Amiga Format CD 27/amigaformatcd27.iso/temp/kostastheodoropoulos

Text File | 1998-04-12 | 23.8 KB | 581 lines

Name: Kostas Theodoropoulos

Address: M. Botsari 22, Lykovrisi, Athens, GREECE, P.C. 14123

Tel: ++30-93-824349

Email: [e-mail]



   Hello to all AF people out there.  This is my second attempt for AF's
CD.  The first one probably lost somewhere in the way (damn amigamaniac
postofficer!!! ;-).  Let's get serious...


   The disk which is in your drive now (not that one, the one which has
the file you READ NOW) has also 1 other archive in Lzx.  Unarchive it
in one directory (e.x. AFCDxx:-ReaderStuff-/Kostas_Theodoropoulos/) and
it will create a dir with the same name with a readme file in the
dir with more details for each file in the dir.  Also, the other 32 disks
in the box are backed up with ABackupV5.12 of AFCD23.  Restore them
and unarchive the 7 LZx files as above.  Only for the 5 archives in the
restored Animations directory make a subdirectory named Animations (what
a surprice!!8^) and unarchive them there (total 8 LZx archives, 2 in the
main drawer, 5 in the Animations drawer plus 1 in the instructions disk).
The files are scanned for virus with VirusZIIv1.43, the archives are
tested for their integrity (LZx t xx.lzx) and the 32 backup disks are
verified.  The first 3 disks are High Density disks and the last 10 disks
are Double Density disks (DDF), do not mind the holes, they were done in
a time HD disk were expensive and I had many DD disks for experiments.

   All you have to do is to add the appropriate icons for the dirs and
files.  Take notice of the F1GP Into in Animations drawer.  Maybe there is
a copyright problem (read the relevant doc in the Animations drawer).
Also, for some SSA animations, a SSA anim player has to be involved.
Please add one in the CD.


   My AMIGA's setup: A4000/030/882 25/33MHz, 2MB Chip, 16MB Fast 60ns
RAM, kickstart v39.109, PicassoIV gfx card, Philips 107B 17" multisync
monitor, Conner 540MB IDE HD, Mitsumi 6x Atapi/IDE CDROM drive, USR
Sportster 14.4Vi, Star LC200-9pin Color Printer, MUI v3.8, MCP v1.32
etc...


   BTW, please e-mail me in which AF my disks will be so I can buy it and
get rid of all those disks I have backed them up or please mail me that
issue as I am going to join the army in few days and I do not know
where I will be...  Also, I saw in the newsagents here the greek version
of your sister magazine T3.  Is it any chance to release a greek version
of AF?


   P.S.  A useful addition to the excellent AFCD Find utility is to dictate
which AFCDs you own, in order search among them and not to all the issues.
Right, shame on me that I do not have all the AFCDs, but it would be very
hepful to build a list with which AFCDs U own, so let AFCD Find search the
issues you really have in hand or you don't have, so order a backissue, invade
in your friend's house and get back the CD he has for months and do not feel
again the strange hapiness that you found the file you want but it is in a CD
you do not have.



               I have included here all the ReadMe files:



ReadMe
++++++


Name: Kostas Theodoropoulos

Email: [e-mail]



     Hello to all AF people out there.  This is my second attempt for
AF's CD.  The first one probably lost somewhere in the way (damn
amigamaniac postofficer!!! ;).  Let's get serious...


   My AMIGA's setup: A4000/030/882 25/33MHz, 2MB Chip RAM, 16MB Fast 60ns
RAM, kickstart v39.109, PicassoIV gfx card, Philips 107B 17" multisync
monitor, Conner 540MB IDE HD, Mitsumi 6x Atapi/IDE CDROM drive, USR
Sportster 14.4Vi, Star LC200-9pin Color Printer, MUI v3.8, MCP v1.32
etc... and hopefully soon a PPC 233MHz!!!



