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╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ │ │ IMPROCES(C). John Wagner 1991. All rights reserved │ │ │ │ │ │ J.W. Software Proudly Presents: │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ────────────────────────────────────────── │ │ │ │ IMPROCES(C) │ │ │ │ SVGA IMAGE PROCESSOR │ │ │ │ FOR IBM PC's and COMPATIBLES │ │ │ │ 320x200x256 THROUGH 1024x768x256 │ │ │ │ ────────────────────────────────────────── │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Very Powerful Software at a Very Reasonable Price │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Version 2.0 │ │ │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ ────────────────────────────── INTRODUCING: IMPROCES VERSION 2.0 ────────────────────────────── REGISTERED USERS: THANK YOU!!! Place your IMREG.KEY in the same directory as the IMPROCES.EXE and the SVGA256.BGI files. The IMREG.KEY file contains your name and registration number. Please do not modify it in any way. The program checks this file each time it runs and disables the registration screens so the program will run without delay. PRODUCT SUPPORT: Registered and unregistered users are encouraged to call the Dust Devil BBS, (702)796-7134 for product support. Once you log on to Dust Devil, you will have full access to the JW Software conference where I answer any and all questions about IMPROCES. New users have full download privileges on the first call, so you may also call just to get the latest version of IMPROCES. I am not the Sysop of Dust Devil, therefore direct any questions about the BBS to the Sysop. Please make sure you have all the files that are supposed to go with the IMPROCES package. They are listed in FILELIST.DOC. UNREGISTERED USERS, PLEASE PAY FOR THIS SOFTWARE: Regardless of how you acquired this program, if you are not a registered user of IMPROCES, you did not pay for it and you should if you want to continue to use it. Please read on... IMPROCES is a very powerful program. It took a long time to write and there are still many enhancements planned for the future of it. A registration of $25 is required if you wish to continue to use IMPROCES after you try it. A single registration is all it takes, you will be registered for life. For a minimal fee to cover postage, you can receive upgrades by mail or you can wait to get it from your favorite BBS. THIS IS NOT EXPENSIVE!!! I have yet to see a program of similar functionality or usefulness. $25 is A VERY FAIR PRICE FOR THIS PROGRAM! Feel free to send more! Registration disables the opening and the ending screen so the program will start running without delay and you will not be required to press a key to exit. In addition to the opening and closing screen, when you save an image file, the program will put up a "nag window" prompting you to click a mouse button. Registration disables this "feature" as well. I added these "features" as reminders to unregistered users, not to harass them. The unregistered version and the registered version are identical, with the exception of the aforementioned "features". BUSINESS USERS PLEASE NOTE: If this program is to be used by a BUSINESS, it MUST BE registered prior to its use. You may not evaluate it for the purpose of making a profit. Registrations are given on a SINGLE USE ONLY license, meaning the program may be used on a single machine (CPU) at one time. Although, it can reside on as many machines as you want, it must not be used on more then one at one time. A site license is negotiable, contact the author for more information. Mail your dough to: John Wagner 6161 El Cajon Blvd Suite B-246 San Diego, CA 92115 California residents, please add the appropriate sales tax. NOTE: This mailing address differs from the one given in earlier versions of IMPROCES. I still reside at the previous address, the address above is considered to be my permanent mailing address. Quite a few people have been calling me on the telephone for information concerning the program. If you try to get my phone number from a directory operator in San Diego, you won't. I live in Las Vegas, so try there! Include the following information with your order: Name (First & Last) Street Address City, State, ZIP Amount of $ enclosed Version of program you currently have Disks will be sent out on a 360K floppy. Add $1 for 1.44meg. Checks and Money orders only please. PLEASE, DO NOT send greenbacks! If your registration is received within two weeks of the planned release of a major upgrade, I will hold your registered version until the upgraded version is released. Please make all checks and money orders payable to John Wagner. DISTRIBUTION POLICY: You may, and are encouraged to share this program with others so that they may try it. Please distribute the program in the original package you received it in, whether it be a ZIP file, LZH file or whatever. If you RECEIVED the IMPROCES files in uncompressed form, and want to compress the files before distribution, please distribute it with a filename of IMPROCxx.zzz where xx is the version (11 for 1.1, 20 for 2.0 etc...) and where zzz is the extension that the compression program provides. Example: IMPROCES, Ver 2.0, compressed by PKZIP would be IMPROC20.ZIP. If you upload the program to a BBS, please use the following description: SVGA Image Processor/Editor. VGA/MOUSE Req. SHAREWARE VENDORS: I strongly encourage all shareware vendors to include IMPROCES in their catalogs. However, before you do I ask the following: ALL VENDORS SHOULD RECEIVE WRITTEN PERMISSION from me, John Wagner, prior to including ANY VERSION of IMPROCES in a catalog and prior to distributing IMPROCES. Before I grant permission to a Shareware Vendor to do this, I would like to see a sample catalog from your outfit and receive reassurance from you stating that your customers are aware that purchasing a disk from you still requires them to register the software if they plan to use it. This must be stated clearly in any catalog or advertisement that IMPROCES is to be included in as well. When I grant permission for a Shareware Vendor to distribute IMPROCES, I will mail them a master diskette, for which the Vendor shall agree that all copies of IMPROCES that they distribute will be made from and all of the files on the disk I send will be included when IMPROCES is distributed. BUG REPORTS: If you have a problem with the program and think it is a bug, I am most interested in hearing about it. Before you contact me please make sure it is a bug by first looking up the function in the manual and also reading the KNOWN PROBLEMS and the Q and A sections at the end of the manual. Yes, I know there are sometimes random black white and dots on the screen after loading certain image files. Clicking the RMB until the menu bar goes away will restore the proper values for these pixels. The KNOWN PROBLEMS section at the end of this file will explain why this happens. If you need to contact me, I prefer you do it through the Dust Devil BBS or by mail. If you must contact me be telephone and go through the trouble of looking up my telephone # and calling me to ask me a question and then promise to register the program, please do. And before you call, please remember that I live in Las Vegas, not OHIO and that there is A TIME DIFFERENCE. NOTES: There are a lot of changes for Version 2.0. If you are upgrading from version 1.0, you must run the CONVCLIP.COM program to upgrade any clipboard files you might have saved with version 1.0. Set CONVCLIP.DOC for instructions on running CONVCLIP.COM. For an overwview of all the changes made to the program, see NEWSTUFF.DOC. ┌─ ─┐ ─────────────────────┤ IMPROCES, VERSION 2.0 ├──────────────────── └─ ─┘ Do you have a SVGA video card? Tired of software that won't use your SVGA modes? I am, I have a Ahead SVGA card w/1 meg of RAM and I couldn't find any software that would do 1024x768x256. With the help of a SVGA BGI driver for Borland languages written by Jordan Hargrave, I wrote some! The following video cards are supported: Ahead, ATI, Chips & Tech, Everex, Paradise, Trident, Tseng (both 3000 and 4000 chipsets) and Video7, any card w/ VESA capability. All modes from 