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Fastgraph FAQ, last updated February 6, 1995 Introduction: Fastgraph is a programmer's graphics library commonly used for writing games, but useful for a variety of graphics applications. Fastgraph was written by Ted Gruber and is supported by Ted and Diana Gruber of Ted Gruber Software. It is available through mail order from the Coriolis Group, which may be contacted at: 1-800-410-0192; outside the U.S. call (602) 483-0192; the order fax line is (602) 483-0193. For information and technical support, please do not call the Coriolis Group. Instead, contact Ted Gruber Software directly at: Ted Gruber Software (702) 735-1980 (voice) P.O. Box 13408 (702) 735-4603 (fax) Las Vegas, NV 89112 (702) 796-7134 (BBS) Email: 72000.1642@compuserve.com ftp: ftp@accessnv.com Frequently asked questions: Q. What is a graphics library? A. A graphics library is a collection of general purpose functions which may be linked into your program. The purpose of Fastgraph is to give you complete control of the video environment, including initializing video memory, manipulating it, displaying images on the screen, changing colors, and so on. Q. What is the difference between a graphics library and a game engine? A. Game engines are usually specific to a particular genre of game and provide medium level functions such as collision detection. A graphics library is general purpose low-level functions which can be used in many different kinds of programs. Q. How long has Fastgraph been around? A. Ted started writing Fastgraph in 1987, and it has been under constant construction ever since. Diana used Fastgraph to write her first game in 1987. Q. How fast is Fastgraph? A. It's fast. Q. What games have been written with Fastgraph? A. We do not have exact information on this, but the short answer is LOTS. Many commercial and shareware games have been written with Fastgraph, including arcade games, adventure games, puzzle games, card games, RPG's, and so on. For some sample shareware games, call our bbs at (702) 796-7134 or check our ftp site at ftp.accessnv.com. Q. Are there any requirements for releasing a game with Fastgraph? A. We only ask that you do not release public domain programs using Fastgraph. Please copyright your software, in your name or in your company's name. You can do this by simply putting "copyright 1995 John Doe" on your software. (For more information consult an attorney or get a good book on the subject.) This is for your protection as well as ours. Your software is valuable, you should claim your copyright. We also recommend you register your copyright as appropriate, but that is up to you. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on the distribution of programs written with Fastgraph. There are no royalties or license fees, and you are not required to mention that you used Fastgraph to write your game (although we think it is nice if you do). Q. Why are you removing the GIF functions from Fastgraph? A. Both Unisys and and IBM are claiming patents on the LZW technology, which is the cornerstone of GIF file compression. Now Unisys is requiring a royalty on any program that compresses or decompresses GIF files. If you write a program that uses Fastgraph to read or write a GIF file, you could owe royalties to Unisys. We are opposed to paying royalties to Unisys. We are opposed to software patents in general. We recommend you avoid using the GIF functions. Q. What is the current version number? A. We are currently shipping Fastgraph 4.02. Q. How much does it cost? A. Fastgraph 4.02 costs $249 with no royalties or license fees. Q. Does that include source code? A. No. Source code is extra. Call the TGS office for information about source code pricing. Q. How much does it cost to upgrade? A. You can upgrade from 3.x to 4.02 for $69 plus shipping. That includes a new manual (approximately 750 pages). Q. What is Fastgraph/Fonts? A. Fastgraph/Fonts is a Fastgraph add-on product providing 40 bitmapped fonts and the code to display them, as well as a font editor and a conversion program to use TrueType fonts with Fastgraph. The Fastgraph Font editor was written by Steve Hodsdon. Q. What is Fastgraph/Image? A. Fastgraph/Image is a file resource manager. You can stuff lots of small files into one binary file, sometimes referred to as a library file. It comes with a library manager to conveniently add files to the resource file. The resource file is indexed for quick access. Q. Is Fastgraph required to use the Fonts and Image products? A. Yes. Q. What do the Fonts and Image products cost? A. Fastgraph/Fonts costs $69 and Fastgraph/Image costs $69. Q. Are there any package deals? A. If you already have Fastgraph, you can buy the Fonts and Image products together for $118. That saves you $20. If you want to buy all three products, Fastgraph, Fastgraph/Fonts and Fastgraph/Image, we call that the Fastgraph Power