My Story
========



   I am computer user for over 15 years (BBC Plus, ZX Spectrum 48K,
Amstrad CPC6128) and after I passed to the medical universiry of Athens I
got my first Amiga in 1990 (A500, WBv1.3, 512KB Ram and 1084S monitor).
Soon, I added another 512kb Ram, another disk drive and a Star LC200 9pin
color printer.  In 1992 I swapped my A500 for an A500+ with WBv2.04,
which was owned by a friend.  He wanted only to play games, and then
there was a great problem of incompatible games, so...


   Late in 1993, I managed to buy an A4000/30 with 6MB Ram and 80MB HD
(after a 6month wait, because the 2 first amigas were not... working, but
the third was fine - with some exceptions 8(.  I was interested in
raytracing and animations mainly after the AF with Imagine v2 in the
coverdisk.


   In September 1994 I decided that I could earn some money from my Amiga
making gfx for small local TV stations (almost all of them had Amigas).
So I started to work in 2-3 stations, making gfx in home and then
transfer them to the station.  But, some stations just had an A500
Wbv1.3!!! with 20MBHD, some had A2000 with only 2MB ram and HD, only one
station had an A4000/040 with 6MB ram and 120MB HD (TvK), another A1200
6MB ram with 40MB HD (Gtv), and last TeleCity had an A3000/030/882 25MHz
10MBRam, 512MBHD and an A3000/030/881 16MHz 6MB ram, 250 MB HD.  I worked
for the last 3 TV stations.  It was impossible to make serious gfx with
Wbv1.3 or tiny HD and little ram and 68000 (how else can you playback an
10MB anim in reasonable fps???).


   Soon, I added an 68882/33MHz and changed my 4Mb SIMM with 2x4MB 60nsec
(Total 10MBRAM).  But my Seagate 80MB HD was too little and I had to
delete all the s/w except WB and gfx programs to sqeeze my anims in the HD.
Then my Amiga's Video DAC chip broke.  The service told me that there
weren't any spare parts and I had to wait!!!  I got my amiga back home
and I managed to get picture making a cable that got the digital RGB from
amiga's video port to 1084S digital input.  The problem was that I had
only 16 variations of each primitive color (Red, Green, Blue), so I
DIDN'T know what color exactly had the anims I made!!!  After 3-4 months
and million of telephones to the service, my amiga was back with a new
Conner 540MB HD (twice as fast and biiiig).  So, forgive me if some anims
have strange colors...


   In September 1994 I stopped from gfx and I used my amiga for
wordprocessing.  My girlfriend was studying History in the American
College of Greece (DEREE) and had to write many papers.   There was an
advertising wall, where many PeeCee users were typing the papers and get
payed by the page.  So I made an advertise and started.  The good think
was that I worked entirly in home.  I ended this job in May 1996 (I took
my M.D.).  I typed over 3000 pages in those 2 school years, all printed
with my trusty Star LC200 9pin printer - it's a beast, never broke down,
only if it was a little more quiet and fast... and as a present to myself
I got the Mitsumi 6x CDROM drive and the USR modem.


   In December 1996 I was tired from the flickering of my 1084S, so I
sold it and I got a Philips 107B 17" and another 8MB 60nsec RAM.  But
DBLPal was too slooowww and I couldn't play most of the games/demos, so
in September 1997 I bought a PicassoIV.  Mama mia!!!  What a speed!!!  I
felt like I was getting a 060.  Now I can play all the games and demos
without any flicker (and 3-4 times faster in NemacIV or Gloom or Quake
etc..), see all the WWW pages in 800x600 truecolor, have a huge WB space
in 1024x768, make DTP in 1600x1200 (now my screen is much more detailed
than my printer!!!).  My advice: GET ONE!!!  you wan't regret it!!!  Tip:
the minimum RAM today is 16MB Fast, huge 24bit screens are MUCH MORE
memory hungry.



The K(ostas) FILES
------------------



   In each directory there is a ReadMe with details for the files in the
dir.  Generally speaking:


   Animations (dir): Some of my anims from my TV years.  There is no
copyright problem (design, idea, making are mine).  I had made several
other anims, but due to limited backup space I don't have them anymore
(you know there weren't any ZIP drives then...)


   Imagine (dir):  Examples of some Imagine v2 and v3 projects with
brushmaps, used to make some anims.