320x200x256 through 1024x768x256 are supported. If you run into a mode that you know your card supports but the program is having trouble with, let me know and I'll relay the info to the author of the Video Driver and try to get it fixed. I need to know: Video card make and model, chipset the card is based on and how much RAM is installed on the video card and what mode is giving you trouble. If your card is not one of the ones mentioned above and is not based on one of the above chipsets, it will be treated as a generic VGA and modes over 320x200x256 probably will not work. FEATURES: IMPROCES has many features: Image contrast enhancement, Histograms, Sharpening by convolution, Custom filters, Full control of the VGA palette, Clipboard, Five Fonts in five sizes, FAT BIT editor, many drawing tools, flips, mirror, etc... IMAGE PROCESSING: This program includes many image processing functions in the ENHANCE section. A full discussion of image processing is beyond the scope of this document and the ENHANCE functions will be explained only briefly. There is an excellent article in the March 1987 issue of Byte Magazine that explains many of the image processing functions used in the program. Most public libraries maintain back issues of Byte Magazine. Two excellent books on Image Processing: "Beyond Photography, The Digital Darkroom", Gerald J. Holzmann, ISBN # 0-13-074410-7. An excellent book on transforms, plenty of 'C' code and examples, written with a slight sense of humor and very easy to understand. "Digital Image Processing", William K. Pratt, ISBN # 0-471-01888-0. Hard to stomach super-techno-nurd reference manual that contains everything you ever wanted to know and didn't want to know about image processing. Buy this book if either 1: You hold a Masters Degree in some kind biological chemical engineering, or 2: You want to leave the book open in hopes of impressing your friends. IMPORTANT!!! QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDELINES: If you read nothing else, please read this: Run IMPROCES from a sub-directory on a Hard Disk. Make sure you have at least 1.5 meg free on the hard disk that IMPROCES is installed and run from. Don't try to switch your video hardware into a mode you know it doesn't support. There is no checking for the proper video hardware with the exception that the program checks for a VGA card. Use the Set Preferences option to lock out the higher video modes if your card doesn't support them. Use the version of the SVGA256.BGI file that it is provided with this package. I modified the BGI driver slightly and the "stock" version of it won't work properly with the program. ────────────────────────────── IMPORTANT VGA INFORMATION ────────────────────────────── READ THIS!!! IT IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! Here is a list showing what modes your card should support: VIDEO MEMORY: HIGHEST MODE: 64K (is there such a thing?) 320x200x256 256K (on chipsets mentioned) 640x400x256 512K (SVGA) 800x600x256 1024K (1 meg) 1024x768x256 DO NOT EXPERIMENT WITH VIDEO MODES YOUR CARD CAN'T SUPPORT!!!! DO NOT TRY TO SWITCH TO A HIGHER MODE TO "JUST SEE" IF IT WILL WORK!!! I've never seen it happen, but supposedly you CAN DAMAGE your hardware. Care to take a chance with your VGA hardware? Don't do it! I will not be liable in any way for any damages, real or otherwise that this program may cause! FOR YOUR PROTECTION: In the FILE menu, there is an option called Set Pref (Set Preferences). In this control panel, you can custom configure IMPROCES for your system and control the UNDO feature for the paint menu. The three options are: UNDO BEFORE PAINT: When this is set to ON, the onscreen image is saved to a temporary swapfile before you enter the PAINT icon menu. When you exit the PAINT icon menu, IMPROCES will ask if you to keep the changes you made. SCREEN STARTUP MODE: This controls the video mode that the program starts up in. It must be lower then or equal to the highest video mode. HIGHEST VIDEO MODE: This controls the highest video mode the program will let you access. This is a safety feature for people whos video card does not support all of the modes that IMPROCES is capable of. Clicking on SAVE will save the parameters you setup in a file called IMPROCES.CFG. Please do not distribute your IMPROCES.CFG file with the program, as other users preferences/machines may be different from yours. System Requirements: Memory: You need: At least 512K RAM free after loading DOS and TSR's etc. The more memory you have over 512K before starting the program, the better. The same goes for EMS. What can I say, graphics programs are memory HOGS! Especially ones that support 256 colors. I tried as much as possible to streamline IMPROCES. Processor: IMPROCES will run on any MS-DOS machine, from a 8088 to a 80486. I've seen IMPROCES run on a 4.77 mhz 8088 and lets just say that the speed wasn't impressive, but it did run! A math chip will be utilized if one is available, but the only functions that use floating point numbers are the curve, scale and filters that use convolution and the circular gradient floodfill. I use integer math as much as possible throughout those functions by pre-computing floating point values and saving them in look up tables of integers if the computation is going to be made more then once. Video: IMPROCES supports SVGA's up to 1024x768x256. If your card supports a resolution that your monitor doesn't, DON'T TRY IT!!! A VGA card and monitor is a requirement to run the program. Mouse: A Microsoft compatible mouse and mouse driver is required. IMPROCES will not run if there is not a mouse installed. Hard Disk: A hard disk is pretty much a requirement with at least 1.5 meg of free space at run time. IMPROCES uses swapfiles for some operations. Provided the program terminates normally, all the swapfiles will be erased. The swapfile is placed in the same directory that IMPROCES is stored in, or on the drive and in the directory that is specified by a TMP or TEMP variable SET in your environment. If something happens and the program terminates abnormally, you can delete the swapfiles manually. NOTE: The clipboard, scale and undo functions use swapfiles regardless of the presence of EMS. SWAPFILE STUFF: IMPROCES uses swapfiles. You can control where these swapfiles are placed... DOS keeps a set of environment variables that programs can use. Of these variables, one of them is usually called TMP or TEMP. To see what variables you have set, from the DOS command line type SET and hit ENTER. The current environment variables will be listed. You can set these variables from the command line or from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (autoexec.bat is a more popular and a better approach). To set the TEMP variable so that IMPROCES will place all of its swapfiles in in the C:\TEMP directory, type the following at the DOS command line or place it in you AUTOEXEC.BAT file and re-boot your machine: SET TEMP=C:\TEMP - or for TMP - SET TMP=C:\TEMP If you do not have a TEMP or TMP variable set, IMPROCES will place its swapfiles in the directory where the IMPROCES.EXE file resides on your hard disk. In either case, IMPROCES will erase the swapfiles when it no longer needs them or when the program ends. TEMP, TMP and a RAMDISK: If you set the TEMP or TMP enviroment variables to point to a RAMDISK (I suggest this if you have no EMS), make sure there is sufficient space on the RAMDISK for the swapfiles prior to running IMPROCES. Keep at least 1.5 meg free at a minimum. Here is why: The clipboard can use up to 768K of space for a swapfile (up to a 1024x768 clipfile), if you set UNDO on or scale to 1024x768, that can use 768K of disk space. Of course this is a worst case scenario, if you don't use the 1024x768 mode, the required amount of free disk space will drop. Also, if you never load anything into the clipboard, that will drop the requirement. Be safe, keep 1.5 meg free! If you get error messages complaining about insufficient drive space, check the TEMP or TMP variables and the drive/directory that it specifies, if you don't have a TEMP or TMP variable then check the directory IMPROCES is in when it is run. IMPROCES USES OVERLAYS: In order to allow for as much free RAM below 640K while the program is running, IMPROCES uses Borlands VROOM technology to overlay portions of itself in its .EXE file. For this reason, DO NOT COMPRESS the IMPROCES.EXE file with an executable file compressor such as PKLITE or LZEXE. DO NOT: Do not change the name of the program! You may place IMPROCES in a directory specified by your path and run IMPROCES from any drive (hard drive STRONGLY recommended) or directory. The program will find the IMPROCES.CFG, IMREG.KEY and SVGA256.BGI files ONLY if you haven't changed the name of the program. KNOWN PROBLEMS: At the end of this manual there is a section called known problems that you should read prior to running the program. CONVENTIONS: The following conventions are used in this manual: LMB = Left Mouse Button RMB = Right Mouse Button Click on = Press a mouse button and release it The mouse hot spot is: ┌O┐_______Right Here! │ └┐ │ └─┐ │ └┐ │ └┐ │ └┐ │ └┐ │ └┐ │ ┌─┐ └┐ │ ┌┘ └┐ └┐ │ ┌┘ └─┐ │ └─┘ └──┘ GUI AND MENUING: When the program starts you will see the menu bar at the top of the screen. (See Diagram 1) Diagram 1. Menu Bar Current Palette ───────┬─────── │ ┌───────────┼────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ------------------------------ │ ├─────┬─────┬─────┬──────┬────────┬─────┬────────┤ │ File│ Clip│ Tool│ Color│ Enhance│ Mode│ Quit │ └─────┴─────┴─────┴──────┴────────┴─────┴────────┘ Click on the option you want and a sub-menu will drop down. To close a sub-menu, choose another item from the top-menu or press the RMB. Some sub-menus have sub-menus within them, when a sub-menus option is another sub-menu, the option will be annotated with three periods after the option (See Diagram 1.1). To get out the sub-menus sub-menu, choose an option from the top-menu or press the RMB. If you are anywhere in the pull-down menu system and press the spacebar, the icon paint menu will pop-up. Click the RMB to close a drop down menu. To close the top menu bar, click the RMB continously until it goes away. When the top menu bar is hidden, the proper color 0 and 255 values are restored and the mouse may be toggled on or off with the LMB. Click the RMB again to bring the top menu bar back. If you are using IMPROCES with a capture program, you can back out of all the menus by clicking the RMB until the top menu bar goes away. If you want to hide the mouse so it won't show in your capture, click the LMB once. NOTE: Make sure your capture program can handle the SVGA modes that IMPROCES is capable of using, failure to do so may cause some very unpredictable results. Diagram 1.1. Sub-Menu ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ------------------------------ │ ├─────┬─────┬─────┬──────┬────────┬─────┬────────┤ │ File│ Clip│ Tool│ Color│ Enhance│ Mode│ Quit │ └─────┴────┬┴─────┴─────┬┴────────┴─────┴────────┘ │ Tools... ─┼───Option has sub-menu │ Scale │ │ Zoom X 2 │ │ Line Mes │ │ Calibrate │ │ Twirls... │ │ Terrain │ │ Plasma │ └────────────┘ Filepicker: Whenever you load an image, palette or clipfile, you will use the filepicker. In the filepicker, if you are in a sub-directory, the sub-directories will be the first in the list and will be followed by a <DIR>. Click on a sub-directory to change to it. If there are more files then there is room in the selection box, click on PG DN to get to the names of the rest of the files and click PG UP to go up one page. Select a file by clicking on it with the LMB, or press the RMB to cancel the selection of a file. If you change to a sub-directory, that directory will become the active directory and any files not saved with a PATH before them will saved to the current directory. NOTE: The filepicker will view a maximum of 4000 files in any directory. (See Diagram 1.2) Diagram 1.2. Filepicker ┌───────────────────┐ │ . <DIR> │ │ .. <DIR>─┼─── Click here to go up one sub-directory │ ANIMALS <DIR>─┼─── Click here to switch to the │ SATELITE <DIR> │ ANIMALS directory │ ASTRO <DIR> │ │ JOHN.GIF │ │ SHERRY.GIF │ │ MARTIN.GIF │ │ MOM.GIF ──────────┼─── Click here to select MOM.GIF │ DAVE.GIF │ │ FRED.GIF │ │ JOE.GIF │ │ ┌─────┐ │ │ │PG DN├─┼─── Click here to Page Down │ └─────┘ │ └───────────────────┘ Color Bar: The color bar is used to display the palette in a straight line with two repositionable lines under it that define the two points for which you want the function that called the color bar to use. To move the lines, click on them or the two rectangles directly under the palette. Click the DONE button to perform the desired action or click the RMB to cancel to the function using the color bar. Some functions that call the color bar, will not allow you to use color 0 and some will. (See Diagram 1.3) Diagram 1.3. Color Bar ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────┐ │ │ │ Current Palette │ │ DONE │ │ │ └──────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┬─┘ └──────┘ │ │ │ ─── Repositinable Bars ──────────────────── │ 45 │ │ 245 │ │┌───────────────────────────┐┌──────────────────────────┐ │ │└───┼───────────────────────┘└────────────────────────┼─┘ │ └────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┘ └Click here to grab Click here to grab─┘ lower bar upper bar On-Line Help: Print out this manual and keep it handy. That's the extent of the on-line help! STARTING IMPROCES: IMPROCES.EXE, IMPROCES.CFG, SVGA256.BGI file and the *.CHR files may be kept in a directory accessible through your PATH statement so that it may started from any drive or directory (do keep all the files in the same directory, however). Because of this, you may start IMPROCES from a floppy drive. Also, if you have a TMP or a TEMP variable SET in your environment, IMPROCES will places its swapfiles there, otherwise it will place them on the drive and in the directory that IMPROCES is stored. For more information on your PATH statement and environment variables, consult your DOS manual. All of this aside, to start IMPROCES, change to the drive and directory the IMPROCES files are stored in and type IMPROCES and press enter. If the IMROCES files are accessible via your PATH statement, just type IMPROCES from anywhere (somewhere near the computer will be desirable) and press enter. ───────────────────── THE FUNCTIONS ───────────────────── FILE...: SAVE_GIF: Enter the name to save as (path is optional) and press return (or LMB). Press Escape (or RMB) to abandon save. If the file already exists, IMPROCES will ask if you want to overwrite it. NOTE: Regardless of what resolution an image started out as, when it is saved, it will be saved in the same resolution that it is currently being displayed in. OPEN_GIF: Use the filepicker to select a file to load. After you select a file to load, you will be presented with an Image Information window that will give you the image resolution. You will have four options to choose from that control how the image is loaded. OVERLAY does not clear the image on the screen, instead any spots on the image being loaded that are color 0, are replaced with the pixels that were left by the original image. This a good option for framing selected parts of a image. AVERAGE does not clear the image on the screen either, instead it takes an average of the pixel being loaded with the one on the screen as the image is loaded. The palette is loaded from the incoming image. CLEAR will clear the screen and load the new image fresh. The RESOLUTION options will let you change video modes before you load the image. You may display any resolution image in any of the available resolutions. If the image you want to display is larger then the screen size, it will be scaled to fit as it is loaded. Click on "CONTINUE" to continue with loading the image, or click on "CANCEL" to cancel the loading of the image or click on any of the resolution options. Note that if you change video modes before loading an image, the screen will be cleared regardless of whether you select Average or Overlay. SAVE_PCX: Same as GIF, only for PCX files. The image will be saved as 256 color PCX file, regardless of whether it started out as a 2,4,16 or 256 color image to begin with. OPEN_PCX: Same as OPEN_GIF, only for PCX files. SAVE_PRF: This is an option included for programmers who wish to use IMPROCES to draw images and save them for use with the Fastgraph Programmers Library from Ted Gruber Software. NOTE: There is no option to load a Pixel Run Format image or a Packed Pixel Run Format image, so if you think you will want to edit the image again, save it in another format as well. Only REGISTERED users may use images created by IMPROCES in their Fastgraph programs After entering in the name of the file to save (a .PRF extension is appended to the filename automaticaly), define the area to save by clicking the LMB and then rubber band the rectangle around the region to save and then click the LMB to continue or the RMB to abandon the save. IMPROCES will then show you the dimensions of the image (Fastgraph requires you have this, so write it down) and then gives you the option of micro-adjusting the width and length. Click the "Continue" button to save the image or click "Cancel" to abort the save. NOTE: As of version 1.04 of Fastgraph, you cannot have a video mode over 640x480 in a Fastgraph program, so keep this in mind when creating your .PRF files. To load and display a PRF file using Fastgraph, use: fg_dispfile (char *filename, int width, int format); Where filename is the name you specified, width is the width you specified, and format is 0 for standard pixel run format that IMPROCES saves the image as. The 16 color, Packed Pixel Run Format is not supported by IMPROCES. NOTE: Unregistered users may not of IMPROCES may not use Pixel Run Format files in their programs, whether they are registered users of Fastgraph or not. For more information on Fastgraph, see the end of this manual. Steve Lumos (beta tester) was kind enough to create FGCOLORS.PAL, which can be loaded into IMPROCES via the COLOR-PALETTE-RESTORE function. FGCOLORS.PAL is the default 256 color palette of Fastgraph. DRIVES: (CURRENT DRIVE SHOWN IN MENU) Click on the drive you want to change to the logged on drive. Supports drives A through N and automatically configures to your system at run time. NOTE: If you change to a floppy drive and there is no disk in the drive, no error message will appear until you try to access the drive. The current drive will be shown in the FILE menu. MEMORY: Display current memory status. Shows base memory (below 640K) and number of EMS pages available. The amount of free memory will drop in modes greater then 320x200. Switching back to 320x200 will bring back this memory. This is due to the windows taking more memory to save the contents under them in the higher modes. SET PREF: (SET PREFERENCE) See the section above called FOR YOUR PROTECTION for information concerning the SET PREFERENCE options. Using this you can set up a custom configuration for IMPROCES and toggle the UNDO feature. CLIPBOARD...: CUT: Define an area to save to the clipboard with this option. To do this, select a corner and click the LMB. The cursor will disappear and you can now resize a rectangle that covers the area you want to copy to the clipboard. Click the LMB when you have defined the area, or click the RMB to cancel the operation. This option uses a swapfile regardless of the presence of EMS. At the present time, the clipfile is a straight bitmap, with the dimensions of the file tacked on the end. No color palette information is saved with the clipfile. If you cut a piece from an image and then load an image with a different palette, and then paste from the first image, the clip image will most likely look a little different then expected due to the palette being different. PASTE: Move the box to the area you want to paste the current contents of the clipboard to and click the LMB. You will then have a choice as to what type of paste you want to do, Copy, Overlay or Average. Copy will cover the area without regard as to what it covers with the clip image. Average will average all non-color 0 pixels in the clip image with the area it is going to copy over. Overlay will copy all non-color 0 pixels in the clip image and leave the pixels where incoming color 0 pixels would be uneffected. Click the RMB to abandon this operation. SAVE: Save the current contents of the clipboard to a file. The file will have a .CLP extension and will be saved in the current directory. Programmers Note: Registered users should feel free to use the .CLP files in there programs to load files. Although no compression is performed on the clipfiles, they are very fast to read from the disk. The format of the .CLP file is very basic, the file is a byte for byte copy of video memory, with the dimensions tacked on the end after the text "DIMS:". To get the DIMS, open the file in TEXT mode and then set the file pointer back about 50 or so bytes and scan forward until you reach the string "DIMS:", then read in the SX, SY, EX, and EY with a scanf() like so: fscanf(fp,"%d %d %d %d",&sx,&sy,&ex,&ey); NOTE: Unregistered users MAY NOT use the .CLP files created by IMPROCES in there programs. RESTORE: Copy the contents of a previously saved file to the clipboard. Uses the filepicker. NOTE: All clipboard files saved with version 1.0 of IMPROCES should be converted first with the included CONVCLIP.COM program before you try to use them. VIEW: This will display the contents of the clipboard in the upper left corner. If you have changed palettes, use this function before you paste the clip clipboard into your image to see how it will look. Click either the LMB or the RMB to return to the menu. TOOL: PAINT...: You've got to like this, an icon menu... Paintbrush Switches: TOOL MENU: ┌────────────────┐ Regular │ ┌────┬──┐ │ Rainbow ┌──────────┬──────────┬────┴───┬─┴─┬──┴┐ │ │ Burn │ │ Filled │ Regular│ │ │ │ │ Dodge │ Triangle │ Triangle ├────────┼───┼───┤ │ └────────── │ │ │ Rainbow│ │ │ │ ├──────────┼──────────┼────────┼───┼───┤ │ │ │ Filled │ Burn │ │ │ │ │ Rectangle│ Rectangle├────────┼───┼───┤ │ │ │ │ Dodge │ │ │ │ Paintbrush ├──────────┼──────────┼────────┼───┼───┤ │ Shapes Font Controls: │ │ Filled |--Add │ │ │ └────────────── Add │ Circle │ Circle |├────────┼───┼───┤ Pick -------------------------Pick │ │ │ Size ├──────────┼─────────|┼────────┼───┴───┤ │ │ Filled ---Size │ Air ─┼──┐ Airbrush Switch │ Ellipse │ Ellipse ├────────┴───────┤ └───────────────── │ │ │ FAT BIT EDITOR │ ├──────────┼──────────┼────────┬───────┤ │ │ Filled │ Copy │ Paint─┼──┐ Copy Switch: │ Polygon │ Polygon ├────────┴───────┤ │ When on: Define │ │ │ Eraser │ │ image area to use ├──────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤ │ as a paintbrush. │ │ │ Flood Fill │ │ When off: Regular │ Line │ Point ├────────────────┤ │ copy. │ │ │ Curve │ └─────────────────── └──────────┴──────────┴────────────────┘ ============────────┐ Current Color ┌┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┐─┐ └────────────── ├┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┤ │ Color Selector ├┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┤ ├──────────────── ├┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┤ │ └┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┘─┘ ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐ Click Here to ─┤///////////////////////////////////////│ Current Fill Pattern change pattern └───────────────────────────────────────┘ or linestyle ----------------------------------------- Current Line Style and thickness CURRENT FILL PATTERN: CURRENT LINE STYLE: The filled shapes use the fill pattern that is shown on the bottom of the menu. The line and the polygon both use the line style shown just below the current fill pattern. To change the current fill pattern or the current line style, click in current pattern box at the bottom of the menu. Two windows will appear, one with all of the possible fill patterns and one with the possible linestyles. The current fill pattern and the current line style will be underlined. The linestyle has to four possible patterns and two possible thickness's. Click on a new pattern or line style to change. Click the RMB to return to the icon menu. TRIANGLE: (Triangle) Move the mouse to where you want a side of the triangle to begin and press the LMB. Reposition the line until it is where you want it and click the LMB (or RMB to cancel). Now