on, double clicking on a PCS will view it. It's not a slide show, but it beats copying down to A. - T.J. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 32 Wed Dec 16, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 01:21 EST I haven't actually tried it, but I would think you could change the path in the viewer from A: to any other drive, with a sector editor. However, you'll still be stuck in the root directory. (It does only play sounds in the root of A:, right?) Anyone else having problems with the application viewer causing the mouse to jump and/or causing repeated keyclicks (stopped by pressing any key)? That's _really_ annoying. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 33 Wed Dec 16, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 01:57 EST >Atari-ST RoundTable >PCSVIEW only reads PCS's off drive A (superBUMMER). Put some .PCS there and >the viewer will work fine. Well, I put a pcs pic on the floppy in drive A with my Mega 4 and then ran the pcsview program and also got a blank screen and then a return to the desktop. What gives?? - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Tuesday, December 15, 1992 10:44 pm ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 34 Wed Dec 16, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 03:43 EST Lou, Read the manual? What are you, a wimp? :) It doesn't work on my 520ST either. I haven't tried it on the 4-meg ST yet. I *do* wish I could view PCS files on the TT! Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 35 Wed Dec 16, 1992 ST.LOU [Lou Rocha] at 08:23 EST Jason, PCSVIEW.PRG does work with PCS pictures on A:\ but I had to disable my AUTO and desk accessories. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 36 Wed Dec 16, 1992 MAG.SOFTWARE at 21:09 EST PhotoChrome doen not work on the TT because it is using a similar method to display more colors as done with spectrum. The code is _very_ closely timed to switch color palettes a preciece moments at 8Mhz. I have never worked with displaying Spectrum pics so I am studying how this is done. I hop to come out with a program similar to Spectrum and PhotoChrome but will be specifically for the TT. If anyone here could help me understand the timing, code, etc for displaying Spectrum pics, it would be greatly appreciated. Jeff ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 37 Wed Dec 16, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:19 EST I discovered 99% of the problem I described with PCSCLICK leaving a jumping mouse and steady keyclicks. It turns out the problem was caused by an incompatibility with PoolFx92. The reason why I say 99% is because out of dozens of pictures I've viewed since switching back to PoolFix4, I've had the problem happen ONCE. When using PoolFx92, it happened an average of about one out of every five pics. PoolFx92 also has MAJOR problems with the latest Warp 9, particularly if you are a Spectre GCR user! I recommend strongly that anyone using PoolFx92 to go back to PoolFix4, even if you're not presently having any apparent problems. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 38 Wed Dec 16, 1992 T.GIRSCH [T.J.] at 23:33 EST Terry - Uhhh, I have the keyclick problem all the time (about 50%, actually) and I'm using a MegaSTe with TOS 2.05 -- that means no Poolfix of any sort. And I have to find "magic" keys to make it go away. Sometimes it's space, sometimes return, sometimes esc, etc... ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 39 Thu Dec 17, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 00:38 EST T.J., Interesting. I've always used space (or any other key) to get rid of my keyclicks. I've never had it not stop after pressing any key. Clearly there's a bug in PCSCLICK. Fortunately, removal of PoolFx92 took care of it for me. Have you tried removing your TSRs/ACCs to see if it still did it? You might also want to try adding SerialFix, if you're not already using it. (tm) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 40 Thu Dec 17, 1992 S.DANUSER [Soul Manager] at 04:59 EST >Al, et al Lou, who are the two Al's to whom you are speaking? Is this a good place to start that Latin topic? Soul Manager ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 41 Sun Dec 20, 1992 BOB-BRODIE [Atari Corp.] at 00:46 EST After all the hype I read about PhotoChrome, I gave it a shot, too. It runs for awhile on my TT with TOS 3.06, until I try to view a picture. Tried everything...killed off all the auto programs, all the acc's, etc. Ran it in all rez (ok...except 1280x960) and still no go. Then tried it on a Mega STE, after slowing it down to 8Mhz. The quality is indeed impressive. I plan on sending in my shareware dollars, too. BUT, I'm also going to include a plea for the developer to clean up his act! :) Really, this thing should work on _ALL_ of our computers, it's very nice! If he followed the rules, he'd be working regardless of timing, and with video cards, and the new Falcon graphic modes!! I'll give it a shot on the Falcon later this week and see what happens, but I'm expecting to see BOMBS everywhere!! regards, Bob Brodie ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 42 Sun Dec 20, 1992 T.GIRSCH [T.J.] at 03:48 EST Bob - If my understanding is correct, Photochrome still uses the same "cheats" that the original Spectrum used (uses), only with better results. I'd love to see someone develop even a Spectrum viewer that works without regard to clock speed. Heck, I'd like to see a viewer intelligent enough to detect that I'm at 16-MHz and switch me down to eight. - T.J. @ Atari Advantage ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 43 Sun Dec 20, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 10:55 EST I can't use either of the slideshow viewers. The screen distorts (flickers, flashes?) every second or so, making the picture all but unviewable. I have no problem with the application viewer, however. It gives me a steady picture until the thing finally times out. Has anyone else had similar results? I admit I haven't tried it on a clean system yet, but I would think if the application viewer works, the slideshow viewer should, also. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 44 Sun Dec 20, 1992 ST.LOU [Lou Rocha] at 11:06 EST TJ... I believe the new spectrum viewer called SPECTRUM 3375 does automatically switch clock speeds. It also has a neat toggle for screen frequency to really clean up the display. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 45 Sun Dec 20, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 11:13 EST Bob, PChrome won't run on my TT either, and I agree with you 100%. GEM-View is the closest TT owners have to something that shows all graphics formats, but it is still clumsier than it should be. I'd like to put a plug in for the TT-specific coding in the CodeHead ARTGALRY.PRG (which can also be run as a DA). It will show Degas, TNY and PNT files correctly no matter which TT resolution you are in, with the understandable exception of not being able to show color in TT high. I often run my TT in ST high (it's faster that way) and yet Art Gallery will quickly pop a color Degas onto the screen at any time -- a real oddity, once you get used to the start monochromicity of the TT's ST high-res emulation. There is even a program that shows Spectrums on the TT, called View_TT. It does a respectable job. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 46 Sun Dec 20, 1992 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 11:27 EST Yes Terry, I got the same shakes and lines from the old slideshow. I haven't tried the new one yet. Who is the Photochrome developer? Is he on GEnie? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 47 Sun Dec 20, 1992 J.KUDRON [Jim~ST Sysop] at 11:48 EST Bob & T.J., Have you tried this program: 26556 GVIEW201.LZH B.SCHULZE1 921117 378368 8 28 Desc: View ANY picture, any rez You don't have to drop down to 8mhz. I've been able to view Spectrum (As well as a lot of other formats) pics in TT Med. Jim Kudron 20Dec92 ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 48 Sun Dec 20, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 15:14 EST David, The developer (author) is Douglas Little in Scotland. As far as I know, he's not on GEnie. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 49 Sun Dec 20, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 16:36 EST Al, do you know if View_TT is on GEnie and in which library. Does this mean I can view spc (or is it spu) pics on my TT in TT medium res? - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Sunday, December 20, 1992 11:14 am ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 50 Sun Dec 20, 1992 BOB-BRODIE [Atari Corp.] at 19:22 EST Jason, When I decided to take a look at PhotoChrome, I set my libraries to all, and searched on the word PhotoChrome. I got about 15 files to come up, and did a zmodem batch of them all. Somewhere, in one of the files that I downloaded, was View_TT. And it does a pretty nice job. Seems to me that I had to kill off a few things in order for it to work, (probably FSM or Speedo) which shouldn't be a problem for most users. Jim, Yes, I've used GEMView before...and it's ok. My real point isn't that I can't view the pics...I can. What I would really like to see is Photo Chrome work properly with all machines. I think it's a shame that such a nice piece of software won't even run on a Mega STE at 16Mzh! best regards, Bob Brodie ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 51 Mon Dec 21, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 22:14 EST BOB (or anyone else) I would love to be able to find the TT_View program that you've mentioned so that I can view Spectrum pics on my TT. But when I followed your suggestion and did a search using the term PhotoChrome as the string (as well as TT_View), I got a whole bunch of files but not one of them says TT View or anything like it. Can you give me any more guidance on how to get this desirable program. Actually, if anybody does find this file, please let me know exactly how you did it, because I don't have a lot of success with file searches. Thanks. - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Monday, December 21, 1992 7:12 pm ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 52 Mon Dec 21, 1992 SANDY.W [sysop] at 23:01 EST I think the program Bob is referring to is VIEW132D. I'ed like to know how Bob got it so show PhotoChrome pics though. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 53 Tue Dec 22, 1992 MAG.SOFTWARE at 01:30 EST Bob, There's no way to write a program like PhotoChrome that will work on all machines. Actually, what would have to be done is separate code for each machine type. Timing is _very_ critical when displaying more colors on the screen than 'normal'. It is done in a completely illegal manner and there is no other way to do it. There is one way to display more colors on the screen than normal legally. But you can only display the nuber of displayable colors per scan line and switch the palette every scan line. (i.e. low rez displays 16 colors so one could display 16 colors per scan line and switch the palatte for every scan line.) This method would work on all machines with the same code, but the results would not be as impressive. This may be a little technical, and I'm not sure I explained it well enough. If anyone would like me to simplify it more, or explain it in more detail, just let me know. Jeffrey C. Davis New Demensions Computer Center New Dimensions Development Group (414)327-3311 ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 54 Wed Dec 23, 1992 T.GIRSCH [T.J.] at 01:24 EST Jeff - Couldn't you base the tight timing on the clock ticks? - T.J. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 55 Wed Dec 23, 1992 REALM [Joey] at 02:23 EST Bob, the Falcon shows all 32,000 colors legally doesn't it?:-) Seems like we really just need a viewer to legally handle the Photochrome format on the Falcon. How about a Photochrome to Prism Paint,TIFF file converter or something. Be nice to have a converter to take Falcon screens and turn them into Photchromes as well for ST users. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 56 Wed Dec 23, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 03:42 EST Jason, VIEW132D is what the folder is called, so the file must be here as VIEW132D.LZH or .ZIP. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 57 Wed Dec 23, 1992 MAG.SOFTWARE at 19:42 EST T.J. - Nope. The timing is _very_ close. it relies on the number of processor cycles it takes for each instruction. The 200Hz clock is _way_ to slow. - Jeff ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 58 Thu Dec 24, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 23:36 EST Al and Sandy, thanks for the file name for view132d. I did a search using the string, View132d.*, thinking that would yield the correct file but apparently GEnie doesn't work that way. But using the string VIEW gave me the correct file name (along with a bunch of others). The docs of this program seem to indicate that I should be able to view SPC pictures -- but I don't seem to have success with that. I've tried viewing an SPC pic in both ST and TT resolutions on my TT but I don't a clear picture at all. Anybody else able to view Spectrum (that's SPC and SPU pics, right) on a TT with this program? Also, I've also tried viewing SPC and SPU pics with the GEMVIEW program, also with no success. Is this program supposed to work with spc and spu? When I've loaded an spc or spu pic, it shows up in the Gemview viewing window as a bunch of hex numbers. - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Thursday, December 24, 1992 2:51 pm ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 59 Fri Dec 25, 1992 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 00:12 EST Jason. I have use Gemview and it works just fine even with SPC pictures. ST and TT work fine. PhotoChrome does not work on the TT and it does not not use a GEM interface. Ringo ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 60 Fri Dec 25, 1992 J.STANFORD2 [John@Lexicor] at 00:19 EST GEMVIEW 2.01 does a very nice job displaying SPC images in TT Low (I don't know about SPU). There is an option to view an image as hex but that must be selected as an option after the image is loaded and its put in a seprate window. I suspect that the view program you mention is for the ST and STe only and timing specific code prevents it from working on the TT. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 61 Fri Dec 25, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 14:04 EST Jason, Sorry to hear of your problem viewing SPC pics. I have no trouble viewing them with View_TT and with GEM-View. Have they been turned into SPS pics, by chance? BTW, Art Gallery by Charles Johnson is without a doubt the most versatile of the TT picture viewers, although it won't show Spectrums ... yet. Charles says it is impossible to show Spectrums on the TT, which can be translated as, "I just may get around to doing it some day." To be fair, the other apps show Spectrums by remapping the colors to 256 or less and tossing out the dithering. John@Lexicor, GEM-View doesn't need to be told to show a file in hex; it reverts to hex when it can't figure out the graphics format. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 62 Fri Dec 25, 1992 SANDY.W [sysop] at 20:24 EST Jason - GEnie does not accept * as a wild card. It literally looks for a *. The GEnie version of a wild card is to type just part of the keyword starting from the beginning of the word. Eg. VIEW132D, VIEW132, VIE, etc would have all brought up that file, along with however many other files had that string as part of its keyword, etc. I've really not used this program much, so it is hard to say about the spectrum pictures. It could be as simple as a conflict with some other auto/accessory you have loaded. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 63 Mon Dec 28, 1992 SAM-RAPP [<>] at 02:33 EST I am having some trouble with some GIF's I got off a local board and PHOTOCHROME (3.0).... When I try to load one, photochrome reads a small amout and then the system locks up. "GIFFER", a monochrome GIF viewer, says "Illegal GIF block type" when I feed it one of them. "BGIF" works as normal when converting them to spectrum. "GIFSHOW" also displays them OK. What could the problem be? I will be happy to E'mail one to someone to see if you have any luck. Any experts out there? ------------> Sam OH. I have a 2.5mb 1040ST w/TOS 1.0. If it matters. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 64 Mon Dec 28, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 05:08 EST Sam, The problem is those GIFs are either 89a or GIFLITE, both of which cause PhotoChrome to choke. DMJ wrote a program that will convert 89a GIFs to the 87a format that PhotoChrome (and all other GIF programs) can handle. It can also convert GIFLITE GIFs, but you must first change the header with a sector editor from 87a to 89a. This 'fools' the DMJ converter into thinking it's an 89a GIF, and it will then convert it to standard 87a format. Sorry I don't have a filename or number for that converter, but if you do a search on DMJ, it should bring it up. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 65 Mon Dec 28, 1992 REALM [Joey] at 05:58 EST Sam, Are they MAC GIF files? The MAC writes 128 Byte header onto the front of the GIF file. Theres a file in the library called Macvert that will strip it off, if it's there. I would suspect that might be your problem or the files are 89a GIF's. Theres also a program in the library to convert them to 87a GIF's. Other then those two problems I can't think of anything else except maybe they're bad or something. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 66 Mon Dec 28, 1992 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] at 06:12 EST Sam, Version 1.1 of DMJ's 89ato87a.prg will convert GIFLITE. I have it on a disk somewhere. Been tryin' for a couple of days to find it will upload when I find it. later, dave b 3:13:26 am, Monday, December 28, 1992 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 67 Tue Dec 29, 1992 SAM-RAPP [<>] at 20:27 EST I have 89 to 87 v1.0. It says they are already 87a. I will try to change the 87 to an 89 with a sector editor and see what that does.... Thanks for the help! --------------> Sam ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 68 Tue Dec 29, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:04 EST That should do it, Sam. MANY of the GIFs I've been getting are in GIFLITE, which does have an 87a header. Changing the 87a to 89a and then running DMJ's converter does the trick. BUT, you may need v1.1. I'm not sure if v1.0 handles GIFLITE pics. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 69 Thu Dec 31, 1992 SAM-RAPP [<>] at 19:06 EST Thanks for the help...... 1.0 worked OK when I changed the header. Does 1.1 automatically recognize GIFLITE? -----------> Sam ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 70 Thu Dec 31, 1992 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:57 EST Sam, I erred when I said you needed v1.1. I checked my version and it's 1.0[beta], though it was advertised as the "new version converts GIFLITE GIFs." So although it's the second release, I don't believe a v1.1 exists. I wish it DID automatically recognize GIFLITE, as that would make things MUCH easier. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 71 Fri Jan 01, 1993 S.FARWIG [STAN] at 15:25 EST I wonder if anyone has any helpful ideas on strange GIF problems I've encountered. I recently bought a CD_ROM drive and a disk with over 5,100 GIF files and was blissfully happy when the latest PHOTOCHROME had GIF enabled. Problem number one: whenever I copy a file from the CD disk to another drive and load the copy into PHOTOCHROME, about 3/4 of the image is blanked out. I thought the disk supplier must have a copy protection scheme going, but this seemed strange since he is offering a file description disk in MAXIMUS format for use on BBS. Problem number two: PHOTOCHROME freezes on certain of the files and a reboot is required. All files so far are in 87a format according to the DJM utility (don't know if some are in GIFLITE.) Following a suggestion here, I have changed the 87a to 89a to "fool" the DJM conversion utility, hoping this would make a difference, but a save with the DJM utility results in 0 bytes. So I have tried several methods to circumvent what I took to be the copy protection (after all the guy who produced the CD_ROM disk was using material that is clearly marked "copyrighted".) One method has produced a partial solution and presented new problems. This is Zocra's STyle program. Some of the files load into STyle and, when saved to another drive from STyle as a GIF, they load into PHOTOCHROME fine, without any blanking out of the image. Further, files from the CD DISK that caused PHOTOCHROME to freeze load into STyle readily and when saved back to another drive as GIF are readily accepted into PHOTOCHROME. BUT other files which PHOTOCHROME accepts without any problem cause STyle to put up a prompt, "Warning! Improper code in file" and the resultant image is the same as when a file is copied from the CD disk to another drive, the lower 3/4 is blanked out. This causes me to think I was mistaken in my assumption of copy protection. I can't figure out why PHOTOCHROME isn't disturbed by "improper code" in these files while STyle handles files that PHOTCHROME goes to sleep on. And I have only a partial method to copy files from the CD. Hopefully, the FALCON will make such problems obsolete. Meanwhile any help is gratefully received. Stan ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 72 Fri Jan 01, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 16:35 EST Stan, Wish I could help, but I haven't seen any problems like you described, and I've ran literally hundreds of GIFs through PhotoChrome. In fact, I've yet to see STyle or PhotoChrome choke on a GIF that wasn't 89a or GIFLITE. And I've yet to see 89a_87a create a 0 byte file, but I always check with my binary editor (LookIt!) for the GIFLITE string before changing the 87a to 89a to 'fool' 89a-87a. -----8<----- I saw a reference to FIXAGIF in Z*Net, and from the description, it looks pretty good. Unfortunately, I've yet to see it anywhere, and a search here for that string produced nothing. Does anyone have this utility, and if so, could you please upload it? ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 73 Fri Jan 01, 1993 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] at 23:21 EST hello there again, OUTRIDER, I also have fixagif and will upload it when this msg go out. had to reupload 89a_87a ver 1.1 it is now in the libs. later, dave b 3:36:48 pm, Friday, January 1, 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 74 Sat Jan 02, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 02:46 EST Dave, I got 89a_87a v1.1 earlier, and look forward to FIXAGIF. Thanks again! ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 76 Sat Jan 02, 1993 G.SLOAN at 19:56 EST Does anybody know what kinds of files can be converted with the file converter that was in the PhotoChrome Archive? The author states that it can load IFF24's from lightwave, but he also says that it _COULD_ load other stuff too. If anybody has ever tried loading in a .TIFF, .iff24, etc. successfully, please let me know. Thanks ;) Geoff ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 77 Sun Jan 03, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 14:04 EST Geoff, I think you misunderstood the docs. There are MANY different types of IFFs, and I've yet to see an ST program (PhotoChrome included) that can handle all of them. I believe what the author was saying was that it could load other types of IFFs. I doubt very seriously if it could convert a TIFF or any other format not specifically shown. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 78 Sun Jan 03, 1993 S.FARWIG [STAN] at 18:45 EST Terry: Thanks for your suggestions. I see FIXAGIF is now in the library (thanks too to Dave) and will give it a whirl, although I have my doubts that it will do the trick. I have yet to find a 89a or GIFLITE in LookIt. A suggestion over in the STyle topic suggested the ICD CD_ROM drive may be at fault, truncating files over XXk length. (And the ICD support topic is closed. Great!) Could be, although it is odd that copied files show the same size as the original but the data is largely kaput. And I am really bugged that STyle shows "Improper code in file" when those same files load without difficulty into every other program I have that reads GIF format. Anyone have ideas about maintaining the ratio aspect in PHOTOCHROME? GIF2RAW does a fine job as long as the original is in "landscape" orientation, but it badly clips files such as a 397X1084 job on my disk. Scrolling would be a welcome feature on PHOTOCHROME. Thanks again for the help. Stan ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 79 Sun Jan 03, 1993 G.SLOAN [Geoff] at 18:58 EST Terry, are there any programs out yet to convert TIFF's to RAW's, GIF's SPC's, or SPU's? I'd like to find a decent public domain or shareware viewer. The thing that I was enquiring about was the Real to Raw program that was included with the PCHROME3.LZH archive. Maybe I made a mistake and thought that TIFF is a form of IFF. Well, thanks Terry. Later, Geoff ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 80 Sun Jan 03, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:31 EST Stan, If there's no 89a or GIFLITE in the GIFs, I don't know what the problem could be, unless it's just plain data that's not supposed to be there. I've been using STyle since its inception, and likewise, PhotoChrome, and have never had a problem with either on standard 87a GIFs. Let us know if Fix-A-GIF helps. I don't have any GIFs, currently, to 'fix,' but it looks like a nice program. I'm sure some 'fixable' GIFs will start rolling in via PixNet very soon. :^) -----8<----- Geoff, STyle, from Zocra Technologies, will load NEO, P??, TN?, FL?, IM, IMG, BMP, PCX, LBM, IFF, GIF, EPS, CP8, MAC and yes, TIF formats, and save to NEO, PI?, TNY, FL8, IM, IMG, PCX, BMP, GIF, EPS, CP8, MAC and yes, TIF formats. :^) It comes with many scaling and rendering options. Combined with STipple, also from Zocra, they make quite a formidable pair. Both programs are commercial. Further info can be found in the library (search for ZOCRA). There is also a demo of STyle in the library. For a decent shareware viewer, I recommend GEM-View (GVIEW201.LZH) as an excellent all-around program. It's limited in what it can save, but it loads a plethora of formats, works in all resolutions (ST, TT and Falcon), and has flexible scaling and rendering. That said, I MUCH prefer the STipple/STyle combo, so I rarely use GEM-View, but if you're looking for something NOW, GEM-View is the thing to get. And if you're looking for just a simple GIF viewer, I have other recommendations as well. :^) ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 81 Mon Jan 04, 1993 J.ANDREWS23 [Jeff Andrews] at 22:57 EST For those of you who have mentioned Photochrome's inability to run at 16MHz on a MegaSTE, I suggest you grab the DMJ freeware file from the 475;3 library called MHZ11.LZH (it's file #25915). This is a hot-key setup that allows you to change from 16MHz with the cache to 8MHz without the cache by pressing . This can be done while viewing Spectrum pictures, but not while viewing Photochrome pictures. For the 19200/32767 pictures, you can use the hot-key switch right before converting a picture or a batch of pictures, and then, once the application is exited, switch it right back for viewing purposes (either with PCSClick, or PCSView). This is just a minor workaround, not a solution, but it does take some of the monotony out of pulling up the Control Panel, then the General Setup box, then, finally, the speed box - for the Nth time. (And thanks to the guys at Lexicor for giving me the tip about this program awhile back). 8^> (Re-reading what I have written, it appears a bit unclear. The point was supposed to be that the hot-keys serve as a speed toggle - back and forth between 8MHz/noCache & 16MHz/Cache. The high speed is used during the converting process, and the low speed is used to view the converted pictures. And it seems to me that you might even be able to pick which keys are used for the hot-key sequence... Anyway, if you have a MegaSTE, you shouldn't be without this file. It's only 8k long, and the price couldn't be any lower ). ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 82 Tue Jan 05, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 00:11 EST Gem view is "limited in what it can save"??? I didn't know it could save AT ALL! How do you get it to save pics? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 83 Wed Jan 06, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:19 EST As far as I know, GEM-View has always had save capabilities, but it's limited to XIMG (a color IMG) format. Fortunately, STyle supports XIMG, so you can load the pic and convert it to another format, if so desired. To get to GEM-View's save feature, just click on the Atari Fuji logo and follow the prompts. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 84 Wed Jan 06, 1993 S.FARWIG [STAN] at 22:34 EST Terry: since you asked for it, I'll offer an opinion on FIXAGIF: it's a CHAMPION! I still have no idea what's going on to cause these problems, but between FIXAGIF & STyle they're s-l-o-w-ly being corrected. To recapitulate, Problem #1: any copy from the CD_ROM disk resulted in all files losing most of their data. This was, at times, solved by loading the file into STyle and saving to a different drive. But... Problem #2 some files that loaded into PHOTOCHROME, as well as some files that would not, brought a "improper code in file" prompt from STyle and would result in files with most of the data missing again. (A desirable future addition to STyle would be the option to ABORT with the "improper code" message rather than waiting for the truncated file to be possesssed.) FIXAGIF does indeed fix the files and they are readily accepted by both STyle and PHOTOCHROME. I came across the first 89a Gif on the CD (lord, 5140 GIFS are a lot to wander through), and the 89a would load in neither STyle or PHOTOCHROME. The DMJ 89a- 87a program again truncated the file (130+K to 40+K), but FIXAGIF using the 87a option flawlessly produced a usable file. Loud CHEERS for Lonny Pursell! I agree that PHOTOCHROME is the best graphic thing to hit the ST since SPECTRUM 512. When I send my shareware fee I will, however, wish for two things: that PHOTCHROME recognize the JRI color board, that it would preserve the aspect ratio when "squashing". Yours for ever better graphics on ATARI computers. Stan ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 85 Thu Jan 07, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 01:42 EST Stan, Glad to hear that Fix-A-GIF worked for you! I still haven't had a chance to try it. (All GIFs coming in through PixNet have been 87a lately.) Seems EVERYONE wishes PhotoChrome would retain aspect ratio when squashing (at least as an option). I hope that makes it into the next update. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 86 Thu Jan 07, 1993 H.WOOTAN [Harry] at 23:08 EST I'll try to read all the earlier messages. (Another Aladdin Topic Update!!) In the meantime ..... I have an ST (not STe, not TT). Can I use PHOTOCHROME? If not, can I use something else to view all these PCS pictures? PCSVIEW, for example? Do I have to switch back to 8MHz to do so? (I'm using a T-16@16MHz.) -- Harry ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 87 Fri Jan 08, 1993 C.WARD7 [Craig] at 00:43 EST When I run PSCLICK, I don't seem to be able to exit without a reboot. PCSVIEW seems to hang on the first PCS picture it loads and flickers. I run on a ST with TOS 2.06 and 4 MEG. What is the key to exit PSCLICK? Thanks in advance. Craig ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 88 Fri Jan 08, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 04:10 EST Harry, PhotoChrome has regular ST modes, but I'm not sure how it handles STE pics on a regular ST, or even IF it handles them. The ST modes give you 4096 colors out of a 4096 color palette, I believe. Use either PCSVIEW3 or PCSCLICK as a viewer. -----8<----- Craig, You should be able to exit from PCSCLICK by pressing either the space bar or the right mouse button. If neither of those work, try booting from a clean system and see if they work then. However, at least one person has reported he's unable to exit with either of these methods, even after booting on a completely clean system. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 89 Fri Jan 08, 1993 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 09:00 EST Photochrome works fine on a stock 520 with 1 meg. I don't know about the accel board. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 90 Fri Jan 08, 1993 K.SCHAFER4 [Necromancer] at 22:53 EST There is a nasty little problem when using Mhz11 with Warp 9. It causes my MSTe to think the carrier detect on the modem is constantly being dropped, and then pulled back up. I think Damien may have spent too many cycles checking for your key-combos. But to be fair, hot-keys are not an easy thing to do. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 91 Sat Jan 09, 1993 T.GIRSCH [TJ@EuroGames] at 06:23 EST Craig - Try "going nuts" on both mouse buttons. That's how I used to get out. - T.J. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 92 Sat Jan 09, 1993 S.HOLMES1 [Scott H.] at 15:19 EST I am having trouble too with the PCS file viewers. I have PCSVIEW.PRG and PCSVIEW3.PRG, both of which load the files and show the files ok, but upon exiting the programs (via Esc key) 99% of the time it gives 3 bombs and the other 1% it causes a reboot. Anyone else get this, and is there a fix? Also I have tried PCSCLICK.APP and I can get it to load a PCS file, but can't exit it (no keys or mouse buttons seem to help). I know that I am not alone with this problem. I am viewing these pics on an ST TOS 1.04 and yes I tried it on a bare system....same result as when loaded with TSR's and ACC's. Also to the people that have created SPX files with PhotoChrome, I was wondering what format you were saving the frames in? Scott H. Saturday January 09, 1993 03:08 p.m. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 93 Sat Jan 09, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 16:08 EST Scott, Sorry, I can't help you with your viewer problem... Regarding SPX frames, I've been saving to Spectrum 4096, using the "Clean" and "All Colours" settings. When cutting your frames, keep in mind that Spectrum is only 320x199, but your PhotoChrome frame is 320x200, so the bottom row of pixels in your PhotoChrome frame is lost. Therefore, the last row of your first frame should be the same as the top row of your second frame; the last row of your second frame should be the same as the top row of your third frame; etc. This actually makes it easier to match frames, though if you have a ???x600 GIF, three rows of pixels will be lost. No biggy. :^) ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 94 Sat Jan 09, 1993 C.WARD7 [Craig] at 16:24 EST >You should be able to exit from PCSCLICK by pressing either the space bar or >the right mouse button. If neither of those work... Thanks, I'll give it a try, but I believe I already try that. With the MicroTime RAMDISK and printer buffer enabled, I have just over 3 meg of free memory. I have a notepad, CLI and XCONTROL accessories loaded and some TSRs. I hope it's not one of them. Photochrome itself runs fine and nicely converts pics to Specturm format. Is there a way for it to load PCS files? Craig -- C.WARD7 ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 95 Sat Jan 09, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:59 EST Craig, PhotoChrome itself will not load PCS files. You need either PCSCLICK or PCSVIEW[3]. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 96 Mon Jan 11, 1993 T.PLOWMAN [BEER GOD] at 01:32 EST Does anyone know of any programs to convert JPEG files into something that Photochrome can use, such as GIF or RAW files? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 97 Mon Jan 11, 1993 S.HOLMES1 [Scott H.] at 19:52 EST Terry, Thanks for the info about SPX files...will give it a try. As for the viewer problems I am sure that there will be updates in the future and other viewers that will come out. Scott H. Monday January 11, 1993 07:32 p.m. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 98 Tue Jan 12, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 00:24 EST Beer God (:^), There is a JPG<->GIF converter in the library. It does a decent job. Do a search on JPEG or JPG and you should find it. ((( Terry ))) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 99 Sun Jan 17, 1993 J.THOMAS12 [JT] at 03:17 EST For those that need a driver for their JRI boards, there was one loaded on Genie awhile back, its name is EPD10, and i've found it to work on my 4meg 520STm w/JRI color board very well. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 100 Sun Jan 17, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 13:23 EST Quite a few of the GIF's I've been obtaining from local BBS's cause Photochrome to bomb spectacularly. I've tried Fixagif on them, but Fixagif chokes and states they have an "unknown parameter block". I tried the 89a to 87a converter program and it tells me that the GIF already is an 87a. Anybody know what's going on here? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 101 Sun Jan 17, 1993 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] at 16:48 EST David, Using 89a->87a version 1.1 (here on genie as 89a87a11.lzh) it will tell you it is already in 87a format if it is a GIFLITE gif. It will then ask if you want to fiddle with it anyway? answer yes. after the above you should be able to use Photochrome or DMJ_gif with no problems. later, dave b 1:17:00 pm, Sunday, January 17, 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 102 Sun Jan 17, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 20:39 EST David, Make sure there not MAC GIF's. The MAC files have a 128 Byte header on it that has to be removed. If you show the file to screen and it doesn't have the 89a or 87a at the very beginning it's incorrect. I know nothing I have loads them without reporting some sort of error. Just use MACVERT to strip the header of or use a Byte editor to delete the first 128 Bytes (up to the 87a or 89a). ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 103 Fri Jan 29, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 03:04 EST Could someone explain what it is about a plain ST's architecture that prohibits it from using the 19200 display mode -- even with a JRI color board installed w/the EPD10 driver? Thanks ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 104 Sat Jan 30, 1993 J.THOMAS12 [JT] at 02:05 EST Brian, I wouldn't know, I am using a 520STm w 4 meg, EPD10 driver and JRI board, adn Photochrome works fine here. John ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 105 Sat Jan 30, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 03:40 EST John, well it works fine for me too, except a couple of the display options are disabled (like the Photochrome 19200 mode) and I don't know why. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 106 Sat Jan 30, 1993 MIKE-ALLEN [NM~SysOp] at 16:13 EST PhotoChrome requires the extended pallette hardware in the STe and MSte to display in the 19200 mode. Mike ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 107 Sun Jan 31, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 01:41 EST Mike, I don't want to seem like I'm harping on this point, but... My understanding from John Russell is that his color board functions in exactly the same manner as the hardware in an STe. Some programs have, seemingly, unusual ways of determing what machine is used--like looking at the TOS version. GFA Raytrace has one function (viewing animations, I recall) that's disabled on 520s but available on 1040s. The difference being 1/2 a meg. But with 4mb in a 520, the feature is still disabled. Empirically speaking, I think Photochrome might be one of these. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 108 Sun Jan 31, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 23:21 EST Howdy, Has anyone here gotten ahold of Douglas Little? I have noticed an address in the docs that I could write to but I thought I'd try here first. I've been working with PhotoChrome v3.00 a bunch over the last couple of weeks and I'm ready for the next version! I'm experiencing extra mouse clicks when selecting a source GIF picture. This sometimes causes it to reload and process the same picture which, as many of you know, can take a while. I'm also wondering about the future of the PSC format. How are going to edit and use these pictures? ===Tomas=== January 31, 1993 @ 6:23:52 pm PST ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 109 Mon Feb 01, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 01:37 EST It might be smart to change the PSC format to something along the lines of .TGA, .TIF or something. I imagine a few more will pop up when the Falcon appears. Maybe you can get Lexicor to support the PSC format with their new paint programs? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 110 Tue Feb 02, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 01:38 EST Hi Joey, I think I heard Bob Brodie say that the slideshow we've seen on the Falcons was displaying Targa pics. Or, at least they started out that way. I think you're right about Lexicor, they are in a good position to help define the file standards for the newer resolutions. It's hard to say what will happen. But, it's hard to put a lot of time into a format that can't as yet be edited or used in DTP and such. BTW, isn't it PCS? ;-) ===Tomas=== February 01, 1993 @ 8:29:33 pm PST ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 111 Tue Feb 02, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 18:54 EST Tomas, I thought it was PMS?:-) Sorry, I've got so many extenders floating around in my head I can't keep any of them straight.:-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 112 Wed Feb 03, 1993 W.PARKS3 [Dr. Bob] at 00:28 EST Is that "Pre-Marketed-Syndrome" ? ;-) Bye: Dr. Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 113 Wed Feb 03, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 02:08 EST Joey, ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 114 Thu Feb 04, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 00:10 EST Dr.Bob, Yeah thats it!:-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 115 Mon Feb 15, 1993 D.ALVEAR1 [Dom Alvear] at 04:59 EST In Message 99 on Sat Jan 17, 1993, J.THOMAS12 writes: > For those that need a driver for their JRI boards, there was one > loaded on Genie awhile back, its name is EPD10, and i've found it to > work on my 4meg 520STm w/JRI color board very well. Thanks for the tip. I haven't downloaded this yet, but is it solely for the JRI 4096 color board or does it work with the JRI SIMM boards as well? I already have the driver that came with the board, but maybe this one works better? (I also have the color board, but figured somebody with the SIMM board might want to know...) In Message 103 on Fri Jan 29, 1993, B.KOLINS1 writes: > Could someone explain what it is about a plain ST's architecture > that prohibits it from using the 19200 display mode -- even with a JRI > color board installed w/the EPD10 driver? How about this one? I have 2 Mega ST4's, one with a color board, and one without. The one WITHOUT a color board gets ALL the options (this includes PCS-STE and the 19.2K options), while the one WITH the color board gets the ST- only options? What gives? Both Mega's have TOS 1.04, but the color board equipped one has a 6-chip TOS. The other one has a 2-chip TOS? This is REALLY weird. My guess is that PhotoChrome does some goofy checking to see how many TOS chips you have. Could somebody else verify this for me? It's driving me INSANE!!! I'll try popping the color board into the 2-chip Mega later, but I still want to know why this is happening! In Message 104 on Sat Jan 30, 1993 J.THOMAS12 writes: > I wouldn't know, I am using a 520STm w/4 meg, EPD10 driver and [a] > JRI [color] board, and Photochrome works fine here. Just wondering, what PhotoChrome options do you get? And do the STe options show the right number of colors? Or do they look messed up? A good way to tell is to run it with and without the EPD10 driver. If the pictures look the same, then the STe modes don't work. In Message 105 on Sat Jan 30, 1993 B.KOLINS1 writes: > Well it works fine for me too, except a couple of the display > options are disabled (like the Photochrome 19200 mode) and I don't > know why. See above. I'm going nuts! %^P In Message 106 on Sat Jan 30, 1993 MIKE-ALLEN writes: > PhotoChrome requires the extended pallette hardware in the STe and > MSte to display in the 19200 mode. This is what the JRI color board is supposed to give you, but I can't even access these because PhotoChrome thinks there is some difference between my two Mega's that I can't figure out! The ONLY difference I can see it the number of TOS chips. ARGH!!! In Message 107 on Sun Jan 31, 1993 B.KOLINS1 writes: > Some programs have, seemingly, unusual ways of determing what > machine is used--like looking at the TOS version. And maybe the number of chips too??? Dom P.S. What happened here? Did everybody die after the Stuperbowl? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 116 Tue Feb 16, 1993 J.THOMAS12 [JT] at 02:08 EST Dom, you have to have the dual shifters installed for it to work. EPD10 allows you to use a CPX module to access all 4096 colors. I have only used the viewer, so I really cannot tell if all functions are accessible in the other program. I will download it and see what I can find out. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 117 Tue Feb 16, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 02:20 EST Dom, I couldn't have said it better myself! Maybe we'll get to the bottom of this, finally--'Cause it's bugging the heck out of me, too. ...Number of TOS chips. I wouldn't be surprised. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 118 Wed Feb 17, 1993 D.ALVEAR1 [Dom Alvear] at 18:34 EST In Message 116 on Tue Feb 16, 1993 J.THOMAS12 writes: > You have to have the dual shifters installed for it to work. EPD10 > allows you to use a CPX module to access all 4096 colors. I do have the dual shifters installed. It works fine with the .CPX module as well. I am glad that EPD10 exists since I can now use my extended palette in other programs. > I have only used the viewer, so I really cannot tell if all > functions are accessible in the other program. I will download it and > see what I can find out. Please do. What you are seeing on your screen may or may not actually be a 4096 color screen. I am not sure whether the PhotoChrome viewers check to make sure they are on a 4096 color capable machine or not, but the program itself does some weird checking on its own to determine the type of machine. Dom ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 119 Wed Feb 17, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Dom, I have six chip TOS 1.00 and photochrome gives me all options. I tried it on an STe at users group and was really impressed with the quality of the rendering on the machine with the extra palette. Brian, sorry I don't have that topic flagged. And I assume we are on topic. :-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 120 Wed Feb 17, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 22:51 EST See Flat, Huh? ---Are you _sure_ you're getting all the options? BK ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 121 Mon Feb 22, 1993 D.ALVEAR1 [Dom Alvear] at 05:11 EST See Flat: I would like to echo Brian's comment. ARE YOU SURE? Do you get all six options? Or just four? And if you are getting six, then I have NO idea what the program is doing to check what kind of ST it's on. Brian: What kind of ST do you have again? Dom ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 122 Tue Feb 23, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 00:12 EST Dom, It's a no-frills 520 motherboard, stuffed in a tower enclosure with TOS 1.4, a 4mb Aerco board, JRI color board, Fast Tech 25mhz accelerator, and 68881 mathco. I also have a stock 1040... The available options are the same with either. ---Oh, and I am using the EPD10 driver for the color board. Have you thought, if even for a moment, we're not going to get anywhere with this? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 123 Sat Feb 27, 1993 B.PLATT1 [BP] at 11:13 EST auto folder. I did not know that there was no word wrap on here... Now I am a bit agitated because I spent 3 minutes typing stuff and then got a message said LINE TOO LONG Anyway, my question was...Is there anyway to force Spectrum to recognize the 4096 color pics from PCHROME......... /s sav /sav ] well I will keep tuping in crap until I figure out how to save this message. I hope Genie gets their crap together and implements a more logical system that is a bit in line with the majority of BBS's like using /s to save or send a message ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 124 Sat Feb 27, 1993 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] at 12:11 EST BP, Please see my reply in EMail on how to send a message. *******Brian********* Written on Saturday 27 February 1993 at 12:21 p.m. AST ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 125 Sat Feb 27, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 16:55 EST BP, Ever try using the program called Aladdin?. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Saturday, February 27, 1993 - 4:31:48 pm ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 126 Sat Feb 27, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 17:39 EST BP, Aladdin will solve your message problems. You can do all your typing offline and then call back. Much better then trying to enter messages online. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 127 Sat Feb 27, 1993 D.ALVEAR1 [Dom Alvear] at 21:53 EST Brian, Well, both your ST's have 6-chip TOS sets, so I am betting on the 2-chip hypothesis. :-) I'll run over to my dealer some time this weekend or next week to test it. Dom P.S. How do you like the Turbo-25? I'll be getting one soon. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 128 Sun Feb 28, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 23:16 EST Dom, Your hypothesis sounds reasonable. I like my T-25 a whole big bunch -- And Jim's support is the best. I had problems with 3 different AdSpeeds before I switched. The T-25's rock solid. Take note though... If you still want Spectrum compatibility, Jim may have to install his "special" fix. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 129 Thu Mar 04, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:51 EST BP, You need Aladdin. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 130 Wed Mar 10, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 00:38 EST My two complaint with Photochrome are that it won't maintain the right ratio when it shrinks an image, and it won't correctly handle Targa files produced from JPEG4BIN. Anyone know if a newer version might be around? ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 131 Wed Mar 10, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 02:58 EST Jonathan, Have you confirmed that the Targa files created by JPEG4BIN are valid? I assumed the problem was with JPEG4BIN and not PhotoChrome. I'm not sure if I have another program that supports Targa files so I can check. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 132 Thu Mar 11, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 04:00 EST Have any of you folks noticed any weirdness with the mouse in Photocrome? I find that my mouse gets itchy and selects the previously loaded file for me and causes it to load a second time. ===Tomas=== March 10, 1993 @ 11:48:12 pm PST ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 133 Thu Mar 11, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 06:12 EST Tomas, Yes on the mouse stickyness! __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 134 Fri Mar 12, 1993 B.PLATT1 [BP] at 00:37 EST Well I got Aladdin, and I am not impressed, maybe it will make sense sometime.....but not now.......I have photochrome and am impressed with it.....except for the inevitable crahes that I get with certain GIFS, and the flickering...although the flickering only sems to be bad with light colored pictures, and some GIFS, IFF files don't seem to flicker too much.......wish I could edit those 4096 color spec..pics though.......Well I am going to see if I can actually U-Load this message :') BP ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 135 Fri Mar 12, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] at 02:02 EST Tomas, Yeah, don't you just hate that? I thought it was just me being heavy handed on the mouse or something. I am glad I am not alone, but it would be nice to have that little bug squashed. -- Lou -- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 136 Fri Mar 12, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:26 EST This program begs for a GEM interface. If we had that, I'll bet we wouldn't have some of these annoyances, like sticking mice. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 137 Sat Mar 13, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] at 01:27 EST Terry, Maybe we might get a GEM interface in PhotoChrome4 if there is one. -- Lou -- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 138 Sat Mar 13, 1993 R.MARTIN22 [NETWORK 23] at 02:18 EST BP: Keep at it! Aladdin is a fantastic program! Just forget your preconceptions about normal terminal programs. Believe me, it will be well worth the trouble to get Aladdin set up right. Plus, Aladdin 2.0 is in the works (I'm beta- testing it now!), and it's a vast improvement over 1.5. Live And Direct [9:48 PM-12/Mar/93], Rod Martin, Network 23/ST Connection PS: Love that Photochrome! (Topic Cop appeasement) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 139 Sat Mar 13, 1993 D.ALVEAR1 [Dom Alvear] at 04:44 EST To B.PLATT1: >> off topic comment mode on << I would like to echo the comments about using Aladdin. What version do you have? You should get the latest version in any case. I used to access GEnie using a terminal program, but now I only do that very rarely. In fact, if I need to go on "manually" I use Aladdin as well. What doesn't impress you? Ever since I switched to Aladdin, I don't ever see myself going back. It makes using GEnie much easier. Now we can only wish that GEnie would stop charging for 9600 baud even when you are in "Basic" areas. And we could also pray that they would figure out how to speed the system up so that it doesn't slow down to a dead snail's pace. If you want to practice using Aladdin, I suggest using the ST Aladdin RT at page 1000. It's a "Basic" area, so you can work out your problems there. >> off topic comment mode off << To all: Has anybody verified the problem with PChrome's weird way of choosing on which type of ST it is running? To recap, I have two Mega ST4's, one with a 2-chip TOS 1.04 set and one with a 6-chip TOS 1.04 set. PChrome gives me all six options on the 2-chip Mega, but deletes the "STe" options on my 6-chip Mega leaving me with four. My hypothesis is that PChrome finds some difference by the number of TOS chips? Any ideas? Dom ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 140 Sat Mar 13, 1993 B.PLATT1 [BP] at 12:59 EST Well I cannot believe my last message actually got somewhere.. Actually I would like to see Aladdin look and feel a bit more like Stalker 3 I have several questions, mostly off topic.... so the topic cops can come arrest me if they want :') Does anyone know how to properly input the command line into DJPEG4 to get it to output a Targa file with only 19000 colors... I am stupid so I need the actual command line letter for letter... Do I need to write in the word Djpeg, do i need to put in the - befor I write colors, is colors N supposed to be written -colors 19000, is the space necessary. I need to make some TGA pics for PHOTOCHROME (oh no I am gonna sue the topics cops for a false arrest !!) I read about all the bugs in PCHROME3, but have not experienced any of them.... Actually I have never experienced any bugs except that keystroke repeat when using the slideshow program, BTW this also happen with the slideshow program that came with Deluxe Paint.. When I hear the repeated keystrokes I hit the BKSP key. I think it has something to do with the file name line getting screwed up. the BKSP key always fixes this. In the DP slideshow the keyclicks come up when the Fileselector comes up and there is usaully a garbage charactar in the last spavce on the line.... I believe it is also the same as with the Pchrome slide show, anyway the BKSP key fixes that. Has anyone used a program called VIEW132d. This is the perfect companion to PCHROME3. I couldn't think of using PCHROME without it. It allows you to load in a GIF and save it as a raw file. It allows you to scale a picture, and serves as a perfect picture viewer for simple pictures(NEO, Degas etc.) It supports TGA, RAW, 24bit IFF(you can scale these) HAM, 24bit IMG, plus all standard Atari formats esp. SP?(Spectrum. I converted all my spectrum pictures to RAW and back to spectrum via the VIEW132D/PHOTOCHROME combo and got rid of all the sync problems and errors(spot noise ie little random black dots and such). The most, important thing is that if I feed VIEW132D a bad GIF it gives an error and goes back to the desktop, unlike the spectacular 1000000000000000 bomb crash that PCHROME gives:') Has anyone noticed that PCS pictures flicker quite a bit when it is given very light colored pictures. Darker pictures do not seem to flicker as bad. This is another reason I use VIEW132D; to see the picture so I know what kind of image to produce with PCHROME... I have not noticed the sluggish mouse problem either.. Is anyone using MACCEL along with PCHROME. I have found MACCEL to screw up my mouse with erratic movements.. That may be causing the problem, actually I have found only one mouse accerator proggie that works smoothly and is compatible with everything I throw at it... It is called TURBOMOUSE... I have no idea where I got it, I'll see if it is hereon GENIE... Maybe someday i will learn to upload...... I hope this helps some who have been having problems with PCHROME, sorry it is so long, but I am not sure if I am going to be able to duplicate my extraordinary feat posting another message here. I am not sure how I did it last time:') BP ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 141 Sat Mar 13, 1993 MIKE.KELLER [ST Aladdin] at 17:57 EST >>Well I cannot believe my last message actually got somewhere.. Actually I would like to see Aladdin look and feel a bit more like Stalker 3 If you have some specific suggestions, visit us at page 1000 in the ST Aladdin RT. It's a Basic RT, so you can hang out there while getting up to speed in ST Aladdin. mike.k ===Tomas=== 03-15-93 @ 16:09 PST ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 149 Wed Mar 17, 1993 VANDENHEUVEL at 01:16 EST Anyone out there using Photochrome on a accelerated (ala ADSPEED or T16) STE?? I just got a 1040STE w/an ADSPEED installed and Photochrome no longer displays the pics right (the color smears badly across the screen like the sync is off). And yes, I've tried it at 8MHz. It still doesn't work..but SPX and Spectrum do. Oh well I'd really like to get the ability to see PCS files back, but I gues I might have to wait for DMJGIF 4.0..that's supposed to support PCS and I know Damien will make sure it works on ADSPEED equipped machines. --Dirk- - ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 150 Wed Mar 17, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 13:37 EST Dirk, I don't run Pchrome ordinarily, but I've tried the versions that are in the library here on my 1040 4-meg/AdSpeed ST and it runs fine at the 8 mHz setting. It doesn't run on my TT, and I wish it did. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 151 Wed Mar 17, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 18:35 EST Doug, Now the question is, what does that do?. I can't find it in the manual... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Wednesday, March 17, 1993 - 3:33:22 pm ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 152 Wed Mar 17, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 20:06 EST Dirk, does the Adspeed use a CACHE? I noticed somethings on the Mega STE could be fixed by turning the CACHE off. One of them was Vidi ST. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 153 Wed Mar 17, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:55 EST Has anyone had any luck with loading Targa files into PhotoChrome? I've created Targa files with both JPEGBIN4 and GEM-View, but none of them load correctly into PhotoChrome. I'm not sure if the JPEGBIN4 Targa files are legit, but at least the GEM-View ones load correctly back into GEM-View. I'd love to check out some of these 24-bit JPEG pics, by converting them to Targa and then loading them into PhotoChrome, but so far, no luck. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 154 Thu Mar 18, 1993 M.POCHE [Mick] at 02:26 EST Terry - I believe that for PhotoChrome to correctly display Targa files they must be 320x200 pictures. It does a nice job with Targa's I've created with Phoenix in this resolution. - Mick ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 155 Thu Mar 18, 1993 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 04:03 EST I saw the nice slideshow program on the falcon that displays Targa pics with fancy scrolling between each picture. Looked as good as Targas I've seen on PCs. I was dissapointed to find out Photochrome would not display Targas on my 4 meg 520 or on the Falcon. I couldn't get anything to display on the Falcon using Photochrome. I suspect it's the 16Mhz that's messing things up? -Pv- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 156 Thu Mar 18, 1993 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 04:18 EST Dirk, I first used Photochrome on my 4 meg 1.4 TOS 520 with ADspeed. Worked fine when I switch to 8 MHz (same as I do when viewing things in Spectrum. -Pv- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 157 Thu Mar 18, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 06:57 EST Joey, The AdSpeed's documentation makes no mention of any way to disable the cache in the 16-mHz 68000 CPU. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 158 Thu Mar 18, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 08:34 EST Paul. Photochrome doesn't even work on a TT and for the Falcon just use the Targa viewer or Gemview it will display TGAs or get a paint program from us Lexicor! Ringo ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 159 Thu Mar 18, 1993 D.WALTER7 [Doug Walter] at 19:18 EST Jeff, If you are referring to UIS3, then: There is a read.me file that came with versions 3.1. It mentioned that some programs were looking for screen redraws under the UIS window, where in fact, UIS3 was "saving" it rather than redrawing it. The toggle (dark title bar) turns the save function off and allows screen redraws. On my TT, it has a great deal of effect on greater than stock screen rezs and color levels, so I thought it might apply to you also. Did it help? If you are not referring to UIS3, then: nevermind :-) Doug7 ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 160 Thu Mar 18, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:05 EST Mick, Thanks for the info. I would think that PhotoChrome would at least show the upper left 320x200 section of a larger Targa file, as it does for IFFs. But in my tests, it merely shows garbage. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 161 Fri Mar 19, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] at 01:46 EST Paul, I have heard that the Mega STEs have a software based switch that will set the machine to 8 MHz in order to use software that was sensitive to it (ie Spectrum 512), does such a exist on the Falcon? If not, there should be in case one wants to drop down to 8 MHz for certain applications. -- Lou T.-- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 162 Fri Mar 19, 1993 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 05:19 EST Lou, I may be mistaken, but I believe the STe has speed function very similar to Adspeed. It's a dual speed processor that's 8 MHz bumped up to 16. It can be switched as ADSpeed can. The 030 in the Falcon is a true 16 MHz only processor that can't be switched down. Al, I don't think the Photochrome problem the person you are responding to is with the ADSpeed or its cache. The ADSpeed cache is more directed to processor instructions to the other components in the ST rather than a directory and FAT cache as most people are familiar with. Disabling the cache on the ADspeed (you're right - impossible) would make it unable to talk to the other parts of the system that are still running at 8 MHz. I installed a hardware switch on my 520 case for the ADSpeed so I can switch the speed within programs that don't provide an accessory slot so I can do it there. Those starting Photochrome in 16 MHz ADSpeed won't be able to switch to the proper speed for display. I've known the accesory to not switch the speed sometimes too. I like the hardware switch. Saved a lot of potential inconviences. Thanks for the note Ringo. I'll make a not to buy every lexicor program there is. Really! Saving my money... I wish I could get my local Atari dealer to stock Lexicor products so I can see them without the demos. That would also give me a chance to review them for the ST Lamp. I'll have to talk to them... -Pv- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 163 Fri Mar 19, 1993 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 05:22 EST Correction!!! I was supposed to make a NOTE not a NOT. Looked real confusing didn't it? :> -Pv- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 164 Fri Mar 19, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 18:24 EST Lou, The Falcon doesn't have a speed switch, software or hardware. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 165 Sat Mar 20, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] at 03:03 EST Paul Varn, You are correct, thanks for reminding me. I believe that the slowest the 68030 chip can go is 16MHz. So that a switchable speed on the Falcon will probably not be possible to drop down to 8MHz... Oh well... -- Lou T.-- ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 166 Sat Mar 20, 1993 B.PLATT1 [BP] at 10:26 EST Mike K. I have this Aladdin running now, but I only have floppy drives, so If I want to acess any other areas I will need to set this Aladdin thing up again to acess those other areas. Sorry about the offtopic comments. BP Terry, To convert to Raw while in ViewST- Hit the key while the picture is being displayed. Since Pchrome was intended primarily for using the RAW picture format, there are generally alot less problems. I heard that DMJ was coming out with a GIF conversion program that is even better than P-Chrome---More colors/less flicker.... BP ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 167 Sat Mar 20, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 12:59 EST Doug, Nice idea but Photochrome still bombs. It bombs right after UIS is done deleting/renaming/whatever to the file. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Saturday, March 20, 1993 - 8:35:24 am ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 168 Sat Mar 20, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 13:04 EST BP, Thanks for the info. I already tried saving to .RAW in ViewST, and it worked as advertised. Unfortunately, PhotoChrome clips .RAW pics, as it provides no scaling options. Therefore, if your pic is > 320x200 it's fairly worthless. For that reason, like choosey mothers, I'll choose GIF. ;^) I'd still like to know if anyone has had any success in converting from Targa files. PhotoChrome has choked on all Targa files I've created with GEM-View 2.20 and JPEGBIN4. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 169 Sat Mar 20, 1993 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 20:19 EST Terry, I had the same thing happen to me with GEMview TGA's fed into Photochrome, nada but garbage. When I try the same TGA in ViewST, it tells me that it doesn't accept RLE-encoded TGA's and quits. Oddly, some IFF's from GEMview work in Photochrome and others don't. I think it has something to do with the format you're converting from. Some of the GEMview GIF's I tried in Photochrome had vertical lines in 'em. Hard to say whose at fault, maybe a limitation in Photochrome or GEMview? - Mel ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 170 Sat Mar 20, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:21 EST Mel, I think those GIFs with vertical lines in them are bogus. Have you tried loading them into something else -- even back into GEM-View? __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 171 Sun Mar 21, 1993 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 01:00 EST Terry, Yeah, I think that GIF with vertical lines was an oddball since I just tried two conversions, a TIFF->GIF and a TIFF->IFF and they both displayed fine in Photochrome. I think the oddball was a TIFF->GIF where the image was rotated during conversion. Thanks! - Mel ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 172 Sun Mar 21, 1993 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] at 09:01 EST Outrider, Yes I have tried to load the GIF's with vertical lines into DMJgif3.0 and have had no lines. It appears to be how PhotoChrome scales??? later, dave b 7:09:22 pm, Saturday, March 20, 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 173 Sun Mar 21, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 13:51 EST Dave, I'm not talking about the vertical (and horizontal) lines in PhotoChrome caused by a picture being < 320x200. I'm talking about nothing but white and black vertical lines -- with no picture at all! These are produced by GEM-View during some conversions. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 174 Sun Mar 21, 1993 D.WALTER7 [Doug Walter] at 16:54 EST Jeff, Drats. That is exactly the synptoms that I had with GEMVIEW 2.1x in 256 color resolutions above TT med. Oh well, whatyd expect for free advice? Doug7 ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 175 Mon Mar 22, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John@Lexicor] at 12:07 EST There are a large number of formats that fall within the domain of TGA. Photochrome seems to be quite picky and will only load the 24 bit uncompressed TGA format, and only at a resolution of 320x200. I believe that Gemview will only create a compressed TGA file. People have reported sucess loading 24 bit targas created by Phoenix into Photochrome. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 176 Mon Mar 22, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:36 EST Thanks for the info, John@Lexicor. That sheds a lot of light on the situation! __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 177 Thu Mar 25, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 21:55 EST If this program had a GEM interface, it could run as a ACC in the background, with lots of nice event_multi() calls. :) Network, Man, I wish I could Beta-test Aladdin 2.0. :) I've used Aladdin since day One, and love it to death. (Of course this new "Reply" crap in mail really really pisses me off, but oh well. Nothings perfect!) ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 178 Fri Mar 26, 1993 B.PLATT1 [BP] at 19:23 EST Terry, You can scale any picture in View ST. If you load a large IFF or GIF or any file that View ST supports you can use the X,Y,I,O keys to scale it, the cursor keys to move around it. and the C key to center it once it is scaled. BTW, I believe that View ST will automatically scale a RAW picture to 320x200. Now that I found GEMVIEW2.20 I do not know if ViewST is as useful. I like the way that GEMVIEW can run as an ACC. I have not been able to get any of the TGA pictures from Gemview to load properly into either ViewST, or PCHROME. PCHROME tells me that it does not support packed TGA files(whatever that is). Other TGA files have never worked too good on PCHROME either. Luckily 24 Bit IFF files are supprted. Have you tried to load a 256 color IFF into PCHROME. Off TOPIC: Have you ever heard of a paint program called, Quantum Paint. I have it from ST format, I do not know if it is shareware or not. It was a cover disk. Anyway it will let you paint with 4096 colors. Not as smooth as Spectrum... Kinda like an Amiga HAM paint program. It will load 4096 color Amiga HAM and IFF without any loss of color, and will display with no flicker(unlike Photochrome).... Would the slideshow program be legal to upload. There is nothing saying whether it can or can't. Does anybody know. This looks like a very good paint package, and if people could see the pictures it might prove to be rather popular. BP ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 179 Fri Mar 26, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 23:31 EST BP, Yes, I'm aware of ViewST's scaling features, but I thought you'd lose the original colors (converting to 16 color low res) if scaling prior to saving to RAW. But then, I've never tried it, so I don't know for sure. Hmmm... Okay, just got through playing a bit with ViewST. It doesn't automatically scale to 320x200 for RAWs, it CROPS them to 320x200, using your screen as a guide. The resulting image is not the same quality as what's on the screen (ST Low), but there is definitely a loss of colors and detail. The pictures (when converted to PhotoChrome) are a bit grainy -- not nearly as good as the same picture going straight from GIF to PCS. The upside (as you know) is that you can scale any GIF (or other supported format) to 320x200 without losing the aspect ratio. That means pictures that are normally smooshed or cropped in PhotoChrome can be converted with PhotoChrome at the proper aspect ratio (albeit at a far lesser quality). It also means that GIFs that are < 320x200, which PhotoChrome normally adds 'bands' to fill out the screen, can be converted with PhotoChrome with surrounding borders instead. I'm not so sure GIF->RAW->PCS is as good as a Spectrum 4096 pic done with DMJ GIF (which can also retain aspect ratio), but it's sure a LOT faster, and free of streaking, for the most part. I only wish the 'X' and 'Y' scaling keys in ViewST would scale in 10% increments, to give you greater control, allowing you a better 'best fit.' In any case, thanks for encouraging me to try scaling in ViewST before saving to RAW. It WILL come in handy! Yes, I've loaded many 256 color IFFs into PhotoChrome, but since it offers no scaling of same, I generally convert them to GIF with STyle first. (GEM-View 2.20 will also work.) I've heard of Quantum Paint, but don't know anything about it... __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 180 Sat Mar 27, 1993 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 03:46 EST I own Quantum Paint, which lets you display 4096 colors simultaneously on any ST/STE. It is not PD and is (was?) a product of Eidersoft from overseas somewhere. The high color screens flicker *very* much and it's interface is a bear to use. It lacks a lot of tools as well. In short, it is not "Spectrum 512 with more colors". Oh well. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 181 Sat Mar 27, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 11:19 EST Actually Quantum Paint 2 was included on the cover disk of one of the British mags. I bought Quantum Paint 1 when it first came out and never used it more than twice. Quantum Paint 2 isn't significantly better. They are both simply so difficult to use in 4096 color mode as to render them essentially useless. I am a paint program junkie, having tried just about every shareware and commercial paint program out there. I would say the top 3 paint programs are: 1. Unispec 512 - an incredible piece of work that never ceases to amaze me. If only it had been updated to Unispec 4096 for the STe! 2. Degas Elite - not the most powerful program but it's SO easy to use that I find myself using more often than any of the others for quick jobs. It's even better when used on an STe with a pallette extender accessory. 3. Deluxe Paint - I use this when I know I'm going to be spending extra time and effort on a painting. It has more power than Degas Elite. I haven't downloaded the True Paint demo yet. I'll try that after I get my Falcon. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 182 Sat Mar 27, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 12:08 EST David, In case you didn't know, the HiSoft TruePaint demo will also work in all ST[E]/TT resolutions. Since you're the paint program expert, I'd like to get your opinion of it. The only one I use is Degas Elite, though I own a few others. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 183 Sat Mar 27, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 14:48 EST David. Don't forget to try out Lexicors new Prism-Paint 2.0 with a Falcon030. It just may have a few surprises for you! Ringo ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 184 Sat Mar 27, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 17:26 EST I finally got GIF2RAW yesterday and wonder how I ever got along without it! I figured since PhotoChrome supports GIFs, who needs to convert them to RAW format? Bzzzzt! Wrong! The most obvious advantage of GIF2RAW is that it scales evenly, meaning aspect ratios are maintained -- no more squashed pictures! Another advantage of this program is that it handles GIFs < 320x200 beautifully, adding surrounding borders to fill the screen, as opposed to the black bands PhotoChrome puts in the picture. And still another advantage of going GIF->RAW->PCS over GIF->PCS is that the former seems to provide a much cleaner, smoother output. The first few pics I converted, I was amazed and how clean and smooth they turned out. Whether it's because of GIF2RAW maintaining the aspect ratio, or simply because it does a better job of scaling, I don't know. I just know I love the results! Unfortunately, GIF2RAW only scales by a factor of 2, or not at all. And any GIF > 320x200 gets scaled by 2, even if it's 320x203. And any GIF > 640x400 will be cropped -- not a problem on most 640x480s, but anything over that, forget it. Still, this program will be getting a LOT of use on my system... __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 185 Sun Mar 28, 1993 R.MARTIN22 [NETWORK 23] at 13:15 EST TERRY: I've had no problems with Targa files I brought over from the Mac. You may have already thought of this, but the Targa's must be in a certain #-of-colors format. We used a trial-and-error with Photoshop to come up with the right #'s. Sorry I can't remember which. The VERSIONS.TXT file says 24-bit, but I seem to recall that not being the case (16-bit maybe?). But the results are phenomenal! Live And Direct [11:20 PM-22/Mar/93], Rod Martin, Network 23/ST Connection ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 186 Sun Mar 28, 1993 B.PLATT1 [BP] at 16:46 EST Terry, I created a bunch of IFF's with GEMVIEW, and Photochrome will crash when I load them. So will View, and Spectrum itself will not load them in... I bet you didn't know that Spectrum(the actual program) will load in Amiga IFF, and HAM pictures as long as they are in 320x200 resolution. I still am praying that someone will make a patch for Spectrum to recognize the STe extended pallette. Then I would really have a use for PHOTOCHROME. or better yet a paint program centered on the photochrome format. I am not aware of any loss of color in saving in RAW format in View ST. I would imagine that the loss of color would be due to scaling. I have used the View ST/ PHOTOCHROME combo to clean up many of my Spectrum pictures, and have noticed no loss of color. I have noticed that RAW pictures do not flicker as much though. I got a copy of Quantum Paint in ST format. I think it is a very good paint program. It will load in Amiga IFF and HAM pictures, but only in 320x 200 res. I will not take 256 color IFF's created with GEM View as all the other programs won't accept these IFF's either. Once I figure out how to upload to here, I will post the Quantum Paint slide show, and several pictures. It is a shame that good programs like Qpaint and Spectrum do not get any serious recognition. Let me stop here before I go to far off topic ( I see the red and blue lights coming to scold me.) BP Steve, Quantum Paint is no longer being marketed? That is too bad! this program has a lot of potential. I have not noticed any flickering in the display. yes it is no "Spectrum with more colors", and the Interface is a chore to use, but it is one of the few programs available(or was available) that permitted painting with more than 16 colors. I actually prefer to use Deluxe Paint, but hate the 16 color limit. Lack of color is the only thing about my STe that I do not like. Actually a Deluxe Paint with Spectrum or Photochrome support/display would be ideal. I have yet to find an adequate paint program for the ST. What I like about QPaint was that if you changed a color, it did not mess up the pallette for that line. Anyway Qpaint is similiar to what the Amiga people have been putting up with for years I believe this is called Hold and Modify... Well maybe I will start a new topic to discuss different paint programs. BP David, What exactly is Unispec 512, how do I get it, I am a paint proggie junkie like you, I have about every paint program for the ST, except the two most popular DEGAS, and NEOCHROME. If I can find them I will be sure to get them. It was an incredible chore to get Spectrum (I finally found it on a cover disk for ST Format) Same with Cyberpaint. I would have to put my vote in for Hyperpaint 2, as the easiest to use. I like quantum paint because I can cut and paste several NEO , PI1 picts together without worrying about pallettes getting messed up. BP ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 187 Sun Mar 28, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 17:53 EST Rod, The Targas I've tried were created from JPEG4BIN, GEM-View 2.20, and a few I've downloaded from BBSes. None have worked, that I can recall. It may indeed have something to do with the number of colors. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 188 Sun Mar 28, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 18:06 EST Unispec 512 was released by Trio Engineering. It was advertised mainly as a way to turn Spectrum 512 into a desk accessory, so that many potential buyers never realized that it was also a MAJOR upgrade to Spectrum 512. I've owned the program since it came out in 1987 and I still haven't tapped all of its power. A few of its new features included: Direct hooks into Degas Elite for seamless transfers of palettes, images and blocks in both directions between the two programs. New dithering options such as "dithered blur," and dithering of resized blocks. Adding, subtracting and averaging of blocks and block rotation. New add and subtract modes were added to the NO-ZAG line functions as well as a line cache so that every time you draw a no-zag line or curve the corner points, line type, mode and color are saved in a cache. The saved lines may be retrieved and redrawn at any time on any image thereby allowing sophisticated masking using Anti-Alias cut and paste since fill-to-new now works with no-zag lines. There are MANY more new features including snap-to-grid, global color change to black, pallette interleaving, pallette merging, customizable picture transformation from 512 to 16 colors or to monochrome, etc., etc.,etc. Unispec can grab screens from almost any program including non-GEM programs and works from low or medium rez. I can't say enough good things about it. But unfortunately it does NOT recognize the STE's extended palette :-( I don't know whether Unispec can still be bought anywhere but we should all inundate Boris Tsikanovsky with letters full of cash until he agrees to come back to the world of Atari and give us FALCONSPEC! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- As for Quantum Paint, doesn't it require you to edit and paint in false colors and then switch into a view-only mode when you want to see the true colors? That alone was enough for me to chuck it. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 189 Sun Mar 28, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 18:34 EST BP, Yes, I'm know that Spectrum can load IFFs, since I own Spectrum. :^) However, I have no use for that function. In fact, I don't have much use for Spectrum at all. The Spectrum format is obsolete, unless you are an artist, which I am not. As for the IFFs you're creating with GEM-View, I suspect they are no good. GEM-View also creates bogus GIFs in many cases. There seems to be a few bugs to work out yet. As for ViewST saving to RAW, I just did a test of a 320x200 GIF. I converted it to RAW with both GIF2RAW and ViewST. I then converted each of them plus the original GIF to PhotoChrome PCS. The RAW file created by GIF2RAW and the original GIF both converted to 100701 byte PCS files, and they look identical. The RAW file created by ViewST converted to a PCS file only 50537 bytes, and there is clearly a loss of quality. While the basic colors are the same, the larger PCS files are much smoother with finer detail, which would seem to translate to more shade colors. Yes, the larger PCS files flicker slightly, while the smaller one does not. There's a good reason for that. Photochrome won't flicker if there aren't enough colors for it to NEED to flicker. I believe the cut off is 4096 colors. This leads me to believe ViewST uses the 4096 colors in your STE palette, and no more, whereas GIF2RAW and PhotoChrome use much larger palettes -- 32k in PhotoChrome's case. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 190 Sun Mar 28, 1993 R.MARTIN22 [NETWORK 23] at 20:13 EST JONATHAN: It's hard remembering what was in 1.5 and what's new in 2.0, but I think you will be very pleased with 2.0. One thing I forgot to mention about Adobe Photoshop's TGA files. Be sure to turn them upside down before saving them out as TGA's. Whenever Photochrome gets a hold of them, it flips them vertically for some reason. BP: I bought Quantum Paint, and it is a commercial package. It does not run on anything over TOS 1.4 (I think), so I can't check it out. Also, my disk went bad so I can't even read the README files. Nothing in the manual mentions the slideshow program, so I can't help you out, although I would be shocked to find that you couldn't pass around the slideshow so people without the program could look at the pictures. Is there a copyright display on the slideshow program? Live And Direct [12:46 PM-28/Mar/93], Rod Martin, Network 23/ST Connection ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 191 Sun Mar 28, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 20:17 EST BP. Unispec is the ACC version of Spectrum512. It has the same tools as Spectrum- 512. Some mailorder outlets may have a few copies left. With this you can also view Phoenix Object Render files in SPC format. But you can also render within Phoenix a 24bit TGA file and view it with PhotoChrome. David. You are correct about Unispec and also Quantum Paint. You maybe surprice that Toaster-Paint for the amiga works the same way. Toaster Paint doesn't really work in true-TRUE-COLOR modes. It just gives you a screen to work and later you need to update your screen to fully see the image. Not the best Paint program for the amiga. Now back to Photochrome try a few Phoenix render TGAs with Photochrome. Ringo ~ Lexicor Software Corp. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 192 Sun Mar 28, 1993 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 20:50 EST I did notice one instance today where GEMView 2.2 converted a .jpg file of mine into a ridiculously small .gif file, only a few hundreds bytes. Tried it again on the same file with the same results. What's going on? Then I remembered that this .jpg was created with JPEGBIN4. So I fired up my Hotwire jpeg commandline for decompressing and it was able to extract a correct .gif from its .jpg file using DJPEG.TTP. It appears GEMView can read .jpg's fine, but converting may be another story? I don't know how it does on .jpg -> .tga, .tif, etc. Again, this was only on one .jpg file, maybe it was an odd fellow. Not a slam against GEMview because it does convert between a multitude of formats nicely. Just thought I would mention this for anyone possibly encountering the above scenario of a too small .gif. Thanks! - Mel ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 193 Sun Mar 28, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:12 EST Mel, I wouldn't use GEM-View to decompress JPEGs. JPEG4BIN does a MUCH better job. In fact, it does a much better job than Imagery JPEG on the Mac, which is also much, much slower. Plus, as you've discovered, GEM-View has some bugs in its conversion routines (not just JPEGs, either). __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 194 Sun Mar 28, 1993 S.FARWIG [STAN] at 23:23 EST Ringo: are there details about Prism-Paint 2.0 available anywhere else besides the LEXICOR Category? Since being encouraged not to frequent that category, I haven't. One amplification: "It (UNISPEC) has the same tools as SPECTRUM512". As Dave Fairweather message points out, UNISPEC also has some extentions and additions to its tools not found in SPECTRUM512. Dave Fairweather: What a pleasure to read someone else's praise of SPECTRUM/UNISPEC. Here I thought I was alone in considering it a most misunderstood and under utilized program for the ST. Even Charles Cherry, who wrote the manual, once said to me in a surprised voice: "You *create* pictures with SPECTRUM?". When, taken back, I asked what else is one suppose to do with it, he replied: "I thought people used it to touch up pictures they do with other paint programs." Certainly the folks who did the intital reviews hadn't worked with it enough to understand the power of its tools for color management and manipulation; tools no other paint program for the ST comes close to. And I too have yearned for a SPECTRUM 4096. As for "all" to "inundate" Boris Tsikanovsky with letters full of cash"...well, I'm more than willing, but judging by the evidence, there don't seem to be that many Atarians interested in paint programs of depth for original work. The main interest seems to be in scanned images, but I may misjudge since most of my attention on GEnie is directed to Library 12. Anyway, thanks for the in-depth look at UNISPEC. My experience with QUANTUM paint & CANVAS has been similar to yours. I haven't been swept off my feet by TRUE PAINT yet...but final judgement awaits the FALCON. I wasn't reassured when the manual said TP doesn't do anti-aliasing, but, heck, you can do that yourself. Terry: "an artist, which I am not." Bet you could be if you got into UNISPEC. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 195 Mon Mar 29, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 00:53 EST I just got a 24-bit Targa file from a friend of mine with a Mac. He saved it from Photoshop. It shows up as garbage in PhotoChrome. It has no MacBinary header, so I don't know what the deal is. Any ideas? __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 196 Mon Mar 29, 1993 R.MARTIN22 [NETWORK 23] at 02:02 EST TERRY: Again, my bet is that your friend saved it in a #-bit-level that PhotoChrome doesn't support. I do know that PhotoShop can save out Targa's in several different bit levels. Unfortunately, I forget which is the right level... Live And Direct [12:56 AM-29/Mar/93], Rod Martin, Network 23/ST Connection ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 197 Mon Mar 29, 1993 S.KALEITA [SAK] at 08:43 EST All you people haven't tried SEURAT 2 and soon to released 2.5 and possibly in June SEURAT 3 , with all ST and TT resolutions. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 198 Mon Mar 29, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 15:25 EST Stan. I had forgotten all about that minor problem. What was it anyways? Our bad hieroglyphic that we have all over our topics. Well we will have a press release for Prism-Paint 2.0 that will discribe all of it's new features. But I can tell you that it is a complete rewrite with lots of new stuff. Just to keep it in topic the TGA files maybe use with Photochrome. Ringo ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 199 Mon Mar 29, 1993 D.HELMICK [Dan] at 19:43 EST Here's a question that's perhaps a bit outdated now, somewhat obscure, and might even have been answered already somewhere in the preceding 200 messages that I haven't bothered to scroll through : Is there any way to view the raw image data from Color ComputerEyes using Photochrome? The Digispec conversions just don't do it for me... ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 200 Mon Mar 29, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 21:17 EST I tried the shareware version of Seurat. I liked it but it was somewhat slow. I'm sure the commercial version was better. I might indeed pay for a Falcon- aware version of Seurat. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 201 Tue Mar 30, 1993 M.POCHE [Mick] at 01:57 EST Dan - There is a program in the library here that will convert ComputerEyes' RAW files to those used by Photochrome, and vice-versa. Can't remember the filename or number, but a search of Computereyes or CE1 may do it. I haven't been able to put it to a good test, as I don't have a good source for images with ComputerEyes anymore. - Mick ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 202 Tue Mar 30, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 03:58 EST Rod, According to the PhotoChrome docs, it handles 24-bit Targas, and that's what I had my friend save the file as. -----8<----- SAK, Is there a demo for SEURAT 2 and/or 2.5? -----8<----- Ringo, Is there a demo for Prism-Paint 2.0? :^) __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 203 Tue Mar 30, 1993 D.HELMICK [Dan] at 05:42 EST Thanks, Mitch! I'll have a look for it. ------------ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 204 Tue Mar 30, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 08:43 EST Terry, Currently we don't have a demo version in the library but as soon as we get closer to release date we will have one. Ringo ------------