   Misc (dir):  Miscellanus staff for DOpusV5, P96 s/w and Comms.


   Pictures (dir):  Some pictures from my amiga years.


   If you use, or base in, any anims or projects or pictures for
proffessional - job - money earning issues, please just give me a credit.


   Send any comment or ask any advice to the e-mail address in the top.



HAVE FUN !^)


IMPORTANT!!!  Do not blame me if your amiga blows, you buy a PC after looking
my files, your CD drive spins and cut your TV in half, your whole family hates
you, etc...


P.S.  STICK with your Amiga.  My brothers gave £1100 in October 1997 to
buy a PC PentiumMMX 200MHz, 32MB Ram, HD 2.2GB, Matrox Millenium 220 2MB gfx
card, SoundBlaster AWE32, 20x CDROM drive, Epson Stylus 400 and Diamond 33.6
modem.  Now, after 4 months, you can buy the same system with £200 less, that
means a loss of 5% of the value of your machine EACH MONTH.  W95 are eating
memory like potato chips (HD spins like crazy to allow virtual memory deal with
the mad OS's demants), booting is taking ages, multitasking sucks (imagine
that: I run Scandisk to make a HD surface test and after waiting 5 minutes, the
whole process had to start from the begining because the screen blanker loaded
ffom the HD - no HD busy to lock the task), every application does whatever it
wants, installations spread files allover the HD and change Taskbar settings
without a warning, complete CHAOS!!!  And the games... only beautiful gfx and
sound and NO gameplay, complete crap... imagine that the game I play most is...
Worms.  So, upgrade your Amiga to be a mean machine and do not complain, there
are much worst things out there... (I dare any PC user to come and say anything
for my PPC 233MHz, 72MB ram Amiga ;^)  Also, if U want to buy a modem, get a USR
one.  They are more expensive but their quality is awesome.



Animations/Animations.ReadMe
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Name: Kostas Theodoropoulos

Email: [e-mail]



ANIMATIONS
==========


   These are some animations.  Some of them are big (10MB or more) so you
need a rather fast HD or enough RAM.  TIP:  use MainActor for playback.  All
the anims have timecodes for their right playback and are in various formats.
Also, the most anims were created from their still pictures with the help of
MainActor or FRed of ADPro v2.5.


   F1GPIntro (dir):

                     My father bought before 4-5 years the F1GP for his PeeCee
(386sx 16MHz hehehe).  I had the same game for Amiga and I did not understand
why they hadn't any intro.  The PeeCee's intro was in FLI anim, so I transfered
it to my amiga and converted it to Anim7_16 with MainActor.  I wrote a little
scrip to play it back and then start the game.  The anim is in 320x200x8bit
(256 colors) and for the playback MainView from the MainActor is needed.  AF
have several times included the latest shareware version (v1.52) in its CD.
   I do not know if there are any copyright restrictions and if a user that has
the game in amiga and/or in pc can convert it.  I have not altered not even a
byte of the anim, just converted it.  U must have installed to your HD
Microprose's F1GP and have 6MB ram.  Just copy the contents of this drawer to
the drawer U have the game.  U can edit the script if you have less memory to
allow playback from HD and not from ram (I think U need min 2MB ram).



   Gtv (dir):

               These are some anims that I made for the Gtv music station.

GtvBigSign.iff: A still image made with Brilliance v2.

GtvComet.Anim5: A simple anim made with Brilliance v2.  The resolution is PAL
max overscan and the colors are only 4 for max playback speed.  First I had
made it in two parts (to play the first part with the letters comming in
several times and then seperetly the end part), but now I joined it.

GtvMorph.Anim7_32: A HiresLaced HAM8 anim in 7_32 format for max fps.  The
still images made with Imagine and then used cinemorph v2 for the morphing.  I
had made 5 different stages and anims, each one 1.5MB about (from G -> tv, tv
-> video, video -> music, music -> GtvVideoMusic, GtvVideoMusic -> G), because
the amiga's station had only 6MBram, to insure max fps in video recording.
I never gave the anim to the station because our co-operation blown.  Now, I
joined the parts and... Voila 8^()

GtvWords.Anim5: A simple anim in just 2 colors for max fps.  Same idea as one of
the Mtv's spots.  Simple is beautiful.



