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#Deluxe Paint has shipped

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#1676From: Kim DeVaughnDec 13, 1985 10:01 PM
Picked up Deluxe Paint by Electronic Arts last night. Yes, it *is* finally shipping. The location was Computerland in Campbell, CA. DPaint comes with a 31 page booklet that gives a flavor for what the program will do, a few "experiments", and a terse *keyboard* command summary. There is also a "Reference Card and Manual Additions" fold out card; it tells you how to load DPaint, etc. (the booklet doesn't). I guess I'm not too unhappy about the level of documentation … this is a program that *MUST* be played with/experimented with to see what all the commands do … not sure I could describe some of the effects very clearly in words, either. Still a full Reference Section with a line or two about each command would be helpful (e.g., they mention someplace how to save to df1:, but not how to load from df1: … not very hard to figure it out though). More experiments would be real nice, too. Lots of goodies inside DPaint … I've barely scratched the surface of what can be done. I'm sure many of you have seen the pre-release version; you'll be happy to know that KingTut, Venus, and several other demos are on the released disk. BTW, the disk is completely full. A couple of points worth noting: (1) if you have a 256K Amiga, DPaint will supposedly run, but you loose alot of features; (2) 640 x 400 is supported, but flickers like the devil on a 1080 monitor; (3) I could not read any of the pictures I've painted with the pre-release version of GraphiCraft that I have, in any resolution (lo, med, hi) … both programs are *supposed* to be using the IFF standard format … hmmmmm; (4) I've been UNable to crash DPaint (so far) …. hooray! More on this later, after I've logged some "brush time" <grin>, /kim
#1698From: Michael MounierDec 14, 1985 12:48 AM
Pre-Release versions of Graphicraft don't use the IFF standard. Only the release versions do. –Michael Mounier–
#1848From: Kim DeVaughnDec 15, 1985 3:06 AM
Michael … thanks! I had heard that, but had forgotten. This is not the end to the story though. I tried out GraphiCraft V1.0 (the released version) today. DPaint has no trouble picking up a picture generated by GraphiCraft … the picture comes up right away. If you try bringing up something that was saved by DPaint under GraphiCraft, there are a couple of anomolies. First, when you open the GraphiCraft floppy, you see the EA picture icon (assuming the picture was at the :root level) instead of the GraphiCraft icon. You can't click the picture open. OK, so we open GraphiCraft itself, click the Project menu and select Open Painting … only the stuff that has GraphiCraft icons are listed. Well, let's try the "type in line" … ah ha, it finds the picture … the cursor goes to "Please Wait", and stays there a looooonnnng time (the drive light is lit all this time, but the drive is making *no* noise) … I thought the system had crashed, but then poof … up comes the picture! I saved the picture right away, got out of GraphiCraft, and closed it's window. Reopened GraphiCraft, and the DPaint pictures now have a Graphi- Craft icon, can be clicked up, and take the normal amount of time to load. Of course neither program mentions anything about IFF, importing "foreign" pictures, etc. 'Twill be interesting to see what IFF is all about, and why it could take GraphiCraft about 6-8 times as long to load a "foreign" picture. Any thoughts? /kim
#1848From: Kim DeVaughnDec 15, 1985 3:06 AM
Michael … thanks! I had heard that, but had forgotten. This is not the end to the story though. I tried out GraphiCraft V1.0 (the released version) today. DPaint has no trouble picking up a picture generated by GraphiCraft … the picture comes up right away. If you try bringing up something that was saved by DPaint under GraphiCraft, there are a couple of anomolies. First, when you open the GraphiCraft floppy, you see the EA picture icon (assuming the picture was at the :root level) instead of the GraphiCraft icon. You can't click the picture open. OK, so we open GraphiCraft itself, click the Project menu and select Open Painting … only the stuff that has GraphiCraft icons are listed. Well, let's try the "type in line" … ah ha, it finds the picture … the cursor goes to "Please Wait", and stays there a looooonnnng time (the drive light is lit all this time, but the drive is making *no* noise) … I thought the system had crashed, but then poof … up comes the picture! I saved the picture right away, got out of GraphiCraft, and closed it's window. Reopened GraphiCraft, and the DPaint pictures now have a Graphi- Craft icon, can be clicked up, and take the normal amount of time to load. Of course neither program mentions anything about IFF, importing "foreign" pictures, etc. 'Twill be interesting to see what IFF is all about, and why it could take GraphiCraft about 6-8 times as long to load a "foreign" picture. Any thoughts? /kim
#1698From: Michael MounierDec 14, 1985 12:48 AM
Pre-Release versions of Graphicraft don't use the IFF standard. Only the release versions do. –Michael Mounier–