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COPYRIGHT NOTICE RGBExchange and all Conversion Modules, Programs and documentation Copyright (C) 1989, 1990 by Troy Barlow. All Rights Reserved. by Troy Barlow * A $20 shareware contribution is requested for using the program. * The author retains the sole right to sell the program. * The author grants users the right to copy and distribute the program within the following constraints: - All program files remain unaltered and are distributed in the original zoo archive. - Only the original version of the program with the SHAREWARE message and Author Address is distributed. - No attempt is made to sell the program, or to make money from it or any modified version of it. - The program is not bundled with any other hardware or software transactions without the author's written permission. - Recognized users' groups may charge a maximum $5 duplication or distribution fee. * Continued use of the program (more than 2 weeks) by any individual, corporation or institution without a single user license is prohibited. * Single user licenses are obtained by sending in the $20 shareware contribution to: Troy Barlow P.O. BOX 174 South Amboy, N.J. 08879 - DISCLAIMER - The author disclaims all warranties expressed or implied as to the quality or performance of this program. The author will not be held liable for any lost profits, lost savings or any other direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from the use of this program. Your use of this program constitutes your agreement to this disclaimer and your release of the author from any form of liability or litigation. RGBExchange and all RGBExchange Conversion Modules are trademarks of Troy Barlow. Sculpt Animate 3D and 4D are trademarks of the Byte by Byte Corporation. Targa 16, 24 and 32 are trademarks of Truevision, Inc. Turbo Silver is a trademark of Impulse, Inc. DigiView 2.0 and 3.0 are trademarks of NewTek, Inc. FrameGrabber is a trademark of Progressive Peripherals and Software. AmigaDOS, Amiga Kickstart, and Workbench are trademarks of Commodore Amiga, Inc. Introduction Welcome to RGBExchange, the Full Color Image conversion program for the Amiga. RGBExchange offers you the ability to convert RGB images between popular Amiga and IBM image formats. Some of its advantages are: - Easy to use interface - Fast conversion times - Scale size of image if needed - Support of 68020/030 included - Change the amount of colors in the image Conversions currently supported: - DigiView 2.0/3.0 Full Color 21 bitplane images - Turbo Silver 2.0/3.0 Full Color 12 bitplane images - Turbo Silver 2.0/3.0 Full Color 24 bitplane images - Targa Truevision full color ICB 16 bitplane image - Targa Truevision full color 16 bitplane image - Targa Truevision full color 24 bitplane image - Progressive Peripherals Frame Grabber full color 24 bitplane - Sculpt Animate 3D/4D full color 24 bitplane image Converters coming soon (Depending on the success of this version!) : - Targa Truevision/Vista full color 32 bitplane image - IFF ( Including IBM Deluxe Paint II 256 color IFF ) - ColorEyes - GIF - Image processing module and more! Hardware Requirements: RGBExchange Amiga 500, 1000 or 2000 512k memory minimum ( 1 meg or more recommended ) 1 floppy drive minimum ( Hard Drive recommended ) RGBExchangeF Amiga 500, 1000 or 2000 68000, 68020 or 68030 CPU 512k memory minimum ( 1 meg or more recommended ) 1 floppy drive minimum ( Hard Drive recommended ) SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT RAM: Some conversions require a large amount of memory and can't be done on a 512k machine. To calculate approximately how much ram you will need, use this formula: IMAGE WIDTH * IMAGE HEIGHT * 3 Example: FROM 512 * 400 / 24 bits TO 320 * 200/24 bits will require 614,400 bytes of ram plus program overhead. Getting Started Start up your Amiga with Kickstart and or Workbench 1.2 or higher. If you have problems please refer to your Amiga Users Guide. Place your RGBExchange disk into any drive and when the RGBExchange disk icon appears, open it and you will see two draws appear. If you have a 68020 or a 68030 board installed open the RGBExchangeF draw, otherwise open the RGBExchange draw. RGBExchangeF is functionally the same as RGBExchange, only RGBExchange is for a 68000 ( stock ) Amiga. RGBExchangeF is ONLY for 68020/68030 equipped Amigas. Therefore when this document refers to RGBExchange, it also applies to RGBExchangeF. The same applies with the conversion modules themselves, if they have a 'F' at the end of the