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BLD2GIF (c) 1988 Lawrence Gozum & Marvin Gozum ────────────────────────────────────────────── User Manual DISCLAIMER This product is distributed AS IS. The authors specifically disclaim all warranties ,expressed or implied, including ,but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the diskette and documentation, and program license granted herein, in particular, and without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any particular application use or purpose. In no event shall the authors be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage including but not limited to special,incidental, consequential or other damages. LICENSING AGREEMENT You may use this program on a TRIAL BASIS only; this means that you may freely evaluate the usefulness of this program for a reasonable period. Should you find this program useful, you must register it (see last section of this manual). You will then be provided with the latest release of VGACAD (VGA Computer Assisted Design) and latest updates of all released utilities. You may freely distribute copies of this program in its UNMODIFIED state provided you do not include it in other software packages, with the exception of distributing it as part of a bundle of Public Domain or shareware programs on a single diskette. In addition you may not charge more that $3.50 for copying and/or distributing this program in the absence of any recognized Users Group guidelines. WHAT IS BLD2GIF ? BLD2GIF is a conversion utility for creating files which follow CompuServe's GIF ("Graphics Interchange Format"). GIF files are "universal" in that it allows the transmittal and porting of your pictures to other machines as well as through communication software. Pictures in the GIF format can be viewed in different graphics modes and machines depending on the sophistication of the software. BLD2GIF will convert any screen captured with VGACAP or any screen created on VGACAD; in effect you can convert ANY viewable picture into a GIF picture. All screens captured by VGACAP can be edited, garnished or image processed with VGACAD. WHAT IS VGACAP ? VGACAP is a terminate-stay-resident (TSR) utility that allows you to capture the 256 color palette and screen in the 320x200x256 color mode and save both the palette and screen in "Bloadable" formats. VGACAP's main purpose is to capture and "Bsave" the pictures of commercial and shareware viewing programs as well as painting/graphics and CAD programs available now and in the future. VGACAD (one of the first 256 color paint/CAD shareware programs distributed in the Public domain) will load the captured screens and palettes, as soon as you rename the files to follow the .plt and .bld extensions. REQUIREMENTS You MUST have a VGA or MCGA adaptor (at least BIOS compatible) present and an analog monitor to use VGACAP and BLD2GIF. VGACAP uses less than 2K of your available memory ! BLD2GIF needs about 192KB of diskspace and free memory to run succesfully. Note: When in DOS or using a picture viewer (e.g., VGAGIF) or application which requires a keypress to continue, it is necessary to hit any key or a specified key (e.g., spacebar or return) after hitting the 'HOTKEY' before VGACAP saves the screen and palette. HOW TO USE VGACAP Simply run VGACAP before entering your painting/CAD or digitized picture viewer. After loading, press <ALT-F10>, while viewing your picture in any drawing/paint/CAD or viewing program. Your current screen and palette will be saved in your default drive and directory in the standard Bsave format for all BASIC programs. The first time you run the program it will save your screen and palette to MCAGSCRN.000 and MCGAPLET.000 respectively. It will then increase both extensions up to .999. If there is an existing MCGASCRN.xxx or MCGAPLET.xxx file, then it will increment to the next higher number. This can be confusing if you keep the captured files without renaming them since you can have unmatched screens and palettes. You can use your favorite memory managers to remove this TSR or reboot to release it from memory. HOW TO USE BLD2GIF Every captured picture or picture created with VGACAD will have two files: the screen and palette. The screen should have the extension .BLD and .PLT for the palette. a) WITH captured screens and palettes using VGACAP If your picture was captured with VGACAP, rename both files with the same name with the corresponding extensions. For example rename MCGASCRN.000 to MYPIC.BLD and MCGAPLET.000 to MYPIC.PLT. e.g. while in DOS type "rename MCGASCRN.000 MYPIC.BLD" b) WITH created/edited screens palettes using VGACAD In VGACAD you have the flexibility of using a single palette for several pictures. If your screen was named "MYPIC.BLD" and you used "GRAY64.PLT" for the screen, then rename or copy "GRAY64.PLT" to "MYPIC.PLT" file. e.g. while in DOS type "copy GRAY64.PLT MYPIC.PLT" c) WITH BASIC Bsaved pictures using hardware palette In BASIC, when you invoke SCREEN 13 the VGA card defaults to a standard hardware palette. You can BSAVE you screens using the following lines: Screen 13: 'init MCGA 256 color mode DEF SEG=&HA000: 'point data segment to 'screen buffer A0000H BSAVE"MCPIC.BLD",0,64000: 'bsave the screen DEF SEG: 'restore data segment Copy and rename the included file "BASIC.plt" to match your bsaved picture. e.g. while in DOS type "copy BASIC.PLT MYPIC.PLT" If you are directly making pictures from BASIC, I suggest using VGACAP to save screen and palette changes instead of being limited by the standard hardware palette. BASIC's PALETTE USING does not support reading (much more a way to bsave) palettes in a BIOS compatible format. Now that you have the screen and palette type "BLD2GIF MYPIC <return>" then after