Pack and sell it for $359. Q. What is Fastgraph/Light? A. Fastgraph/Light is the shareware version of Fastgraph. Q. What is the difference between Fastgraph/Light and Fastgraph? A. The biggest difference is the TSR driver, called FGDRIVER.EXE, which must be loaded into memory before any programs linked with Fastgraph/Light may be run. Fastgraph/Light supports real mode only, while Fastgraph includes libraries for real mode, 16-bit protected mode, and 32-bit protected mode. Also, there are several functions missing from the Light version, including the functions which require floating point (world space coordinates and stroked character fonts) and the GIF functions, which are going to be removed from Fastgraph soon as well. Q. Do Fastgraph/Light users get documentation and technical support? A. The documentation is archived and distributed online (or on disk) with Fastgraph/Light. Everybody gets technical support. Q. What is Fastgraph/Help? A. Fastgraph/Help is a hypertext help system that may be used as a standalone program or a tsr. You may highlight Fastgraph functions in your code and press a hotkey combination, and you will get an explanation of the function and the parameters that are passed to it. Q. Did you write Fastgraph/Help? A. No. Mike Stephenson wrote it. We paid him for it and provide it to you for free. Q. Has anybody else helped write parts of Fastgraph? A. Randy Dryburgh originally wrote parts of Fastgraph/Fonts. John Wagner wrote the original Fastgraph/Image. Steve Hodson wrote the Fastgraph font editor and the TrueType conversion program. Q. What languages was Fastgraph written in? A. All of Fastgraph is written in assembly language, except for the few functions which expect floating point parameters. Those are written in the language of the supported compiler. Q. What languages does Fastgraph support? A. Fastgraph supports C/C++, Fortran, Basic, Pascal, and ASM. Some programmers have found ways to use Fastgraph with other languages, such as FoxPro and Turbo Prolog, but we do not guarantee support of those languages and cannot offer technical support for them. Q. What compilers does Fastgraph support? A. Borland C++ (version 2.0 or later) Borland Pascal (version 7.0 or later) MetaWare High C/C++ (version 3.0 or later) Microsoft BASIC PDS (version 7.0 or 7.1) Microsoft C/C++ (version 5.1 or later) Microsoft FORTRAN (version 4.0 or later) Microsoft FORTRAN PowerStation (version 1.0 or later) Microsoft QuickBASIC (version 4.0 or later) Microsoft QuickC (version 2.0 or later) Microsoft Visual Basic for DOS (version 1.0 or later) Microsoft Visual C++ (version 1.0 or later) Microsoft Visual C++ 32-bit Edition (version 1.0 or later) Power C (version 2.0 or later) Turbo C (version 2.0 or later) Turbo C++ (version 1.0 or later) Turbo Pascal (version 6.0 or later) Watcom C/C++ (version 9.5 or later) Watcom C32 for DOS (version 9.5 or later) Zortech C++ (version 3.0 or later) Q. What 32-bit DOS extenders does Fastgraph support? A. Borland PowerPack for DOS DOSXMSF (Fortran PowerStation) Phar Lap TNT Dos-Extender SDK Phar Lap TNT Dos-Extender Lite Rational Systems DOS/4G Rational Systems DOS/4GW Rational Systems DOS/4GW Professional Q. What 16-bit DOS extenders does Fastgraph support? Borland Pascal 7 (built-in DPMI extender) Borland PowerPack for DOS Phar Lap 286|Dos-Extender SDK Phar Lap 286|Dos-Extender Lite Rational Systems DOS/16M Q. What video modes does Fastgraph support? A. Mode No. of Supported Supported No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays 0 T 40 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 1 T 40 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 2 T 80 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 3 T 80 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 4 G 320 x 200 4 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 5 G 320 x 200 4 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 6 G 640 x 200 2/16 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 7 T 80 x 25 b/w MDA,HGC,EGA,VGA,SVGA Monochrome 9 G 320 x 200 16 Tandy 1000,PCjr RGB 11 G 720 x 348 b/w HGC Monochrome 12 G 320 x 200 b/w HGC Monochrome 13 G 320 x 200 16 EGA,VGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 14 G 640 x 200 16 EGA,VGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA 15 G 640 x 350 b/w EGA,VGA,SVGA Mono,VGA,SVGA 16 G 640 x 350 16/64 EGA,VGA,SVGA ECD,VGA,SVGA 17 G 640 x 480 2/256K VGA,MCGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA 18 G 640 x 480 16/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA 19 G 320 x 200 256/256K VGA,MCGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA 20 G 320 x 200 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA 21 G 320 x 400 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA 22 G 320 x 240 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA 23 G 320 x 480 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA 24 G 640 x 400 