   Mihalis (dir):

                  These are some anims that made a friend of mine, Mihalis
Giannakis with my A500+ I sold to him (he expanded it with 4MB total ram and
a 420MB HD).  He made them with Imagine v2 and VistaPro V3.  He was VERY
PATIENT, because some of them made days to finish (poor old 68000).  All of
them are in 256x192 HAM6 with Imagine, except of ELENA.ANIM5 which was made
with VistaPro in 320x256 HAM6.  Giving attention to the computer he had, there
are amazing!!!  Viva A500 <8).



   MiscAnims (dir):

AmigaMorph.Anim5:  Made with cinemorph v2 from the images of an A500 and an
A2000.  Only 16 colors and in 320x200.  For demo purposes in small amigas.

BlueSkySpace.Anim8_16:  I made this anim with Lightwave v3.5 to impress one
TV station, but the Tv station owner thought that his 14 year old son with his
A2000 and DPaint v3 made better gfx (just imagine: bright red letters in bright
green background drawn 5 mins before a live talk show started!!!).  The
original was in HiresLace HAM8, but I lost the disks I saved it, as I lost the
disks with the frames.  This is a cutdown version for the A2000 of the station,
in Lores HAM6.

KostasLogo.Anim8_16:  This is also an anim made with LW v3.5 for fun.  The
first 50 frames made with antialising, but my amiga rendered only 1 frame in
30mins, so I turned it off (5 times faster).  The last frame has max
antialising.

News.Anim5:  This is the first 3D anim I ever made.  I made it with my A500 1MB
ram and Real3D v1.3.  Because of the low memory, my A500 could not hold the
whole Real3D project in memory and I had to rotate manually the sphere, render
the image, rotate the sphere x degrees and then again from the start.  I used
DPaint v4 to assemple the anim.



   TvK (dir):
               These are some anims I made for the TvK TV station.

ApoTVK.JPEG:  HiresLace JPEG image made with Imagine v3

KtvLightTower.Anim5:  A Lores HAM8 anim I made with Imagine v3.  The display
problem of my Amiga is the reason for the strange colors and result...

RacketWorld.SSA:  A SSA anim in HAM8 Hires Lace for the spot of a tennis
related program.  Images  made with Imagine v3 and then with ClariSSA v1.1
(in another great AF coverdisk) converted to a Super Smouth Animation.

TVKNews.Anim8_16:  A lores Lace HAM8 anim made for the news spot of the station
with... what else Imagine v3.



Imagine/Imagine.ReadMe
++++++++++++++++++++++


Name: Kostas Theodoropoulos

Email: [e-mail]



IMAGINE
=======


   These are some of my Imagine projects for the various TV stations anims I
made and images used for textures in the BrushMaps (dir).  The brushmaps made
with Brilliance v2 and VistaPro for the Sky & Clouds backgrounds.  To use the
projects just copy them in the Projects (dir) of your Imagine drawer.



   Projects (dir):


Doll.imp (dir):  A project for Imagine v3 with a doll walking on a beach.  Too
bored to make it better.  For demo perposes.  I raytraced the anim, but a God
only knows where the disk contain it are now.

electionsspots.imp (dir) & electionstc.imp (dir):  projects made for creating
still images used in the election for city mayor of 1994.

gtvmorph.imp (dir):  project used for the still images between the morphings as
the relevant anim in the Animations (dir) shows.

gtvsign.imp (dir): an unfinished  project for the moto of Gtv tv station.

lighthouse.imp (dir), racketworld.imp (dir) & tvknews9.imp (dir):  the relevant
projects for the TvK Tv station anims in the Animation drawer.

tccommwords.imp (dir): a project for the spot for advertising break.