a few seconds, you picture and palette will be merged and converted to MYPIC.GIF. This picture can now be viewed with GIF viewers (e.g., Michael Vigneau's VGAGIF) or used with any software that supports GIF pictures. BLOADING captured screens in BASIC The following lines will load one of the captured screens from QuickBASIC 4.0 If you are using QuickBASIC 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0, I have included VGAMODE.obj which you can include in your UserLib.exe through BUILDLIB.exe. VGAMODE is a BIOS compatible assembly routine which can call the more exotic graphic modes of your compatible VGA card (e.g. 800x560x16 color mode of ATI's VGA VIP and EGA Wonder); check your user manual for the correct hex codes. USAGE: Call VGAMODE(&H13) : 'MCGA 256 color mode or Call VGAMODE(mode%): 'where mode is an integer that 'corresponds to the videomode 'after translating it from HEX The following lines will perform just as well as the listing above. Call VGAMODE(&H13): 'init MCGA 256 color mode DEF SEG=&HA000: 'point data segment to 'screen buffer A0000H Bload "MCGASCRN.000",0: 'load the screen DEF SEG : 'restore data segment As a matter of convention, if you are using VGACAD, you should rename your capture screens with the .BLD extension (e.g., MYPICT.BLD) for use in VGACAD or conversion in BLD2GIF. BLOADING captured palettes in BASIC If you are using QuickBASIC (any version from 1.0 to 4.0), I have included WRITEPAL.obj, which is, also a VGA BIOS routines written in assembly, that you can include in your UserLib.exe through BUILDLIB.exe (v3.0 and lower) or LINK (v4.0). WRITEPAL is also a BIOS compatible assembly routine that writes to 256 palette registers. Although its main purpose is to facilitate the overriding of the VGA or MCGA standard palette, since it is an all-purpose BIOS routine it will facilitate changing the palettes of more exotic screen modes such as the 640x480x256 color screens of IBM's 8514/A adaptor. This function is similar to "PALETTE USING" in QuickBASIC with the major advantage of following the BIOS convention which VGACAP captures and bsaves. USAGE: Call WritePal (Dseg%,Offset%) WHERE: Dseg% =result of VARSEG for array storage Offset%=result of VARPTR for array storage The following lines illustrate its use. REM: Example Routine DIM UserPal%(769) :' 256 colors x 3 registers=768 :' registers= red grn blu Dseg%=VARSEG(UserPal(1)) :' get data segment Offset%=VARPTR(UserPal(1)) :' get offset DEF SEG=Dseg% :' override data segment BLOAD "MCGAPLET.000",Offset% :' bload in correct offset DEF SEG ;' restore data segment Call WritePal (Dseg%,Offset%) Palettes captured by VGACAP follow the BIOS calling convention in that they are contiguous RGB (red green blue) values for all 256 colors. Not only is this the same way GIF stores the palette in its file, but one BIOS call can update an entire palette with RGB values stored in this manner. USING VGABLD The "bloadable" format has several advantages over GIF. If you intend to use your pictures primarily in IBM machines in VGA or MCGA mode then you will notice that the pictures load INSTANTANEOUSLY ! Bloading a screen is simply a memory dump into your display area; this is particularly crucial for presentations. In addition, keeping the screen and palette separate allows you to use one palette for several pictures or for creating special effects. For example, you can make a picture shift from a "day scene" to a "night scene" by simply changing the palette; you can also create animation effects. You need not go through the tedium of writing your own program just to view your captured pictures. VGABLD will load a picture for viewing. Captured screen and palette MUST have the .BLD and .PLT extensions respectively for the same picture. The BASIC source code is included and is ready for compilation. REGISTRATION To register your copy, send in the registration form and check for $14.95 or $19.95 payable to Dr. Marvin Gozum 2 Independence Place Apt. 303-2 6th & Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 For $14.95 you will be entitled to the latest update of VGACAD without reminders which pop-up every 20 minutes AND the latest updates of released utilities: VGACAP, BLD2GIF and CGA2VGA (converts your library of CGA pictures to VGA 256 color format). For $19.95 you will be entitled to the next TWO (2) updates of the latest of everything; this means that from the date of receipt of your registration we will send you the latest version of VGACAD and all the related utilities developed and a premier copy of any new utility developed as well as the next releases of all the aforementioned and any new fonts (with the font editor) and Clipart files when available. You can expect spectacular enhancements in VGACAD's updates. At present it has sophisticated image processing functions, auto/variable sizing and stretching, image colorization , Cut&Paste, 23 brushes and more. Future updates will include 3D and 2D transformations, gradient fills and patterns, and more; many of these routines are in "C" or assembly and work very fast. In the pipeline is QBVGA an extensive library of QuickBASIC VGA 256 color graphics routines, VGASHW (a graphics presentation program to showoff your captured pictures or your own paintings and screen design, EGA2VGA (a TSR to convert EGA screens to VGA 256 color format), VGA3DM (3D object/model editor for including models in VGACAD), and VGAPRN (a print utility for EPSON and IBM dot matrix printers). If you continue to support maverick authors like us, we will continue to develop these products like nothing ever seen in commercial packages - otherwise it will, as many (sigh!) good "shareware" packages have to go commercial or simply die from lack of support. Support us and we'll keep developing.