256/256K SVGA SVGA 25 G 640 x 480 256/256K SVGA SVGA 26 G 800 x 600 256/256K SVGA SVGA 27 G 1024 x 768 256/256K SVGA SVGA 28 G 800 x 600 16/256K SVGA SVGA 29 G 1024 x 768 16/256K SVGA SVGA Q. What SVGA chipsets does Fastgraph support? A. Ahead "A" type Ahead "B" type ATI 18800 ATI 18800-1 ATI 28800 ATI 38800 (mach8) ATI 68800 (mach32) ATI 88800 (mach64) Avance Logic 2000 series Chips & Technologies 82c451/455/456 Chips & Technologies 82c452 Chips & Technologies 82c453 Cirrus Logic 5400 series Cirrus Logic 6400 series Genoa 6000 series NCR 77C22/77C32 Oak OTI-067 Oak OTI-077 Oak OTI-087 Paradise PVGA1a Paradise WD90C00/WD90C10 Paradise WD90C11/WD90C30/WD90C31/WD90C33 S3 Trident 8800 Trident 8900/9000 Tseng ET3000 Tseng ET4000 Video7 VESA Q. Are any chipsets problematic? A. Some chipsets, notably those in laptops, sometimes fail the autodetection. Since it is still possible to initialize those chipsets, we recommend you give your users some kind of manual override if the autodetection fails. Q. Are any video cards problematic? A. We've found problems supporting the Diamond Viper card (and so have other programmers). At this time, that video card is supported through VESA only. Q. What file formats does Fastgraph support? A. Fastgraph supports reading and writing PCX, GIF, and RLE files, and you can read (display) Autodesk Animator FLI/FLC files. We are planning to drop GIF support in the very near future because of the Unisys royalties. Q. Are you going to replace GIF support with PNG support? A. Yes! Q. What is PNG anyway? A. PNG is a major advance over the GIF format. It retains GIF's strength as a compressed, universal, portable format for 256-color images, and adds the capability of true color support with lossless compression missing from GIF. Thus by converting, you will not only be helping get the computer graphics community out from under the LZW patent, but you will be migrating your image collections to a new format that encompases both color-mapped and true color images. PNG has a simple, clear specification and comes with free sample encoding and decoding reference source code to enable developers to easily incorporate PNG support in their applications. PNG's lossless compression method has been thoroughly researched and judged free from patent problems. PNGs feature set allows the conversion of all GIF files. Q. Are you going to do a Windows version of Fastgraph? A. We're working on it! Q. Does Fastgraph support sound cards? A. No. You need a sound and music library for that, such as the WORX toolkit from Mystic Software, the Sound Operating System by HMI, Digpak/Midpak by the Audio Solution, or the DiamondWare Sound Toolkit by MVP Software. Q. Does Fastgraph support horizontal scrolling? A. Not directly, but there are ways to do it. For an explanation, see Diana's book, Action Arcade Adventure Set, published by the Coriolis Group. Q. Are Ted and Diana related? A. They are married. Q. How come when I leave Ted email on CompuServe or the Internet, Diana answers it? A. Ted is "modem impaired". Q. Can you tell me a little more about that A.A.A.S. book? A. The book documents a game engine for a side-scroller game. It includes the various editors including a level editor, sprite editor and palette manager, as well as code for smooth scrolling and sprite animation. Q. Is there a Fastgraph FTP site? A. Yes. You can get Fastgraph files, including the shareware version, the documentation, and lots of examples and code from ftp.accessnv.com. Q. So, briefly, what functions are in Fastgraph? A. See the summary of Fastgraph functions below. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of Fastgraph 4.0 functions -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Video initialization -------------------- fg_automode determine which available video mode offers the highest resolution and number of colors fg_bestmode choose the best video mode given resolution and video page requirements fg_cursor turn the text mode cursor on or off fg_egacheck return information about the active EGA or VGA adapter and display fg_getlines get the number of text rows per video page fg_getmode return the current video mode number fg_initpm initialize Fastgraph's protected mode kernel fg_reset erase the screen, restoring screen attributes if ANSI.SYS is loaded fg_setlines in EGA/VGA/SVGA text modes, establish 25, 43, or 50 line mode fg_setmode establish a video mode and initialize Fastgraph fg_svgainit autodetect the SVGA chipset (or VESA) and initialize Fastgraph's SVGA kernel fg_testmode determine whether or not a video mode is available on the system Coordinate systems ------------------ fg_getmaxx get the maximum x coordinate in screen space fg_getmaxy get the maximum y coordinate in screen space fg_getview return current viewport extremes fg_getworld determine the current limits of the world space coordinate system fg_initw initialize the world space coordinate system