Misc/Misc.ReadMe
++++++++++++++++


Name: Kostas Theodoropoulos

Email: [e-mail]



MISC
====


   These are various staff which will help some users.  Let's see what we have:



   Comms (dir):

BookMarks.HTML:  My Voyager v2.88 hotlist for the WWW.  Load it as a local file
and if U like it, rename your old bookmarks file and copy it in your Voyager
directory - I think that V is the best WWW browser for Amiga in present time.

ibrowse-hotlist.html:  My bookbarks for IBrowse as above.  Same instructions as
Voyager.  Give them a look.

IBrowse.prefs:  My prefs file for IBrowse.  Useful for Greek users.  The fonts
are for viewing english and greek pages.  In the Aminet exist collections of
greek fonts that are compatible with ISO directions.  Also, I advise all the
greek users to buy the Greek WB.  It is a must.

KOSTASBM.HTM:  The same as above, but for Netscape.  Sometimes I use my brothers
PeeCee for net surfing (they have a 33.6 modem, mine's is 14.4 and Pentium MMX
in 200MHz is faster in image decoding than my 68030 25MHz  - but viva Aminet and
Amiga sites).  Have your amiga bookmarks in a PC.

Online.prefs:  For greek users.  Copy it to ENVARC:Online/ drawer.  It has all
the various greek different pricing zones.  Very useful for long distant net
users.  You can't imagine how easily you can overload your phone bill.  The
settings include in the telephone unit the 18% V.A.T. (F.P.A) and ofcourse the
price is in drachmas.  Ofcourse, to use it you must have installer Online-o-meter.

Voyager.prefs:  The same as IBrowse.prefs.  Useful for greek users, with greek
fonts in the settings.  Rename your old prefs file and change the proxy
settings - screen mode - viewers - data to fit your provider and copy
it to your Voyager drawer.



   DOpusV5 (dir):

                  My settings for DOpusV5.  The most useful of all are the
contents of the Filetypes drawer.  Almost every filetype exists and all are
shorted in Type, Name format (e.x. Picture, Jpeg or Animation, AVI etc..) so
finding the filetype you want is easy.  The viewers involved to decode the
files are all from AFCDs or from Aminet.  Edit the and suit them to your needs.
Very useful for gfx card users and especially PicassoIV (see below).  To
install them just copy the relevant contents of the drawers to your DOpus
location.  I have made DOpus to run in my WB screen and open text files, modules,
WWW pages there to minimize screen swaping.  You need a rather big WB screen, so
I recomment this to gfx card users.



   P96 (dir):

               These files associate with P96 s/w and users with gfx cards
running P96 (especially PicassoIV).

Devs/Picasso96Settings  (for P96)
Prefs/monitor.current   (for PicassoModeTNG)
Prefs/monitor.defaults  (as above, place them in the drawer of PModeTNG)
                        These files contain configuration for the Philips 107B
17" multisync monitor.  This monitor has 13 PC-Mac resolutions memory positions
and 4 for new user modes.  It has frequency rates 30-66Khz vertical and 50-130Hz
orizontal.  In the factory presets I fitted the NTSC flickerfixer (VGA is a
scan doubled NTSC overscan!!! - 640x480 31.5Khz/60Hz), 320x200 30.5Khz/70Hz,
320x240 31.5Khz/60Hz (share the preset with NTSC), 640x480 35Khz/67Hz, 800x600
38.5Khz/60Hz, 1024x768 60Khz/75Hz.  In the 4 new user mode we have:  PAL
flickerfixer mode, 320x256 and 640x512 sharing the same memory preset position,
1280x1024 and 1600x1200.  The PAL/NTSC modes are the defaults (I have not
changed them), all the screenmodes are 8bit/16bit/24bit except 1600x1200 which
is 8bit only.  I think that any multisync monitor with the same specifications
of mine's could use these settings.  To use them copy them to the appropriate
drawers (after renaming the old ones, just in case...) and then reboot or
command PicassoModeTNG to reload the default settings.