define the two sides of the triangle by moving the mouse until the triangle is the desired size and click the LMB or the RMB to cancel the triangle. Either draw another triangle (as before) or click the RMB to return to the menu. FILLED TRIANGLE: (Large Filled Triangle) Same as TRIANGLE, only filled. Filled Triangle uses the current fill pattern. RECTANGLE: (Large Empty Square) Move the mouse to a corner of the rectangle and click the LMB. Reposition the rectangle until it is where you want it and click the LMB. Either draw another rectangle (as before) or click the RMB to return to the menu. FILLED RECTANGLE: (Large Filled Square) Same as RECTANGLE, only filled. Filled Rectangle uses the current fill pattern. CIRCLE: (Large Empty Circle) Move the mouse to the spot you want to be the center of the circle and click the LMB. Resize the circle until it the desired size and click the LMB or the RMB to cancel. Either draw another circle (as before) or click the RMB to return to the menu. FILLED CIRCLE: (Large Filled Circle) Same as CIRCLE, only filled. Filled Circle uses the current fill pattern. ELLIPSE: (Large Empty Ellipse) Move the mouse to the spot you want to be the center of the ellipse and click the LMB. Resize the ellipse until it is the desired size and click the LMB or the RMB to cancel. Either draw another ellipse (as before) or click the RMB to return to the menu. NOTE: An ellipse differs from a circle in that it's x and y radius can be different. FILLED ELLIPSE: (Large Filled ELLIPSE) Same as ELLIPSE, only filled. Filled ELLIPSE uses the current fill pattern. POLY: (Large Empty Rhombus) Same as line expect the last point is connected automatically to the first point. FILLED POLY: (Large Filled Rhombus) Same as POLY, only filled. Filled POLY uses the current fill pattern. LINE: (Diagonal Line w/plus at the end) Move the mouse to where you want the line to begin and click the LMB. Reposition the line until it is where you want it and click the LMB (or RMB to cancel). You can continue drawing from where you left off or click the RMB to stop drawing and reposition the cursor to draw another line or click the RMB to go back to the menu. POINT: (Point in center of box) Fills the pixel the mouse is pointing to with the current color. Click the LMB to start drawing and keeps drawing until you click the RMB. Click the RMB again return to the menu or click the LMB to start drawing again. BRUSHES: (12 SMALL BOXES ON LEFT EDGE) Click on desired brush, click the LMB to begin drawing. Keeps drawing until the RMB is clicked. Click the RMB again to return to the menu or click the LMB to start painting again. AIRBRUSH SWITCH: (AIR) When the AIRBRUSH switch is on (Black 'AIR' on white background), the brush you use will not color every brush point on the brush. Instead, random points will be colored, like a spray can. Click on the 'AIR' button to toggle the switch. BRUSH TOGGLES: The current brush feature is shown in reverse video. REG BRUSH: (REG) Fills the pixels under the brush shape with the current color. Click the LMB to "turn the brush on" and click the RMB to "turn the brush off". Click the RMB while the "brush is off" to return to the menu. RAINBOW BRUSH: (RNB) Fills the pixels under the brush shape with the current color and then increments the current color by one each time the brush is moved. BURN BRUSH: (BRN) Reads the pixels under the brush shape while the "pen is down" and increments their value by one each time the brush passes over. Has the effect of "burning in" the area. DODGE BRUSH: (DDG) Reads the pixels under the brush shape while the "pen is down" and decrements their value by one each time the brush passes over. Has the effect of "fading or dodging" the area. ADD TEXT:(Add) Position the cursor to where you want to start entering text and press the LMB. A horizontal text cursor will appear. Enter your text! You may use the Backspace key to backup and the Return key to advance one line down. Press the Escape key (or RMB) to quit entering text. Either add more text or press the RMB to return to the menu. NOTE: Once you advance to the next line, you may not go back up, so make sure what you enter on the line is what you want before you press Return or the Escape key. FONT STYLE:(PCK) To select a new font style, click in the desired fonts box. Press the RMB to return to the menu. FONT SIZE:(SZE) To select a new font size, click in the desired size box. Press the RMB to return to the menu. FAT BITS:(FAT BIT) Select an area to edit using the FAT BIT editor by moving the rectangle over the area and clicking the LMB. The edit area is shown on the top left and the edit mode is shown by the W and R buttons on the screen. The "W" stands for WRITE (default) and the "R" stands for READ. You may select a pixel to change to the current color (shown next to the color selection bar) by pointing to the edit area and clicking the LMB. To select a new color, change to the READ mode or use the color selection bar at the bottom. Select DONE to keep the changes or CANCEL to abandon the changes. COPY: (CPY) Define the area you want to copy and then move the rectangle to the target area and click the LMB. Keep copying or click the RMB to undefine the copy source and either define a new source area or press the RMB to get back to the menu. NOTE: If you choose a piece of image that is smaller then 32000 bytes, the image will erased and redrawn as the mouse is moved. If the piece of image is over 32000 bytes, a rectangle will show where the image will be placed. COPY PAINTBRUSH SWITCH: (PRB) When this switch is on, the COPY function lets you define a piece of your image to use like a paintbrush. Instead of just copying the piece of image once when the LMB is pressed, the piece will be copied wherever the mouse is moved, like the paintbrush. ERASER: (Small unfilled rectangle) Move the eraser to where you want to erase and press the LMB. The eraser keeps erasing until you press the RMB. Press the RMB again to return to the menu or press the LMB to start erasing again. FLOODFILL: (FLD FLL) Floodfill is actually an Area Fill. IMPROCES will first ask you to confirm the floodfill settings. The floodfill options are: TYPE: Regular: Uses the current color and does a solid fill using the current color. Gradient: Uses the current palette and colors selected with C-Span and the setting from below. C-Span: Pick the colors that the gradient uses. DIRECTION: Horizontal: Colors are cycled horizontally, starting and ending colors rely on the Low/High and C-Span settings. Vertical: Colors are cycled vertically, starting and ending colors rely on the Low/High and C-Span settings. Circular: Colors start at the point the mouse is clicked and are cycled out in a circular fashion. Very neat when color cycled but a little slower at filling then regular gradient, especially in the higher modes. Low: ─┬─ Low and high are used to control where the High: ─┘ palette starts when using the gradient flood. Shaggy: With a gradient flood, Shaggy produces a "fuzzy" look to the fill by randomly inter-mixing the neighboring colors. Very nice effect. Once you are happy with the settings, click on CONTINUE. Pick a seed point anywhere on the screen and click the LMB. All areas within a bordered area will be filled in the specified mode, either flood or gradient. While the area is being flooded, you may click the RMB to stop the flood. After the area is flooded, click on a new area to flood or click the RMB to return to the icon tool menu. NOTE: Floodfill does not use the current fill pattern, rather it does a solid fill every time. CURVE: (Small curve) Define a line (as above) that will cover the two end points of the curve. Next move the mouse until the curve is where you want it and click the LMB and continue defining the curve. Click the LMB when you are through or click the RMB at any time to abandon the curve. Note that if no math chip is present, the curve is drawn in straight line segments until it is finished. Then it is plotted in its entirety. SCALE: Define the source area and then define the target area. This operation can take a some time and in some situations and a disk swapfile will be used regardless of the