CompuServe Thread

Invision and hires?

13 messages in this thread
#22865From: Nick MooreOct 2, 1989 2:06 AM
Jim, I had a letter ready to send to ELAN, but got their upgrade offer for INVISION PLUS the same day. I sent them the cash for the upgrade and will check this out when I get it….it sounds great. The main thing I am doing with INVISION is taking live video, color maping it in , say, 4 or 8 shades of the same color, and then overlaying titling over it. It looks great and people think it is an animation instead of processed live video. Compose a little Sonix music to dub with it and you have a pretty effective intro for almost anything. Nick
#22911From: Christopher TolmieOct 3, 1989 7:20 PM
jim, Please expound a bit more about Invision and Live! I have both and find that some blue screen crashes (no guru just gone blue) might have been due to the Live! board and I removed it recently and haven't had the blues anymore. But I'd like to get it back online and start using it more. How long have you been using your setup? What problems have you had and how'd you correct them? I intend to upgrade to the Plus version too, having just recently received the notice. chris
#22996From: jim elliottOct 6, 1989 8:33 PM
chris, your reply went to nick so i don't know if you want a response from me but i'll give you one anyway. yes, i had some misery with live! (not invision). it centered around my addon ram. i ended up trying a different ram board and have since had no troubles. i currently have a starboard with 2meg on a a1000 along with a supergen. this has been running about 10 months and been no problem. i did have to send the live board back to a-squared for calibration with invision (it seems that invision uses "all" of the signal from live! and it has to be calibrated just right). i've never had any blue screen crashes… how much memory do you have? you're not trying to multi-task with invision are you? (a no-no) if you can't get it worked out, contact a-squared. i worked with a "wendy" there who was very helpful and knowledgeable. its a great setup. good luck.
#23040From: Christopher TolmieOct 8, 1989 1:01 AM
jim, Yes I was replying to you must have missed who the last message was from, anyway, I'm using the A2000 version of Live! and have four meg of fast ram and the fat aggie with 1 meg of chip ram. I'm using an ASDG 8MI ram board and was keeping Live! in the third slot on the left from the CPU. No I've nevered tried to multi-task with Invision, but I do use the Live! software for quick grabs. I really should use Invision exclusively shouldn't I? I intend to upgrade to InvisionPlus, I'm interested in seeing how much better they've improved the resolution up to 21 bits per pixel. The special price for Elan Performer is not so special if you look at what Abel Supply is selling it for, $35.01 + shipping, as opposed to $49.00 from Elan Design. I met Wendy at the WOC in Philadelphia earlier this year. She is a nice lady and very helpful. I still feel though that Live! should have been updated by now too! chris
#23042From: Michael GerardNov 2, 1992 8:58 AM
Bill… I downloaded the font from the DTPForum and everything that was included in that archive, is included here… it appears that some notes are missing staff lines, but I have no idea if it is intentional, or a flaw. All in all, while I doubt it can be used for serious musical notation, it sure will come in handy as a decorative font for DTP work.
#23107From: Nick MooreOct 9, 1989 11:00 PM
Chris, Sorry this answer took so long, but I haven't been online much lately. I got my Live! and Invision software at Midwest AmiExpo in July and have had no problems with the board. I got Live! expressly to run Invision to generate real-time video effects for taping. I do not use Live! in its traditional role as digitizer. I enjoy doing the MTV-style effects and have found you can do some impressive stuff, but it takes patience. My only big complaint (other than the hires titling thing) is that the effects controlled by mouse movements can be unacceptably jerky. I understand that Invision Plus addresses this problem by allowing you to preset the speed of these effects and just trigger them with a mouse button. This should make things much smoother. I can't wait to get my hands on that upgrade. If it does just half of what its supposed to, it'll be a winner. Nick
#22995From: jim elliottOct 6, 1989 8:24 PM
sounds like you're doing some pretty nice stuff. i'm jusdt trying to create some strange visuals to sell to nightclubs-a lot of them have video monitors. i haven't dealt much with the sound side of the amiga. speaking of elan, i was trying to call them the other day to ask them about HAM support in v1.03. would you know off hand if this is supposed to work as an imported IFF file. the file does load and "sortof" is displayed but it appears they're not really displaying the file as HAM (its all speckled up). i didn't see any mention in the PLUS flyer that indicated they had added this. it never used to be an issue with me but there are some new packages (digipaint3) that i'd like to use. anyway just wondering if you knew… jim elliott
#23008From: SyndesisOct 7, 1989 11:18 AM
Strange visuals for nightclubs? Have you seen the Mindlight? If not, I strongly suggest getting one! I've had so much fun with them, and thought that someone could come along and package this gizmo with an A500 and a black box, and sell it to nightclubs, precisely because it makes such bizarre graphics. It has a microphone on it, and responds to sound, as well as mouse movements and intercting with IFF graphics.
#23030From: Ben A LottOct 7, 1989 11:19 PM
Use the RM Function to read this message.
#23108From: Nick MooreOct 9, 1989 11:00 PM
Jim, The only pics I have had good sucess with loading into invision were 8 and 16 color lores. Video res IFFs flicker and lose detail (not just normal interlace flicker-more pronounced) and hires pics are all broken up and appear scattered all over the screen…I haven't even tried HAMs. Can't find my flyer describing Invision Plus, be don't remember reading anything about hams in it. If you get in touch with Invision, please let me know what they say, okay? Nick
#23144From: Christopher TolmieOct 10, 1989 9:15 PM
Nick, My InvisionPlus flyer has been hanging on my monitor for some time now and it says INVISIONPlus can now load and display HAM imagery. For those who didn't see the flyer upgrade notice. Full ANIM format compatibility. Save InvisionPlus animation files into the new ANIM5 standard for direct loading into programs such as DPaintIII and ANIMagic. Dual overscan res of 352×240, 368×240, 252×480 and 368×480 Still Capture Imaging System for superior quality HAM stills direct from your color camera. Sophisticated averaging algorithms were used to obtain a resolution of 21 bits per pixel. A second page of effects like tumble, strech/squash, tiling, zoom inset, trails and slides. New variations of mosaics, blinds, and mirrors. New Automatic Rate FX control allowing you to trigger many effects to run atutomatically at preset rates for smooth transitions and precise control. Time lapse video capture too! chris
#23186From: jim elliottOct 11, 1989 9:44 PM
nick,chris: i've had similar "non-luck" with anything but lores in invision. i just tried loading a ham lores. it did load but did not display. looking forward to invisionplus. also that mindlight that ben a lott was talking about sounds pretty interesting (unfortunately i'm on a budget til '90). i just got the digipaint3 package and am having no fun. (it's sure not dpaint in terms of ease of use and features-but you gotta love all the hype). my big problem so far is getting it from ham to iff. i use pixmate (which i like) for this type of thing but guess what, it won't load any digipaint3 files i create. pixmate gives this error: file load problem: filename: incorrect file format? so any stills i do with digipaint i can't get over to invision. well, looks like i put digipaint on the back shelf with its younger brother (at least they got rid of the copy protection).
#23240From: Christopher TolmieOct 13, 1989 5:40 PM
jim, I just sent in my update fees for InvisionPlus, I haven't had too much time to fool with Invision but I don't want to 'miss' an oportunity to improve the software. I hope that's what will happen. B^) I've got digipaint3 too, but been too busy to fool with it much. In fact I've been too busy to fool with VideoSCape3d, Lights! Camera! Action, Draw2000, Modeler3d, SuperbasePRO, Nag!, AREXX, or unarc a few dozen files I dl'd from here! Why I'm buying more software now (AMAX) is crazy in the eyes of my fellow workers. chris