   Scripts (dir):  These are simple replacements of my startup-sequence.
Sadly, many games/demos are badly programed and can't cope with P96 s/w.  So, I
wrote these 3 scripts, made the executable and placed them to my Sys: dir, so
if I want to see the x demo, I boot with no Startup-Sequence and in the command
line I simply write PAL, or maxmem etc...  Modify them to fit your own needs.
For expert users only.  The Maxmem variance is a cutdown startup which is
faster, leaves as max memory free as possible and as less compatibility
problems (the less s/w loads, the less conflicts between programs happen).

   Speed (dir):  This drawer contains measurements of my amiga's speed.  The 2
first are for AIBBv6.5, the third is the results of my PicassoIV-P96 speed with
IntuiSpeed and the 2 last are for SysSpeed v2.  Why two and not one?  Because
the one is for MCP's SpeedRamsey option turned on and the other for the same
option off.  I had that option on, but it seems that A4000's ram bus speed
can't cope with the increased speed as more far on the left is the SIMM's place
(always talking for 60nsec SIMMs).  So, when I had 4MB fast ram (on the right
side), no problem, with 8MB some rare unexplained crashes, with 12MB often
crashes for no reason, and with 16MB (left side full- the processor is in the
right side) when I click the option on, as soon as I pressed Test,my amiga
crached and warm reset did nothing, I had to cold reset from the switch, the
damned think did not even booted, just flickering the green light!!!

   MyWorkbench.iff24:  This image shows what a gfx card can do and my WB in all
its glory.  Try play Gloom Deluxe, read your e-mails, view your favourite WWW
page in true color and admire great pictures all the same time in your little
tiny snail AGA WB.  Be a man, go and buy a gfx card (get a PicassoIV no more
flickering, no more twin monitors anymore, do it all in one, work and fun).
The image is in 1280x1024x16bit.  I grabbed this image just for fun.  Normally,
I use a 1024x768x8bit wb and a 800x600x24bit screen for WWW, because even
in my 17" monitor thinks look too small (damn 21" - U need to have a bank safe
full of gold for them) and I have configured my viewers to open the appropriate
screen depending the image size I want to see (a 320x200 image looks VERY SMALL
in a 1280x1024 screen, so a 320x200 screen is more helpful).



Pictures/-Pictures.ReadMe
+++++++++++++++++++++++++


Name: Kostas Theodoropoulos

Email: [e-mail]



PICTURES
========


   These are some images I made for Tv stations and for fun.  Some are hand drawn,
others are raytraced.



Flags (dir):   In this directory there are 7 flags made for the exchange rate
of money between some countries.

bghorizon.iff, Maui.HAM8.iff, MauiBeach.HAM8.iff, Meetingbg.iff, Mountain.lores.iff:
All those images generated with VistaProV3 for background purposes mainly.

InTheSummerTime.24bit:  This IFF24bit image created with Imagine v3 for the AF
Gallery. It took about an hour to raytrace and 2-3 days to make the project.
The sky made with VistraPro and the ombrella texture with Brilliance v2.

Tolkin.320x512x4096 & Psyhedelia.320x512x4096:  these images are hand drawn
from my little brother, Peter Theodoropoulos, with DPaint v4 in my old A500.
There aren't quite finished and the second is a twisted version of the first.

KaterinaWall.HAM8:  this is a lores HAM8 picture I made for my girlfriend in
Photogenics during AF's tutorials for Photogenics..

SealifeTraced.HAM8:  this is a lores laced HAM8 picture I made during the AF's
tutorials for Imagine v2.

LWTextures.HAM8, SpaceDOF.HAM8, SpaceFight.JPEG, SpaceFire.JPEG,
SpaceKamikazi.JPEG:  these images,made with Lightwave v3.5 for fun and testing.
Then I processed them with Photogenics and ImageFX v2 to add the lens flare,
the laser beams and the partial motion blur.



                         Reader Warrant
                         ++++++++++++++


In respect of all material which forms my reader contribution to Future
Publishing's Amiga Format I hereby warrant that:-


(1) the material is original and does not infringe any other material or
rights;


(2) the material does not contain any material which is defamatory,
obscene or indecent and is exempt from
classification under the Video Recordings Act 1984;


(3) that there are no legal claims against the material provided;


(4) that I have full power and authority to provide this material to
Future Publishing.