presence of EMS. ZOOM x 2: Position the rectangle over the area you want to ZOOM and click the LMB. Click the RMB to restore the image or the LMB to keep the expanded image. Click the RMB, to return to the menu. LINE MES: To measure an area on the screen, define a line to measure (as above) and then the length of the line (in pixels by default or by whatever unit the program was calibrated for) will be displayed. NOTE: For overhead imagery, oblique imagery measurements should only be considered accurate when measured on equal planes as the calibrated measurement. CALIBRATE: By default, IMPROCES measures lines in pixel size units. If you have a known distance on an image, you can calibrate the program to measure in the known unit. Stretch a line (as above) over the distance that is known (a mile, an inch, a nose, whatever) and click the LMB. Any measurements taken after calibration will be in the new unit of measure. TWIRLS...: MIRROR: Define a rectangular area that you want to mirror, then choose the direction you want to mirror the area to from the pop-up menu. FLIP: Define a rectangular area that you want to flip. Flips upside down. SPIN: Define a rectangular area that you want to spin. Spins from right to left. ROTATE: Define a rectangular area that you want to rotate. Rotates 90 degrees to the left. Note that no scaling is done and that pixels in the x (horizontal) direction are shorter then pixels in the y (vertical) direction. This means that if you choose what appears to a square, it will be rectangular when rotated. TERRAIN: Define a rectangular area to have IMPROCES draw a random 3D terrain fractal. Then use the color bar to pick what colors to use when drawing the terrain. The low color is for the water and the high color is for the land. Terrain doesn't look very good in video modes under 640x400 and should be drawn in areas that at least as large. PLASMA: Define a rectangular area to have IMPROCES draw a random Plasma fractal. Then use the color bar to select the range of colors that will be used to draw the cloud. The Plasma algorithm was taken directly the Stone Soup Groups "FRACTINT" who so graciously distribute the source to FRACTINT and to whom I owe full credit for the Plasma function. Plasma and Terrain are included for their value as a painting tools, IMPROCES was never meant to be used solely as a fractal generator. If these Fractals interest you, might I suggest FRACTINT, by the Stone Soup Group, and the book "Fractal Creations" distributed by the Waite Group for a reference on how to use FRACTINT to it's fullest potential. COLORS...: SET COLOR: This is your gateway to the 260,000+ colors of the VGA palette. Shown on the left are the 256 current colors in the current palette with a large rectangle to underneath the colors showing the current drawing color. On the right is the adjuster for the current color along with the values of the Red, Green and Blue attributes of the current color. To select a new color, click on a color in the palette on the left or select a color from the portion of the image that the color adjuster hasn't covered. If the color adjuster is covering a color in the image you want to pick, click on HIDE, the adjuster will be hidden and you can pick your color by clicking on it with the LMB. click the RMB to bring back the hidden adjuster. Click in the boxes to the right to raise or lower the current colors Red, Green or Blue attributes. When you are done click on the DONE box to keep the changes you made or click on the CANCEL box to reset the palette to where it was before you made any changes. THE "BLENDER": Another option on the color adjuster is called the blender. Using the blender, you can smoothly transition between two colors in your palette. To use the blender, click on the BLEND button. This will bring up the color bar. Use the color bar to choose the colors you want to blend between and press DONE or the RMB to cancel blending. SEE "KNOWN PROBLEMS" NEAR THE END OF THIS DOCUMENT. BLOCK: Increases or decreases the overall Red, Green or Blue in all the colors in the palette. Uses the same interface as the SET COLOR function and works the same way with the exception that the changes take place across the whole palette. The palette is re-computed from the palette as it was when the function started to avoid palette degradation. CYCLE: This will cycle any range of the the 256 colors and create quite an interesting effect and allow for color cycling animation. First you use the color bar to pick the colors that you want to cycle between. Click on DONE with the LMB or click the RMB to abandon color cycling. While the colors are cycling, the left and right arrow keys control the direction of the cycle while the up and down arrows define the speed of the cycle. The RMB stops the color cycle and returns you to the menu. When you save a file, whether it be PCX or GIF, the color cycle settings are saved in a file with the same name as the file, only with a .CCL extension. When a file is loaded, if the correct .CCL file is in the same directory as the image file, the color cycle information from the .CCL file will be loaded and used. RE-ALIGN: Use this function to identify and locate colors that are not being used in the current screen image. After selecting this function, the program will perform a quick histogram of the image and report how many colors are being used and give you the option of re-mapping the unused colors to the bottom of the palette. If you select yes, the unused palette entries will be re-mapped to the bottom of the palette and the current screen image will be adjusted so that pixels correspond the proper values. After the unused colors are at the bottom of the palette, it will be easy to identify them and modify their values without disturbing the on screen image. REDUCE: Use this function to reduce the amount of colors that the onscreen image uses, thus freeing up some colors for you to modify for drawing. First you must either accept or adjust the reduction level. The reduction level is a number between 1 and 32. The reduction level is used like so: Each individual colors R,G and B values are compared to to all the other colors. If the R,G and B value of the color are within the reduction level, the colors will be considered the same and will be set to the same values. After you select a reduction level and press DONE, the process will begin and after it is over you will be asked if you want to accept the changes you made. The proper reduction level varies with each image. An image with a lot of hues, but few colors can be reduced considerably with a low reduction level and the changes will not be very noticeable. An image with many different colors and few hues, will require a higher reduction level and the changes will be more noticeable. In either case, the color reduced image will compress better when it is saved, thereby saving diskspace. Also note that images that are to be cycled don't fare to well when they are color reduced. Used in conjunction with the RE-ALIGN function, you can free up colors to draw with and then group them together on the palette. PALETTE...: Color2Grey: The Color to Grey function converts a color palette to the Greyscale that is required for the enhance functions to work properly on colored images. HalfTone: Halftones the image on the screen. This is not the best halftoning I have ever seen, in fact it isn't very good at all, but it does work! This function will be worked on in future versions. DEFAULT/ICE/HEAT/GREEN/SUN/GREYSCALE: The program has six pre-saved palettes built in. Selecting one of these replaces the current palette. SAVE: Saves the current palette to a file. Prompts for filename and saves the palette in the current directory. RESTORE: Restores a previously saved palette. Uses the filepicker. ENHANCE...: NOTE: All ENHANCE functions are intended for images using the ICE, HEAT, GREEN, SUN or GREYSCALE, palettes. The program will not stop you from using an ENHANCE function on an image with other palettes, the fact is however, the results will be meaningless and random. To convert a color palette to one of the above, use the Color2Grey option in the COLORS-PALETTE menu. SET WORK AREA: All processes in the enhance menu work on a specified rectangular work area only. To redefine the current area, move the cursor to a spot you want to be one corner and click the LMB. Resize the work area until it is the size you want and click the LMB. Click the RMB to cancel the resizing. When you are done, click the RMB to return to the menu. AREA HISTO(GRAM): A histogram takes a measurement of the pixels in the work area. The histogram displays this measurement in values called BINS. There are 256 BINS, each corresponding to each of the 256 possible color values. BIN 0 is displayed to the left and BIN 255 (256 BINS, 0 thru 255) to the right and all BINS in between are represented. The Max BIN is displayed at the bottom. To see the value of a specific BIN, click on it's line or the color on the bottom with the LMB. To save the histogram to disk, press the 'S' key and enter the filename to save it as or enter PRN to send the information to the default printer. Click the RMB to restore the image. POINT HISTO(GRAM): Take the measurement of a single point. Click on the desired point with the LMB. Displays the coordinate, Color Value and Red, Green and Blue attributes of the color. Click the RMB to return to the menu. ADJUST CLIP: The clip values are used in the CONTRAST STRETCH functions. Depending on which style of contrast stretch you want to perform, the High Clip and Low Clip will be adjusted differently. CONTRAST STRETCH: Uses the clip value to cut the stretch off at the first low BIN with a value equal to or greater then the Low clip and the first high BIN with a value equal to or greater then the High clip. CONTRAST VLSTRETCH: Uses the CLIP values as the Low and High BIN to cut the stretch off at. CONTRAST LGSTRETCH: Uses the CLIP values as the Low and High BIN to cut the stretch off at and doesn't set the BINS beyond the Low and High clips to Min/Max. FILTERS...: SET WORK AREA: Same as above. NOTE: All filters use a 3x3 kernal and convolution. SHARPEN: Uses: -1 -1 -1 -1 9 -1 -1 -1 -1 LAPLACIAN: Uses: -1 -1 -1 -1 8 -1 -1 -1 -1 HORIZ: (Horizontal) Uses: -1 -1 -1 0 0 0 1 1 1 VERTIC: (VERTICAL) Uses: -1 0 1 -1 0 1 -1 0 1 AVERAGE 3x3: Passes a 3x3 matrix over the work area and replaces the center pixel with the average value of the matrix. Has an unsharpening effect. MEDIAN 3x3: Passes a 3x3 matrix over the work area and replaces the center pixel with the median value of the matrix. Has an unsharpening effect. CUSTOM: Allows you to specify a custom kernal to convol the image with. BOOST: Lets you select a boost value that is applied to the Sharpen, Laplacian, Horizontal, Vertical and Custom filters. EFFECTS...: NOTE: The functions in the EFFECTS menu work on the whole screen, not just the ENHANCE work area. The EFFECTS functions were ment to work on greyscale image only. The results will be meaningless for color images. Relief: Makes the image look like it was molded in sand. That's the best I can describe it. REVERSE: Reverse the color values. Solarize: Has a similar effect as solarizing a monochrome print after it is exposed and before it has been developed. Melt: Slowly (and I do mean SLOWLY) melts the image. Click the RMB when you get tired of watching this! Bentley: Named after the guy who's picture was in the book that this effect is taken from. Weird effect. HINT: Use the DEFAULT palette and make a full screen PLASMA cloud and then run the BENTLEY. AWESOME! OIL: Slow. Transforms a greyscale image into a oil painting. Does not effect the last 3 columns and the last 3 rows of pixels. REPLICATE...: X 2, X 4: Replicate the image 2 or 4 times. VIDEO MODE...: NOTE: THIS WILL ERASE THE SCREEN!!! ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ╔════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ WARNING!!! ║ ║ ║ ╔═══╦═════════════════════╩════════════╩═════════════════╦══════╗ ║ ║ ║╔══╩════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═════╗║ ║ ║ ║║ WARNING: DO NOT TRY A MODE YOUR HARDWARE DOESN'T SUPPORT!!! ║║ ║ ║ ║║ WARNING: DO NOT TRY A MODE YOUR HARDWARE DOESN'T SUPPORT!!! ║║ ║ ║ ║║ WARNING: DO NOT TRY A MODE YOUR HARDWARE DOESN'T SUPPORT!!! ║║ ║ ║ ║╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝║ ║ ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ║ ║ On a scale of GOOD to BAD, this would be BAD!!! ║ ║ ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ 'NUFF SAID??? Select the mode you want to use and click on it. If you press the ESC, you will set the mode to 320x200. This is handy if you ACCIDENTALLY select a mode your code can't support. QUIT: Self explanatory! KNOWN PROBLEMS: GIF and PCX files contain their own palette settings. This presents a problem when designing a graphical menu system in that the program is forced to use the colors contained in the image files palette. As it stands, the foreground color (color 255, used for menu text and mouse cursor) is set to white and the background (color 0) is set to black while using the menus. When the main menu is closed, color 0 and 255 are set to the proper values. Because of this, any adjustments you make to color 0 or 255 with the color adjuster will not be seen until you "back out" of all the menus. Also, as color 0 and 255 get replaced, this might cause random black or white (or both) dots to appear in the image. Again, when you back out of the menus, the proper color 0 and 255 will be restored. ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS: I have been getting quite a few phone calls and letters. Below are the most commonly asked questions. Q. I have a 386 with 1 meg of memory, how come I cant use 1024x768x256 mode? A. The amount of VIDEO MEMORY determines what modes you can access with the program. Not the amount of memory in your machine. Some VGA cards can be upgraded with more memory, some cannot. Contact the manufacturer of your video card, or consult your users manual for more information. NOTE: Most machines that come with a VGA card included on the motherboard only have 256K of Video Memory, therefore the highest mode you will be able to access will be 640x400x256, and that is only if the video card is based on one of the chipsets mentioned near the top of this manual. See the next question... Q. I have an "Off Brand" VGA card with 512K of video memory, how come I can't access modes greater then 320x200x256 with IMPROCES? A. If your card is not based on one of the chipsets listed at the beginning on this manual, it will not be able to access modes higher then 320x200x256. See the next question... Q. I have a VGA card with a chipset based on one of those listed at the top of the manual. All of the modes but one works. Why? A. Sometimes a video card will be BASED on one of the more popular chipsets but the similarity stops there. Sometimes the implementation is complete, other times it is not. Some video cards come with a Terminate, Stay Resident (TSR) program to make the card emulate the VESA standard. If you have such a card, try loading the VESA emulation program and then running IMPROCES. Q. Why can't IMPROCES support every VGA video card? There is a standard for these things, isn't there? A. The SVGA256.BGI driver has autodetect logic for the most popular chipsets. Only a fool would make a statement that their program can support EVERY VGA card ever built. The problem is that the VGA has a memory area for graphics that begins at the address 0xA0000000 and is 64K long. The video mode 320x200x256 uses 62,000 bytes of memory and fits in nicely to the allocated section of VGA video memory. The video mode 640x400x256 requires 256,000 bytes of memory and does not fit in nicely to the allocated area. What SVGA cards do is switch what part of memory on the video card is mapped into the VGA address space by doing page swaps, much the same way that Expanded Memory memory works. Great idea! Unfortunately, the manufacturers never decided on a standard way to do the mapping and page swapping like the manufacturers of the EMS did. They also never decided on a standard for mode numbers. And they never provided a standard way to identify who's chipset you are dealing with! Seems kind of stupid in retrospect, but what can you do? Thousands and thousands of these