========================================================================= (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 40 Sun May 09, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Sub: Graphic Boards for Lexicor Users This new and exciting area will discuss Third Party Graphics Board for the Atari Computer that will or already support Lexicor Software Products. This includes not only U.S. but mainly European Products eg. Crazy Dot or NOVA 286 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 1 Sun May 09, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi everybody, I've decided to open another support line for all of you who wish to use third party graphics boards and want to enhance yourself into the re3>realms of 8 bit till to 24 bit graphics. I will discuss here the possibilities from every system ranging from 8 bit systems to 24 bit and discussing the possible availability in the U.S. (And Lexicor Europe Import) and the present compatibility with our Software. I will also discuss a very vital issue...price, where I will try to determine the best cards for your money. Let it be known that you can even enhance your small 520 or 1040 STE into an 8 bit Graphics system eg. at 640*480*256 colours whihc would be like Falcon VGA with a quicker VDI than the one on the standard Atari! I will start to introduce three cards for now: 1. TKR's Crazy Dot's currently available at Gripniff in the U.S. 2. NOVA Graphics Card available through Lexicor Corp. Europa Division 3. Matrix TC1208, the luxurious one Now TKR's Crazy Dot is indeed a very beautiful card, it nicely slips inhe VME slot of any Mega STE or TT and can display up to 15 bit, their 24 bit versionversion is going to be released shortly. My understanding is that the Crazy Dot's is overpriced in the U.S.A. which might explain it's not-so- explosive impact as it was in Germany. But it is one of th most popular systems on the Atari Platform. Useful rez would be 800 * 600 in 32k colours as of now. It can get higher virtual memory but it requires very good Multisync monitors of more than 15" for a proper display This goes for nearly all systems! The Nova System is the most inexpensive of them all in the U.S. as we are distributing this system in th U.S., we are still working it out but it is a Card is available for STE's, Mega's and TT and has 8 bit, 15/16 and 24 bit version aroud. The SUPERNOVA is the creme de la creme of the NOVA Cards. It's design is also very good with quick VDI..including a VDI for their 24 bit colours. The Nova system's exterior design is less friendly than the Crazy Dots eg. It's VME version slides into the TT and a big black box hangs out of it. Not very chique...but I say, who cares, the hardware is fine, it's great an) and it produces beautiful results + it has a managing software that will allow you to switch from Atari rez to Nova rez through Software! TThe MatrixTC1208 is the dream Graphics Board that has Ultra Fast VDI for a 24 bit system, the exrta hardware available such as Genlocks and Video DDigitizers make it an extra reason to buy as it is also quick and reliable. Matrix is the Graphics Board giant in the Atari WORLD Market with thousands and thousands of cards sold worldwide (meaning atari wide :) ). Not only the 24 bit versino of TC1208 but also the COCO, MOCO, C32 etc.etc. It's just....very expensive but the serious user uses Matrix TC1208....wh? Because of their image and their widespread popularity. They sold so many cards that the Software has to match the card just as much, therefore there will always be support for this most able product. Btw this counts for Nova VME and Crazy Dots as well, only Matrix has such an agelong history and monopoly in Europe that they are indeed still the leaders of Graphics Boards for the Atari. I will be posting more news about this with prices later on. I hope you will enjoy this new Topic area and find it very helpful. Thank you Yat Siu, Head of Lexicor Europe ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 2 Sun May 09, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Yat, indeed a very welcomed subject. I have always had many questions concerning cards and more importantly, lexicor compatibility. Will be nice to know exactly where to go to get info. One questions.... In the introduction of the three cards... 1. TKR's Crazy Dot's currently available at Gribniff in the U.S. ...what happened to Lexicor having this card for registered users? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 3 Mon May 10, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, following Mr.Brenner TKR's Crazy Dot is a very nice Card...but it is still more expensive than the NOVA and equally able....I will mail prices afterwards.....if you wish to know about the Crazy Dot and Lexicor ask Lee directly. As of right now I will not say anything about the Crazy Dot, we are planning to do a bundle..we are DEFINITELY bundling and selling the NOVA for a good priche main reason why I don't think about Crazy Dot is 1. The Price, 2.Gripniff do NOT have exclusive...but the market is so tight...why compete..is it REALLY worth it? Two parites selling the same card...I promote diversity, and I like the NOVA more than the CRDOTS....mainly because CHRONOS v.1.31 uns on it fine...it can load save and make an animation it just can't render in the CHRONOS Module...but Render 24 CAN and so can Phoenix USA. With the anm to rd1 converter NOVA is a FULLY COMPATIBLE Card to LExicor Software Products. Yat Siu ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 4 Mon May 10, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Thanks Yat, I have been looking forward to the ANM/RD1 accessory. And please, call me John, call me See, call me Flat, call me See Flat, but please....don't call me Mr.Brenner. :-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 5 Mon May 10, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Ok Flat :), by the way, the NOVA Card is a better choice! Check my last mail to see the news on it :) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 6 Mon May 10, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi It's me again Yat Siu from Lexicor Software Europe. I have a happy announcement to make! Lexicor Software is glad to announce that they have acquired distribution rights to the NOVA Card. The Nova Card comes in essentially 5 different versions. Lexicor Software Products that run on the NOVA Card are: XENOMORPH-3D (works 100%) all functions Cyber Colour (works 100%) all functions Prism Paint (works 100%) v.1.1, 1.5 and the soon to be released 2.0 CHRONOS-3D Newest Version (works 100%) You can even RENDER in any rez at 8bit GENESIS (works 100%) Render 24 (works 100%) Utility Disk (?) I haven't checked all the utilities but nearly ALL appear to work. And since it has an own VDI Driver, most Atari Applications that are written cleanly should work just fine. Now to the availability and the prices, Lexicor users get a special price as I understand and for those who buy our Software bundled, they too will get a special price. I have listed them into Lexicor and Non Lexicor and listed the price respectively below. I hope the formatting works now! :) Type of NOVA Card Prices:LEXICOR User Prices:NON-LEXICOR Description of CARD: NOVA Mega 32K 300 U$D 360 U$D 32,768 Colors for any Mega ST BUS Nova Mega 16M 400 U$D 490 U$D 16,7 Million Colors for your Mega ST BUS Nova VME 32K 429 U$D 560 U$D 32,768 Colors for any Mega STE or TT VME Nova VME 16M 529 U$D 699 U$D 16,7 Million Colors for any Mega STE or TT VME Super NOVA 999 U$D 1199 U$D Excellence and brilliance! Requires a VME Bus Mega STE or TT If you own an ST or a regular STE (eg.1040, 520) then with a special adaptor you can connect the Mega BUS versions on your ST, STE. Price of the adaptor however is to date not known. Transport is not included, add another 30-40 dollars depending on how quick you wish to have a delivery. Prices are Subject to possible change but unlikely. To the specs of the Card now: All the NOVA Cards, 16M, 32k VME or Mega BUS have this in common: 1.Max Pixeltakt: 90 Mhz 2.Video RAM 1 Megabyte 3.Ramtype DRAM 4.Have Virtual Resolutions 5.Automatic Rez Switch 6.Upgrade Possibility 7.VDI for its Colors (16M have 24bit VDI, 32k have 32K VDI) 8.All have a Videomode Generator 9.All go upto 1024*768 in 72Hz in 2/16/256 Colors The Max rez in 16,7 Million colors for the 16M VME is 640*480 and the MegaBUS is 640*400. The Max rez for BUS version is 1024*768 and for VME version is 1088*832 at 70 Hz. The Max rez at 32k colors for BUS version is 768*512 and VME version is 800*600. The SUPERNOVA is a dream Card for a dream Price!!! Max Mhz is 135 MHZ with 16,7 Million colors at 800*600, 32k colors at 1024* 768, Absolute Max at 256 Colors max is 1280 * 1024. Ram type is VRAM unlike the NOVA standard DRAM and has 2 Megabytes of VRAM. It has everything that regular NOVA's have AND has a hardware speedup, making it even quicker! Naturally, Virtual Resolutions possible! This is a very, very fine card and is to my knowledge the cheapest available Graphics Card for your Atari. The Crazy Dots which we so promoted before is still a fine card, but proved to be less compatible than the NOVA making for Lexicor Software the NOVA Card be the preferred choice. Please, as this is a service of Lexicor Europe which needs to import and may run out of stock, consider a maximum delivery time of 6 weeks, depending on your preferred choice of delivery (Ground, Air, UPS or FEDEX?!). We will have stock, and it should not take so long....I am only being careful! :) Yat Siu Lexicor Software Corporation, EUROPE Please make a note of the fact that this is a direct import of Europe and is treated by our European Division, buying it from Lexicor is like purchasing it directly from Europe, through Lexicor U.S.A. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 7 Tue May 11, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Just a few additional comments, First: lexicor will over the next few days and weeks reviewing all these choices, with detailed accounts of their installation operation with sample graphicsup loaded to the Lexicor lib#39. In addition: as a special gift to all our Lexicor software customers lexicor will be offering a "NOVA Chronos Private- Stock" bundle which will include all updates for all Lexicor products which run on the NOVA. With the NOVA you can do complete animations from start to finish. This offer will extend to the Phoenix with a special NOVA/.ANM update when it is ready. This offer means that for as little as $529 (plus shipping ect) you can upgrade your ST/TT system and begin creating full 24 bit animations. It is a plug and play combination you can't beat at any price any were else. If you want to ensure full compatability of you exicting or new Phase-4 software be sure to check here befor making a decision on purchasing a graphics card. Lexicor stands four square behind it's recommendations in hardware and software for the creative animator. More soon. Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 8 Tue May 11, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Yat, This is great news for Atari graphics world. As I mentioned to Lee in the RTC tonight, too bad all this wasn't available before I ordered my Falcon. I am still considering building two systems. So all this info is being saved to disk for contemplation. I also read in the CAF 93 topic that you will be attending the show. I am trying very hard to make it to Connecticut if work permits. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 9 Tue May 11, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Flat, yup, that is right, I'll be at the show. Besides, the Falcon is a nice choice indeed, however if you still have a TT then I can tell you the following! 1.Ona standard TT the Rendering speed is quicker than on a Falcon 2. The pictures and FFilms created with Nova are compatible with each other 3.Nova can do MUCH higher rez than a falcon 4.Nova can do upto 24 bit, unloike the falcon Just a tip ;) L8ter, Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 10 Tue May 11, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) By the way, I am following your posts about the Nova card with great interest. Naturally, first and foremost I want to insure Calamus compatibility with all cards. Generally this has not been an issue. As I was not personally familar with this card until it was mentioned here, can you tell me if you have had the chance to run it with Calamus SL please? Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 11 Tue May 11, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Yat, I don't have a TT. Your second point is unclear to me. "The pictures and FFilms created with Nova are compatible with each other" Could you put that in other words? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 12 Tue May 11, 1993 L.BUDNICK [Lorne] (Forwarded) Yat or Lee, It would be nice to see something regarding the process necessary to install the NOVA in a TT. You know, plug and play or soldering, etc. Just talk us through a typical installation process. I also agree with Nathan, ie., is the board compatible with Calamus SL specifically, and it would also be helpful to see an application compatibility list for other software as well. I am only concerned with productivity type software, NOT games. Thanks in advance, Lorne.... ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 13 Wed May 12, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, in regards to your questions: 1. Nova Card installation for the Mega BUS Just put it into the bus, it should just fit 2. Nova Card installation for the VME Bus Just slide the card right into that VME, and Voila C'est Fini :) Simple huh? There is a big black box that hangs out of the VME Bus.... but aside from that...I think it's rather minor. Compatibility issue! Well now for 1. It has an own VDI that follows atari guidelines in other words every decent Atari Applications that does not skew from the existing standars should work on it. I KNOW that very many applications run on it...that includes CALAMUS SL, all Lexicor Stuff (to date I know), 1st Word, DA's Vektor, Chagall, Artis 3.0, Connect 1.96, FZT, Aladin, Dynacadd (I was told!), Script 2.0 and 3.0, Pure C and Turbo C, Pure Pascal , Lattice C, GFA Basic, GEM-View, Outside, well, frankly, i think it's easier to list the programs that don't work rather than vice versa. Anyway, I will make a comprehensive list for all of you, and if you have specific requests, then please send me a demo version or say where it is available for testing. I will then test it for you, and try to explain why it doesn't work, should it not work.....eg. Cyberpaint won't work because it doesn't recognise VME (*duh* was written back in the golden days of let's write to hardware and be incompatible with the future!) and it is very ST/STE specific. More to follow later YYat Siu ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 14 Wed May 12, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] (Forwarded) Yat, Lee, etc.. The NOVA board seems very interesting. I have been looking at some video cards for the TT030. The Cyrel Sunrise card looked very attractive, but it is just too expensive for me right now. I would like to know more about the NOVA card. How compatable is it with non-Lexicor software? Thanks... --Lou T.-- ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 15 Thu May 13, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] (Forwarded) Yat, Thanks for the short list of compatible software. I will look forward to the list of software that you have compiled that does not work with it. So far it is CyberPaint. Anyway keep us posted. --Lou T.-- ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 16 Thu May 13, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) HOLD up a BIT TIGERS! Please do not send any more checks for NOVA cards! We are not quite ready!!!! The "OFFICIAL" er....release...or day we will accept orders is May 21 1993. We regret asking you to "wait" but we did not expect such a fast responce and we just don't have all the software test done and a few internal Lexicor things that need to be done. WE have just gotten our additional test units ( for our authors ) to use in taking out any kinks in the compatability of Lexicor software. We will post a full list of every program we can get in the weeks to come. So far all Phase-4 applications seem to work with little problems so if you have it you will not require any updats to just plug and play. WE are also very please that most of the interest is in the 24Bit NOVA, which I like more and more as I use it. We will also be announcing the official release of "DAS VECTOR" from Digital Arts. This is something new for me so I can't cpmment much at this point. We will open a topic in the next few days and begin exploring it right along with you. From my breif exposure it is a stand alone application which runs on the NOVA, is "All Resolution compliant application." It prints to hard copy, is point and click, has some interesting color controles. We will be offering DAS VECTOR at under $200. We have several more interesting applications that are comming in which we feel will be great Graphics partners with the new NOVA series of Color cards. BTW we will also be bundling a vew goodies with the NOVA at the release prices list above. NO more waiting for more colors and resolution. They are here NOW. Lexicor will be sending all registered Lexicor users a special offer around the end of the month. Mr. SIU will be here soon to describe in more detail DAS VECTOR! Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 17 Thu May 13, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) Has the Nova been tested with any of the 68030 boards for the MegaST and MegaSTE computers? The usual area of concern is whether the VDI works on either the 68000 or 68030, and that the 68030 code _not_ depend on finding a TT before enabling itself. We did have to give TKR an 030 loaner to get thier drivers up on the 030 boards. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 18 Thu May 13, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) Good question Jim. I think Lee has one of your great boards maybe he can be that one a try. --------- For TT users try the 24bit NOVA and Super NOVA and the new "OUTSIDE" Virtual Memory Manager! Think of all that extra memory that you can now use for Rendering your animations just setup a 44 or 88 meg syquest cart as VMM and your internal drive for regular storeage. Start loading your 3D2 objects like landscapes, tower, cities, alien creatures, and all of your 24bit TGA files for image mapping using Phoenix and with ANM support... all at 800X600 in true color mode. Nice! Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 19 Sat May 15, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] (Forwarded) Is the Nova card FCC Class B certified? The reason I ask is that when you connect it via the VME port, it basically hangs off the port into another box (at least that's what I gather from Yat's descriptions here). From what I've learned in this RT, something like that is susceptible to lots of interference. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 20 Sat May 15, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Lee, What is the significant advantages of the SuperNOVA over the 16M version for the TT? I would definitely purchase one, but I'll have to postpone it a while if I decide I want the SuperNOVA. I'll give you a call on monday and we can discuss it a bit (I'm also planning on ordering some more Lexicor Software, so it's a rather convenient excuse)... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 21 Sat May 15, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) E.Wells, the following information is taken from a Lexicor press release that is in the file library. I don't remember the # so a quick quote. The SUPERNOVA is a dream Card for a dream Price!!! Max Mhz is 135 MHZ with 16,7 Million colors at 800*600, 32k colors at 1024* 768, Absolute Max at 256 Colors max is 1280 * 1024. Ram type is VRAM unlike the NOVA standard DRAM and has 2 Megabytes of VRAM. It has everything that regular NOVA's have AND has a hardware speedup, making it even quicker! Look up the file under Lexicor, it has all the drooling info on the Nova cards! ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 22 Sat May 15, 1993 S.BURTON2 (Forwarded) Can you do animation with the inexpensive Nova card. I have a Mega ST and would be interested in the 32k color board ($360). Also, what type of monitor is required? Shane ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 23 Sat May 15, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Dear Mr.Burton, Yes you can do animtaions with the inexpensive version of the NOVA Card. The NOVA has a regular VGA port and can hoook up onto any VGA, SVGA or Multisync Monitor. \ Thank You Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 24 Sun May 16, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Ed, We have checked with the FCC on the NOVA and are informed that it falls into the Electronic Kit catagory for the present. That means that once installed it is the responcibility of the user to meet FCC requirements if any. This is to the best of our knowledge the same standard for many electronic devices that com into the US from off shore. I read a very simular sticker on a Kit project I got from Tiwan. All I had to do was plug in an IC..into it's socket and then plug the whole thing into an RS 232 connector on the back of my VTR for Time Base correction. Apparently there are a host of electronic devices classed as kits which require some sort of assembly to be used. We will get a read and documents from FCC to add to the information pack for customers. Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 25 Sun May 16, 1993 J.BRIGHAM (Forwarded) HAS ANYONE CO as anyone come up with the idea of showing what the NOVA card, the sunrise board, and maybe crazy dots with lexicor software on video tape. Charge $24.95. That way we get to see what the boards can do before chunkim ng so much money. Thanks. Brig ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 26 Sun May 16, 1993 J.PATTERSON3 [Ted] (Forwarded) I like that idea. The video for the Toaster probably sold quite a few of them. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 27 Sun May 16, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) J.Brigham, nice Idea. But nicer at $9,99 J.Patterson3, the last show I was at, they gave Toaster videos to anyone who knew a bit about cameras, Video, or animation. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 28 Mon May 17, 1993 J.BRIGHAM (Forwarded) Let me get this right. With the Nova card installed in my Mega4, and thwe e e right Lexicor software, I could do some of the same things as the Toaster?Say its so!!!! I How about a video showing the things that the Lexicor software can do, individually and then together. If it can do the things the toaster cc an do for less than changing systems, tha en you have another Lexicorn user on the way. b Brig ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 29 Tue May 18, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Brig, yes and no is an accurate answer. details at 10'......well maby not 10. OK about your question, you have to be a bit carfull about making Toaster/ Nova comparisons. These two devices are not the same kind of animal. The toaster is actually several devices in combination with software, a dozen bits by now that make up what is generaly called a Toaster. The Nova card on the other hand is a graphics enhansment device. With a VGA to NTSC converter it will record direct to VTR. You can do many simular kinds of things. But it is not a video input device nor is it a Genlock. How ever the VGA and/or NTSC out puts can easily be fed to any number of professional genlocking devices, which can be controled by the computer. Lexicor has just finished the software for the Roaster from JRI. Lexicor intends if there are a reasonable number of Nova cards sold, to provide VTR and genlock controle soft- ware. First things first how ever. We are waiting for some new hardware from Atari, once that is tested with the falcon genlock and the Bugs are out then we will have more new stuff for both falcon and Nova users. We will keep you posted. Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 30 Tue May 18, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) The current Video that Lexicor is selling is going thru some changes/revisions. We will have more information soon! Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 31 Tue May 18, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Lee, I am really, really, really, interested in the NOVA card. While the Super NOVA is a bit out of my range at present, the 16M VME is a possibility at 529. What advantages other than the speed increase is there to warrant the extra 500 dollars? Is the VME version for the TT upgadeable to the Super Nova or is it a seperate beast all together? And finally, if I did purchase the regular 16M VME version, do you think it is fast and pewerful (make that powerful) enough that I won't be wishing I'd held out for the SUPERnova? Really, these are all rather subjective questions that intended use would effect. But you tell it like it is and I respect your input on this (plus your the only one here that's used one)... Everett H. Wells ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 32 Tue May 18, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, as requested I am posting a NOVA compatibility test, of programs that I own and have tested..or of reports made by NOVA customers in Europe and, of course, the Nova dealers themselves. MultiTOS 1.0 Xenomorph (Phoenix U.S.A.) Cyber Colour and Cyber Trace Chronos-3D (v.1.31 supports 800*600) Render 24 Prism Paint 1.1 and 1.5 Genesis (Magrathea) Phase-4 Utility Disk (most of them!) Da's Vektor Outside 3.0 Calamus SL Script 2.0 and 3.0 1st Word Connect 1.94 Chagall Papillon Artis 3 GEM-View Outline Art 3.0 Diskus Pagestream Technobox Cad 2.0 Pixart Free Cypress Papyrus Didot Professional Retousche Professional TMS Cranach Paint Aladin Starcall Castell Turbo C, Pure C and Pure Pascal Calappt K-Spread 4.17 LDW Phoenix the Database from ASH And any other application that followed the VDI should work just fine. The Nova card's VDI has proven to be VERY COMPATIBLE....I think it even allows small little errors....making it more compatible, eg. Chronos-3D wouldn't work with the Crazy Dots (v.1.31) but works just fine on the Nova card. If you wish to know something about a specific software, then just mail me or ask us here, and we'll see and check for you if it works, either by inquiry, software test or maybe you'll send us a demo to test it for you? Whatever suits you best. To date this is my list of compatible NOVA Software. To be honest, apart from Games (I wonder why?! :-) ) nearly everything worked, except ancient's like Cyberpaint or STAD don't work. Oh! By the way, Lexicor Software has obtained exclusive distribution rights to the Nova Graphics Card. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 33 Wed May 19, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] (Forwarded) Hi Lee, I was happy to hear today that the Nova board and Warp 9 are happy companions. Will I get to see this card in operation at a show soon? ===Tomas=== May 18, 1993 @ 9:19:40 pm PDT ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 34 Wed May 19, 1993 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] (Forwarded) Y.SIU, Please, remember to place 2 spaces in front of a line when you want to keep the formatting. You message was interesting and appreciated but, it made it harder to read. :-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 35 Wed May 19, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Thank you for your post Mr. Siu. Could you please clarify your compatibility statement as it pertains to Calamus SL and Outline Art 3.0? With which Nova card are these two programs compatible and at what resolution please? Have you had the opportunity to verify any of the compatibility statements personally? Lexicor does own a few packages of Calamus SL by the way so you should be able to easily verify this. I'm sure my customers would be pleased to have a $600 graphic card alternative. Thank you for listening. Sincerely Nathan Potechin DMC Publishing, Inc. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 36 Wed May 19, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Lee, or Yat: I've been doing some research on graphics cards for other platforms and trying to get a feel for what graphics cost elsewhere. I have a few questions about the NOVA... 1: what is "Piseltakt" 2: The release stated that the cards had upgrade possibility. Does this me mean the ram (ie. to 2 or more from 1, or to VRAM?), faster speed? 3: What is a "Videomode Generator" I guess that's all for now. I just hope I'm not showing my ignorance too much... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 37 Wed May 19, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) I have a friend who just purchased an ST. He is interested in doing some simple logos text animation that he can use for his independent films. directed him to RIO (cringe) because they were the only ones I knew of with genlocks and ntsc encoders readily available. Can anyone advise me on this? Sorry it it's a bit off topic... ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 39 Wed May 19, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, just to answer a couple of questions... 1. I personally have not tested Calamus SL or Outline Art 3.0 with it but am quoting from reports. However I will make an effort in testing these myselves. Considering that Outline Art and/or Calamus SL are somwhat rez independent programs, requiring a minimum rez of maybe 640*400 (Only minimum suitable rez for professional work anyway :-) ) then if it works at 640 * 400, it should work at 1024 * 798 as well...or more. Calamus SL and Outline Art where said to work with every Nova card model. 2. Piseltact is actually Pixeltact (Typo *grin*) and is german meaning pretty much the clockrate i.e. Mhz. Glad If I could help. Besides.....we are right now testing a Scanline converter by a company called CCSI. It is basically the required bridge needed to put your Nova Card output onto your NTSC Videorecorder (or TV). More about this, after our Test. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 40 Wed May 19, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] (Forwarded) Yat or Lee, Will we see a NOVA card in operation at the CT AtariFest next month? --Lou T.-- ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 41 Thu May 20, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) NOVA will be at the show, with animations if there is time to do them. Mr. Siu will have more show infor soon. Check the Show topic area in a few days. About Word processors and such on the NOVA.......I have only one it is 1st Word which runs just fine along with my Thunder spelling program. I am mostly interested in graphics and animations applications so it is hard to comment about applications I don't have here in the office or that we generally consider as graphic app's. I was given a full copy of Retouch Professional by 3K as a professional curtesy (sic) durring a visit from it's distributor but then mr. Siu has mentioned how well it works, which it does, so apart from that We really can't comment about other word processing programs. I am sure their manufactures and distributor s will get nova cards and have their own recomendations. Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 42 Thu May 20, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Thanks for posting Mr. Siu. Lee ... Lexicor has TWO complete Calamus SL packages. I remind you that we traded so that we could test all the Lexicor software on the Cybercube Cyrel Sunrise card. I assumed you authorized that trade so were naturally aware of it? Perhaps, if you don't have one of the copies in your office, or your people that do have the Calamus SL don't have a Nova card themselves, you could get the two items together. I'd be interested to see how a 24 bit image that you created and imported into Calamus SL was displayed using your card. Perhaps Ringo could assist in this regard. He also has Calamus. Thanks. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC Publishing ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 43 Fri May 21, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] (Forwarded) Yat, I feel compelled here to express my interest in utilizing the new Nova card. But because I'm still, happily, using a plain (yet extremely over- stuffed) ST, I'd require the "adapter" you mentioned in an earlier post. Will this become a reality? Thanks, Brian ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 44 Fri May 21, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Yat, Does True Paint run on the Nova? and Does the Nova have a way of doing Overscan. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 45 Fri May 21, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Brian....the megabus adaptor is very simple, and the way I understand it is that we'll get one for you, if not, we'll import it or have it made. I know that the original manufacturers of Nova have some...so you as an ST User can have NOVA Power :-) Flat, I don't think Nova can do Overscan...in what wAY? BUT IT can DO VIRTUAL; RESOLUTIONS...WHICH MIGHT BE PRETTY MUCH WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR ANYWAY? wHAT PURPOSE? aS MUCH AS i KNOW, tRUE pAIN RUNS ON IT...however! iT DOESN'T SUPPORT tRUE cOLOUR...ODD ISN'T IT? i'LL CHECK THAT OUT FOR YOU..EXPECT AN ANSWER IN A COUPLE OF HOURS FOMR NOW. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 48 Sat May 22, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Lee, I think I've pretty much heard enough...Are the cards available now? If so I can put my money on the table (or the plastic, at least)...However, Being able to output the graphics to record them is essential. Is there a VGA to NTSC converter that I could use to do simple dumps to tape? I'm sure I'll spring for something more expensive and elaborate in the future but that's all I need for now... thanks EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 49 Sat May 22, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi E.Wells To answer your questions...yes there are to my knowledge two ways of doing what you want to do..that is: Outputting VGA to NTSC Video Signal into your Homevideorecroder.... 1 of those solutions is sold by CCSI, the TV/Bridge which retails for 450 U$D The other one is distributed by a big company in Illinois, USA Flex and retails for 395.. it's called the Video Clipper Hope that was of some help Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 51 Sat May 22, 1993 F.OLIVAS [F.Olivas] (Forwarded) Ringo, Thanks for the video update. I purchased said Lexicor Video at the Glendale show last year and felt that it could some improvement (only in the editing department - the graphics are outstanding). I have one question about the Nova board: I have a very populated Mega 4 (internal 3.5"HD, TOS 2.06 (card), AdSpeed card) and was wondering if I could somehow fit this card within my unit. Can I? Fred O. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 52 Sat May 22, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Yat, Well, I don't know what virtual resolution is but what I want is to get rid of the borders around my animations. Ringo, :-) in library mode were we? Yat, Now why was I under the impression that the card had video out? Tomas, >You Lexicor guys _are_ an unusual bunch. Arent' they! ;^) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 53 Sat May 22, 1993 J.BRIGHAM (Forwarded) Someone mentioned a video on Lexicor products at Glendale. How can I get that or are you waiting to get the Nova in action on video. A c good look and you probably will have another Lexicor user. I'm st craping money to get one and some Lexicor products. Brig ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 54 Sun May 23, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) The old Lexicor video was really just a sampler made up of may bits and pices sent in by users, with a few single frame transfer projects. The was really no editiong as such, just two home vtrs and a pause switch. The point was to make them with the same equipmet the user was likely to have. the next Video will be with both the VRoaster and NOVA cards. Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 56 Sun May 23, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] (Forwarded) Where can I read a review of the Nova card? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 57 Mon May 24, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Dear Ed There are a couple of German Articles about it which are quite favourable....back then it was not known as Nova but as the IMAGINE Graphics board...but after the distributor in Switzerland went out of business....they renamed the card Nova and continued on their own.... German Articles and French ones...check ST Magazine, ST Computer, TOS..the French ST Magazine and XEST.....however I don't know which idssue...I hope I could help.. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 58 Mon May 24, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) ED, Check with the next Atari Explorer.....they may do somethin in the way of a review once we get a few systems out. Of course the publication only comes out once a year...it has become sorta of like a annual magazine. We have been approached by several other publications, so I am sure there will be something for you to read in the comming months. mean while there will be NOVA files up soon, so if you have true color or one of the higher res cards, you will be able to get an idea of what these cards can do. Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 59 Mon May 24, 1993 B.DEWITT [Nerd Perfect] (Forwarded) Lee; Just wondering if you had picked up my upload to you in Email. I'm only concerned 'cause I don't know if I'm on Lexicor's mailing list and I want to be included in the mailouts of all the fun stuff that's happening with the NOVA card, et al (I can never remember whether I've sent in my registration cards or not....). I'm definitely interested in NOVA for my MEGA ST. It sounds great. Thanks, Bob ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 60 Tue May 25, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] (Forwarded) Dats right Jim... Who ever said less is more?! The single motivating factor behind stuffing my 520 in a tower was to add a Leonardo board (or whatever it was called) --- Lee, I was 2nd on that list, wasn't I? Cheers, B.K. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 61 Tue May 25, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Nerd Perfect, Just the kind of products I need! and I will check. B.K, yes you were and are...you can also order your NOVA any time....We will be sending the notices out as soon as they get the laser print treatment...and like that. We are actually swamped with orders right now but any one on the list will get bumped to the front. More neet stuff soon. I just have to find some time to do a few new images and animat- ions. Lee ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 62 Tue May 25, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hello Nova Fans :-) An update on what does run on NOVA: ACS, Adimens, Arabesque, Cubase, Edison, Gemini, GFA-Basic, GMA-Plot Interface, K-Spread, KAOS, LDW, Leonardo, MDesk, Piccolo, Platon, Prospero Fortran, Pure C, RCS 2.0 Retouche Pro, SciGraph, Signum 2 and Signum 3!, Technobox Drafter/CAD, Tempus Editor 2.1, Tempus Word That's Write, tms Cranach Studio and Paint, tms Vector, Xact, 1st word plus ....more to follow once checked and tested... Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 63 Tue May 25, 1993 S.FARWIG [STAN] (Forwarded) I would like to know if programs will continue to work in spite of the NOVA board. By that I mean, it seems a certainty that SPECTRUM 512 won't run with the NOVA board, but does NOVA take over operations in a manner that renders SPECTRUM 512 useless? Is there a way to "shut off" the NOVA board so that other programs not compatible with it may be run? Thanks for any information Stan ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 64 Wed May 26, 1993 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] (Forwarded) Thanks Lee... I understand you'll be attending the CT Show in June. Will you be carting along any Novas for resale (and in my special case, a Megabus adapter)? B.K. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 65 Thu May 27, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Dear Stan, Concerning your question about Shutting off the Nova Board...yes it is possible, there are two ways of doing so: 1. You use Xboot and just don't boot the Nova Card driver and you have you normal ST/TT resolutions..or you do it manually. 2. There is a prgroam that comes along with it, it's called Menu, what it does it allows you to switch while you are operating the Nova Card to the TT/ST Monitor resolutions, which is quite neat I think. I hope I could help Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 66 Fri May 28, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] (Forwarded) Good question, STAN. And a good answer, YAT. Glad to hear that you can "turn off" the Nova card using Xboot for those programs that are not compatible with it. Also it is good to hear that Xboot is compatible with it (otherwise this method would not work). I was reading up on another manufacturers card and it is not compatible with Xboot from what I can gather. So it seems the more I learn about the NOVA the more I like it. I can't wait to see it at the CT show in a few weeks. --Lou T.-- Written: Friday, May 28, 1993 12:03 a.m. EDT ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 67 Fri May 28, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) We were taken completely surprised by your post. A quick check confirms that no flags were revoked. This was confirmed by John Cole in mail this evening. I checked my flag list not once, not twice but three times to make sure I wasn't seeing wrong dates and a lack of an asterik that denotes an expiration. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 69 Fri May 28, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Darlah, If I was in error and my information was wrong, I apologize. There may have been a misunderstanding... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 70 Sat May 29, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) EHW: There is definately a misunderstanding. Flags have and are intact. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 71 Sat May 29, 1993 J.COLE18 [John] (Forwarded) Darlah, I dont think I confirmed to you that no flags have gone down. What I said was that the LEXICOR, LEXICOR2, and J.COLE18 accounts were all applied for at the same time, and that all three flags were not due to expire untill next month. The LEXICOR flag is no longer avaliable, I do not know why. We have been keeping close track of the expiration dates since the last time the flags went down unexpectedly, it cost John Stanford ~$50 and myself almost $300 before we noticed they were gone I would be very interested to know what has happened. John @ Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 72 Sat May 29, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) John: I posted to you in mail but due to your post, I will address you in public: I have NOT received any mail on John Stanford and his flag. He is not in the stats for expiring and has not had a flag for some time. If he needs one, please send me mail with the proper information. As always, I enjoy the support. Here are the stats of the accounts you have now: GEmail Flag From To ------ ---- ---- -- LEXICOR2 FREE 930113 - 930713 J.COLE18 FREE 930113 - 930713 LEXICOR FREE 930106 - 930704 As you can see, Lee's account has NOT expired. I look forward to hearing from you in mail. Sincerely, >>Darlah j Potechin ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 73 Sat May 29, 1993 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] (Forwarded) Would it be too much to ask that we return to the topic at hand; Graphic Boards? ~~~~Brian ... Written on Saturday 29 May 1993 at 05:52 p.m. ADT ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 74 Sat May 29, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) Brian: No problem at all. :-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 75 Sun May 30, 1993 B.AEIN [B Man] (Forwarded) I was wondering two things: 1. What is the speed (quick index results) of the mega 16million board in the differnt resolutions/color modes. And 2. Is there any way to use the Nova board in a Falcon? Which board would we need to do both Mega an F030 if possible? Oh, and is their a SVHS out on the board? Thanks Bman ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 76 Wed Jun 02, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Dear Bman The SVHS output is provided with the Averkey Board from Aver Technology. It has an SVHS, a VHS normal NTSC output one Input (Nova Card, VGA), one RGB Output and one VGA Output. So now you can Monitor your Nova Card actions with the VGA Output and compare it with the final Video output. The VHS normal NTSC Output is what I would call a Video Chinch, I think it is called an RF Connection here... The Averkey will work not only with th Nova but with the Falcon VGA and the normal TT resolutions. It is a separate board, small and handy and can be connected as an external device. It complies with the limits for a Class A Computing device pursuant to Subpart J of part 15 of FCC Rules, which are designed to provide reasonable protection in a commercial environment. This is a direct quote from the Manual. I hope I could help Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 77 Wed Jun 02, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Ok folks, Questions about the NOVA card. 1) Is it available now? 2) I am considering buying an NEC Multisync 3Fg. This should work just fine when using the higher res. of NOVA, but when I want ST low, I don't think the 3Fg can sync that slow, or can it? 3) This plugs in the Mega bus slot, so how will it work with the TinyTurbo030 ( besides very fast)? Thanks. Bill Wehler P.S. Oh, I don't remember if I have sent in any registration cards, but if you check your records, you should find that I have ordered from you directly in the past. Most recent was Genisis. The reason I am concerned is that I haven't ever received any mailings from Lexicor, and I would like to keep up on the latest and greatest. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 78 Thu Jun 03, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) The Tiny030 plugs into the 68000 socket, and the graphic cards plug in the Mega expansion connector, so no conflict. The only question is whether the driver software for the Nova is 030 compatible, nad _not_ exclusively 030 compatible in reference to the TT. We have tested lots of boards with the 030, but the Nova wasn't around at the time, so I can't tell you of any results directly. Perhaps we can put Mr Siu in touch with an 030 user in the vacinity and they can arange a quick test? I notice Mr. Siu is coming from Worcester Mass, which is only an hour's drive from here. If he's in Europe now, and can give me his location I will try and find someone close who has a Turbo030 to come by and visit. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 79 Thu Jun 03, 1993 N.STEEL (Forwarded) Bill, I'm afraid the NEC 3FG 'will not' sync to an ST, but they will sync to the TT. Horizontal sync range is 27-57 KHz. They are excellent monitors, I'm running the 4FG on my PC. N.Steel ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 80 Thu Jun 03, 1993 J.BRIGHAM (Forwarded) I hope they can get you a copy of the Nova, because I would love to have this set up myself. I qiuick, dumb question, Can ....never mind. Brig ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 81 Fri Jun 04, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) Better I get a Nova user an 030, it's easier if a properly setup graphic card system is then upgraded to an 030 than me trying to setup a graphic card, with getting drivers sorted out, etc. I had lots of interesting times getting CrazyDots and Matrix drivers setup, then I could test the 030ness ;-) But hey, I'm a klutz. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 82 Sun Jun 06, 1993 J.BRIGHAM (Forwarded) Can the Nova Card fro for a Mega ST word with The NEC 3D and what are the colors it will display at 800 x 600 Does anyone have an address for Aver Technology, so I can find out more about this averkey boartd? Brig ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 83 Sun Jun 06, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) The Nova Card can be used with a NEC 3D, and at 800*600 it can display upto 32k colours, or even 64K!! If you have the Supernova you can go upto 16,7 Million colours in that resolution. Averkey is an imported product from Taiwan. However there is another rpoduct that can be used as ewll, but we haven't tested it yet. Teh address for Averkey is: No 28-1 Lane 191, Yung-Ho Rd., Jong-Ho County, Taipei Taiwan, R.O.C. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 84 Sun Jun 06, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, I'm back again The other product is solod by Computer Friends and is called the TV Encoder...it's 150 U$D cheaper than the Averkey, however it appears to have less connections, but they claim it should work, however we have not tested it as of yet, we will however test it in the next week or so, a test order has been made Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 85 Mon Jun 07, 1993 E.WINDELL [GENE] (Forwarded) Yat mentioned a Taiwanese scan converter named AVerKey. The AVerKey is distributed in the USA by a company called ADDA, 48501 Warm Springs Blvd., #109, Freemont, CA 94539. Telephone # 1-510-770-9899. Canadian Phone# 1-604-278-3224. The price is 349 in U.S. froghides. According to the advertisement I'm reading from, the AVerKey can handle up to 640 x 480 with any number of colors. It has S-video, composite, and 15khz RGB output - as well as VGA loop-thru. It also claims to have a flicker filter. Might be worth a call to find the nearest dealer, and look at the output on a TV before making any decisions about this thing. Gene ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 87 Wed Jun 09, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Lee, I just was looking over the price list for the NOVA card I ordered on Mon. 6/7 . The price you quoted was $429. I wanted the Mega16M which is $400. I hope I get the right board at the right price. Thanks. Bill "Robocop" Wehler ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 88 Thu Jun 10, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Bill, You may want to give Lee a call, he told me he won't be to active here for a little while. It may be much quicker if you call him... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 89 Thu Jun 10, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Yat, you haven't posted in a while about CAF93. I sure hope there hasn't been a change in plan as I have taken time off work and rented a room at the Windsor Court Hotel. I sure hope you won't mind having me around that booth for a while. Will you be using a TT to show off Lexicor wares? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 90 Thu Jun 10, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) John Stanford is around and active. Calling always works though. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 91 Fri Jun 11, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Well, I did it. I ordered the Nova. I just got a nice multi-sync monitor, Viewsonic 15. 1280x1024 non-interlaced at 76 Hz. max res. Question: The connector on the Nova is a VGA-type so I can just plug in the monitor and play? I think the type of connector is a Mini Sub-D (15 pin) or something like that. Please tell me that it will just plug right in and that I won't have to hack together some adaptor. Thanks, Bill P. S. If I just had that Nova card now!! ;-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 92 Sat Jun 12, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] (Forwarded) Bill, Let us know how the Nova card is when you get it. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 93 Sun Jun 13, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] (Forwarded) I regret that I am only able to provide technical support for Lexicor. I do not have the authority nor information access necessary to handle sales, upgrades, registration or shipping. It seems that telephoning Lexicor's offices would be the most reliable approach at this time. John Stanford ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 94 Mon Jun 14, 1993 R.SYKES2 [FusibleGraph] (Forwarded) hello I just came back from the Conn. Atarifest and I just like to thank Yat Siu for all the Help and time he provided he withstood all my endless questions and whatifs and it was nice also talking with all the Lexiheads that showed and also keepin Yat constantly on the go. well I must say the Nova board is outstanding in performance and display I tried the board on a Mega ste running at 8 mhz in 640x480x32,000 and screen redraws were as quick as my mega ste at 320x200x16!! Im adding one to my system asap .......... one thing that I was sad to here that politics have moved from Wash. D.C. to here on Genie and my favorite topic spot is in danger of not being suported and that I will move to another service If I cant get suport here [ I was not the only one with these same feelings] So KEEP THE POLITICS IN D.C.!!! PS I just bought GENESIS at the show nice set of PRGs Ray ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 95 Mon Jun 14, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) Ray: I was told in e-mail that these topics were going to be supported. We can't renew flags without such confirmation. Are you telling me that you were told differently? There is NO politics on this end.......believe me. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 96 Tue Jun 15, 1993 N.STEEL (Forwarded) Darlah: "NO politics on this end...... believe me. After watching the activities in the Lexicor area for the last month, I'm afraid to say I don't believe you Darlah. What I have seen is domination, interference and restriction of Lexicor's online business activities. After the Gemview joke/fiasco, it makes me wonder how many people get their messages deleted or altered without their knowledge. They have no way of knowing if this is happening, unless they regularly download the entire message area and check. I believe I am correct in saying that you hold the contract for the Atari area, and that means you are the one making money off us. Your husband, Nathan, is a major player in the North American Atari market. His company, DMC, is a major competitor of Lexicor's, marketing Desktop Publishing, Graphics and possibly Animation programs. He also has the sole distribution rights, in North America, to at least one of Cybercube's graphics cards. I have yet to see an apology posted by Rolf of Cybercube. After claiming that he had sole distribution rights to Gemview, which proved to be false, I think that is the least he could have done. That false claim has made the guys at Lexicor look like they were acting illegally. You may even have reenforced that appearance by squashing the Lexicor/Gemview topic. The fact that Darlah, Nathan, and Rolph have a provable common interest in the success of each others activities, makes me very suspicious. It is obviously a conflict of interest. Lexicor has to do it's online business and product support here, because Atari is here. Having the wife of a major competitor control all access and message posting to this area, is a questionable situation. When the people at Lexicor claim their free flags are down, I tend to believe them. They have always been kind, curteous, and very helpful, and not once have I known them to lie to me. Why should they lie, they need to be here to support their customers. We, their customers, cannot expect them to be here, if they have to pay huge monthly access bills. Anyway, something stinks here, and I shall be voicing my concerns to Genie, via Genie feedback. N.Steel ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 97 Tue Jun 15, 1993 N.STEEL (Forwarded) Hi all, I thought you'd all like to know that Lexicor has recieved it's first shipment of twenty Nova boards, and orders are currently being processed. I believe you will also be getting the latest version of Gemview, the graphic file translator. (Don't ask me what version :-) N.Steel ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 98 Wed Jun 16, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] (Forwarded) Saw the new Nova cards at the CT Atarifest show this past weekend. Thanks Yat for demostrating them. Are there any Nova card users out there yet? I wanted to get feedback from any new users on the new cards. Thanks. --Lou T.-- Written: Wednesday, June 16, 1993 00:42 a.m. EDT ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 99 Wed Jun 16, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] (Forwarded) Nigel Steel, Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you currently (or previously?) associated with Lexicor's SGI division? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 100 Wed Jun 16, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) I've been trying to confirm that our speedups work with the NOVA cards, could someone tell me if this board used to be sold under the name "Imagine" by Whittich (sp?) in Germany? We did testing on a whole lot of boards, if the NOVA had been marketed under a different name previously I could quickly know how we play together based on previous testing. John Stanford? Yat Sui? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 101 Wed Jun 16, 1993 M.POCHE [Mick] (Forwarded) As a Lexicor software user and beta tester, I really don't like seeing all of this friction between Lexicor, Darlah, Nathan, Ralf, and anyone and everyone else involved here. For the users, it does nothing more than cause confusion and possibly drive customers away from the products/services involved. I want the Lexicor support that I've become accustomed to, and I want it here on GEnie. Nuff said? - Mick ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 102 Wed Jun 16, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Yes...the Nova Card used to be called Imagine Card in the past, however much has been changed since then.....but the basic architecture is the same. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 103 Wed Jun 16, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) N.STEEL: There are no deletions. Both GE and I are in a position to prove that with the software we have. Lee has yet to deal with this issue with Deiter or with myself. It would be easily resolved if he made an attempt. Let me clarify something yet another time, DMC does not have anything to do with GemView and neither does Nathan Potechin. I know, it sounds more interesting if they do but hoping and trying to create a perception does not make it so. Lexicor's flags are active and have been checked many ways by both GE and myself. There is a GemView topic that was created before this conflict. It is available for anyone who wants to post. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 104 Wed Jun 16, 1993 R.SYKES2 [FusibleGraph] (Forwarded) Im sorry I said anything to start this up again,but I just would like to be supported here on GENIE by LEXICOR. I just hope both parties come to a mutual tolerance. altough I dont post here all the time I fill my buffer several times a week of topic 25. *S ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 105 Wed Jun 16, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Jim, I think it ws the Imagine card. Not 100% sure but I seem to recall Yat telling me so. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 106 Wed Jun 16, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) I am more than willing to rectify matters and it would be far from tolerence. I don't function that way. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 107 Wed Jun 16, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) TO ALL: I just received my NOVA today. It's a VME16 model for my TT. I can't really comment on it's operation, however, I can say that the card is in a seperate box and has a second card that actually goes into the VME slot. This was somewhat of a disappointment as I was hoping it would fit into the TT case. Still, if it performs as it is claimed, I'll try not to ming (mind) too much. Besides, If I keep making additions to my TT they [e way I'd like, I will probably start looking at the possibility of putting everyting into a tower case... My second comment is that there are no english docs. A short letter enclosed with GemView (at least 2.2) stated that english docs were on there way along with english RCS files (in the upcoming weeks). While I have not run any of the drivers or software yet (It arrived just as I was walking out the door for work), if the RCS are in German I do have some experience with resource files, German (I also know some actual germans), I may attempt a translation for myself. Once I get it up and running I'll post again with my findings... EHW... ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 108 Thu Jun 17, 1993 L.BUDNICK [Lorne] (Forwarded) E.WELLS, Please do keep us updated on your experiences with the NOVA. Thanks, Lorne.... Thursday June 17, 1993 08:04:12 p.m. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 109 Sat Jun 19, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Well folks, I just got my Nova card today and so far I am quite pleased. Color & res are beatiful. Now, I have a question to the folks at Lexicor, although I suppose I will have to just call them. What do I have to do now to get Chronos to render at the higher res. like 640*480*256 or 800*600*256. I can't seem to figure it out. Thanks, Bill ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 110 Sat Jun 19, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Bill, I've had my card running now for about a day and a half ( I had a grounding problem that Yat and Lee helped me solve). You can do 800*600 by using the Matrix selection in the render page. Actually, that may only exist on the Private Stock version. There is a new version that I should be receiving in the next few weeks (along with english docs) that will allow the previously mentioned resolutions. For right now, though, you can only do your normal res's, but the will be from the higher pallette. EHW I'm going to be purchasing a new monitor 'cause my PTC1426 just can't handle the higher rez's. It looks great at 640*480*16m... ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 111 Sat Jun 19, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, this is Yat, we are glad to announce that our first batch was successfully shipped, and for all of you Nova User's here is a small info update to it. 1. Available now is the PTC_1426.BIB driver which is perfectly customized to run your NOVA on the Atari PTC1426 Monitor. Now the regular driver on the Nova works just fine, but hasn't got the interlace modes implemented, for the one reason that they believed people might not want to use it in that rez. Whixh is true, but just so you can see, the driver is availablenow by us. Also, we recommend that you use at least a Monitor which can display at least 800x600 non-interlaced. However I understand that there are 14" monitors available at Midwest Micro for 289 U$D. (1-800-972-8822). Another tip when you use the Nova in true or high color modes. If you happen to suddenly after loading a picture or running a program you cannot read the writing then it is only because color nr.1 was shifted to become black. Making both back and foreground black, this is due to the colors of whatever program it is that you are running. Our tip, use the nova_Col.accessory or cpx and make color nr.1 white in color by using the sliding handlebars. Then save it off (sichern) and after reboot it should be fine. If not, then you might have an older driver software i.e. <1.67 TC Nova VDI. The new Nova VDI 1.7 will be out shortly (2 Weeks from now) announced from Computer Insel with improved 24 bit VDI and even faster 256 color VDI. That's all for now. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 112 Sat Jun 19, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Oh besides..I forgot, the midwest Micro's Monitors can display up to 1024x768 non interlaced, for 289 U$D and for .28 dot pitch that's a pretty good price. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 113 Sat Jun 19, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] (Forwarded) Al Fasoldt, Gregg Anderson, and anyone else interested in graphics cards for your TT, MegaSTE, MegaST, 1040 (with Megabus): I saw a Nova card today at ATY Computers in Oakland. Alex got 4 or so on Wednesday and they've all been sold. He asked the last person if he could keep the card over the weekend so people could come in and see it, and so that's the one I saw. Alex should be getting some more in a few weeks since they come directly from Germany. I wish those who actually have the card would post more detailed descriptions about it. :-) Especially software compatibility. I was only at the store for 3 hours, :-) and Alex didn't exactly have a plethora of software for me to test, :-) but I'll see what info I can give you. It ran extremely(!!!) well with Calamus SL and GEM-View. True Paint has some problems with color. :-) I attribute this to True Paint, not the board. Basically, everything's in German except for a photocopied, 3-page document printed on a 9-pin printer, that explains how to connect the thing. Dialogs are in German, but you can figure out the important stuff. 800x600x32k,60hz looks the same in any language. :-) I'm a little squeamish about the external box, and always have been. Basically, you have a black external box with the graphics card in it (someone said it was an ATI board) with a couple of ribbon cables coming out of it that connect to another board that plugs into the VME port. Your extra two TT modem ports can still be connected, although the port plate won't; the ribbon cables from the Nova set-up must get in there some way. Supposedly, the MegaST version doesn't come in an external box since the board completely fits inside the Mega. The whole Nova card set-up isn't exactly what one would call professional and refined. There's no VME port plate, and well, ribbon cables are ribbon cables. I guess though, that you gotta consider the thing costs ~$650 or so for 24-bit color at 640x480 (1meg of VRAM) in the Atari market. It will go up to 1024x768x256colors. 800x600 is 32,000. It looked pretty good on a Princeton Ultra 1400. I suppose it will look better on an NEC 3D or a high-end monitor. You can boot in 1024x768x256 colors (interlaced on the Princeton and NEC 3D), then choose the Nova color desk accessory to change resolution on the fly. However, when you change resolutions to 800x600 for example, you will get a 1024x768x256 virtual screen with a 800x600 window. Similarly, you can boot in 800x600x32k, and then drop down to a 640x480 screen with 32k colors, and that will scroll to a 800x600 virtual screen. Oh, general redraw with this board is fast, fast, fast. Position the mouse pointer in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, move the pointer across the menu bar, and those menus just snap open! Windows and images redraw very fast. There were no software screen accelerators installed; that means no Warp 9 and NVDI. Besides, Warp 9 doesn't work with the card. However, view a text file from the GEM desktop or from a window, and OUCH! Go get a cup of coffee and wait for each line to redraw. In regular ST resolutions, you know when you view a file from the desktop, how it just whizzes by? Well, with this card, it's like watching a 2400bps modem. I'm serious. I ran GEMBENCH and I unfortunately didn't write down any numbers, but the one test that scrolls text in a window was very slow. I certainly hope this problem can be improved, Lexicor! General performance of the card looked very nice. I'm going to have to test some of the software that I use regularly on the machine though before I buy one. Text processing schtuff, like STeno. Gotta check out those line draws again.... Lexicor, when do you expect the English .RSCs and manuals? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 114 Sun Jun 20, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Here are a few of my first tests... All done at 640*480*256 unless noted: GemviMake that GemView 2.2 looks great but acts up in the true color modes (text display only, and Yat's fix may work) Calamus...perfect, but doesn't like true color Atari HDX...Same LGselector...same maxifile...no problems arcshell...no problems, though not run in true color diamond back...runs, but sets the colors to navy blue on an even darker navy blue background fastcopy pro...no problems ORCS...funs fine, but may act up in true color Paula 2.2...no visible problems, though not run in 24bit Chronos: I hope there is a fix coming real soon. It runs in 256 color mode fine, but won't render to any res except matrix. It does not function properly in 16 color or 32k or 16m PrismPaint: works pretty much as promised, though it seemed to balk with PNT files, of all things. That's all I really have for you at this time no wait, WordPerfect is fine in 16 color mode, but has the same problem as TTmed, you can't touch the Thesaurus or spell checker without causing a crash... Once I play some more, I'll post again... Everett H. Wells III (I have seen the future, and the future is NOVA) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 115 Sun Jun 20, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Great news... Concerning PNT Files...that PNT Format is a little buggy, so don't worry too much about it ;-) Also, Chronos will not be able to render in 24 bit, that is the job of Phoenix!! You create the animations in Chronos, then in the new Phoenix you render them and combine them into one large animation. That's all for now Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 116 Sun Jun 20, 1993 A.YU [ATY COMPUTER] (Forwarded) Hi Graphic Users: We are proud to let you know that we have just installed a few Nova 24-Bit 16.7 million graphic cards in various TT030's and Mega STE and Mega ST. The installation of the hardware(the crad itself) is very simple. For VME bus version, just slip the inferface card into the VME bus and let the external "black box" hanging behind. The software installation is by far the easiest among all other graphic cards. Just run the install program on the diskette. The color is nothing but breath taking. We tried Gemview, Truepaint, Prism Paint, and Calamus SL. The 256 colors GIF pictures and true colors JPG pictures looked absolutely GREAT. With Calamus SL, color DTP is a reality and inexpensive. We have tried 16.7 million color at 640X480, 32 thousand color at 800X600 and 256 colors at 1024X768 on our Pricenton Ultra 1400 SVGA monitor, TT's PTC1426, and Standard Technology SVGA monitor. The resolutions look good and steady. One nice thing about this card is you can change resolutions on the fly without rebooting even within a program. We compared the Nova Card to the Crazy Dot, SVGA Card and Sunrise Card. Just to be fair here is the spec of each card: Nova Card equipped with 1 meg of DRAM, Crazy Dot; one is the 256 color version and one is 32K color version. SVGA Card also has 1 meg DRAM. Sunrise Card has 2meg VRAM on it. Our tests were by no mean scientific but we use the daily operation routines i.e, the kinds of work we do on our computer everyday. First we bring up Calamus SL and loaded a 256 GIF picture into a new document. We than scrolled around the screen and viewed the document at different magnifications in the sense we were doing a lot of screen redraw to see how fast each cards perform. To our surprise The Nova with just 1 meg DRAM redraw faster than the 2 meg VRAM Sunrise Card, in fact the Nova is the fastest. Crazy Dot 8 and 15 bring the third and SVGA Card received last place. Next we bring up Truepaint and loaded some GIF and some JPG pictures. Nova Card had no problem gring up all GIF and JPG pcitures. Sunrise Card also loaded the pictures but the color pallets were all messed up. Crazy Dot 8 shwed those pcitures OK but Crazy Dot 15 messed up color pallets just as Sunrise Card did. SVGA Card only showed the first 16 colors. There was some saying that Truepaint might be at fault so Sunrise and Crazy Dot 15 were not working correctly. Again we scrolled around the screen to do a lot of redraw Nova Card and Sunrise Card redraw about the same despite we could see the correct color on Sunrise Card. Crazy Dot Cards were very close but still a bit slower. We gave up on the SVGA Card... too slow and too little colos. The last test we did was to view different picture format using Gemview. Interestingly enough, all cards were able to show correct color using this program. However, Gemview is also a very slow program. The screen redraw tests werer about even for all cards. Now here is the dollars and cents comparsion. Sunrise Card costs $1495, Crazy Dots 8 costs $800, Crazy Dots 15 costs $950, Nova 1 meg costs $640, Nova 2 meg VRAM costs $999 and SVGA cost $459. Sunrise and Nova cards are 24-bit 16.7 million true color cards, Crazy Dots 8 is a 8-bit 256 color card, Crazy Dots 15 is a 15-bit 32k color card, and SVGA card is a 8-bit 16 color card. We have sold a few of each of these cards and I must say for the price and performance nothing beat the Nova cards. We are proud to be Lexicor's northern American retailer for the Nova Cards. Please call us for any questions at (510)482-3775 ATY Computer, or E-mail me on Genie at address A.YU ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 117 Sun Jun 20, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Gee..I am really happy about this report ;-) Let it be known to all user's that the Special Lexicor Price Deal will be on for only 2 more Weeks. I shall post further update nes on the new VDI for NOVA. Also now available at Lexicor are color animations: 800x600 in 256 colors 640x480 in 256 640x480 in 24 bit and 32k More news to follow Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 118 Sun Jun 20, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) What is the SVGA card? Who makes it, what name does it go under? It's hard to judge comparisons not knowing more about the card. Can you post solid benchmark results, like running GEMTEST on the various cards, or loading a standard file into a DTP program and scrolling from top to bottom, something complex enough to let you use a stopwatch with good repeatability. Maybe use the Calamus "PRINTER.CDK" file, go to a 300% magnification and then scroll from top to bottom. Also on the desktop, open a window with lots of files in it, set to "show text", open the window to full screen, and scroll the text from top to bottom. Those are the kinds of tough, realworld activities that really show the differences among machines, and the differences among addons on the same machine. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 119 Mon Jun 21, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) I have just a few picky corrections.:-) I do own a Cyrel card by the way so you may want to color me slightly bios.:-) It's also 32bit by the way. First the Prism Paint format is fine there isn't any bugs in it, it's just that Prism Paint assumes the screen is stored in the Atari interleaved format. Thats fine in Atari res's but these cards handle there screens differently so you end up with a mess when saving.:-) The VDI provides the ability to do it properly. Same deal with the screwed up color palettes. It's the softwares problem to handle it correctly, thats why GEMview works on all the cards. It's actually not to bad to handle programing wise. I'm not saying any software was written incorrectly, it was just written with Atari computers in mind. Plus all these cards are fairly new to this platform. It's also hard for developers to get all these neat toys to try out!:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 120 Mon Jun 21, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) I haven't done any real benchmarks, but the screen redraws in SL seem to be faster with the Nova than with the standard TT desktop and warp9. EHW s*s ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 121 Mon Jun 21, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Lexicor will be doing more and more support for the NOVA card as distributon continues. Currently the NOVA card is being shipped with several pices of software. One is the GEMview share ware product Lexicor received from it's author for just this use. Lexicor will support and answer questions from it's NOVA users, unless blocked by Genie from doing so. There will also be several other shareware products included on the sharware disk which Lexicor feels may be of use with the NOVA card. In addition to the shareware products there will be a NOVA compatable version of Chronos 1.31 included if the user does not already have it. Plus there will be at least one 24bit image file to use with GEMview for users to use once they have their NOVA card installed and working. There are now a steady stream of NOVA cards in the pipe so to speak, with several stand by cards, just in case we get a problem unit. Delivery time has droped by several weeks. The special introductery price on the M16 NOVA will last only a few more weeks, aftere which the price will increase. If you have questions about this or any thing else, please feel free to call or post. Lexicor will be opening a VGA to NTSC topic area soon to support several VGA to NTSC units Lexicor will be distributing next month. These units are now being reviewed and will be offered as additions to the NOVA card. Lee@Lexicor /exit ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 122 Mon Jun 21, 1993 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] (Forwarded) Thanks Lee. The GenView topic is 33 of the graphic category (7). Please feel free to answer all GENVIEW questions in that topic. Thanks again for your statement of support! ~~~~Brian ... Written on Monday 21 June 1993 at 06:34 a.m. ADT ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 123 Mon Jun 21, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Everett ... You mentioned in your post #116 that "Calamus... perfect, but doesn't like true color." Could you please expand on that statement? I assume you are referring to 16 million colors (24 bit) and if so, Mr. Yu seems to have arrived at a different conclusion in his post #118. Could you please do me a favor and test Calamus SL in all variables of the Nova card and let us know specifically if you encounter any difficulty so that we can look into getting them corrected. On behalf of Calamus customers everywhere, thank you. ;-) Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 124 Mon Jun 21, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) To respond to one of the questions about the Text output, the Nova board is a graphics board and therefore writes and redraws everything as graphic. Now with the SUperNOVA you don't have that problem anyway. However, what other graphic boards do is they shut off the board in this specific text mode making it display text as text..and not as graphic. This is not implemented in the Nova, and will also not because to view text, you can generally use a Texteditor that will be handled much quicker anyway through the Nova or if you run it in MultiTOS then you use selectric (or even if you don't use it), where the text get's scrolled. Nova also has a program called ReSWITCH which allows you to assign a specific resolution to every program you load, so e.g. you run Cybersculpt then it automatically switches to 640*400 in monochrome, you load Prism Paint and it switches automatically to 800x600 in 256, for example. This makes it very easy for the Nova User. More to follow Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 