name they are 020/030 versions. Once the draw is opened you will see the RGBExchange program icon and icons for the actual conversion modules. Double click the RGBExchange icon to start RGBExchange. Once its running, you will see a window appear at the bottom of your Workbench screen. This window is the main control panel for RGBExchange. On it you will find 2 sets of gadgets, one for the source image and one for the destination image. In most cases you will be dealing only with these gadgets to perform the image conversions. These gadgets can be changed by simply clicking on them. Note that all gadgets on the left side of the window are the SOURCE gadgets. All gadgets on the right side of the window are DESTINATION gadgets. They are divided by the RGBExchange name banner in the center on the window. Here is a description of each gadget and its use starting with the SOURCE ( left ) side: - FROM Clicking to the right of this will cycle through the module names that are currently running. The name that is left in this gadget will be used as the source image format ( The image that will be loaded ). - TYPE ( Under the FROM gadget ) Clicking this gadget will cycle through the types of images that the module name in FROM supports. PLEASE SEE NOTE BELOW for more information on this and other source gadgets. - PLANES Clicking this gadget will cycle through the amount of planes supported by the current TYPE. And is used to set amount of SOURCE bitplanes for this conversion. - COMPRESS Clicking this will toggle compression ON/OFF for the SOURCE image if the current type supports variable compression. - WIDTH Clicking this will cycle through the image widths available with the current SOURCE type. - HEIGHT Clicking this will cycle through the image heights available with the current SOURCE type. NOTE!: Most of the format's have information in the file that will tell RGBExchange the TYPE, BITPLANES, COMPRESSION WIDTH and HEIGHT of the source image as soon as the conversion is started. If this is the case, SOURCE gadgets will automatically be updated during the conversion and do not need to be set by you. Currently, the only format that requires you to set the SOURCE gadgets is Sculpt/Animate 3D/4D. Also, although RGBExchange allows you to cycle WIDTH and HEIGHT separatly, some formats don't support all possibilities ( Example: 704 * 200 ). So please refer to the list of formats at the end of this document for more information. The DESTINATION ( left ) side: NOTE!: Unlike the SOURCE side, ALL these gadgets need to be set for a successful conversion. - TO Clicking to the right of this will also cycle through the module names that are currently running. But the name that is left in this gadget will be used as the destination format ( The image that we will convert and save as ). - TYPE ( Under the TO gadget ) Clicking this gadget will cycle through the types of images that the module name in TO supports. - PLANES Clicking this gadget will cycle through the amount of planes supported by the current TYPE. And is used to set amount of DESTINATION bitplanes for this conversion. - COMPRESS Clicking this will toggle compression ON/OFF for the DESTINATION image if the current type supports variable compression. - WIDTH Clicking this will cycle through the image widths available with the current DESTINATION type. - HEIGHT Clicking this will cycle through the image heights available with the current DESTINATION type. RGBExchange also has the following MENU selections. The PROJECT menu: - ABORT This will abort the current conversion. Note that this may not happen immediately. - CONVERT This will start the conversion process by asking you for the SOURCE/DESTINATION filenames. It will then tell the modules that are involved in the conversion to get started. - QUIT This will terminate RGBExchange and all the modules that are running. Note that this has no effect during a conversion. The SPECIAL menu: - CLIPIT This tells the modules not to resize the image during the conversion. Instead, you want to CLIP a region the size of SOURCE WIDTH * HEIGHT from the top left side of the image. If the image you are converting to is larger then the source image, this is impossible, and the program will resize anyway. - RESIZE ( Default ) This tells the modules that you want to resize the image using a averaging algorithm if the image needs to be resized. Now you should go back into the draw on the Workbench screen where you found the RGBExchange and Conversion Module icons. After you decide what modules you will need for the desired