cards are out there, and most people aren't going to throw their card just because someone in the future decides on a standard and their card isn't it! The whole matter gets even more complicated because some manufacturers simply looked for the cheapest chipset they could find in order to keep the prices of their cards competitive. As long as they could say "Supports 1024x768x256" they were happy. Why should they care if nobody had any software to run on it. Usually these cards would come with a "demo" program to show that the card did indeed support the advertised mode. These manufacturers are about as brilliant as the guys who say "Well if the programmer used the BIOS calls to plot the pixels...". Q. Why do black and white dots randomly appear sometimes after loading a image? A. Read the section on KNOWN PROBLEMS. Q. I only have an A:, B: and C: drive but the IMPROCES drive menu shows drives A: - E: and if I select E:, it says the drive doesn't exist. Why? A. Instead of checking every drive when the program starts, IMPROCES makes use of the LASTDRIVE environment that is usually specified in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you do not have a LASTDRIVE variable set, DOS will default to drive E: as your LASTDRIVE variable, whether you have a drive E: or not. Consult your DOS manual for more information on the LASTDRIVE environment variable and your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Q. If I save a clipfile and then load another image and then paste from the clipboard, the clipfiles colors are all messed up. Why? A. When you load a new image, the palette from the file you made the clipfile from is replaced. At present, the clip does not retain any color information, rather it is a straight bitmap so it uses the current palette when it is loaded. Version 2.0 allows you to view the clipfile before you paste, so you can avoid any surprises. Q. Do you really expect people to send you $25 for a program they already have? A. YES! I believe in Shareware and believe it is the best way to market this type of software. Why is IMPROCES shareware? I went to a software store and was looking at a graphics package that "said" it supported 256 color VGA and SVGA. It only cost $150 to find out! I wasn't about to gamble $150 hard earned dollars. I don't think you should have to gamble with your hard earned money either, so please try IMPROCES before you buy it, just don't forget to buy it if you use it! Q. $25 is sort of inexpensive for such a powerful program. Why don't you charge more? A. I believe the program is worth more myself. I also believe that people shouldn't have to spend a small fortune on their software. All of the documentation for the program is online and there is no option for a printed manual, thereby keeping costs down. Their is also the savings from using the Shareware method of distribution. All of these saving are passed on to the user. GIF and PCX: IMPROCES uses the GIF file format and the PCX file format. All flavors of GIF and PCX are supported. All images saved in either format will be saved as 256 color images. In the PCX format, the first 16 colors will be saved in the image header and the full 256 color palette will be tacked on the end of the file, in accordance with the PCX format. The reason I use GIF and PCX only is because I felt that those two formats represent the greatest number of images available today. GIF is useful because of it's device independence and cross platform and O/S usage. PCX because of it's use in most drawing programs and image file converters. The PRF format is really of use only to programmers who use Fastgraph. The reason you can't load PRF images is do to there HOW?: IMPROCES was written originally written in MS QC using the 320x200x256 VGA mode only. A friend introduced me to Turbo C and the BGI and it was downhill from there! Using a BGI driver written by Jordan Powell Hargrave and the Borland Turbo C++ graphics library, I achieved a program that works in 320x200x256 thru 1024x768x256. Not an easy feat! I have seen no other programs like this on the market so if you decide to keep the program, please register it. As of version 2.0, IMPROCES is compiled with Turbo C++, Version 1.01. It is still written in straight C however. WHO?: The IMPROCES Team: Programmer: John Wagner, Las Vegas, Nevada Beta Testers: Steve Lumos, Las Vegas, Nevada Mitch Harhay, Las Vegas, Nevada Bob Sherburne, Las Vegas, Nevada Special Thanks: Thanks to Ted and Diana Gruber of Ted Gruber Software for the use of the Dust Devil BBS for user support and as a beta test site. Ted Gruber Software has many fine shareware products, most notably Fastgraph and Fastgraph Light Graphics libraries which provide programmers with the tools to do animation and many other advanced graphics functions. One of the best parts of Fastgraph is its users manual which is practicaly a textbook on how to do graphics animation and other very advanced graphics functions. To download the latest version of IMPROCES or Fastgraph, call the Dust Devil BBS at (702)796-7134. Downloads are allowed and encouraged on the first call. Leave me a note if you call! Ted also wrote the PRF encoder that is included in IMPROCES. Thanks to the Beta Testers Steve Lumos, Mitch Harhay and Bob Sherburne. I don't think beta testers is a fair title for these guys because they provided so many ideas and useful input that equal credit should given to them for the outcome of the program. Version 2.0 would not have been remotely possible without them. Thanks to the Stone Soup Group for making the source code to FRACINT so freely available. Without it, the Plasma Cloud function would not have been possible. Thanks to Mitchell Waite of the Waite Group for his useful suggestions and for providing insights into the user interface and other functions of the program. If you haven't bought any of the Waite Groups computer books, you are missing out. I started programming in 'C' after buying the Waite Groups "C Primer Plus", which I highly recomend for anyone starting out with C programming. Special thanks to my wife Sherry for putting up with me spending all these late nights on my computer. And last but not least, thanks to my son Martin (who just turned a year old Aug 20) for being such great little guy and not pouring his oatmeal into my floppy disk drive (yet). He has made some kamakazi dives at the keyboard though and he did manage to get some jelly on my mouse pad, oh well. LEGAL STUFF: IMPROCES(C). John Wagner 1991. All rights reserved GIF and "Graphics Interchange Format" are trademarks (tm) of CompuServe Incorporated, an H&R Block Company SVGA256.BGI is Copyright 1991, JORDAN HARGRAPHIX SOFTWARE Created using Turbo C++, Copyright (C) Borland 1990 GIF Decoding and Encoding done via: GIF_LIB (C), Gershon Elber, 1991. Version 1.1 Fastgraph and Fastgraph is Copyright, 1991, Ted Gruber Software DISCLAIMER AND LEGAL NOTICES: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ I, John M. Wagner retain ALL rights to distribute and collect fees for this │ │ software. This software IS NOT RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN!!! IT IS NOT │ │ FREE!!! It is OWNED by me and only me! │ │ │ │ You, as a user have the right to possess and distribute this software. You │ │ MAY NOT collect ANY FEE, real or otherwise for the transfer of this │ │ software, Exception: You may charge the cost of distribution (ie: phone │ │ transfer costs, floppy disk/mailers, postage. It is to be understood, with │ │ the party that is charged these fees, that paying transfer costs DOES NOT │ │ constitute a registration fee to the author and that a registration fee is │ │ STILL required after evaluating the software. │ │ │ │ DISCLAIMER NOTICE: │ │ This program was written by John Wagner. I, John Wagner accept │ │ NO RESPONSIBILITY for ANY damages, real or otherwise that this program │ │ cause. │ │ │ │ I make no guarantees that this program works as described in this document │ │ file or anywhere else. This software is provided "AS IS" with NO GUARANTEE, │ │ expressed or implied. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK! │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ *** END OF FILE ***