#ImageMaster
21 messages in this thread
Thanks for the tip, Ben.
Actually, I was referring to the idea of having to do all my financial
stuff at work as sucking, not QPro or anything else in particular – except
for Gold Disk's new policy, which most assuredly DOES suck!
Such is life.
Btw, on ImageMaster, I hope new versions will have more tutorials with
included images – at this point I only have 6megs, so the documentation's
option of performing an operation on my working image is useless. I also
think the sample image that you _do_ use in the docs is inadequate – this
is a high-end piece of software, and to even run the documentation as it
is designed you need a fair amount of memory anyway, so I don't think a 2
or 3 bit brush (or whatever it actually is) of such low resolution is
justified. Anyway, this has gotten long – my point was that to a brand
new user with no prior IM experience, the docs are less than might be
hoped for.
Paul
The docs are always improvuing; there are many more turorials now than
originally, and more coming.
The "darwin" images are 8 grey levels (which is all you can get in an
ApAssist display) dithered for more detail. It's ONLY supposed to give you
a hint as to what is going on. It's not practical to include detailed
images and in fact, the more images you include, the smaller they need to
be.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Ben,
Where the heck were YOU on the 3rd when Mark had Dave Haynie and Randell
Jessup in a live CO? _You_, of everyone I could think of, would have
loved what Haynie had to say as he described both the realities of what is
coming for the Amiga as well as his personal vision.
I was teaching my Tae Kwon Do class… something I can't (and frankly
wouldn't want to) get out of. :^)
I've got a report of the CO, so I'm not totally in the cold here, thanks.
I sure hope this stuff comes to pass!
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Ben-
You can only have a 3 bitplane AppAssist screen? Wow.
Btw, that's one thing that bugs me about ApAssist – for the version I
have, anyway, I can only specify a LACE or NOLACE screen. I wish it had a
regular screen requester, to be system compliant and more generally
useful. And I think, personally, that bitplane or two more might not be
remiss, but that's just my humble opinion. Perhaps if you didn't dither
the Darwin images they might look better at that low res. Anyway, I'm
glad tutorials are a priority – and I REALLY applaud your decision to do
away with paper manuals; all the reasons you've given are worthy and
excellent, not the least of which being the ability it gives you to lower
the price of the package.
Also, another addition to ApAssist I'd love to see – it implemented (in
addition to the way it already is) as a datatype! Datatypes are the
FUTURE, if we all stick together on them.
Anyway, congrats on a great and always improving package!
Paul
No. 4 bitplanes – ApAssist uses hires, lace or nonlace, 4 bitplane
displays because that is the highest common denominator available on ALL
Amiga hardware.
Within the 16 colors that are available in a 4 bitplane display, we've
defined 8 grey levels and 8 colors. The first four colors are similar to
the default WB colors, so that the windows look "normal". The other colors
were carefulloy picked to meet a general rendering need.
The reason that it does not allow anoy other display mode is so that it
can assure you, the end user, that images and animations are presented in
the correct aspect ratio; the reason that the display screen is a constant
number of colors is the same – so the images and animations look as good
as possible, given the minimum Amiga hardware target.
Datatypes are "out" at least at this point because CBM hasn't released
them to the general Amiga public.
Thanks for the kind words.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Datatypes aren't out for developers!??!? Another MASSIVE fumble on the
part of C=. Although I do have a number of datatypes beyond the system
standard ones, so how did other people get the datatype spec?
I see what you mean about the aspect ratios and so on… but I also think
that for ApAssist to be a viable alternative, generally speaking, not just
for BlackBelt products, to AmigaGuide, it needs to support additional
resolutions. When I read docs, I want to see as much as possible.
Couldn't you just incorporate a feature that lets documentation developers
choose allowable resolutions and color depths for their docs? And maybe
supply multiple graphics for different reses, even?
Paul
"Datatypes aren't out for developers!??!? Another MASSIVE fumble on the
part of C=. Although I do have a number of datatypes beyond the system
standard ones, so how did other people get the datatype spec?"