fg_setview define viewport extremes and position fg_setworld define the floating point world space coordinate system fg_xalpha translate screen space x coordinate to character space column fg_xconvert translate character space column to screen space x coordinate fg_xscreen translate world space x coordinate to screen space x coordinate fg_xview translate horizontal viewport coordinate to screen space fg_xworld translate screen space x coordinate to world space x coordinate fg_yalpha translate screen space y coordinate to character space row fg_yconvert translate character space row to screen space y coordinate fg_yscreen translate world space y coordinate to screen space y coordinate fg_yview translate vertical viewport coordinate to screen space fg_yworld translate screen space y coordinate to world space y coordinate Colors and palettes ------------------- fg_colors return number of colors available in the current video mode fg_defcolor assign a color value to a virtual color index fg_getcolor get the current color index (graphics modes) or display attributes (text modes) fg_getdacs get the RGB components of a block of DAC registers fg_getindex get the color value assigned to a virtual color index fg_getrgb get the RGB components of a specified DAC register fg_maprgb map six-bit RGB components to a 16-color palette value fg_palette assign a color value to a palette fg_palettes define 16 palette register values fg_setattr establish display attributes in text modes fg_setcolor establish the current color index fg_setdacs specify RGB components of a block of DAC registers fg_setrgb define the RGB value of a palette or video DAC register Graphics fundamentals --------------------- fg_box draw a hollow rectangle fg_boxdepth specify the outline size of a hollow rectangle fg_boxw draw a hollow rectangle in world space fg_boxx draw a hollow rectangle in XOR mode fg_boxxw draw a hollow rectangle in XOR mode in world space fg_circle draw a hollow circle fg_circlef draw a filled circle fg_circlefw draw a filled circle in world space fg_circlew draw a hollow circle in world space fg_clprect draw a clipped rectangle fg_clprectw draw a clipped rectangle in world space fg_dash draw a dashed line fg_dashrel draw a dashed line relative to current position fg_dashrw draw a relative dashed line in world space fg_dashw draw a dashed line in world space fg_draw draw a line fg_drawrel draw a line relative to the current position fg_drawrelx draw a relative XOR line fg_drawrw draw a relative line in world space fg_drawrxw draw a relative XOR line in world space fg_draww draw a line in world space fg_drawx draw an XOR line fg_drawxw draw an XOR line in world space fg_drect draw a dithered rectangle fg_drectw draw a dithered rectangle in world space fg_ellipse draw an ellipse fg_ellipsef draw a filled ellipse fg_ellipsew draw an ellipse in world space fg_ellipsfw draw a filled ellipse in world space fg_erase clear the active video page fg_fillpage fill active video page with current color fg_flood like fg_paint but observes the clipping limits fg_floodw like fg_paintw but observes the clipping limits fg_getclip return current clipping limits fg_getpixel get the color value of specified pixel fg_getxbox return fg_box left and right edge width fg_getxpos get screen space x coordinate of graphics cursor fg_getybox return fg_box top and bottom edge width fg_getypos get the screen space y coordinate of graphics cursor fg_inside check if a specified point is inside a convex polygon fg_move position the graphics cursor fg_moverel position the graphics cursor relative to current position fg_moverw position the graphics cursor, relative, in world space fg_movew position the graphics cursor in world space fg_paint fast flood fill of any closed area, including an area with holes fg_paintw world space version of fg_paint fg_point draw a point fg_pointw draw a point in world space fg_pointx draw a point in XOR mode fg_pointxw draw a point in XOR mode in world space fg_polyedge specify fg_polyfill right and bottom edge inclusion fg_polyfill draw a filled convex polygon fg_polygon draw an unfilled polygon fg_polygonw draw an unfilled polygon in world space fg_polyline draw an unfilled polygon from one vertex array fg_polyoff define polygon offsets for fg_polyfill and fg_polyline fg_rect draw a solid rectangle in screen space or character space fg_rectw draw a solid rectangle in world space fg_setclip establish limits of clipping region for primitives and bitmapped images fg_setclipw world space version of fg_setclip Character display ----------------- fg_chgattr change display attribute for existing text in text modes fg_chgtext change text while preserving the display attributes in text modes fg_fontsize enable 8x8, 8x14, or 8x16 ROM font (VGA/SVGA only) fg_getattr get the display attribute of a given character cell in text modes fg_getchar get the character value of a given character