125 Mon Jun 21, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] (Forwarded) Alex, good to see you on GEnie, but you need to put a few paragraph spaces in your post. It came out all as one paragraph. Not too easy to read. :-) Yat says: >Let it be known to all user's that the Special Lexicor Price Deal will be on >for only 2 more Weeks. Lee says: > The special introductery price on the M16 NOVA will last only a few more >weeks, aftere which the price will increase. If you have questions about this >or any thing else, please feel free to call or post. So does this mean that I won't be able to buy a board at the current price because none will be available in the next couple of weeks? Info I have says that a new shipment of boards is still a month or so away. I'm sure that other users like myself would like a definite date on when this price increase will become effective. "2 more weeks" or "a few weeks" is an insufficient ballpark figure. I would also like to know what the price increase will rise to. Other vendors, even Atari vendors :-), let their potential customers know what the price increase will be ahead of time. I'm in no rush; just let us know when you decide. Sh*t, I've waited this long.... >To respond to one of the questions about the Text output, the Nova board is a >graphics board and therefore writes and redraws everything as graphic. Now As if I just fell off the turnip truck. All ST text, ever since the 520ST, is displayed as a graphic. A pixel is a pixel is a pixel. It only looks like text. :-) >with the SUperNOVA you don't have that problem anyway. However, what other So what makes the SuperNova different from the mortal Nova? >graphic boards do is they shut off the board in this specific text mode making >it display text as text..and not as graphic. Oh, this is news... :-/ Tell me more about how these graphics boards shut off their "graphics" and display text as text. This is interesting... :-/ >This is not implemented in the >Nova, and will also not because to view text, you can generally use a >Texteditor that will be handled much quicker anyway through the Nova or if you >run it in MultiTOS then you use selectric (or even if you don't use it), where >the text get's scrolled. Can you repeat that? There must be some line noise on my side or something. >Nova also has a program called ReSWITCH which allows you to assign a specific >resolution to every program you load, so e.g. you run Cybersculpt then it >automatically switches to 640*400 in monochrome, you load Prism Paint and it >switches automatically to 800x600 in 256, for example. Does ReSwitch come with the Nova or is it sold separately? I hate to be a pain in the ass, but I gotta be an informed consumer, like Michael Douglas in "Falling Down." :-) After all, I'm spending my hard-earned money on the thing. :-) If everyone was as picky as I am, we wouldn't have PC clones and Macs. :-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 126 Tue Jun 22, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) To answer your questions: Yes, ReSWITCH comes along with the Nova Board in the system disk. Concerning the special price, as the next batch of Nova's is due in end of this week/beginning of next. And it doesn't matter i [C [C [Cif you order a Nova that siisn't in Stock as long as it is before the deadline. Right now we have been working on getting orders, then shipping them. The Super Nova is described in some of the specs before, but to give you a brief overview, it has 135Mhz as supposed to 90Mhz on the Nova. It has 2Mbyte VRAM and a hardware accelerator on top of it. The extended memory can make it display higher resolution with more colours. Ideal for the Professioal User. The price will increase by about 100 more dollars. It's not too sure, by exactly how much, the special for the VME 16M was 529, I think it'll go up between 600-629, something in that direction hope I was of assistance Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 127 Tue Jun 22, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) Since the Nova's are actually PC video cards with Megabus or VME adapters, they would be capable of supporting the standard PC "TEXT" video modes. But the Atari interface, even for TOS (non-graphic) programs, are all done in bitmapped graphics, so there is no correlation between the PC text modes and any Atari mode. On the SuperNova, what is the video controller chip maker? On the standard Nova and CrazyDots I think it is Tseng Labs...the ET4000...but who makes the chip on the SuperNova? Is it "S3" Corp? I'm just trying to nail down how the board fits into the PC video world, so I can better understand it. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 129 Tue Jun 22, 1993 AEO.7 [Gregg] (Forwarded) Well, I thought I'd visit this forum and see if there was any info on the NOVA board.... Yea GADS!!!!! I'll save all this to disk and read it in the morning, I don't have enough night left to do it now... I'm VERY interested in the new Graphics boards for the ST/STe/TT and how they compare to each other and to the new Falcon's video modes. I'm frustrated.... between a shortage of $$$$ (like everyone else), the Falcon's great 640X480 color display, the TT's fantastic 1280X960 monochrome display, and the problems of compatibility and multiple monitors to have access to all resolutions (and thus max compatibility & flexibility) I just flat out don't know which way to turn anymore.... ARG!!!!!!! Ok, I've read up on the Sunrise board.... I'm about to read up on the Nova board.... Now to do a /search/ and see if I can find something on the CrazyDots unit. That seems to pretty well cover the major players... for now........ . Gregg ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 130 Wed Jun 23, 1993 M.POCHE [Mick] (Forwarded) Gregg - I too am becoming overwhelmed by all of the different graphics boards, and how they compare to the Falcon in terms of cost, compatibility, expandability, etc. The Nova boards do sound like really nice boards at a good price, and installation of the VME units would be a breeze. I've considered putting one into my MSTE, but I really need more speed. I think if money wasn't as tight as it is, the optimal Atari graphics workstation would probably be a decked- out TT with a SuperNova and Lexicor software. But alas, my budget is probably best suited for a Falcon right now. Sure, it doesn't have the graphics power that the Nova cards offer, but it has other features that no graphics card can give you. Perhaps someone will come up with a 24-bit board for the Falcon some day. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 131 Wed Jun 23, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Mike...I'd say the 24 bit Card for the Falcon can be a reality once Atari decides to produce a TT-Like Falcon case. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 132 Wed Jun 23, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Thanks E.Wells, I just got a ViewSonic 15 multisync, and the quality is very good. Has no prob displaying 1024*768*256 at 72Hz. Bill ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 133 Wed Jun 23, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] (Forwarded) Thanks for all the input on the Nova cards. I am still deciding what is the best action to take. Gee a deadline on the price for the Nova cards.... like I don't have enough to worry about (i.e. compatibility, etc...). Keep the posts coming! --Lou T.-- Written: Wednesday, June 23, 1993 04:23 p.m. EDT ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 134 Wed Jun 23, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Lee, I am slightly confused. Is Chronos 1.31 the same as the private stock version. If so, I did not receive the Nova compatible version of Chronos. If it is different, will private stock work. Also, will private stock cure the bug I talked to you about on the phone today. No drag cursor. Thanks, Bill ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 135 Thu Jun 24, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Bill, Which model Viewsonic did you get? I'm presently looking at monitors and I'm basically looking at the Viewsonics and the Mag Innovision. I'll go with which ever one will give me the best features. If I can scrounge the cash it will probably be a MAG mx15... Nathan, To the best of my knowledge, Calamus SL is a beauty in 640*480*256. 640*480*32k I don't think I've tried. In 16m mode it appears to work, but if you load a document the text comes up as verticalm , multicolor dot patterns (like if you run the Fonteditor in TTmed). The same is true if you go to the text module and try to view the font list. I really haven't done any work in the color modes (other than 256), but I'll try and experiment some more and get back to you. Once I get my new monitor I'll try it at higher rez's. I'm assuming it will work at 800*600 or 1024*768... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 136 Thu Jun 24, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Thanks Everett. I appreciate the info. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 137 Thu Jun 24, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Everett, I got the Viewsonic 15. 15" Multi-scan, 86MHz bandwidth, 30-64kHz horiz., 50- 90Hz vert., .28 mm dot-pitch, anti-reflective screen. Meets MPR-II emission standards. Has tilt/swivel base and nice array of adjustments. 13 factory programmed timings from VGA to SVGA 1024*768 at 76Hz vert. refresh. Also has 13 empty timing slots for custom resolutions, easy to program. Shall I continue. Do you think I love this monitor or what? It is very nice. Kind of expensive though. $625 from Publishing Perfection, Menominee Falls, WI 1-800-782-5974 I ordered on a Wednesday eve. and got it on the Friday. Although I do live in WI. Actually, their price was $659, but I talked them down because there was another ad in Comp. Shopper for $625. Hope that helps. Bill ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 138 Fri Jun 25, 1993 AEO.7 [Gregg] (Forwarded) Hmm, maybe we'll luck out and be able to see both the Sunrise and the SuperNOVA boards being demoed at the BlueRidge Show... I know DMC will be represented and I understand that Lexicor will be there as well. Can anyone confirm this for me and let us know if there will be any NOVA demo units shown? Many thanks all; Gregg ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 139 Sat Jun 26, 1993 B.BEAUCHEA [Bob Beauchea] (Forwarded) Does anyone have any ideas on how I might get a cable for my Omnimon Rainbow VGA monitor and the NOVA card. I need a male 15 pin to male 25 pin cable. Wuztek has gone out of business and I have had no luck finding such a cable. I would hate to have to buy a new monitor. Thanks, Bob Beauchea ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 140 Sat Jun 26, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hmmm...I don't think that is too much of a problem.. Dual connectors are usually available at regular electronic shops such as Radio Shack or even Lechmere...if you have such places? Sometimes they also sell you kit's to biuld yourself...but if you don't want to go through this fuss..then look in Computer Shopper and ask around maybe? I haven't checked myself but USA Flex should have it...1-800-944-1900 Hop I could help ;-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 141 Sun Jun 27, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) If Flex doesn't have it and you don't want to build it yourself, there is a place in the Shopper called 'Cables to GO' that probably doesnt (make that does) carry it and if they don't I believe they'll make one... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 142 Tue Jun 29, 1993 B.BEAUCHEA [Bob Beauchea] (Forwarded) Could someone post the pin configuration for the 15 pin connector for the VGA port on the NOVA card. I have the configuration for the 25 pin connector of the monitor and I need the other in order to get a cable made up. I believe that the VGA 15 pin connector is standard so if anyone just knows what the VGA standard is please post it here. Thanks, Bob Beauchea ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 143 Thu Jul 01, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Bob, I will see if we can find a small supply of these cables or adpt's...and just send you one. Give us a few days to run down a source and get them...thanks Lee Lee@Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 144 Fri Jul 02, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Notice: The sales of Nova cards has now passed the 10 dozen mark. Lexicor has mailed out special offer notices and flyers to all "Leo waiting list place holders". Please be advised that the special introductory price of the Nova will be ended around the 15th of July. The new price will be about $100 more than current prices. At that time lexicor will run a special on the Aver-Key. This is a device for convering the Nova VGA to NTSC. The will be a new topic opened up on this over the 4th holidays. Many of you have asked about english langue doc's and .RSC files. These should be back from the printers by next tuesday, they will be shipped along with several bits of software and 24 Bit goodies. Some time in the next day or so watch for a very special and fantastic 24Bit "UP-DATE" For all Nova owners who have PrismPaint 1.1 or 1.5B. This is a fantastice oppertunity to see what the full power of 24 bit graphics is all about. Finally watch for the "Nova Plus" announcement comming here soon..... Lee@Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 145 Fri Jul 02, 1993 AEO.7 [Gregg] (Forwarded) Guys... I'm not into fancy multi-color demos myself (though I like watching them). My primary interest is in a good multi-color HIGSomething in the 1280 X 1024/960 range with 16 or more colors for my EasyDraw/Calamus/etc work. So what's the best for that type of work? Gregg ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 146 Sat Jul 03, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) What about us other graphic card users? I need a good 24bit Paint Program myself.:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 147 Sat Jul 03, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Joey, Uhmmmmm well we don't have one of those, so it's hard to help with what you want? All our stuff is compatable with the NOVA. We will have some new stuff in the NOVA Plus series for 24 bit users. We will also have an important announcement for Prism paint owners waiting for up-date info. You might contact your card manufacture and see if they have any 24 bit paint program deals for you? I am sure they would not be selling an expensive card with out some kind of Paint programs in mind? Lee@Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 148 Sat Jul 03, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, if you can't wait to see the english doc's then you can always log into on of our BBS's at :(508) 792-2487 (10pm-6am Eastern) or if you have Internet access FTP it from Lexicor@world.std.com, not to mention our Compuserve account. Thanks Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 149 Sat Jul 03, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Lee, If Prism Paint II uses the VDI properly it should work fine on any card. I'd be happy to try it for you if you want me too!:-) What about the Falcon, got one of those needing a Prism Paint as well... and a Chronos!:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 150 Sun Jul 04, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Jory, it's not VDI so much as it is the way in which it deal with color that is the problem, It actuall does work fairly well considering....there will be several important messages over the holidays about such things. There will be an update announcement very soon. You will like it a lot. BTW Joey......nahhhhh I won't ask.... Lee@Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 151 Sun Jul 04, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Small info for NOVA or to-be NOVA users. NVDI is not available for the Nova Graphics Card, the reason why is that the VDI for the NOVA is written by the developers of the NOVA themselves and in assembler to be optimised to the best possible way. The STA-VDI is very quick as NOVA users have confirmed this before, a NVDI will therefore probably not increase the NOVA performace by much, if anything. However, if you want to have screen saver's for NOVA specific I understand that there are some out there....just for the NOVA Card. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 152 Sun Jul 04, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Anyone interested... The noval color accessory (which is like the old atari control panel, but with some interesting new features important to the nova) has screen saver built in... And yes, I think that STA_VDI is actually faster than the screen accelerators in some applications...not as fast in others, but then I'm also running in a 16million color mode... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 153 Sun Jul 04, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Also, if you didn't already know, along with the disk is the NOVA_COL.CPX which will alllow you to change rez via CPX and save some system memory! The fastest modes are in 256 colors as these are optimised to the best possible way, but STA_VDI v.1.70 will have even faster 24 bit and 15/16 bit drivers! There is a big difference between 32k colors and 24 bit, you can really notice! Yat PS: Just thought I'd add that ;) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 155 Mon Jul 05, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Well, Joey I have seen some side by side comparisons of "some" cards with the NOVA and see that at least on the "what you see is what you get" screen speed, that some very popular word processers like Cal-a-mouse and Pagedstream are a tad to much faster on the Nova card. And of course lexicor stuff does not rum well on some cards and not at all on others, except for the NOVA of course. I think I won't ask......... Lee@Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 156 Mon Jul 05, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) Is Cal-a-mouse some new Lexicor word-processor? Has Lexicor tested thier products with the CrazyDots card? If so do they work? You seem to be suggesting Lexicor products don't work with "other" cards, could you be specific so people know what to buy, what will play together, and what won't. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 157 Mon Jul 05, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] (Forwarded) > Joey I have seen some side by side comparisons of "some" cards >with the NOVA and see that at least on the "what you see is what you >get" screen speed, that some very popular word processers like >Cal-a-mouse and Pagedstream are a tad to much faster on the Nova card. Nothing like an unbiased tesitmony. >Has Lexicor tested thier products with the CrazyDots card? If so do >they work? You seem to be suggesting Lexicor products don't work with >"other" cards, could you be specific so people know what to buy, what >will play together, and what won't. I, and I'm sure many others, would like to know this as well. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 158 Mon Jul 05, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Well..let me answer some questions for you..which I can ;) so I hope ;) *grin* Most of uour products work with Graphics Cards such as the MatrixTC1208 or the Crazy Dots,...but not all. Phoenix and Prism Paint will run fine on the Crazy Dot's, and also the Matrix TC1208. I have no Cyrell card to test it on..therefore I am ill- equipped to say anything about it. Our NOVA Stellum Software will also run on the Crazy Dot's or the Matrix...however no guaranteed to how well (maybe there might be some strange color drift's *shrug*) but I know that Chagall runds fs fine on either cards. Of course NOVA User's get the special price, the reason why we support it so much...is because tehhe price is very good (and because we import it) Chronos and Genesis will not run with any card but the NOVA, unfortunately, and if you don't want to keep switching between TT/ST and Graphics Cards, NOVA is in my opinion the best bet, because it has RESWITCH which will switch resolutions automatically, according to program (once you the user have assigned it). eg. Cybersculpt won't run in any rez max. but 640*400 in monochrome. Concerning the speed of the NOVA Card, we have been passing on the oppinions and experiences of many of our customers. Also concerning Pagestream and Calamus (mouse-moose-wahtever???!?!) ATY has made a small report about it before and found the NOVA Card to be very fast with both programs. My point is that Lexicor uers who have a NOVA Card will be better off because 1.the price is cheaper for what you get compared to other Graphics Card to date! (To date! you never know what wonder miracles might happen overnight!) and 2.our software runs with it, some software like chronos or genesis will only run on it, and not on any other card. and 3. We are working on NOVA Specific players, that will allow beautiful players and viewers that are quicker than even the NOVA VDI :). Which as i so often say I think is pretty fast as it is :). Hmm...I think that's it for now...:) Check out our new NOVA Stellum series! Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 159 Tue Jul 06, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Who ever suggested that I was unbiased....... Lee@Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 160 Tue Jul 06, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Lee,:-) Y.SIU, Thanks for the info! In theory you could do an animation in Chronos, then render it with Phoenix which runs pretty much everywhere. So even though Chronos might not support third party boards directly the rendering software would. I'm really looking forward to the ability to link those two programs together!! I'll be one happy camper that day!:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 161 Tue Jul 06, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) That's pretty much right, , in theory that is. However to play really quick animations it will have to be done directly via the hardware of the NOVA, or whatever graphics card there is, as the VDI is a handicap in the really fast output. That kind of stuff will be NOVA specific, but other- wise you can still link up animations via Prism Paint or generate them with the Chronos- link (relativity). :) But not yet! For now....it's pretty much NOVA users only, but soon, soon ;). yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 162 Wed Jul 07, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Yat, I can wait! I am an Atari user after all, RSN is practically part of my DNA.:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 163 Wed Jul 07, 1993 B.BEAUCHEA [Bob Beauchea] (Forwarded) I finally got a cable for my monitor and got my Nova card working. Overall the graphics are excellent and fast. I have it installed in a Mega STE and mostly use a 800 x 600 256 color mode. I need to wait for the english docs to figure out how to set it up for true color mode. I am having only one problem, 16 color mode in any resolution will cause all text screen output to be garbled. This includes the desktop, windows or TOS applications. I tried this without any other auto programs or ACC's. Does anyone have any suggestions. I'm using TOS 2.06. To anyone waiting, get your NOVA card before the price goes up. It's worth it! Bob Beauchea ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 164 Wed Jul 07, 1993 K.KESTANFORD (Forwarded) Yat, Can you supply further info on the SuperNova Plus video card? Is it a 32bit card? Does it have any video outputs other than vga? Is an upgrade available from the SuperNova to the Plus and how much? Any answers and/or additional info on any other features would be greatly appreciated! Ken P.S. Anyone interested in setting up a single frame recording system for under $800? If so leave me mail at K.KESTANFORD and we can set a time for an on-line conference. Or if the requests are multiple and serious, I'll write about it on topic 17 (video devices for Nova)! Later, Ken ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 165 Wed Jul 07, 1993 R.SYKES2 [FusibleGraph] (Forwarded) HI I cant wait for my Nova Card to come! just a quick question,will UIS 3.32 and DC Shower work in the Nova enviorment? two utilities that make computing a snap! Ray ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 166 Wed Jul 07, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Halloooooooooooo Lexicor, A question for Lee. When I ordered my Nova card, I also wanted to update to private stock Chronos and Phoenix. Now, as of yet, I haven't received either, but I did get the Nova, which I am very happy with. But, I understand that there is a Nova friendly version of Chronos. Is that the Private stock or is it a different one yet? If it is different from Private stock, will it have the same features though? And is there a charge for the Nova friendly version? As far as Phoenix, what is the cost of the Stellum Phoenix(?) going to be. You have my money for regular(?) Phoenix, but since I have the Nova, maybe I could get the Stellum.;-) Thanks, Bill P.S. I ordered the above three items on June 7. Getting a little(!) anxious. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 167 Wed Jul 07, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Sorry about the time it takes for some NOVA boards rto get through. US Customs have been giving me a "bummer" of a time on our last shipment because thof the "low value" of the many and hihg quality products being shipped in one go (just shows you we! quality for little money >grin<, I'm becomin' real american now !. Hope you get it soon Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 168 Thu Jul 08, 1993 J.COLE18 [John] (Forwarded) Bill, I'm currently to blame for the current version of Chronos not shipping :-) I'm going to go with a new security system and its not ready yet. Start looking for it in two weeks or so. There is no charge for the new version for NOVA owners :-) (hey, it's a free update :-) cant complain too much ;-) I'll have to find out about the Stellum series thou. I'll get back to ya ;- ) John @ Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 169 Thu Jul 08, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Concerning the Stellum series...many of the products require translation, but we will upload demo version's in the next week for you to have a look at. ;-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 170 Thu Jul 08, 1993 AEO.7 [Gregg] (Forwarded) Yat.... are we going to get to see the new Nova Board at the blueRidge AtariFest this month????? I'm looking forward to comparing the major boards while running between the shop and the various tables . Gregg ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 171 Thu Jul 08, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) I don't know?! Is anyone from Lexicor going to be there? uhm? when and where is it? I apologise, but I'm a little ignorant conc. European shows...how far is it from Boston? Thanks Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 172 Fri Jul 09, 1993 J.COLE18 [John] (Forwarded) Yat, I'm going to Blue Ridge :-) I'll call soon to ask for what I need ;-) Trying to get some stuff lined up for it. Log onto CIS for a goody for you ;- ) John @ Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 173 Fri Jul 09, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Oh goody, !!! ;-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 174 Sat Jul 10, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Lexicor Software is proud to announce a new Special NOVA disk! Brought to you by Lexicor is a series of programs put together for a special price of 50U$D (NOVA user's only). This includes NOVA Mines, an adaption of the games Mines for the NOVA. NOVA-CAL.ACC which calibrates the color's of your screen for the professional print, later on. A special driver making Caly-mouse S/SL work fine in 32k/64k colors. Also print out's will be supported in that rez (naturally also includin [C 24bit) It appears that Cala-moose has some problems with 32k/64k, but the driver will solve this problem for you! As I understand, the NOVA is the only card that can do that :-). Hmmm..but you never know, I may be wrong :-) And a few other programs :-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 175 Sat Jul 10, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) This is for some of you Fact Freaks :-) Note that this was a NVDI GEM-Test V.1.02 (C) 1990 by S & W. Behne The testing resolutions was as follows: 1024x768x256 Colors in 72Hz under MINT 1.0 CPU: 68030 OS was 3.06 from 24.09.1991 (ref. 3.01) The NOVA VME 16M produced follow results in that resolution. Text: 350% Lines:232% Rectangles:57% Polygones:84% Circles/Ellipse:193% Attributefunctions:715% Infofunctions:577% AES-Object- Output:241% The Supernova get's these results in the exact same frequency and conditions. Text:360% Lines:841% Rectangles:357% rectangles: 357% Polygones:176% Circles/Ellipses:378% Attributes:737% Info:620% AES-Object:330% I apologise for the last typo, unfortunately I don't have quick-test, so I don't know what NVDI GEM-Test will actually tell you? Remember that the testing conditions are at 1024x768x256 Colors, and it is quicker in lower rez :-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 177 Sat Jul 10, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Mr. Yat Siu ... Please show some respect. The name of the product that I represent is named Calamus. I can understand a simple typo but have little patience with this childish word game. Please try and spell it correctly in the future. > It appears that Cala-moose has some problems with 32k/64k, but the > driver will solve this problem for you! As I understand, the NOVA is the > only card that can do that :-). Hmmm..but you never know, I may be wrong > :-) Are you saying that the Nova is the only card with a 32K/64K problem with Calamus? I don't understand. Calamus operates in 1, 4, 8, 24/32 bit color. It does not operate in 16 bit. Have you written some kind of driver that will dither the Calamus screen display to run in 16 bit color? Please explain. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 178 Sat Jul 10, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Geeeee :-)....well that's how Lee call's it? :-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 179 Sat Jul 10, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) However..now in all seriousness.. Yes...there is a special driver that will make Calamus run on the NOVA also in 32k/64k...suprised? :-) It also allow's the out-put "Ausgabe" in that rez and colors. It will be available very soon, with the next batch of cards, we get the Software aswell :-). Now, I do not have Calamus, but the customers in Germany have been confirming the functionality of it...great huh? Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 180 Sat Jul 10, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Thank you. I look forward to hearing from Mario when he sees this card and special driver in Asheville in a few weeks. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 181 Sun Jul 11, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) I have just placed a file into the library, it is available and is a 640*480*16m targa file of a simple test of texture mapping and transparency it's called JP_TEST.ZIP, and sorry, I don't remember the #. Also, can I get some more info on OUTRIDER (is that the correct name) and when will the Special NOVA disk be available... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 182 Sun Jul 11, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Outrider? hmmmm...is that some kind of GAme? You were probably thinking of OUTSIDE the Virtual Memory Program? If so..that's basically what it is. It is a program that will allow your '030 Atari to use a Harddisk Partition as memory combining it with your regular RAM. Works best with TTRAM..but also on a FALCON without TTRAM. You can decide on the type of Transfer's, and have a MAX. Capacity of 512 Megabytes of Virtual RAM... so if your RD1 file get's too big or your FLM in PRism Paint..then OUTSIDE is the Solution. I use it all the time on my Falcon as 14Mg's is really not enough. It cost's about 89 U$D, comes complete in English...and is probably the best VMM around for Atari Systems. There are also not that many other VMM's I know of anyway. Also with OUTSIDE come HARDBOOT a very fine Harddisk Manager, so unless you don't use ICD...or something you really like, HARDBOOT is excellent, basically it's like Atari's Harddisk Manager, but I think it's a lot more firendlier, and very nice to work in. Hope I could help Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 183 Sun Jul 11, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Oh..by the way ;) For those of you who do not know, it is now a known fact that Dave Small's Spectre GCR runs fine with the NOVA Board, so now Spectre User's can actually run it in High Res....... Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 184 Sun Jul 11, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) Yat, Nova and Spectre GCR great news! I better get my Mac System software for my GCR. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 185 Sun Jul 11, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Mr. Siu took it upon himself to drop by my own Category 16 earlier this evening to advertise the Nova card currently being offered by Lexicor to all of my DMC customers. I'd like to thank him for doing so and take this opportunity to direct all Lexicor customers to what I consider the most sophisticated, highest quality 24 bit graphic card available on the Atari platform, Cybercubes Cyrel Sunrise. I invite all Lexicor customers to drop by Category 16, topic 12, and learn all about this local hi-end graphic engine. ;- ) Serious Lexicor users, Joey Sherman (REALM) for example, is a proud owner of this excellent product and I believe that all Lexicor customers should give this card serious consideration. It is built in North America, supported directly by the manufacturer on GEnie AND capable of addons that offer serious DTV capabilities. For a complete list of features, please read Category 16, Topic 12, message 2 and continue from there for a solid look at the quality of the product and support available, right here, right now. This will be my only post in Category 25 on this subject. It is not something I would do, normally, but since Mr. Siu dropped by Category 16 to talk Nova, I thought I'd return the favor. So please, all those seriously interested in a quality 24 bit color card from Cybercube Research, drop by Cat 16, topic 12. Thank you. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 186 Mon Jul 12, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] (Forwarded) Thanks Nathan for bringing the Cyrel Sunrise graphics card to the attention of any Lexicor users who were not aware of the card. I agree that it certainly sounds to be a sophisticated, high quality display option. I encourage all interested to check out cat 16, topic 12. I do however wish to unfortunately point out that several Lexicor and supporting programs do not currently work on the Sunrise card, in particular Chronos and Cyber Sculpt. Although Phoenix does work properly in paletted modes, it does not support true color display in true color modes. The upcomming upgrade to Phoenix will support direct true color windowed output in true color modes, currently working on the Crazy Dots, Falcon and Nova video displays. Unfortunately true color Phoenix display on the Cyrel Sunrise does not work, and submissions of test software to the Sunrise's Canadien manufacturer have gone without reply. As an independent developer published by Lexicor I will of course expend every effort to support as many display options as possible, however limited resources dictate that future Lexicor software may not support every card ever manufactured, particularly in the area of animation playback where efficiency concerns necessitate it be display specific. --------------- Nathan: I gained the sense from your post that you object Mr. Siu's posting in Cat 16 Topic 26 for Graphics Boards and DMC Products that the Nova card was now compatible with Calamus in 16 bit mode. Though I feel the posting of price information was out of line, surely this information could be considered a service to your DMC customers? Perhaps even a service to DMC, as the more potential Calamus customers who are aware of the numerous display devices your excellent software runs on could only lead to increased sales? Is that not the purpose of that topic? I appologise if I read more into your post than you intended. In response to your query in CAT 16 top 26 Lexicor currently doesn't know exactly HOW the NOVA 16bit driver for Calamus works, only that it does, and that it is Nova specific. Lexicor's European manufacturers are not contractually required to provide Lexicor with documented source code for all drivers. Please do feel free however to participate in this Cat and topic. Myself and I'm sure other Lexicor users would appreciate hearing about compatibility of Lexicor software with the Cyrel Sunrise, especially as driver redesigns add possibly increased compatibility. You can even post pricing just to be fair! :- ) John Stanford ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 187 Mon Jul 12, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Thanks for your great reply John :-) And yes, I have absolutely no objection of DMC posting any news on the Cyrell Sunrise card here :), as after all, this topic is called: "GRAPHICS CARDS" and not NOVA cards ;). And I myself only thought to help out some of those serious Calamus user's who haven't necessarily got all that much to spend or who would like to run Calamus in 15/16bit mode. I was posting in your topic about general Grgaphics Hardware too I believe. I wasn't out of line or....? ;) Please so participate in this topic and keep us updated on the news of the Cyrell Card as I intend to do in the General Graphics Hardware or whatever it was called in your Category, as we should not neglect any customers the chance of considering either graphics Card. We only wish to support all those people with Atari's who have always wanted or required high-rez graphics. And as many Calamus user's in Germany are using the NOVA Board and are quite happy with the performance, I thought that the user's in the U.S. who might not have had the opportunity of knowing about the NOVA Board should at least know their available options. Thanks for your insight John, and thanks for your post Mr.Potechin :) Sincerely Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 188 Mon Jul 12, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) Yat, I seem to see nathon posting in my areas on a consistant basis. As far as I can see you and any one with an account can post where ever you please subject to basic rules of the road. As far as prices are concerned....I see no problem in doing price comparison of compeating products. That is what one does in a free market is it not? If questions about features are OK then prices are too. Un less this breaks some genie rule? AS I understand it the Cyrell cost $1,500 dollars and the Nova is $529 dollars. I don't mind a bit if The Cyrell is mentioned here, in fact I like it a lot......Software compat- ability is important as well. mentioning to my Lexicor users and potential card buyers that several "Key" Lexicor software applications don't work on the Cyrell, and never will is also just fine with me. I would not have it any other way. One thing I don't understand though is what is the point of mentioning that Joey (Relm) purchased a Cyrell...that is in the so...what department as far as I can see. It's actually kind of sad because now he can't run some of his Lexicor software in the new color modes, he won't be able to Run PrismPaint II either. Lee@Leixcor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 189 Mon Jul 12, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) John ... I was quite surprised at your response. I was under the impression that Ralf Doewich at Cuybercube had been working with you to assist in getting Phoenix compatible with the Cyrel Sunrise. What happened to sever communications between you? This is truly unfortunate. I would be happy to contact Cybercube on your behalf and ask him to contact you directly to insure future compatibility? The Cyrel Sunrise is a 24 bit card. Are Chronos and Cyber Sculpt currently compatible with the 24 bit Nova card John? You mentioned that the upcoming Phoenix upgrade would be compatible with Crazy Dots, Nova and Falcon. Is this in 24 bit mode? If so, (I remind you that I am not a programmer) why would it not then be compatible with the Cyrel Sunrise in 24 bit mode? (I do realize that in the case of the Falcon it cannot be 24 bit) Your last paragraph seems to be delivering the message that you do not intend to insure compatibility with the Cyrel Sunrise. This is truly unfortunate and I'd like to ask you to reconsider. I am saddened that this conversation deteriorated so rapidly. I suppose I have no choice but to make this clear for all. I have quite often said that Calamus comes first and foremost. That is no less than truth. All else is secondary. In this regard, on behalf of my customers, thank you for sharing the information about the Nova card. I objected to two things about Mr. Siu's post. First of all I thought it was in quite poor taste to just drop into an area and post without at least contacting me first and asking if I minded. That would be polite and common courtesy. I simply returned the favor. The second issue is a greater one. I asked in Category 25 and then I asked again in Category 16 following Mr. Siu's post but I have not received an answer so I will ask you, John. Perhaps you can shed some light on this for me. While it is possible, I guess, for someone to write something that allows Calamus to display on a 16 bit card, it is NOT possible to have Calamus SL actually work in 16 bit and nothing done by Nova in Germany could change that fact! I called Germany to ask about this just now because I would be quite pleased to learn that Calamus was now available in 16 bit mode, admitedly more because of the True Color mode in the Falcon and the Crazy Dots card as well as the Nova. Alas, I have just been told by DMC Germany that the information is not correct. Calamus SL does NOT RUN in 16 BIT mode. It is written to run in 1, 4, 8 and 24/32 modes and that's it. This has not changed and cannot be changed unless or until the internal structure of Calamus is changed. Again, I am not a programmer. Is it possible that Nova wrote some kind of dithering routine to allow Calamus to appear to operate in 16 bit color although in reality it is running in 8 bit for example? This would not change the facts and the facts are that Calamus SL does not work in 16 bit mode, period. So, Mr. Siu, that is why I asked. I suggest you contact Nova and get some more specifics. I, for one, am most interested to understand how this might be possible. None of us wish to mislead our customers, do we? And naturally, if I am proven to be a complete idiot and simply do not understand how these things work I will loudly aplogize to all and sundry, right here. In the meantime, as Mario will be in Asheville, please try to insure that the drivers are available so that Mario can test them personally. Then he can tell everyone that you are correct and I am an idiot and I'll back him up on it. Mr. Siu, I assure you this is no joke. ---- Lee: From your post I see that you are making it clear that you will insure that Lexicor products will never be compatible with the Cyrel Sunrise. You are doing your customers a diservice and I am at a loss to explain it. Are Nova sales more important to you than all those customers that own the Lexicor software products? I pointed out Joey Sherman as a classic example of what I just asked you Lee. Joey enjoys and uses Lexicor software and has produced some great graphics over the years. I personally love his stuff. Now you are telling Joey Sherman: > that several "Key" Lexicor software applications don't work on the > Cyrell, and never will is also just fine with me. I would not have it any > other way. Those are your own words Lee. Personally, I'd love to have all Calamus products fully compatible with all Nova cards, Crazy Dots cards, Matrix cards and anything else out there I might have missed. Naturally the Cyrel Sunrise is compatible as are almost all of the other cards out there. I would be pleased to work with anyone to make all cards compatible with all products if at all possible. I am confident that in time this will happen. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 190 Mon Jul 12, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] (Forwarded) Nathan: Ralf Doewich became extremely quiet after the "Gemview" Genie debacle and never responded to the test version I sent him except to say that he had been too busy to look at it. The test Phoenix does display in 24 bit on the Nova. However the video layout of the nova differs somewhat from what I understand it to be on the Cyrel, not the least of which that the Cyrel is a 32 bit card (8 bits alpha). I am sure that its not working is due solely to my shortcommings as a programmer, however I've not been able to learn what I'm doing wrong, and cannot justify $1200 of my personal funds to obtain a card to test. My understanding is that the Crazy Dot II's are not yet in general distribution so I have not been able to confirm 24 bit operation on those. My last paragraph delivers only the message that I personally will not promise that something will work when I cannot to date get it to work. ---------- I'm not a hardware engineer and thus don't truely understand how the Nova itself works, however here is a potential scenario on the Calamus stuff: The Nova includes hardware and drivers that allow "virtual" resolutions, in this sense meaning that it can present and interpret alternative bit-plane formats to the os ie make it think its in monochrome when running in 256 colors. Given this it then seems possible to me the the card could present Calamus with a 24 bit format it understands while converting it to 16 bit display. This would have the theoretical advantage of allowing the increased resolution 16bit's reduced bandwidth allows. I also have not heard direct confirmation that Calamus works directly in 24 bit on the Nova so this may be the only true color solution. Please note that this is only conjecture. I promise you Nathan that when I obtain use of a Nova card I will do you the courtesy of testing Calamus SL thoroughly on it and informing you of the results. ----------- In the interest of fairness I feel that you miss-quoted Lee. A syntactically proper quote should be: (Your) ..."mentioning to my Lexicor users and potential card buyers that several key Lexicor software applications don't work on the Cyrell, and never will is also just fine with me."... In syntax the comment clearly indicated to me that it was in reference to your posting of information, as was the entire message, and not to compatibility. I know that you do not wish to give people the wrong impression. However this doesn't change the fact that certain Lexicor software will not be re-written to support new cards. Lexicor is a "publisher" of software. As an author abandons the Atari platform Lexicor has very little control over the remainder of that author's life. Just as I suspect you have little control over the design and upgrade process of Calamus SL. Thus Lexicor has spent effort finding a graphic card solution which does allow as much compatibility as possible with their products while providing the advanced features users expect. -------------------- I wasn't aware that one was supposed to obtain permission before posting in a Cat information relevant to that cat. That certainly has not seemed to be established practice here on Genie. John ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 191 Mon Jul 12, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Thank you for your input John. It is appreciated as always. I will ask Ralf to read these posts to bring himself up to date. Hopefully, you and he will be able to get together and finish off compatibility. I do recall Ralf being more than willing to help at one point. And I thank you sincerely for your promise to test Calamus. I do respect your opinion. I completely disagree on the Syntax thing re: Lee's post but perhaps I misunderstood. Lee, could you please clarify? Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 192 Mon Jul 12, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Dear Mr.Potechin, I am very sorry that you think my posting in your area was of poor taste. All I can really say is that you have been posting in this area quite a bit, and I don't think that you asked anyone of Lexicor before if you may or may not post. Naturally not! This is a free market, you are always welcome to post news and information which are in order to the specific topic! I don't believe I have been posting in the wrong topic of your Category? Now, concerning the special NOVA Driver for 15/16 bit. It is something just released, and it may well be possible that no-one will have heard of it yet, in Germany at least. Personally, I don't know how it works , but I was told that it was, and an announcement of it will also be made in the STComputer issue nr.9, from Maxon Computer. I know that this is important for you, and understand your interest in it as maybe this method will allow Calamus to maybe even run on the Falcon in high color modes...am I correct? So if I know more about the in's and out's of this, I will let you know. :) As for the Cyrell Board, I have heard many wonderful things about it and I repeat again, you are always welcome to post here, about the Cyrell. Keep everyone's option open :) the more input we have concerning this TOPIC is better for everyone....correct me if I am wrong about this :) Most sincerely Yat Siu PS: Why must anyone be an idiot? I am confused about that last statement :) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 193 Tue Jul 13, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Nathan, I would like to put in my two cents worth before this either gets dumped by a certain sysop we know or shipped to Cat. 18. Lee's post regarding the mentioning of certain software incompatibility was very clear. It was your paraphrasing that distorted the issue. I checked. This is a good example of how a certain slant can be put on a story just by taking it out of context. Bill ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 194 Tue Jul 13, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Thankyou Bill for your reply :) Those sure were worth more than two cents :) Anyway, to anser a popular question about the NOVA Board. If you have a NOVA Megabus in your MEGA ST then there is an empty slot on it in which you can put in a MC88881/2 Math Co-processor. This will speed up your Mega's calculations etc. and also Rendering speeds for that matter. If you have a NOVa Mega 32k you can expand it to a 16M, same for the NOVA VME. You cannot go from a NOVA VME to a SUPERNOVA, as the type of RAM and the general hardware is different. Concerning the 15/16bit Driver for Calamus, I was told it worked well, and it was a driver which you put in the AUTO Folder. I am not a Calamus user, and can therefore not explain why/uses, and won't speculate on it either. Mr.Potechin, it IS a reality...NOVA User's can run Calamus in 15/16bit aswell as 24bit. oops..I made a typo, make that MC68881 or 2 processort :) If you have a MEGABUS versio, you will find that there is an empty slot to put the Processor in. If you put the MATH Co-pro in that slot, then it will run at 8MHZ. If you wish to increase the MHZ then you need to have a hardware experienced person fiddle with it...as he needs to somehow/somewhat use ep expand or include an Oszillator and ack! I'm not a very good hardware type :) so don't ask me for the details. :) I just know it's possible Now THAT was 2 cent's worth...:) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 195 Tue Jul 13, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] (Forwarded) Bill ... Please explain the part about a certain Sysop you know dumping something. Darlah has stated repeatedly that nothing of the kind occurred. GEnie verified her statement. By now you should have realized that someone else made a mistake and it was not Darlah nor any of her Sysops. Can we please move on! Here is Lee's exact post that seems to have led me to one conclusion and you and Yat to another, from topic 23, message 192 > Software compat- ability is important as well. mentioning to my Lexicor > users and potential card buyers that several "Key" Lexicor software > applications don't work on the Cyrell, and never will is also just fine > with me. I would not have it any other way. I just re-read this yet again. I now think I understand your point, that Lee was saying that some Lexicor applications don't work on the Cyrel and he wouldn't have it any other way about telling everyone this. Whereas I interpreted it to mean that some Lexicor applications don't work AND NEVER WILL and he wouldn't have it any other way. I still feel my interpretation was the correct one but I did ask Lee for clarification just in case. Lee, which was it? And Bill, I did not take it out of context at all. I assume you can also understand my interpretation as I just explained it above? Perhaps Nova has written some kind of routine that allows Calamus SL to operate on a 16 bit card BUT not, in fact, in 16 bit color mode. The internal structure of Calamus SL will not allow it at this time. Oh, I've already said this. I'm sorry, I seem to be repeating myself. Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 196 Tue Jul 13, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Dear Mr.Potechin, I was told by NOVA that they themselves have been working together with some of the people at DMC in Germany? And that driver apparently does operate in 15/16bit mode, and in 15/16 bit color mode. Well we will be receiving the program (or Beta) very soon and then we'll send it to some of our NOVA-Calamus user's and hear from them.... ....sound ok? :) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 197 Wed Jul 14, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Well I have finally decided. After having ordered a Falcon a few months ago and being disapointed with what I've been hearing about it I have canceled my order. I have now made arrangements to get a used Mega 4 which I should received very shortly. That is step one. Next step will be too figure out if I can stick a Nova card in it and which one I should get. My ultimate goal is to have a Fastech T030 and Nova board. I think Lexicor wares should be screaming at that point. Right now I have to get more funcds before I move to steps two and three. I'ts just too bad that I'll probably miss the introductory specials! One thing is for sure is that I'm a future Nova user. Can't wait to use my DA's Vektor on it!!! ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 198 Wed Jul 14, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] (Forwarded) J. Brenner1 I don't think so! I have set aside a preorder from with your name on it. When you are ready we will have your card for you at the current price, you don't get to miss the initro-duck-terky prices that easy.... :-) Lee@Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 199 Wed Jul 14, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Great to hear of your choice :) I am positive that you will not be dissapointed. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 200 Wed Jul 14, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Lee, Wether Lexicor means to or not, it appears to me your telling your customers they need to buy a Nova if they want full support for their Lexicor software. I would like to see you guys more open to writing your software to take advantage of as many resolutions and cards as possible. If you have special NOVA drivers and such to enhance your software thats great but please don't cripple the software so it only works on one card. I for one will mess it. On another note, I don't appreciate being used in a negative manner. I don't mind if you say I'm a proud Phoenix owner but please don't say it's sad I won't be able to use some of my Lexicor software including Prism Paint II, now. It appears as though you really meant it's sad I didn't buy a NOVA card. I don't like being used by Lexicor as an example to others who might be considering other graphic cards. I like to help other Atari developers for the benifit of all Atari users but I don't like being used in negative fasion. Hopefully I'm mistaken about your remark... Yat, It is kind of impolite to go into another companies category and post information on a competive product especially including prices. It's sort of like walking into McDonalds and selling hamburgers for $.35.:-) I don't believe Nathan should ask you to ask for permission but as John mentioned it would have been polite to leave the prices off. I for one I'm glad to see anything concerning Calamus, DynaCADD, Oultine or anything else which benefits from extra res's. BTW, My experience's with Math Chips has been they will run at the speed of the little oscilator usually right next to them. Just pop it out and add a new one that match's the speed of your 68881/2. I do believe it's possible to use a faster chip with a slower oscilator but not vice versa. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 201 Wed Jul 14, 1993 D.HELMICK [Dan] (Forwarded) It might be pointed out that, while the lower-level Nova boards are quite a bargain...once you get up to the level of the Super Nova, taking into consideration the hardware, configurability, additional cost of video output devices, and so on, you're getting pretty much the same thing as the Sunrise board for close to the same price. On the one hand, my neck itches at the thought of getting a unit which has to be shipped from overseas; on the other hand, I want to be able to fully utilize Lexicor's rendering software. So it looks like I'll just be waiting five or six months before deciding on a board, just to see how this all pans out. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 202 Wed Jul 14, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) I am going to explain something. We NEVER deleted nor edited any messages. The things we were accused of are not possible to do. Never did we receive an apology for such accusations and still they continue on other services. Those sort of unwarranted attacks on GEnie effects our ability to offer free accounts. By doing so, we are validating those accusations. Please clear these matters up. Now on to the developer wars. I know from experience, that any discounting of another persons products is bad business. Be polite, no name calling etc... This will gain you respect. Anything else will be construed as childish and suddenly people will look at you and your products in a different light. If your problem is that you can't spell so you make what appears to be a name calling of a product, get someone to correct your spelling. It looks better and you will be viewed with respect. Playing games is the beginning of a companies demise. I have seen it happen oh so often. Do yourself a favor and concentrate on making products for this community instead of games. It doesn't become any of you. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 203 Wed Jul 14, 1993 J.COLE18 [John] (Forwarded) Bill W. I hate to ask you this, but since it appears that one line in one of your post has disrupted (thou I'm sure not intintionally) the aim of this thread. I'm very embaressed to ask anyone this, but I would be in your debt if you and everyone else just didnt bring up our conflicts with the ST RT sysops. As you can see both Nathan and Darlah have posted on this comment ;-( and it seems as if Darlah said that she would remove our flags (do you have free-flags and it was you she was refering to?) if this continues. Again, I am very sorry to ask that everyone please take off-topic discussions to CAT 18. Darlah, I am sorry if a comment was made to set you off. However, it is yours and Nathans post that are taking up the most room about this. Also, I would very much apreciate it if you would refrain from placing any 'spin' on anything said here. Such comments are uncalled for and distasteful. If you wish to respond, please Email me, this is not the proper forum for this disscussion. Thanks. Nathan, If I get a new driver in by BRACE, I will be happy to show it to Mario, untill then we have to go by what NOVA has told us directly. Feel free to discuss any aspect of the Cyrell Sunrise card here. We will strive to make our software as compatible as is within our means. However, with 3 major cards and the Falcon, there are bound to be difficulties. We have Nova, CD, and a Falcon. We cant get a Cyrell. The animation players and formats will have to be custom tailored to each system, a monumental task for this market. I can assure you that I will do the best with what I have to work with. Joey, You are absoluetly right, no one should have used you in such a way. On behalf of Lexicor, I do apologise. I can fully understand how it feels to be a ping pong between two fuding parties, hey, that's why I turned CAT 18 off, I got tired of people fighting about us :-) I will talk with Lee and insure that you have a written apology sent as soon as possible. I really do value as a customer and your participation as a beta testor has been invaluable. Thanks, John @ Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 204 Wed Jul 14, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) Excuse me, John? I haven't posted in eons. I am on vacation. Perhaps you are mistaken. Therefore I will forgive you for your response. Please don't address me as Nathan and Darlah. I am an individual and appreciate being treated as one. I have sent mail and don't get replies. I NEVER post public if mail works. I have yet to receive mail from Lee, who is responsible for your flags. I have gone through GREAT lengths to get your flags extended. GEnie gave me a one month extention due to the outstanding posts that Lee posted on CIS, that are not true, in hopes that we can rectify the matter. Believe me, I want to rectify matters as I want the support here and I have always enjoyed all of you. I can't let false statements made stand as if they were true. I am sure you don't expect that of me. See me in mail or see me here but please do as you promised at the beginning of this fiasco and help me to straighten this out. Regarding the rest, we have had many developer wars online. All parties look bad. Those carrying grudges look even worse. I posted as I felt that no one wins in this sort of thing and I stand behind that statement. It was posted in hopes that all parties would understand and cease to reduce themselves to this level. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 205 Wed Jul 14, 1993 J.COLE18 [John] (Forwarded) Darlah, Fine, that's how you feel. Ok, now can we get back to graphic cards like the Topic header sais? John @ Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 206 Wed Jul 14, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) John: Yes, let's get this back to product support. My posts have nothing to do with how *I* feel. I don't request anything from the Lexicor crew that I don't expect from the other free accounts. Communication is a **must**. Without it, free accounts are not given. To elaborate, Lexicor has more free accounts than any other company that I hold responsibility for. This is *not* a personal issue. It is a communication. So again, lets get this back to product support without the innuendos and see me in mail about the other issue. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerely, >>Darlah J Potechin Atari Roundtables ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 207 Wed Jul 14, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Good idea John, let's get back to Graphic Board's but I will reply to some statement's to clarify a few things. Dear Joey, We are always striving to make our software as compatible as possible with other systems as well as many resolutions as possible. However please consider our position: As the importer of NOVA Board our nr.1 Graphic's Board support will be toward's the NOVA Board and it's user's. Of course, that doesn't mean we will not support Lexicor User's with other graphic board's, but if you own Lexicor Software and something does not work on it, then we can try to fix it, but we cannot guarantee it. Lexicor Software will support all their Customers. We are pleased if our software will run on other Card's. We will not cripple our software only to run on a certain system (whatever led you to that conclusion?!). Consider this however from a business point of view: Lexicor Software has sold well over 100 NOVA Board's since the release date. Most of them are Lexicor Software User's. We will make sure that our Software run's on the NOVA. Consider also that the U.S. is not our only market and that NOVA has sold thousand's of cards in Europe. In your case, you are the proud owner of a Cyrell Card. But to my understanding to this present date Cyrell has not sold enough card's to justify us spending too much time, effort and work (which result's in money) on making it compatible, if something doesn't work........yet! There are other graphic card's which we have to consider before the Cyrell, simply because it is more worthwhile for us, as a company. To clarify the issue of NOVA-Specific: There is software that will only run on the NOVA and on nothing else because the software is calling the video register's directly for faster screen output and/or better result's. This is crucial for animation. Cyberpaint by Antic is a perfect example of such software, were the software is optimised for the specific hardware. It is definitely possible to make such a thing for the Crazy Dot's, Cyrell, Matrix or any other card. But until we do not see a good reason to do it, we will not for the same reason business point of view. Some Software is finished and/or cannot be changed a whole lot more than it already stands for. I mean Chronos-3D, Cybersculpt, Render for Sculpt or GENESIS. However NOVA VDI allows the running of these program's which is why we support it in the first place. To our knowledge the NOVA is the only board that can run these programs. If anyone else is willing to write a kind of driver for another board, then they are welcome, but it is unlikely that it will come from us. I believe that you shouldn't have been mentioned in the first place, and I am sorry for all this trouble, I hope that this clarifies a few things. NOVA has been around for about 3 years. It has a very good VDI, run's smooth and fast, has ripened software (eg. RESWITCH, EMULATOR or the VMG, or NOVA_COL.ACC) and is available for a good price. Which is why we at Lexicor Software are bringing you this card. The amount of sales reflect's our point of view that this Board is an excellent choice (I think best price/value), we recommend it to everyone, and we will give this board our complete support, we may just aswell call this board Leonardo. D.Helmik, It might be pointed out, that the SuperNOVA is available for 999 U$D,- which I still think is cheaper than other board's of that caliber, that is MATRIX TC1208 or the Cyrell board. And there is still the compatibility issue which I have pretty much explained what our position is. You wrote in message 205: >On the one hand, my neck itches at the thought of getting a unit which has to shipped >from overseas. Well Dan, we have been searching high and low, quested deep into the hearts of Europe, to find the board which we think is best for our Lexicor User's :-) *grin*. What is wrong with overseas? Are not many product's like TV's, Monitor's, Video System's imported? Well....thank's a lot for reading.....or not :) Sincerely Yat Siu Lexicor Software Corporation /exit /exit *s ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 210 Wed Jul 14, 1993 M.HILL13 [Mike] (Forwarded) Lee, Will the intro-duck-terky prices (or better :-> ) be in effect at MIST in a couple weeks? My Mega STE needs high rez graphics and I have the Multi-sync to hook it up to! Mike ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 211 Thu Jul 15, 1993 B.DEWITT [Nerd Perfect] (Forwarded) Okay, new guy on the board here. I've decided to take the plunge and order a NOVA card. Now the question is: what monitor do I need in order to work most effectively with it? Also, another question: since CyberSculpt (for instance) expects to find--and therefore makes provision for--just 16 colors in the computer's palette, how does one take advantage of the billions and billions (as our favorite extra- terrestrial, Carl Sagan might say) of colors available with such technological marvels as NOVA when designing our own little Hollywood extravaganza 3D monolithic constructions? Thanx, Bob deWitt ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 212 Thu Jul 15, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Thanks John.C! I don't think a written apology is necessary. Like I said, I don't mind people using me or my stuff in a positive manner. I'm also happy to see your trying to help sort everything out! Yat, I realize all your points, they are extremely logical and I like that you stated them in that manner!:-) I truely understand your desire to support the NOVA fully. I was just objecting to the tone in the message base that you seemed to be writing the software to run on the NOVA in such a way that it wouldn't operate correctly on other cards at all. Thats where my term crippling came from and it's not a very good term... how about limiting? My suggestion is to have the software written as machine independent as possible, then add the special features for the NOVA. That method allows other card users to benefit from your software while NOVA users benifit, more.:-) You might even consider animation drivers? For instance, lets say Prism Paint II uses the slow VDI commands for single frame screen handling, saving frames and animations but it has a special NOVA mode for actually playing animations. While myself, Crazy Dot and Matrix owners may suffer from slow or no animation at all, 90% of the software is still useful to us. Plus it's properly written to take advantage of future resolutions and cards which might appear. If you where to use animation/screen drivers you could just provide the method for linking to your software and let the card manufacturers worry about it themselves. I'm probably over simplifying but thats usually a good place to start. Please don't let the fact that I own a Cyrel belittle my opinion. I know when I post it might look like I'm disappointed I can't run your upcoming software but the fact is I have plenty of other resolutions at my disposal so thats not really a problem.:-) I would have posted even if I owned a NOVA card or no card at all. I like Lexicors stuff, the developers and users so I try to speak up when I think I can help by either suggesting improvements or just complaining about stuff I don't like. I'm sure you'll see more of both in the future.:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 213 Thu Jul 15, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) It's always appreciated :-) Joey! I am actually surprised you tortured your way through that messy post of mine because I $@#%%&##$@#!! still haven't figured out how to upload a formatted file, in the formatted way, it all comes out as a big blob of ....of....well text :-) As to answer some question's concerning the color's. You can always color in an object with Cyber Color, and give it an individual color to every object you load new, considering this is NOT in the same file with that very palette. So imagine you had 16 Objects with 16 different colors then you would end up using 256 Color's, not saying that this is HOW you do it, but simply a method. However if you use our software and esp. Phoenix then you should realise that recoloring an object is not as crucial (except giving it the base color of course!) because the software will render out your marble, wood, color spline in such and these color's you selected as the base and with several objects and various textures you can create astounding 24bit images, with really smooth surfaces, basically true color :) If this all sound's like nonsense to you, then tell me, as it is now past 6am in the morning and I haven't gone to bed since 38 hours *yawn* so excuse me if I sound confusing....this is because I probably am at this time of the day ;-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 217 Thu Jul 15, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Lee, >I have set aside a preorder from with your name on it. When you are >ready we will have your card for you at the current price, you don't >get to miss the initro-duck-terky prices that easy.... :-) > > Lee@Lexicor > ---------- Once again an unexpected response from you that totaly takes me by surprise. In one sentence you save me a hundred bucks, at the same time depriving yourself of an extra $100 profit. No wonder I love you guys. You treat me like I'm one of the family. John B. P.S. "Initro-Duck Turkey Price" another classic :-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 220 Fri Jul 16, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Just to get back to the Topic ;-) For all you NOVA and non-NOVA User's, it is a fact that Cybersculpt work's just fine on the NOVA Card. However a few point's have to be considered. Cybersculpt will run in basically every resolution from 640x200 upto 1024x768 or more (VR Screen). Because of the way Cybersculpt is made you will only get a grid in 640x200 and 640x400 resolution, in either 2, 16, 256, 32k or 24bit color modes. You can also use RESWITCH to assist in the automisation of selecting the correct resolution. Higher rez will produce no grid at all. 3D will display nothing, and is therefore useless. Coloring will have to be made within Phoenix or Cyber Color. The 3D viewing of the object as well. Since Cyber Color works as an accessory there should not be any real problem :-) On the NOVA, Cyber Color will always be in B/W mode. However you can still model in it, which is basically what you have to do and you do not have to switch around in resolutions. And thank's for your tip's on correct formatting ;-) Yat Siu ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 221 Fri Jul 16, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Aladin....hmm, well yes, I have to admit that for all this networking/bbs and modem stuff I use a (ack!) PC (arghhhhhhh! heresy!). Well, actually that's only because my Atari's are spending their time doing more valuable stuff (i.e. rendering ;) ). But I sometimes use Aladin on my Atari, and it is really quite nice for the GEnie user. But I still prefer Connect 2 :-) for Atari. Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 222 Fri Jul 16, 1993 C.OINES1 [Chazz] (Forwarded) In my humble experience, 3D preview is pretty vital to Cybersculpt use... ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 223 Fri Jul 16, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] (Forwarded) Aladdin is available for the PC. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 224 Fri Jul 16, 1993 K.KESTANFORD (Forwarded) Just a few words to owners of non-Nova graphic cards. I have been the proud, and I do mean PROUD, owner of one of four Leonardo boards. I had purchesed it in 1992 at the WAACE show. The leonardo has no driver at all, Prism Render and Phoenix work with the Leo due to the fact that Lexi ... Lexicor wanted to be able to see how there Leo and 24bit displays , that the Atari market was slow and that funding for new programmers were non-existant, meant that the Leonardo would never get a driver written for it. This was regardless of the fact that both Lexicor and myself would have definately wanted to see a driver, to be able to use the Leonardo as part of an integerated display, not having to use a seperate monitor. Other than the two products listed above, no Lexicor software works with the Leo board and it is not because Lexicor wanted it that way. There is only so much specific programming you can do on a tight budget and with facing a future that is uncertain as to how popular a particular hardware item might become. The Leonardo died right from its birth. Hope- fully this will not be the fate of any other graphics card, be it Nova, Cyrel, Crazy Dots, etc. However, like I said, with tight budgets and rresources, it really depends on a cards success and the people-power available to get compatibility going, and this holds true for even the Nova or more importantly the Super-Nova. I beleive that with time and patience, Lexicor will see through to have every board work with its software. They learned from the Leonardo that it is important for all things to have their chance. Trust them to do the right thing. Ken S. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 226 Fri Jul 16, 1993 AEO.7 [Gregg] (Forwarded) Yat.... I realize this may seem like herisy here, but there are a number of folks out there wanting higher resolution displays but are NOT into color animations and/or paint programs.... Folks like that (me included of course ) want as high a resolution as we can afford to buy the monitor for (max of 1280 X 1024/960), 17" or so, and enough compatibility to run our CAD, DTP, SS, WP, and maybe even a game or two (at low res of course) on. In short, we want a large screen display & speed at least the match of Atari's TT monochrome unit with the flexibility to have color as well.\ So which way do we go? Gregg ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 227 Fri Jul 16, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Greg: If Color is not so important to you, then maybe you might consider an Albert or Isaac? Unfortunately I do not know enough about them. Also I do NOT know the price. There is a screenblaster for regular Atari's the make your screen rez higher, but only in your standard Atari color's i.e. 2 to 16 color's. It also depends how much you are willing to spend...the NOVA board is considered inexpensive for it's capabilities, there is also a 32K color version which is cheaper and can also display upto the Atari TT Mono high rez resolution in no problem. Nova has also a very compatible VDI, good software to help you in the smooth running of your Software on the NOVA. I personally believe that if you have the option of color, you always have your options open to whatever else there is. I cannot really help you with monochrome high-rez card's as these are not (and I believe never were) too popular. There are however other Graphic Card's to consider aside from NOVA there is TKR's Crazy Dot's, SANG Megavision, Spectrum 24bit, Cyrell, CHILI and a few other's (don't remember the names), but these all have the option to do color as well as black and white. Maybe it would help if you told me what Computer System you have? And at what Price Range you were looking at? I really hope I answered your question...not so sure myself ;) Chazz: Concerning 3D in Cybersculpt, well that is WHY I said use Cyber Color or Render for Sculpt to view it in (I did mention it or? ;) ). You can view your 3D object in there, these program's also work as accesories. To my knowledge Cybersculpt has some problem's with the 3D on a TT as well, could just be my TOS though? Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 228 Sat Jul 17, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) If anyone needs the 3D view from Cyber Sculpt try running the application in ST high resolution. If you are using CyberColor or Render for Sculpt just make sure to save your 3d2 files and use the ACCs to view the files in solid. For monochrome use I would recommend Render for sculpt. Later in the "color" mode use Phoenix and/or Chronos and CyberColor. Next get your animations and rendering ready. A series of sample objects and color renderings plus animations should be in the library soon in the Lexicor Library number 39. Later. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 229 Sat Jul 17, 1993 C.OINES1 [Chazz] (Forwarded) Yat: Interesting. Do Cybercolor & Render for Sculpt access CyberSculpt's memory space for the object's data (including hidden parts, etc.), or do you have to save from CS and load it into the accessory? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 230 Sat Jul 17, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) Chazz. You need to save your 3D2 and next load them into the accessories. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 231 Sat Jul 17, 1993 C.OINES1 [Chazz] (Forwarded) I'll stick with ST High then... I like the 3D preview too much to give it up just yet. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 232 Sat Jul 17, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Ok..that's fine by me ;-) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 233 Sat Jul 17, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) To explain a little how Calamus SL will run on the NOVA Board in 15/16bit mode, the maker's of that driver have sent me a small letter. I will be attempting to translate the original document, with the original german text. >Calamus SL in der version vom 17.06.93 hat eine Schnittstelle fuer >externe Bildshirmtreiber. Diese Schnittstelle wurde geschaffen, um >Calamus SL auch auf den Falcon in 256 Farben lauffaehig zu machen (Der >Falcon hat in 256 Farben keine Byteplane wie all handelsueblichen >Grafikkarten sonder eine Bitplane) Calamus SL in the version of the 17.06.93 has a port ifor external screen drivers. This Port was made so Calamus would also run on a Falcon in 256 color mode (As the Falcon in 256 Color's has not got a byteplane as all the other commercial Graphic Boards, but a bitplane). >Durch diese Schnittstelle ist es uns moeglich geworden, einen Screen- >Treiber fuer die NOVA zu schreiben. Mit diesen Screentreiber ist es >moeglich Calamus SL auf den NOVA Karten in 32k/64k und 16.7 Mio Farben >zu betreiben. It was now possible, via this port, to make a Screendriver for the NOVA. With this Screendriver you can run Calamus SL on the NOVA Card in 32k/64k and 16.7 Million Colors. >Die Schnittstelle funktioniert im Prinzip so: Der Screentreiber wird vor >Calamus gestartet und legt einen Cookie an. Wird Calamus gestartet, >ueberprueft es, ob der Cookie vorhanden ist und gibt bei vorhandenem >Screentreiber die Bildshirmausgabe nur noch in den Puffer. Aus diesen >Puffer kopiert der Screentreiber die Daten auf den Bildshirm. Dies >geshiet ohne nennenswerten Geschwindigkeitsverlust, da die Bildshirm- >routinen von Calamus sehr langsam sind und die meiste Zeit durch das >berechnen der Bilddaten verloren geht. The Port works basically like this: The Screendriver is run before Calamus is loaded, and leaves a Cookie. As soon as Calamus is started, it checks if the Cookie is present. If the Cookie is present, then it will with the correct driver, place all the Screenoutput into a Puffer. Via this Puffer the screendisplay is made, the screendriver will then copy the data from the puffer onto the Screen. This occurs without and considerable loss in speed as the screenroutines in Calamus are slow, and most of the time is spent calculating the screendata. End of the letter, I made a few typo's in the translation eg. in the last sentence "without and consideralbe" I meant "without ANY consideralbe". I think this should pretty much clarify the issue about the NOVA Screen driver runnin Calamus in 15/16bit mode, WITH a real 15/16bit image display. The way I understand it is that the screen output is not made within Calamus, using that driver, therefore it matter's not if Calamus doesn't like 15/16 bit internally. That's how I see it :-) Any comment's and and more professional evaluation's about this are g naturally welocomed :-) Yat @ Lexicor Mr. Potechin, I believe this should clarify the issue. :-) Yat Siu ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 234 Sun Jul 18, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) If your running on a TT theres an easy way to get the NOVA640 animation to run correctly in any 8bit res. Use TT Low as a converter. Simply load the .PAL file into Prism and save it as a GIF file. Now load the GIF file first (instead of the .PAL file) then load the animation. Works on the Cyrel and should work on the Matrix and Crazy Dots as well. If you'd like to know why it works just let me know and I'll explain in great detail.:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 235 Sun Jul 18, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan @ DMC] (Forwarded) Since you are confusing an issue that concerns Calamus SL, I have no choice but to respond, yet again. The bit about the cookie is correct. That's how DMC wrote it. The part about how the end result of the screen display being slow and lots of time being spent calculating the screen data, is the result of the driver being written to convert 24 bit to 15 bit, through truncation or dithering. This will naturally have an adverse affect on the times involved in screen display and is therefore not recommended. However, as this will allow those with the 15 bit card to run Calamus, I can only applaud the efforts of Nova in this regard. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 236 Sun Jul 18, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] (Forwarded) That's neat. So CalamusSL runs in (8bit or 24bit mode, the letter didn't say?) and places its output in a screen buffer that is in system memory rather than on a video card. The driver then takes the data in that buffer, translates the 8 or 24bit data into 15bit data, and places that result into the Nova's actual on card screen buffer. The same technique could be used for Falcon 15/16bit mode, I wonder if the Nova SW guys would do a version for the Falcon too...and license/sell it to DMC even. The translator should also be able to support the 15bit mode on the CrazyDots with a quick tweak or two. It would be halpful to know if CalamusSL was in 8bit or in 24bit mode while generating the intermediate buffer. If it is in 8bit mode, then the driver is extrapolating the 8bit data to 15/16bit data, using somekind of auxiliary palete. If it is in 24bit mode, then the driver is truncating the 24bit data by ignoring the LSBits of the R, G, and B. It's a neat utility, hats off to Nova for doing it, and DMC for leaving the door open. The only potential drawback is that you need to allocate a chunk of system memory for the buffer...1024x768 resolution, CalamusSL in 8bit mode would require a 768K buffer to hold the intermediate screen data. Of course, if the Nova driver uses spare room inside the Nova onboard video ram, then its a "gain with no pain" setup, extra neat. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 237 Sun Jul 18, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Realm, If you use TTLow as a converter? Would that not truncate half of the picture? As the animation is in 640x480 and TTlow is in 320x480. I would really like to know how that works. Btw, I love your Viking ;-) Got lot's more animations with that VERY Viking of yours ;-) Concerning the screen driver, as far as NOVA is concerned it is real 15bit ....but we'll see once we get the driver. Since with the cookie all the display is going into that buffer I don't think it matter's if Calamus needs to know what mode it is in (speculation). Nova has not told me in the Letter in what mode it is running. Other Software dev's for other Card's are free to write their own driver's, but the NOVA author's will no make a driver for Falcon or any other system except the NOVA (Makes sense doesn't it ;-) ). However DMC should have the spec's and details of how to do it, so they are the one's to ask for more detail's of how to write your own software driver for either Falcon, CRDOT's. For those who already own a 24bit card I guess it isn't necessary. Btw, in the LSincerely Yat Siu Ps: In the Letter is stated that it was the screen routines of Calamus SL that were very slow, no mention about a translating or converting of an image into 15bit, because the screen is already in 15bit, therefore no conversion is necessary. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 238 Mon Jul 19, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Yat, you asked for it!:-) It's impossible to truncate the animation as Prism won't load anything larger then the current resolution. All I did was re-arrange the Palette to the proper order using the GIF format. Basically Prism Paint saves the colors in VDI order, you probably already knew that...:- ) Way back when, TOS was some how misaligned, it's Color registers and VDI colors were improperly matched. They look like this (if I remember correctly): Register: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16-254 255 VDI: 0 2 3 6 4 7 5 8 9 10 11 14 12 15 13 255 16-254 1 Prism saves the picture in screen format which is linked to the registers, then it saves the palette in VDI order. This method works fine as long as you view the image in the resolution and system you saved it on as the registers and VDI order make no difference but... Along come the card makers who match their registers to the VDI. So colors 0-255 on there card equals VDI colors 0-255. That makes perfect sense right? Now I use Prism Paint and it works fine but when I go to load a file the color palette is loaded in VDI order. Now VDI order in relation to the registers on the source resolution is not the same as the VDI order in relation to the registers on the destination resolution. Since the screen uses the registers to display the colors your image is incorrectly colored even though your palette looks correct. So the question is how to fix it? All you need is a way to get your colors correctly translated to the right registers. Loading a GIF file works in Atari res's and on the cards so whatever method it uses is properly aligning the colors. Ergo... find a resolution the same as the source resolution and load the pallette which will correctly match the registers, SAVE it as a GIF file, then load it back into your destination resolution. Now your palette has been correctly loaded into the registers. You never mess with the FLM file at all. Just load the .PAL file into TT Low and save the blank screen as a GIF file. The GIF format will save the colors in such a way that Prism loads them into the correct registers. Now when you load the FLM file everything is lined up properly. BTW, My guess on the NOVA being so compatable is it's matching Atari's method of mismatching the VDI driver to the registers. Thus you have no color mismatching and everything works correctly. It must use the same setup up as TT Low or this method wouldn't work. Thanks for the Viking comment! By the way if you continue to use the Viking I'd like to see REALM somewhere in the actual README files or animation. I'm glad you mentioned it in the library header but if you use the files somewhere else or they get passed on by someone else who downloads it, they won't know the original 3D files where created by myself. I don't want credit for the animation but something like "Based on original files by REALM" has a nice ring.:-) Jim, Yes that would be an excellent avenue to follow! I would imagine there will be a lot more Falcons then cards.... hopefully.:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 240 Mon Jul 19, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) Joey, I use the same method when using Prim-Paint and the Matrix. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 242 Tue Jul 20, 1993 ATARIAUSTRIA [J.Widi] (Forwarded) Yat, if You love Realm's 3D files I feel You should give them proper credit as well. I was a bit perplexed when I saw that 'cave' rendering on the title page of the last XEST magazine and that '(c) 1993 Yat Siu' note beside it when all You did was adding the 3D letters 'XEST' to the file. -Johannes ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 243 Wed Jul 21, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) I like Realm's 3D files, and I have been putting his files in BBS's and other locations such as Internet with the correct credit's. However the fact the XEST put my name there is merely a mistake because the RD1 file has realm's credit on it :) Unfortunately XEST is not published anymore...... Realm: As for your method of converting picture files. It would work on a TT with the Palette's :) but it IS a hassle :) So I will next also upload a series of GIF files which you can upload yourself :) so to speak an un-builded animation. However thing's like Lee's Spider which were fully animated in Chronos, I won't bother taking it apart. You would be amazed at what was done with your viking :) if you'll email me your address I'll gladly send you a Videotape with some of the anim's. However, this is NOT the version we are planning to sell. Just for you :) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 244 Wed Jul 21, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Johannes, Did it look good? I had no idea my stuff was actually being published in public. I may be famous and nobody would know it!:-) Yat, Cool! Got any spare XEST magazines, I'd like to have a look at that also! My address is REALM, 10504 Easum Rd, Louisville KY 40299. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 245 Wed Jul 21, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Sure, I'll try to get some Magazines...but did you not know that your Vikings Vikings were all over STFormat Magazine? In STFOrmat 7 I think they had your Vikings :) But you know, in that article they tested XENOMORPH and did not even mention Lexicor Software!! (Not to mention anyone else ;) ).... I don't know if I can really get you any XEST Magazines as they went out of business (checl Topic on Lexicor Europe). Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 246 Thu Jul 22, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) Thanks Yat! Nope, didn't know my Viking went anywhere but Phoenix.:-) ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 247 Thu Jul 22, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) Joey, Your Viking was also in the Genie Magazine. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 248 Thu Jul 22, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] (Forwarded) I wish to clarify a few points I made last week, since I seem to have started the latest software-card discussion. For software to work properly with the recent glut of graphics cards like the Crazy Dots, Cyrel Sunrize, etc the software must be written in a GEM/VDI compliant manner. As an example: Chronos is not fully VDI compliant. It expects the video hardware to to conform to that of the ST or TT. Certain aspects of its interface would not be possible if it WERE vdi compliant, like the full screen mode and the ability to move a 3D representation of the object. Therefore when run on a card that does NOT have the same video layout things don't work right. This doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with the Cyrel card or its drivers itself. Now when the author of such a program decides to leave the Atari market, no amount of wishing or whining about global compatibility can force that person to re-write the program. So therefore the only other solution is go with cards with compatible video hardware formats or with drivers which allow emulation of those formats. Since re-writing VDI drivers and line-a emulators is generally hardware specific, not to mention dang difficult, this is usually outside the scope of an individual software developer and falls under the realm of the card manufacturer. This is the reality of the situation. Now on the topic of potential future products, like animation players in particular. It is my opinion (and mine only) that the Atari line simply aren't fast enough to display acceptable animation using device independent compliant AES and VDI systems only. Therefore you must go directly to the video hardware for the needed speed - which puts you back to having to create a seprate version for each and every card which might ever exist. Reality also says this probably won't happen. On the topic of Lexicor's Phoenix, in case anyone mis-understood, the current release version works just fine on the Cyrel and Crazy Dots cards. The upcomming upgrade also works just fine on the cards, but just won't display an image in true color on the Cyrel. This doesn't make the software incompatible with the card but its a crying shame not to have it when its available on the card. I am still working to resolve this problem so this is not a finalized issue yet. I am glad that the Calamus debate is solved. Perhaps thats why my Cyrel stuff doesn't work, I'm using a buffer instead of a Puffer. I don't really understand why Nathan thinks truncating 24 bit graphics data to 15 bit is so awful though. Obviously you loose color resolution over the original 24 bit image and it won't look as good, however I find such images to be much superior to an 8 bit (256 color) dithered version, especially in such packages as SL where the dither palette is fixed. In theory dithering will give more accurate representation and is basically how color printing is performed, however in practice 60dpi on screen is a far cry from 1200dpi printing and the dither matrix becomes readily visible. This seems to me a superior solution for those with 15bit but not 24. I was wrong on guessing how it actually worked, but not TOO far off. It also seems quite reasonable that the truncation process might not visibly slow screen redraws down. Since the Nova does contain a video accelerator it is quite reasonable that the image transform is performed by the graphic card (as Jim Allen postulated) as Calamus is performing other re-draw calculations. Even if not, a simple truncate and copy CAN be performed fast enough to not be noticable in the total redraw process. Once again someone is stating that something is not possible when they don't know anything about programming or hardware (by admission) on which to base that decision. Joey, You gave us permission to distribute the viking and cave objects with Phoenix. In the Phoenix distribution they are identified as your work and as being copyrighted. However considering the nature of the distribution it seems likely that they will appear elsewhere like magazine reviews without credit. This doesn't excuse those who know better though! From a legal standpoint though I'm not sure the copyright on a 3D object would apply to an image rendered FROM such an object is valid, as the rendered image could be considered an artistic work in and of itself, and does not contain the actual object in 3D form. I know the intent of your posts is much lighter than this, however it IS an interesting issue. Lexicor had final approval of all manual artwork prior to its printing by Lexicor, so therefore any use complaints by Lexicor concerning sea-life should be brought up with themselves. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 249 Thu Jul 22, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) Joey, your Vikings are also etched in my memory as I think it is the best series of work I have seen done with Pheonix. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 250 Thu Jul 22, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Indeed ;) Realm, I have your address and am mailing you a Tape, with those Vikings, Vikings, Vikings all over (AHHHHH INVASION!!!) yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 251 Thu Jul 22, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] (Forwarded) Joey, You GOTTA (with a capital G) see the cave animation Yat did. I was stunned, and I wrote the prg. (and tweeked the cave). It makes your object's truely 3D, all the better showing off your modeling and composition skills. BTW off topic: To view targas with the Falcon slideshow you must render them as 16 bit type 2's (uncompressed) and saved in bottom to top format at 384x480 size. ie in Phoenix pick 32K available and displayable colors at 384x480 pixels, with a micron size of 500 horizontal by 250 vertical (roughly), and then use TGAFLIP.PRG on the final image. If you don't have TGAFLIP let me know. John Brenner: Jurassic Park (tm) is comming soon courtesy Lee Seiler and Phoenix 2.0. You will be impressed all over again. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 252 Fri Jul 23, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] (Forwarded) John, I will look forward to it as I am looking forward to Pheonix 2 and Prism Paint 2 even though I haven't had a chance in the last month to play with any of my Lexicor sofware. As soon as things slow down work wise I'll jump back in head first. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 253 Fri Jul 23, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) This is a reply to Bob deWitt who had a couple of question. Sorry that it took a while, but I was really busy packing ;) If the message comes all jumbled in one large block of words...then I pro failed again in formatting....as usual..so forgive me if it comes out all hard to read. 1. The English Manual which explains the programs with the NOVA is already available. They should already be in the Print. 2. I don't know if Jim Allen's Board will work, I would imagine that if the Accelerator has a slot for the NOVA that you should give it a try and tell us about it, but leaving your MEGA ST4 open, just to test it. 3. With the NOVA Accessory you can change the color's (24bit), move the screen horizontally, vertically and change the resolutions, remote control of the magnifying glass, switching of resolutions, control of the screen saver etc. Refer to the Manual once you get it. :-) 4. ReSWITCH is the program ReSWITCH.PRG which needs to be put into the AUTO Folder. After this Post I have the part of the Manual which should explain pretty much everything. 5. It says in the manual :) Well, anyway, the way to do is go to option c. in the NOVA Menu during boot-up and there is a selection which will determine what keyboard combination will call up the NOVA Menu next time you boot up. Since you don't know what Keyboard Combination will activate it you only need to remove the MENU.INF, and it will activate the menu, and you need to reconfigure the menu again. 6. To know which one to use you need to know what your Monitor can take. Hz is the Pixel Clock, regular VGA's have usually 45-60Hz (screen refresh). The VMG is documented in the Manual. The more Hz the crisper the screen display is. If you have a good Monitor you can have a higher Hz, that also depends on your resolution and colors. 7. Monitor Display Output....do you mean VMG? (Video Mode Generator), 8. Sichern means Save Laden means Load Bildlage means Screen Position Verschiedenes means Miscellanous Aufloesgun means Resolution Arbeitsinstallation means Working Installation Ziellaufwerk is the directory you are going to install whatever Spieleinstallation is the installation of all the various NOVA Program too 9. Oh boy, that does the installation for the NOVA, do you have a Manual at all? :) Well, Bob, I will be uploading into GEnie some NOVA files and the new Accessory manager v.1.70 (most of you will have 1.55) and the new VDI for NOVA v.1.70. Part of Chapter 4 of the NOVA MANUAL about ReSWITCH.... 4.2 The automatic Resolution Switcher ReSWITCH Generally with Atari Programs there tends to be common problem. Many programs are not written to follow the "Atari Standard". E.g. certain programs will not run on the Nova Board because it only runs in monochrome mode, or only supports 640x400 resolutions etc. etc. Usually do modify this you are required to reset your system and then select your resolution and color. However reswitch overcomes this minor inconvenience and also makes your Nova Card much more compatible as it digs deep into the AES. Most TOS Version should work just fine, version that do work are TOS 1.04, KAOS 1.4, TOS 2.05, TOS 2.06, TOS 3.01, TOS 3.06. TOS version 1.02 and KAOS 1.2.3 there are a few problems. 4.2.1 How to work ReSWITCH The info file RESWITCH.INF contains to every program a default resolution that it can work in. This resolution is then assigned to the program at reboot. If you press the button during reboot that resolution switcher will not be activated for that program. Like this you can make sure that even though you are in 1024*768 or an own programmed strange resolution such as 834*564 in 256 colors will run just fine on e.g. GFA Basic as it will automatically switch to 640x400 as you told reswitch to switch the resolution, but it will only switch that resolution for that individual program, once you exit you are back to your original desktop resolution and colors. To make ReSwitch work perfectly, you have to follow a few limitations. The resolution of the boot as well as the default resolutions have to equal to or greater than 400 vertical resolution. The default resolution can also only have equal to or less colours than the boot resolution. 4.2.2 Building your own ReSWITCH Info file To construct such a RESWITCH.INF is simple. Use a normal wordprocessor to edit it. First put the name of the resolution and in the next few lines the name of the exectuable program. Do not put any spaces in the resolution name. An example of a ReSWITCH line for a program would be: :640x480x2,70Hz,640x680 CHRONOS.PRG; Key frame animator CYBERCULPT.PRG; Modelling Package 4.2.3 Activating your ReSWITCH Program To make RESWITCH active place both programs RESWITCH.INF and RESWITCH.PRG in your Auto Folder. Changes to RESWITCH.INF will first be noted after a reboot. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 254 Fri Jul 23, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) I'm sorry, I just realised that the NOVA Manual part was not formatted accordingly to upload correctly, well...if you don't have it now, you should get the finished full-print NOVA Manual ready very very very soon .) If you want...I'll email you the TXT file... ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 255 Fri Jul 23, 1993 REALM [Joey] (Forwarded) John C., I understand once it leaves Lexicor it's out of your hands so no beef there! Just tell me when you see these things so maybe I could pick up some of these magazines before they go out of business!:-) On your animation player I think it's still possible to write a universal player. I agree with your comments on the Atari VDI stuff. Hmm... Even if I didn't agree it would still be true.:-) If the animations from Chronos are saved in Atari Interleaved format then you know the screen format for the animation. You could use the VDI to load each frame and save it again, this time in Screen Specific format. Now all the player would do is uncompress the frames into the buffer and move them to the screen like it does anyway. Being previosly converted to the current card layout it wouldn't matter where they were created. I know it's a pain.:-) How about just releasing the new format and let somebody else worry about it.:-) John S., Cool! Didn't know that... I don't think I have TGAFLIP.PRG is it in the library? Yat, Thanks again! Lets see... this isn't the right topic for 3D legal stuff so I'll try one of the others... ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 256 Fri Jul 23, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Hi, this is Yat Siu from Lexicor Software Europe (I guess by now most of you should know who I am :) ). I will most likely not be on GEnie for a month or longer as I am leaving to Vienna, AUSTRIA and this is probably my last message here on GEnie for a month or so, so don't be too surprised if you don't see me posting for a long while. I guess I should post this in the Lexicor Newsletter, but now that I started it here, I may as well finish it :) In September when I am back, I will bring with me a bunch of nifty new animation tools (& toys ) amongst them will be Prism Paint II of which there will be a sneak Preview in the show's John Cole is going to (On VHS Tape..about 6 minutes or so...). If you wish to leave me a message you can reach leave a message at our BBS which will pretty much be 24hours now :) at (508) 792-2487 or if you have Internet access at: Lexicor@world.std.com which I will be checking once a week at least. Have a great summer everybody...... Yat Siu Lexicor Software Europe ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 257 Fri Jul 23, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) Joey, The TGAFLIP.PRG is included in the Phoenix package and it should be in one of the BETA uploads. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 258 Fri Jul 23, 1993 ST.LOU [Lou] (Forwarded) Yat, I have reformatted your message for you: 1. The English Manual which explains the programs with the NOVA is already available. They should already be in the Print. 2. I don't know if Jim Allen's Board will work, I would imagine that if the Accelerator has a slot for the NOVA that you should give it a try and tell us about it, but leaving your MEGA ST4 open, just to test it. 3. With the NOVA Accessory you can change the color's (24bit), move the screen horizontally, vertically and change the resolutions, remote control of the magnifying glass, switching of resolutions, control of the screen saver etc. Refer to the Manual once you get it. :-) 4. ReSWITCH is the program ReSWITCH.PRG which needs to be put into the AUTO Folder. After this Post I have the part of the Manual which should explain pretty much everything. 5. It says in the manual :) Well, anyway, the way to do is go to option c. in the NOVA Menu during boot-up and there is a selection which will determine what keyboard combination will call up the NOVA Menu next time you boot up. Since you don't know what Keyboard Combination will activate it you only need to remove the MENU.INF, and it will activate the menu, and you need to reconfigure the menu again. 6. To know which one to use you need to know what your Monitor can take. Hz is the Pixel Clock, regular VGA's have usually 45-60Hz (screen refresh). The VMG is documented in the Manual. The more Hz the crisper the screen display is. If you have a good Monitor you can have a higher Hz, that also depends on your resolution and colors. 7. Monitor Display Output....do you mean VMG? (Video Mode Generator), 8. Sichern means Save Laden means Load Bildlage means Screen Position Verschiedenes means Miscellanous Aufloesgun means Resolution Arbeitsinstallation means Working Installation Ziellaufwerk is the directory you are going to install whatever Spieleinstallation is the installation of all the various NOVA Program too 9. Oh boy, that does the installation for the NOVA, do you have a Manual at all? :) Well, Bob, I will be uploading into GEnie some NOVA files and the new Accessory manager v.1.70 (most of you will have 1.55) and the new VDI for NOVA v.1.70. Part of Chapter 4 of the NOVA MANUAL about ReSWITCH.... 4.2 The automatic Resolution Switcher ReSWITCH Generally with Atari Programs there tends to be common problem. Many programs are not written to follow the "Atari Standard". E.g. certain programs will not run on the Nova Board because it only runs in monochrome mode, or only supports 640x400 resolutions etc. etc. Usually do modify this you are required to reset your system and then select your resolution and color. However reswitch overcomes this minor inconvenience and also makes your Nova Card much more compatible as it digs deep into the AES. Most TOS Version should work just fine, version that do work are TOS 1.04, KAOS 1.4, TOS 2.05, TOS 2.06, TOS 3.01, TOS 3.06. TOS version 1.02 and KAOS 1.2.3 there are a few problems. 4.2.1 How to work ReSWITCH The info file RESWITCH.INF contains to every program a default resolution that it can work in. This resolution is then assigned to the program at reboot. If you press the button during reboot that resolution switcher will not be activated for that program. Like this you can make sure that even though you are in 1024*768 or an own programmed strange resolution such as 834*564 in 256 colors will run just fine on e.g. GFA Basic as it will automatically switch to 640x400 as you told reswitch to switch the resolution, but it will only switch that resolution for that individual program, once you exit you are back to your original desktop resolution and colors. To make ReSwitch work perfectly, you have to follow a few limitations. The resolution of the boot as well as the default resolutions have to equal to or greater than 400 vertical resolution. The default resolution can also only have equal to or less colours than the boot resolution. 4.2.2 Building your own ReSWITCH Info file To construct such a RESWITCH.INF is simple. Use a normal wordprocessor to edit it. First put the name of the resolution and in the next few lines the name of the exectuable program. Do not put any spaces in the resolution name. An example of a ReSWITCH line for a program would be: 640x480x2,70Hz,640x680 CHRONOS.PRG; Key frame animator CYBERCULPT.PRG; Modelling Package 4.2.3 Activating your ReSWITCH Program To make RESWITCH active place both programs RESWITCH.INF and RESWITCH.PRG in your Auto Folder. Changes to RESWITCH.INF will first be noted after a reboot. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 259 Fri Jul 23, 1993 B.DEWITT [Nerd Perfect] (Forwarded) WARNING: As usual for me, this post is a bit longish, but perhaps Yat--at least--can read it (and it may be of benefit to other NOVA/ST owners, too--or prospective owners). OK, I've got a problem....I'm probably the only person in the United States at the present time that has a NOVA/ST combination (NOTE: not STE), so I don't know whether anyone else has encountered this problem or not, but if anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it. The problem is simple: the NOVA board doesn't fit in an ST housing. I had a premonition of impending trouble when the following phrase appeared as the last sentence under the heading "Installing the NOVA Mega" in the NOVA manual: "Refurbish your Mega ST Cover so that the board will fit in perfectly." I wondered at the time what "refurbishing" the cover meant. Well, I found out it means snipping away a certain amount of the metal shielding that surrounds the motherboard as well as amputating a few legs from the plastic cover (to which fastening screws are normally attached). The problem is that the NOVA board sits somewhat too high (and somewhat insecurely, I might add) for the metal shielding to fit satisfactorily over it. The culprit is the left rear of my Mega where the shielding has been angled downward in order to accommodate the battery compartment that extends from the underside of the plastic cover. The corner of the NOVA board extends into this area: in fact there is a set of pins on the board that protrude upward at this point--well past the lower limit of the shielding. I had to cut a hole in the shielding to allow the pins to stick through. However, when the shielding was reinstalled it still made contact with the corner of the NOVA board and when the shielding was pressed into place, it popped the board loose from the megabus connector (which is located on the other end of the board). So I cut away the entire section of shielding. This seemed to work until I reinstalled the shielding (but not the grey plastic cover) and tried to boot up NOVA. It wouldn't boot (just got a black or scrambled screen). Upon investigation I found that the metal shielding was contacting some of the components on the board and shorting everything out (I guess). So after a little judicious bending of the shielding (so it wouldn't touch the board), I got it all working properly even with the shielding installed. 'Hooray!' I thought at last. 'Now I can finally NOVAte!' Then I tried to reinstall the plastic cover (you know, the one that needed to be "refurbished"?) over the shielding....but still no go. The problem now is that the battery housing on the underneath of the cover hangs down so low that it strikes those pins I referred to above. And even if the pins were removed (which I don't dare do) the housing would probably still strike the surface of the board itself. So....who has a brilliant idea for solving this problem (besides installing everything into a tower case, or removing the batteries and battery compartment, that is)? Surely among those thousands of NOVA users in Europe someone must have encountered this design flaw before (Yat).... Bob deWitt ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 260 Sat Jul 24, 1993 D.LIVINGST11 [ErnestBovine] (Forwarded) > place all the Screenoutput into a Puffer. Via this Puffer Puffer is Deutsch for buffer. Pufter is English for employee at an English boys' school, usually someone with resposibility for discipline. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 261 Sat Jul 24, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] (Forwarded) I wish to correct a false statement I made recently. I have been informed that Chronos does NOT run directly on the Nova, but must be run from an ST or TT resolution. Chronos will however create Nova resolution animations which may be played on the Nova using the current FLM player. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 262 Mon Jul 26, 1993 ATARIAUSTRIA [J.Widi] (Forwarded) Realm, oh yes, it was a nice & colorful rendering that covered about half of the magazine's front page. Yat, so the XEST crew blew it. Sorry for flaming at You. -Johannes ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 263 Mon Jul 26, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Bob, I, too, have a Mega and experienced the same problems you describe. For now, I have removed the sheilding altogether. I "refurbished" the battery compartment, i.e. cut out about 1/2 of it. This is not a problem to me, as my hard drive interface has a battery back-up clock on it. I found some small plastic stand-offs to help support the Nova card to reduce strain on connectors and help prevent any chance of accidental shorting. So, it was working for about a month. Then suddenly, Nova decided to stop working. I tried my monitor on another system just to be sure. So, I called Lee and filled him in. He said send it in, and then he would send a replacement. This was last Tuesday, so I haven't gotten it yet. Bill P.S. Sorry for the rambling at the end of that post. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 264 Tue Jul 27, 1993 B.DEWITT [Nerd Perfect] (Forwarded) By the way, has anybody come up with a solution for installing the NOVA into a Mega (non-STE)? Has anybody besides me got the NOVA 16 M and Mega ST combination? Hellllp....Lee S., where are you when I need ya? Bob deWitt ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 265 Wed Jul 28, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) Bob, Lee is getting ready for the SIGGRAPH show but we will forward your question to YAT via Internet. Later. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 266 Wed Jul 28, 1993 J.COLE18 [John] (Forwarded) John S. asked me to correct something that he was informed wrong about :-) It seems he was missinformed about Chronos running on the NOVA card, as indeed it does and looks really nice in 800x600x256. Of course, this error could happen to anyone expcially when the source happens to be Lee :-) oooppss... :-) Lee switches to another res to run Chronos in and do the work in. The reasons are this, chronos runs, but does not render directly on the Nova, instead it blindly renders a Nova .FLM file. So you cannot see or play the animations on the nova without the MPLAYER for Matrix and Nova animations. Also when you drag an object around, the object outline does not appear on the Nova. It does run on the nova with these limitations in mind, so actual setting up and testing should be done on your TT's or MSTE's native resolutions. If this has only confused people, I'll be happy to try again ;-) John @ Lexicor ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 267 Wed Jul 28, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) I seem to have lost the MPLAYER program, is it possible to get another copy? EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 268 Sun Aug 01, 1993 M.SCHEFFEL (Forwarded) Anyone! I just received my Super Nova for the TT and have only one problem with it... it won't work. I removed the serial ports from the back, unplugged them, slid the card in ( between the tracks) until I felt it connect, installed the software ( in the right order in my Auto folder , with only Mouseboot before the programs ), removed all other Auto an Acc prgs., and tried to proceed. When I try to plug my moniter (an old Acer Multisync ) in, nothing shows up on the screen. The board seems to connect because if I re- move it the screen jumps a little. I tried to rename another of the sta_vdi.prg's but that didn't work either. I would appreciate any advice from someone who has gotten their card installed in a similar config. . There must be something that I have missed. By the way, has anybody tested Geneva or Omega on the card, I need to find a way to connect my machines by LAN and multitask. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 269 Sun Aug 01, 1993 B.DEWITT [Nerd Perfect] (Forwarded) John S; Thanks for your reply regarding the comparative merits of some of the graphics- capable computers....I'm very anxious to see what Phoenix 2.0 can do (I've been playing around with POV and even though it's a bit tough to use(!), I love the range of textures it can produce. I'm hoping Phoenix 2 can do all that and more.) You mentioned that I consider installing a 68882 math co-processor in my Falcon. I have been wondering about that myself. Where does one get such a thing? Are there different brands? Can the installation be done by one's self? Also, what about a math co-processor for the NOVA? Is there one? Regards, Bob deWitt ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 270 Mon Aug 02, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) M.Sheffel(sp?) M. I had the same problem (among others) with my Nova in my TT. The likely problem (barring that the monitor doesn't like the card, which isn't really too likely considering the symptoms) is that the card is grounding out on something inside the case, i.e. an IC sitting up too high or perhaps the track itself. It took my many hours (dismantling the whole computer) and many calls to CA, but we tracked the problem (which had your symptoms) to a short. The FIX? (finally), I took some business cards (the perfect width), and with some rubber packing tape I taped them (3) to the back of the card. It covered all but the edges. Everything has been peaches since. Except the fact that we don't have the updates for Chronos and Prism Paint. But hey, I'm not complaining, you can't rush greatness... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 271 Tue Aug 03, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] (Forwarded) E.Wells Your 640x480 256 color animation for the Nova card is wonderful! After downloading the palette files I display your COILS.ZIP file of the TITLE.FLM and WOW!!! Can't wait to see your future uploads. Ringo ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 272 Wed Aug 04, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Ringo, I've got a short walk-thru of a simple museum (with some familiar art) that I'll be uploading in about 5 minutes. It's a little crude, and jerky, but the final version will run much longer and it has to fit into 4 megs of TT ram... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 273 Wed Aug 04, 1993 B.BEAUCHEA [Bob Beauchea] (Forwarded) Lexicor, When should I expect to see the english documentation for the Nova card. Also will there be english translations to the RSC's and alert boxes? Bob Beauchea ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 274 Fri Aug 06, 1993 M.SCHEFFEL (Forwarded) E.WELLS Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, all I succeeded in getting was a much brighter flash when I pluged on and removed the board. The more I move the board , the more video noise I get. Did you have trouble gettingthe thing to line up? I have a feeling that the VME slot isn't connecting. I did cover the back w/ bus cards and in addition linedthe part that connected to the rails w/ tape. What did the I miss? I just love my TT more every day ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 275 Fri Aug 06, 1993 B.DEWITT [NerdPerfect] (Forwarded) E.Wells; I downloaded your "Coils" file and played it on my Falcon in 256-color mode. I got a strange-looking screen with messed-up colors. I'm sure it wasn't how the original was supposed to look (seems like I can never do these things right, somehow....). What resolution should I be in etc. to get it right? Bob deWitt ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 276 Sat Aug 07, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Bob, There is anothe file in the the library that sets the color pallette for coils. It is very short and will fix the problem. I forgot to include it in the original D/l, but it is very small. M. Sheffel, Actually, yeah there was more that I did. I dismantled my TT to get at the VME socket. The card is soldered to the mother board and attached via two ribbon cables. The socket was not centered in the slot and the card was not going in at all. There are two metal prongs that hold the VME socket, I bent one out so that it does not hold the socket and 'it is a bit more flexible. Can't say as I'd recomend this, but my card would not "snap" in at all. ONly way it would fit... EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 277 Sun Aug 08, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] (Forwarded) Am I correct in understanding that the only way to view 256 color or higher animations with the Nova is through Prism Paint? I DL'd Everett's Coils animation hoping to see some cool stuff, but I couldn't. Thanks Bill ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 278 Wed Aug 11, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Dear Bob, what problems are you having with your Megabus Version of NOVA? And yes, thank's John for clearing things up, CHRONOS does run on the NOVA Board. And you will have to run it in 640x480x256 to be able to render with version 1.37 in 640x480. Once it is released :). E.WELLS, if you have the Batch_M Player on your Utility Disk then you should also be able to view your animation in 800x600 in 256 Colors. Dear M.SCHEFFEL, Do you still have problem's installing it? Did you use the installation program? Have you got an ASSIGN.SYS file? Btw, just a very important tip, please don't plug in the card or unplug it while your Computer is on :) if your screen jumped while you plugged in your card, I hope it wasn't on....>shiver< You need to have the EMULATOR.PRG and the respecitve BIB, the MENU and the STA_VDI.PRG with the respective BIB in the AUTO Folder. The Output Display comes from your NOVA Board once you went past Mouseboot to load your NOVA Board Setup, an Assign.SYS file needs to present to in this NOVA VDI Version.v Please Describe me your setup and problems as your description is a little vague for me to help :) Thanks Yat Dear B.KOLINS1 I am always eager to sell :) Hehe, well ok I you where at CT'93 then you should have seen it on the Falcon'030 where is took my 20 Megabyte Partition and turned it into RAM. A Demoversion will be uploaded somtime tonight called OUTSIDE.ZIP with some info files for you to check. It runs on a TT'030 and Falcon'030, dunno about the '030 boards, haven't had the pleasure to test it on it. Dear Sam, With Custom Resolution you can set up any resolution you wish to, Phoenix is resolution independent, just limited to your RAM size, eh, uhm and 9999x9999 I think ;). Dear B.BEAUCHEA check the library for the NOVA Manual Parts. If you have not received the NOVA Manual this Zipped TXT file should give you the most important insight. I think it was called NOVAHELP.ZIP. Dear B.DEWITT, The reason why your animation will not run on your Falcon in 256 Color mode is because the Falcon, unlike any other Gfx boards has a byte plane in 256 colors, unlike the NOVA that has a bit plane. Hmmmmmm, I hope I was not mistaken there was I? ;) Dear B.WEHLER what resolution is the Coil animation? You can also view it with PlayerM or BatchM if it is in 800x600x256. If you don't have it, then you either need Prism Paint, however the Demo will do just fine ;), unless you wish to edit and save it ;). What do you mean by DL'd? Nova Animations can be made only with FLM to date....or? I am a little confused?...now I have a question for once ;) please explain ;) Sincerely Yat To all have a wonderful Summer....and I hope I could be of assistance. I won't be online as often as I will be as I was in Worcester, simply 'cos in Vienna even a local phone call cost's. My point is, it is rather expensive ;). Sayonara! Did I forget any questions? ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 279 Wed Aug 11, 1993 E.WELLS (Forwarded) Yat, I have the BatchM player (at least I think so, it IS a batch player), but I don't have the matrix player. The batch player will play, but the animation is fully screwed up. I'm not sure where the fault lies. EHW ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 280 Thu Aug 12, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) Great! ;) Uhm..what screws up in the Bath Player? Remember that it can only play the normal animations i.e. ST, TT rez and then the 800x600x256 Color mode ;) Yat ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 281 Sat Aug 14, 1993 M.SCHEFFEL (Forwarded) Yat, Thanks for addressing my problems. first off, re the unplugging and unplugging of the board.OOOPS My set up is as follows: I am running a TT w/ GE mem upgrade. MY TOS is 3.06. Right now I am only running the mouseby and the Nova drivers. I had a conversation w/ the boss and he ran me through setting up down to the renaming of the .BIB files one by one. Unfortunately, I still can't get no satisfaction. After hearing from E.WELLS ( thanks ) I have shielded the board and even had to take apart my machine to get it plugged in. What happens when I try to run the board is that I get a wierd screen that turns into the menu after I hit the space bar. From there I tried setting the resolution and nothing happened. I have only one moniter ( an Acer multisync ) so I have to do alot of switching. Is there something obvious that I am missing? I have a Falcon to look at pretty colors, but it isn't enough. Maybe I just don't know enough German. BTW, wein is nice, but Salzburg is still my favorite. ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 283 Sun Aug 15, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) SUPERNOVA Help time :) Hi, this is now a general HELP Advice to you Dear M.SCHEFFEL 1.First Check if your NOVA is installed at all. An easy way to check is to first be on your TT Connection, and run the VMG in the Folder called VORSICHT. Run the VMG_TT as I presume you have a TT. 2.Click on the Option called "WERTE SETZEN" and then switch the Cable to the NOVA Graphics Card and see if you get either a blue or red grid? Make sure that the Library you have loaded into the VMG is one your Monitor can handle. Take an easy one from the Library under "LADEN" and select a 320x200 one if you still don't get anything. Exact instructions how to handle the VMG can be found in the uploaded NOVAHELP.ZIP file which is in our LEXICOR LIBRARY I believe. 3.If you get a black or white picture i.e. no change then your card is not even connected or maybe even....damaged?!?!?! However we check every Card before shipping, so I really hope it's not the latter one. 4.Ok, so let's say it is connected, make sure after running the installation program (did you select TT?) you should have three programs in the AUTOFOLDER. EMULATOR.PRG and the respective EMULATOR.BIB File, STA_VDI.PRG and the respective BIB file and MENU.PRG. If there is a MENU.INF file then that is old, get rid of the MENU.INF file as it is customised and will prevent you from getting into the MENU Program unless you remember the combination to get back into the MENU..... 5.Make sure you have an Assign.SYS file and that you have the NOVA_COL.ACC running for the SuperNOVA. 6.Okey, Dokey, no Boot it up. On your NOVA Connection you should be getting the MENU Choices. Select them as it says in the Manual..and it should be all fine.....uh so I hope...;) 7.If that doesn't work then please tell me your exact steps during BOOT UP and what's in your AUTO Folder. If you ever get a NOVA Connection or if it always boot's up into your TT resolutions? Hope I could Help Yat Siu ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 284 Sun Aug 15, 1993 N.JOHNSON2 (Forwarded) Has anyone tried any of the Nova boards with the Cubase midi sequencer. I would love to buy this board if it works. Thanks, Norm ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 285 Sun Aug 15, 1993 Y.SIU (Forwarded) I cannot confirm it myself but German Customers have reported that Cubase works just fine with the NOVA Graphic Board. It also is in the NOVA list of compatiblity programs. So I think you'll be safe with the NOVA and Cubase, of course depends on the version number too :) Is there a Cubase Demo I can upload to double check? Maybe why don't you phone up LEXICOR SOFTWARE (510) 848-7621 and ask them if you could buy the card, and see if it run's and if it doesn't, then maybe he can give you a refund? However I think it works just fine ;) Sincerely Yat Siu ------------ Category 31, Topic 40 Message 286 Sun Aug 22, 1993 N.JOHNSON2 (Forwarded) Yat Siu, Thanks for the response. I will call LEXICOR and see what can be worked out. The Nova board sounds great and Cubase could use the extra space on screen. Thanks again. Norm ------------