I think what Ben was trying to say is that Datatypes are a 3.x OS specific
feature, so those using ImageMaster with 2.04 or 2.1 wouldn't be able to
take advantage of them. As soon as CBM gets around to releasing 3.1 to all
Amiga user's, I'm sure we will see all kinds of Datatypes floating around,
and many programs will start to use them.
// John – (Flying via AutoPilot)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
Ahhh. Gotcha there. Do you know for a fact that 3.1 will be a universal
upgrade, though? I sure hope it will, certainly.
Paul
At one time, CBM was talking about making 3.1 a universal upgrade, but
with their current financial situation, you never know. I hope they offer
it for all users because there are some nice features in 3.1 that can be a
benefit, no matter which Amiga you own.
// John – (Flying via AutoPilot)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
Not to mention that if 3.1 _ISN'T_ a universal upgrade, its most important
features, like datatypes and classes and multiview and and and… will
never be widely supported.
Paul
"Not to mention that if 3.1 _ISN'T_ a universal upgrade, its most
important features, like datatypes and classes and multiview and and
and… will never be widely supported."
Well we can only hope that CBM see's the wisdom of releasing 3.1 for
all Amiga's, not just AGA machines. But considering the fact that
doing so would be initially expensive for CBM, and they are not doing
too well financially right now, we will probably be lucky to just to
see a disk upgrade for the 1200/4000's.
// John – (Flying via AutoPilot)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
Supposedly CBM has decided to offer it to everyone, at least that was the
last I heard. Since they don't give it away free, finances shouldn't
affect that decision.
-Karl Speaking from the Rubble.
Paul,
Isn't that a good question to ask in our "20 Questions" series?
My understanding is that 3.1 has been frozen and will be available as a
universal upgrade. Developers can get it now from CATS. I don't know
when it will be available for the general public, but that sounds like a
question right up Mr. Dilullo's alley.
-sja
Steve-
I'm SURE it will be one of my 20 questions questions, since I see
no reason not to offer several questions for consideration. In fact,
you're a sysop – so take it: it's my first 20 questions question! I
also know I'll ask about marketing and so on, and I've got some ideas
for questions, but they're things I want to chew over with my dealer
first to see what he thinks, and incidentally to let him get in on
this by proxy, since he knows DiLullo.
Well, I _think_ there are still people out there using KS/WB 1.2.
There ain't no such aminal as a universal upgrade.
3.x is _lovely_, but some people won't go to it for various reasons…
Brian
Brian
Hah, there are people out there who never upgraded to *1.2*. There is
a certain class of customer that buys the computer and software they
want all at the initial sale, and never go back.
Brian-
True, I sincerely doubt the feasability of getting 3.x to run on a
machine with 1.x ROMS, but since 3.0 will run on machines with 2.x
ROMS I see nothing against various options including ROM upgrades,
which would _allow_ everyone the opportunity of upgrading.
Paul
No – I didn't say that. Datatypes are part of 3.0; the general Amiga user
can't purchase 3.0. It *is* a massive fumble, though.
Regarding your ApAssist questions, no. It's more than a "viable
alternmative" already – it blows AmigaGuide right out of the water in the
areas we've intended it to. In order for bitmaps to be fast and
predictable, we MUST have those predefined screen resolutions. ApAssist
already pays attention to your overscan and lace settings; that's quite a
bit of room at one time already – and with FAR more expressive capability
than AmigaGuide provides in the same area.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Ben-
As far as graphics and, to a large extent navigation go, yes, you're
right. Actually, one suggestion/request I have for navigation control is
for a tree representation of the context in the back-navigator – many
times I have no idea where exactly the individual entries are, and more
importantly, locations in the document are repeated several times in the
back-navigator window.
And I understand your concern about controlling the resolution for
speed and aspect ration, but you can't blame me for wanting more, More,
MORE, can you? <g>
Paul
No – I don't blame you at all. :^)
A tree, eh? What a cool idea. Hmmm.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot