ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/GRAPHICS/MISC/VGAMAGIC.ZIP/MAGIC.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-03 | 8.9 KB | 209 lines

                             VGA Magic V1.00

                            ShareWare Release



                         Program and Documentation
                            Copyright (C) 1990
                           BulletProof Software,
                            Mark I Manning III
                                   and
                            Mark I Manning IV

                            7611 Autumnal Lane
                            Liverpool, NY 13088
                            Tel: [phone]







THE LEGALITIES

The entire contents of this software package are Copyright 1990 by
BulletProof Software, Mark I Manning III and Mark I Manning IV.  All
rights are reserved world wide.  You may not disassemble or otherwise
reverse engineer or modify it in any way.  You may freely copy and
distribute the package under the ShareWare concept as long as all files
are included in unmodified form and no fee is charged beyond a
reasonable ammount for the media and handling ($10 maximum suggested).

This version of VGA Magic is a ShareWare Version of a commercial
software package.  You may make personal, non-commercial use of it
without charge, but if you appreciate the program and wish to support
further developement of it and other fine software products from
BulletProof Software, you are encouraged to register it for a fee of
$20.00.  In return for registration, you will receive a personal,
serialized copy of the full commercial version of VGA Magic which has
additional graphics capabilities.  In addition, you will be notified
of all major updates to the program and given the opportunity to
recieve any update for $5.00, which is the cost of the media plus
shipping and handling.

If you wish to make commercial use of VGA Magic, such as to
demonstrate Microcomputer Hardware, you must purchase a commercial
license from BulletProof Software for a fee of $65.00 per copy.
Holders of commercial licenses can have their copies of VGA Magic
personalized with the inclusion of thier own business advertisements
and other special features.  Please contact BulletProof Software if
you are interested in doing so.



WHAT IS VGA MAGIC

VGA Magic is a graphics program which utilizes many of the advanced
features of VGA Boards to display spectacular fast action 256 color
320x200 resolution (mode 13h) Kaleidoscopes as well as exceptionally
fast 16 color 640x480 (mode 12h) line drawing.  It is intended as a
fun program to watch and play with as well as the ideal program for
showing off or demonstrating VGA based Microcomputers.

The user interacts with the program through an easy to use two tiered
menu system plus a few special "Hot Keys" that are active during
graphic displays.  The user has control over various parameters, such
as type of kaleidoscope, color palette selection, color palette
rotations, how fast the color increments, horizontal and vertical line
limits, the number of line reflections (3 or 15), and wether to use
BIOS or direct screen writes.



RUNNING VGA MAGIC

VGA Magic uses graphics modes that work only with VGA Hardware, and
could damage any other type of video board if it were run on it.  To
prevent this possibility, VGA Magic has the ability to test the video
hardware to insure that it is compatible, and will abort with an error
message if it is not.  While this test is beleived to be definitive,
please do not run VGA Magic on anything other than a VGA based system.

When VGA Magic is executed, it will first display it's Logo and
Copyright Screen until any key is pressed.  When a key is pressed, it
immediately starts running the authors' favorite Kaleidoscope routine.
Pressing any key other than the special "Hot Keys" (see below) will
bring up the Kaleidoscope Menu.  The Kaleidoscope menu is pretty well
self explanatory and a little experimentation will quickly demonstrate
the function of all selections, so we won't explain these in detail.

While at the Kaleidoscope Menu, pressing the <ESC> key will activate
the Pop Up/Pull Down Main Menu.  You can navigate around this menu
using the Cursor Arrow Keys along with the <Home> and <End> keys to
move the red Menu Bar over your selection.  From the Main Menu, you
can display information screens, go to the 640x480 PolyDiags line
drawing section, the 320x200 Kaleidoscope section, or QUIT the
program.



PALETTE MANIPULATIONS

During Kaleidoscope displays, the special "Hot Keys" that are used to
dynamically manipulate the color palettes are active.  Pressing any of
the keys <1> through <9> will select one of the nine pre-defined
palettes and down load it to the video board.   This causes the graphics
display to immediately change to the new palette.  Pressing one of the
keys <R>, <D> or <H> turns on dynamic palette rotation, using one of
three manipulation methods (see below for full explanation).  Pressing
the <Q> key will turn off palette rotation.

VGA Magic maintains a buffer in user memory to hold the color palettes
that are being manipulated.  This buffer has the capacity to hold two
complete 256 color palettes.  When VGA Magic initializes, the default
color palette is loaded into both the upper and lower halves of the
buffer.  Whenever a new palette is selected, it is loaded into the lower
half of the palette buffer, and all palette downloads to the VGA Board
are from the lower half of the palette buffer.

When the <R> key is pressed during Kaleidoscope displays, the contents
of the lower half of the palette buffer (one complete palette) is
rotated and then downloaded to the VGA Board at frequent intervals in
synchronization with the horizontal scan so as to avoid interference.

When the <D> key is pressed during Kaleidoscope displays, the contents
of both the upper and lower halves of the palette buffer (two complete
palettes) are rotated and then the new contents of the lower half of the
buffer is downloaded to the VGA Board.

When the <H> key is pressed during Kaleidoscope displays, the contents
of the lower 128 colors in the lower half of the palette buffer are
rotated (one half of a complete palette) and then the lower half of the
palette buffer (one complete palette) is downloaded to the VGA Board.

It may be difficult at first to digest all the above information and
visualize the effects that these manipulations allow, so experimentation
is the key to understanding.  As an aid to getting started, consider
this; since you can load fresh palettes only into the lower half of the
buffer, the only way you can change the upper half is by rotating into
it from the lower half.

If you press the <D> key to turn on full buffer rotation and then hit
some combination of the <1> to <9> keys, you will rotate a mixed palette
into the upper half of the buffer.  This mixed palette will rotate
around and back into the lower half of the buffer and then be downloaded
to the VGA Board.  An infinite variety of visual effects can be obtained
by hitting different sequences of the <R>, <D> and <H> keys in
combination with different sequences of the palette select keys <1> to
<9> at different key stroke intervals.



PROGRAM SOURCE AVAILABILITY

VGA Magic is coded in the FORTH 83 Standard Language.  However, all
the graphics routines used within VGA Magic are coded in 8086 Family
Assembly Language and are therefor useable by programmers that are
familiar with 8086 Assembly as well as those familiar with FORTH.
Anyone interested in obtaining the well commented source code for
VGA Magic can purchase it for unrestricted recycling for $30 if
purchased alone or $45 for the combined registration fee and source
code purchase.



REGISTERING VGA MAGIC

To make registering VGA Magic as painless as possible, an order form
is included with this package which you can use if you have a printer
available to print it out with.  If you don't have a printer available
just write the necessary information on any old piece of paper that
you have handy.  Then mail both the order and a check made out to
Mark I Manning to:

                        Mark I Manning
                        BulletProff Software
                        7611 Autumnal Lane
                        Liverpool, NY 13088



REVISION HISTORY

V.1.00   1-10-90   Initial shareware release
V.1.01   2-10-90   oops - fixed minor typo in info screen
V.1.02   3-10-90   fixed minor discrepancy in pallet rotations and
                   added "NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE!".


Our version number policy is:

The hundredths digit of the version number is incremented for minor
changes that have no significant effect on the operation of the program.
This digit is not even displayed on the Logo and Copyright screen.

The tenths digit of the version number is incremented for bug fixes or
other changes that have minor but significant effect on the operation of
the program.

The Units digit of the version number is incremented for very
significant revisions to the program.