Odd - Interesting - Forgotten

[Maskenlos]

I was just playing around with "HALFTONEp3_bas" and I noticed that GIMP included some kind of header into the *ppm format.

Code: Select all

P3# Created by GIMP version 2.10.30 PNM plug-in
256 256.255.75.....

just deleting the header makes it work for me

Code: Select all

P3.256.255.75.....

It is fun playing around with it, on the real QL better have a cup of tea or coffee ready after pressing "run"

Thanks for sharing Mark

It's on Dilwyn's site: https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/graphics/engif.zip
It uses dithering and also works on higher resolutions than the standard QL.

I am pretty sure this is not the one I meant. But let me check in January

Best regards,

Stephan

[bwinkel67]

The Dithwide sounds pretty interesting. So basically it can do still images with triple the video memory and display higher color images. Can this be run on an emulator? I want to try it.

[XorA]

The Dithwide sounds pretty interesting. So basically it can do still images with triple the video memory and display higher color images. Can this be run on an emulator? I want to try it.

The most likely would be Q-Emulator, as thats by far the most hardware compatible emulator.

I have been trying to work out how to do the trick in sqlay3, but its going to take me a (probably long) while!

[stevepoole]

Hi Folks,
Here is a demo of extended stipples for QDOS+... written in the '80s.

It was abandonned through want of a 'texture fill' routine in SBasic...

UNZIP, LRUN or ESCape to see all 3700 new stipple hues (out of 4012 max).

Very fast animation on QPC2, (but originally slower, intended for 8-colour QDOS).

Ok for making background PAPERs !

stipples3_bas.zip

(1.3 KiB) Downloaded 35 times

[tofro]

The Dithwide sounds pretty interesting. So basically it can do still images with triple the video memory and display higher color images. Can this be run on an emulator? I want to try it.

The most likely would be Q-Emulator, as thats by far the most hardware compatible emulator.

I have been trying to work out how to do the trick in sqlay3, but its going to take me a (probably long) while!

It doesn't work with Q-Emulator - rather of all emulators I've tried, it still works best, there, but "best" just means it's flipping screens at all, but not with a frequency that wouldn't justify a strong epilepsy warning or would end up anywhere close to a still picture. As far as I can tell, you need real black box hardware for it to work.

[BSJR]

It's on Dilwyn's site: https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/graphics/engif.zip
It uses dithering and also works on higher resolutions than the standard QL.

I am pretty sure this is not the one I meant. But let me check in January

Best regards,
Stephan

You're right, I meant the other one: https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/graphics/ungif.zip

BSJR

[bwinkel67]

It doesn't work with Q-Emulator - rather of all emulators I've tried, it still works best, there, but "best" just means it's flipping screens at all, but not with a frequency that wouldn't justify a strong epilepsy warning or would end up anywhere close to a still picture. As far as I can tell, you need real black box hardware for it to work.

I've been playing with the distribution and I'm a bit baffled as to what is actually there. The Code.7z file contains a very odd BOOT program and I'm not quite sure what it's trying to do as it seems to load an assembler by HiSoft and then loads a couple of images into memory and has this r procedure that I have no clue how it works. Plus, I haven't been able to figure out how to work the assembler as it just asks for text size and then expects you to type in the code but no way to load it?

So I'm guessing this was distributed more as a project with "assembly it yourself...best of luck" kind of approach? What did you use to assembly the, presumably INIT22_ASM file that contains the code? I wanted to give it a try in both Q-emuLator as well as on my QL to see it in action.

[tofro]

It doesn't work with Q-Emulator - rather of all emulators I've tried, it still works best, there, but "best" just means it's flipping screens at all, but not with a frequency that wouldn't justify a strong epilepsy warning or would end up anywhere close to a still picture. As far as I can tell, you need real black box hardware for it to work.

I've been playing with the distribution and I'm a bit baffled as to what is actually there. The Code.7z file contains a very odd BOOT program and I'm not quite sure what it's trying to do as it seems to load an assembler by HiSoft and then loads a couple of images into memory and has this r procedure that I have no clue how it works. Plus, I haven't been able to figure out how to work the assembler as it just asks for text size and then expects you to type in the code but no way to load it?

So I'm guessing this was distributed more as a project with "assembly it yourself...best of luck" kind of approach? What did you use to assembly the, presumably INIT22_ASM file that contains the code? I wanted to give it a try in both Q-emuLator as well as on my QL to see it in action.

Unfortunately, I have no experience with the DithVIde stuff as such. My experience is based on my picture display code in the Magnetic Scrolls adventures, which works by a similar principle. From what I've seen, the DithvIDE "package" indeed is a "build-yourselves" thing including HiSoft's DevPac (which is a quite unusual assembler in the QL world). What it wants you to build is a "ram1_m" binary to be output by DevPac Gens, which is the main code file. How to do that, however, is a bit tricky to find out without a GENS manual (DevPac for QL still seems to be under copyright - HiSoft is still in business, so this choice of assembler is a bit questionable).


Apparently, when GENS is started, you should answer the text file size with a simple RETURN, then press <ALT>-"L" to load init22_asm (answering "Y" to "loose changes), then press <ALT>-"A" to assemble giving "ram1_m" as the binary name. Once that is done, press <ALT>-"Q" to end the assembler.

[bwinkel67]

Unfortunately, I have no experience with the DithVIde stuff as such. My experience is based on my picture display code in the Magnetic Scrolls adventures, which works by a similar principle. From what I've seen, the DithvIDE "package" indeed is a "build-yourselves" thing including HiSoft's DevPac (which is a quite unusual assembler in the QL world). What it wants you to build is a "ram1_m" binary to be output by DevPac Gens, which is the main code file. How to do that, however, is a bit tricky to find out without a GENS manual (DevPac for QL still seems to be under copyright - HiSoft is still in business, so this choice of assembler is a bit questionable).

Ah, that sequence makes a bit more sense now. So load the assembler, then load the program and save as ram1_m, and then give the picture names and let it run.

Apparently, when GENS is started, you should answer the text file size with a simple RETURN, then press <ALT>-"L" to load init22_asm (answering "Y" to "loose changes), then press <ALT>-"A" to assemble giving "ram1_m" as the binary name. Once that is done, press <ALT>-"Q" to end the assembler.

Ah, <ALT>-L is how you load a file...that's about as intuitive as WordStar 3.1's menu options (I played around with it recently). I tried ESC, thinking it was mode based, then I tried all sorts of function keys with combinations of ALT and CTRL to no avail. I will give that a try, thank you.

[tofro]

Ah, <ALT>-L is how you load a file...that's about as intuitive as WordStar 3.1's menu options (I played around with it recently). I tried ESC, thinking it was mode based, then I tried all sorts of function keys with combinations of ALT and CTRL to no avail. I will give that a try, thank you.

Yep, GENS seems to be a bit long in the tooth for more "modern" systems. It doesn't honour default directories, and the <ALT>+something commands tend to collide with basically everything on a more modern, HOTKEYed system.

BTW: I found that <ALT>+"H" in GENS gives a help screen listing all commands.