conversion, you need to run them also. You do this by double clicking on them just as you did with RGBExchange. Note that the conversion don't have to be from one format to another. You can convert a image back to the same format it started out as. This can be done to reduce the colors or the size of the image etc. If this is the case, you only need to run the needed Conversion Module once. If you try to run any module that's already running, you will be notified in the RGBExchange status window. Also, Conversion Modules are not stand alone programs and can't run without RGBExchange. Starting the conversion After you have started the Module(s) needed, you must now set up the gadgets ( following the guidelines above ) in the RGBExchange main panel. Be sure to set all the DESTINATION gadgets to the settings you wish to convert to, and set up the FROM gadget on the SOURCE side along with any other SOURCE gadgets you may need. Remember, some formats don't require you to set up the SOURCE gadgets except the FROM gadget. Refer to the above explanation and the end of this document for more information on the currently available formats. Be sure to set the resize option ( under the SPECIAL MENU ) that you want to use if needed. Now select CONVERT from the project menu. A window will appear asking you to enter the filename(s) for the SOURCE image. Some formats, like Sculpt/Animate, require 3 filenames. After you are finished with the source image name(s), you will be asked to enter destination filenames ( note that you can cancel at any time by clicking on the CANCEL gadget in the requester ). As soon as you are done with the destination filename(s), the conversion will start. You can watch the status window for reports on the progress of the conversion, and you will be notified here when the conversion is complete ( finished saving ). You may abort at any time by selecting abort in the project menu. Note that some conversions can take a while! It all depends on if the module needs to resize or convert bitplanes during a conversion. In testing, the 68000 version will average 2.5 minutes for a conversion, while the 020/030 version will do it in 1 or fewer minutes. I can not give exact times because it depends on the conversion settings and/or the formats you selected. When the conversion is complete, you can either go on and convert other pictures, or terminate RGBExchange. To terminate RGBExchange you can select QUIT from the project menu, or click on the RGBExchange window's close gadget. To terminate modules, you may also click their close gadget's if they are not in a conversion ( when you quit from RGBExchange, all modules are automatically shut down for you ). ENJOY! REMEMBER: Future versions of this program depend on how many people register this version. SHAREWARE is NOT FREE software! Registered users will receive a registered copy of this program by mail if you don't forget to include your name and address when you send in the $20. You will also be notified by mail of any future versions of RGBExchange. Conversion Module Specifications Turbo Silver Conversion Module. Types supported: RGBN = 12 bits per pixel ( 4096 possible colors ) RGB8 = 24 bits per pixel ( 16,777,216 possible colors ) Compressed = YES WIDTHS HEIGHTS 320 200 352 220 640 400 704 440 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Targa Conversion Module. Types supported: ICB = Image Capture Board type 2 (uncompressed RGB) or 10 (compressed RGB) 16 bits per pixel ( 32,768 possible colors ) WIDTHS HEIGHTS 256 200 TV16 = Targa type 2 (uncompressed RGB) or 10 (compressed RGB) 16 bits per pixel ( 32,768 possible colors ) WIDTHS HEIGHTS 512 400 482 TV24 = Targa type 2 (uncompressed RGB) or 10 (compressed RGB) 24 bits per pixel ( 16,777,216 possible colors ) WIDTHS HEIGHTS 512 400 482 Compressed: YES/NO ---------------------------------------------------------------- Digi-View 2.0/3.0 Conversion Module Types supported: DGVW = DigiView RGB files 21 bits per pixel ( 2,097,152 possible colors ) Compressed: YES WIDTHS HEIGHTS 320 200 352 240 384 400 640 480 704 768 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Frame Grabber Conversion Module Types supported: IMG8 = Full color 24 bits per pixel ( 16,777,216 possible colors ) Compressed: YES WIDTHS HEIGHTS 320 200 384 240 640 400 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sculpt/Animate Conversion Module Types supported: RGB = Full color RAW 24 bits per pixel ( 16,777,216 possible colors ) Compressed: NO WIDTHS HEIGHTS 320 200 352 220 640 240 704 400 440 480