cell in text modes fg_getxjust return fg_print and fg_printc horizontal justification setting fg_getyjust return fg_print and fg_printc vertical justification setting fg_justify define justification settings for fg_print fg_locate define row and column for character display fg_print display hardware characters in screen space fg_printc version of fg_print that performs clipping fg_setangle define the orientation of software (stroked) characters fg_setratio define the aspect ratio for software characters fg_setsize define the height of software characters in screen space fg_setsizew define the height of software characters in world space fg_swchar display software (stroked) characters fg_swlength compute the length of a string of software characters fg_swtext display software characters fg_text display hardware (ROM font) characters fg_textc version of fg_text that supports clipping fg_where return the text cursor position Video page management --------------------- fg_allocate create a virtual page in conventional memory fg_alloccms create a logical page in conventional memory fg_allocems create a logical page in expanded memory fg_allocxms create a logical page in extended memory fg_findpage find an available page number for virtual/logical pages fg_freepage release a virtual or logical page fg_getaddr get the segment address of the active video page fg_getentry get address and type of a physical, virtual or logical page fg_getpage get the active video page number fg_getvpage get the number of the visual video page fg_initems initialize expanded memory (EMS) fg_initxms initialize extended memory (XMS) fg_pagesize return video page size in bytes fg_resize change the size of a video page (use with fg_pan) fg_setentry set address and type of a physical, virtual or logical page fg_setpage establish the active video page fg_setvpage establish the visual video page Virtual buffer management ------------------------- fg_vbaddr return address of a virtual buffer fg_vballoc create a virtual buffer (allocate memory internally) fg_vbclose close the active virtual buffer fg_vbcopy copy rectangular region from one virtual buffer to another fg_vbcut copy rectangular region from active video page to virtual buffer fg_vbdefine create a virtual buffer (from previously allocated memory) fg_vbfree release virtual buffer memory allocated with fg_vballoc fg_vbhandle return handle of the active virtual buffer fg_vbinit initialize Fastgraph's virtual buffer environment fg_vbopen make an existing virtual buffer the active virtual buffer fg_vbpaste copy rectangular region from virtual buffer to active video page fg_vbtcxfer version of fg_vbpaste that supports transparent colors fg_vbundef release a virtual buffer handle Bitmapped image management -------------------------- fg_clipmap version of fg_drawmap that performs clipping fg_clipmask draw a clipped masking map fg_clpimage draw a clipped mode-specific bitmap fg_display display a pixel run map fg_displayp display a packed pixel run map fg_drawmap draw a mode-independent bitmap fg_drawmask draw a masking map fg_drwimage draw a lightning-fast mode-specific bitmap fg_flipmask draw an inverted masking map fg_flpimage draw an inverted mode-specific bitmap fg_getimage retrieve an image as a mode-specific bitmap fg_getmap retrieve an image as a mode-independent bitmap fg_imagesiz calculate the number of bytes required for mode-specific bitmap storage fg_invert invert orientation of a bitmapped image array fg_pack translate "one pixel per byte" bitmap to mode-specific format fg_putimage like fg_drwimage but doesn't check for transparent pixels fg_revimage display a reversed mode-specific bitmap fg_revmask display a reversed masking map fg_scale scale a bitmapped image fg_shear shear a bitmapped image fg_unpack translate mode-specific bitmap to "one pixel per byte" format Image file routines ------------------- fg_dispfile display a pixel run file, packed or unpacked fg_flicdone close an FLI or FLC file fg_flichead read an FLI or FLC file header fg_flicmode determine optimal video mode for an FLI or FLC file fg_flicopen open an FLI or FLC file fg_flicplay play one or more frames from an FLI or FLC file fg_flicsize return FLI or FLC image dimensions fg_flicskip advance one or more frames in an FLI or FLC file fg_gifhead read a GIF file global header and first local header fg_gifmode determine optimal video mode for a GIF file fg_gifpal retrieve palette information from a GIF file fg_gifrange return GIF image dimensions fg_imagebuf define the address and size of the image file buffer fg_loadpcx load a PCX image into a virtual buffer fg_makegif create a GIF file from a rectangular region of the active video page fg_makepcx create a PCX file from a rectangular region of the active video page fg_makeppr create a PPR file from a rectangular region of the active video page fg_makespr create an SPR file from a rectangular region of the