#HAM-E Has Arrived!
Hi there,
Just wanted to tell y'all that at least one HAM-E has made its way to
its owner's anxious, trembling hands. 8^) My HAM-E arrived yesterday
evening via UPS. Hurrah!
The HAM-E unit itself is a beige/grey metal box about 8.5 x 9.5 x 2"
with an RGB input on one end and an RGB output and AC adaptor input on the
other end. Opening the case reveals a PCB with the usual chips and other
doodads <grin>. Depending upon your particular Amiga (specifically your
Amiga's Agnus and Denise chips), it may be necessary for you to open up
your HAM-E and make some adjustments to the unit. I had to do this…the
adjustments are easy to make and the instructions are clear about what to
do and what _not_ to do, but even so the squeamish may find this a bit
intimidating. 😉
Software includes the HAM-E processor (converts images to HAM-E or REG
format), an Intuition front-end for the processor, the latest version of
Ben's REG paint program, an image viewer, and a bunch of standard and ARexx
scripts. I've been using Mostra to display the HAM-E and REG images I've
thus far created…it works fine tho I did have to adjust my screen
placement in Preferences to allow overscanned images to display properly.
So…how do the new modes look? Pretty d*mned good, I'd say. 8^) In
HAM-E mode color banding (aka "stairstepping") is virtually
non-existent…transitions are smooth, just like they should be. REG mode
is also surprisingly good; it rivals and in some cases surpasses standard
HAM.
Documentation on the rendering engine itself is rather sparse…I've
figured out a lot just by experimenting, but there are still some
parameters I don't understand too well. Lots of options, tho.
One negative so far: the rendering software won't load any of my
TAD-processed 8-bit greyscale images. Bummer…my first HAM-E uploads were
gonna be greyscale pics. I'll have to rescan some of them at 6-bit
resolution and see if that works.
Well…I'll be uploading some HAM-E and REG images as soon as I feel
more comfortable with the software and more confident that I'm producing
the best