active video page fg_pattern define dither patterns for pixel run maps fg_pcxhead read a PCX file header into a 128-byte buffer fg_pcxmode determine the optimal mode for displaying a PCX file fg_pcxpal retrieve palette information from a PCX file fg_pcxrange return PCX image dimensions fg_showflic play an FLI or FLC file fg_showgif display a GIF file fg_showpcx display a PCX file fg_showppr display a packed pixel run (PPR) file fg_showspr display a standard pixel run (SPR) file (RLE) Block transfer routines ----------------------- fg_copypage copy an entire physical, virtual, or logical page fg_getblock transfer rectangular region from video memory to RAM fg_gethpage get the number of the current "hidden" video page fg_putblock transfer rectangular region from RAM to video memory fg_restore fast rectangular area copy from hidden to visual page fg_restorew world space version of fg_restore fg_save fast rectangular area copy from visual to hidden page fg_savew world space version of fg_save fg_sethpage establish the hidden video page fg_tcdefine define transparent color number for fg_tcxfer fg_tcmask define transparent colors for fg_tcxfer fg_tcxfer transfer rectangular area with transparent colors fg_transfer fast rectangular region copy from any page to any page (bitblt) Special effects --------------- fg_fadein copy hidden to visual page in small, random increments fg_fadeout erase the visual page in small, random increments fg_pan change the screen origin for full-screen four-directional smooth scrolling fg_panw world space version of fg_pan fg_scroll smooth vertical scrolling of rectangular area fg_split enable or disable a split screen environment Keyboard control ---------------- fg_capslock turn the CapsLock key on or off fg_getkey wait for a keystroke or retrieve the next value from the keystroke buffer fg_intkey get the next entry from BIOS keyboard buffer if it is not empty fg_kbinit enable or disable the low-level keyboard handler fg_kblast return scan code of most recent keypress fg_kbreset reset Fastgraph's low-level keyboard handler fg_kbtest determine if a key is now pressed or released fg_numlock get the state of the NumLock key fg_scrlock get the state of the ScrollLock key fg_setcaps turn the CapsLock key on or off fg_setnum turn the NumLock key on or off fg_waitkey wait for any keystroke Mouse management ---------------- fg_mouse256 define 256-color mouse cursor fg_mousebut get information about the mouse - were buttons pressed, and where? fg_mousecur define the appearance of the mouse cursor in text modes fg_mousefin unhook Fastgraph's XVGA or SVGA mouse handler fg_mouseini initialize the mouse fg_mouselim define limits the mouse movement fg_mousemov position the mouse cursor fg_mousepos get the current mouse position and button status fg_mouseptr define shape and appearance of mouse cursor in graphics modes fg_mousespd control the speed of mouse cursor relative to the speed of the mouse fg_mousevis make the mouse cursor visible or invisible Joystick support ---------------- fg_button get a joystick's button status fg_getxjoy get the horizontal position of the specified joystick fg_getyjoy get the vertical position of the specified joystick fg_initjoy initialize either joystick fg_intjoy return keyboard codes analogous to joystick position and button status Sound effects and music ----------------------- fg_hush immediately stop any asynchronous sound or music fg_hushnext stop asynchronous sound or music after the current iteration fg_music play a sequence of musical notes fg_musicb play asynchronous music (background music) fg_playing determine whether there is any asynchronous sound in progress fg_quiet stop continuous sound fg_resume after suspending asynchronous music, continue the music fg_sound produce a tone of specified frequency and duration fg_sounds play a series of tones, concurrent with other activity fg_suspend suspend asynchronous sound (see fg_resume) fg_voice produce sound on TI sound chip (as in Tandy 1000) fg_voices play a series of tones on TI sound chip, concurrent with other activity Timing ------ fg_getclock get the number of clock ticks since midnight fg_measure benchmark the system speed to determine delay units for fg_stall fg_stall stall for a given number of delay units (see fg_measure) fg_waitfor delay a specified number of clock ticks (18.2 per second) Miscellaneous ------------- fg_getbanks return current SVGA read and write bank numbers fg_memavail determine the amount of conventional memory available to DOS fg_memory return the amount of video memory present in kilobytes fg_setbanks define SVGA read and write bank numbers fg_setfunc specify the logical operation in EGA/VGA modes (XOR/OR/AND) fg_svgaver return Fastgraph SVGA kernel version number fg_version return Fastgraph version number fg_vgastate save or restore the internal VGA state fg_waitvr specify if functions wait internally for vertical retrace