I have just received QPC from the QL Today disc having been a Qemulator
user
in the past and I have a couple of basic questions. The only way I can get
the emulated QL to fill the screen is to drop down to 512x256 resolution
and
QL Colors, is there a way to get a usable screen size and enhanced
resolution? Also the emulated machine is very fast, sometimes I need to
slow
it down, I have heard of a Slug command and it is recognized but I don't
know how to use it, is there any documentation?
Amazing how often I get asked this very question via Quanta Helpline!
As marcel said, if the question refers to the size of the BASIC windows,
just use the WINDOW command to make them bigger. Or, here's a couple of
small procedures which can quickly resize the basic windows to fill the
screen. XTV makes TV mode style windows fill the screen, while XMON does the
same for monitor mode windows. SCR_XLIm and SCR_YLIM are QPC2 functions
which return the screen size.
29800 DEFine PROCedure XTV
29810 OUTLN #0,SCR_XLIM,SCR_YLIM,0,0
29820 WINDOW SCR_XLIM,SCR_YLIM-52,0,0
29830 WINDOW #2,SCR_XLIM,SCR_YLIM-52,0,0
29840 WINDOW #0,SCR_XLIM,52,0,SCR_YLIM-52
29850 BORDER #1,1,255
29860 BORDER #2,1,255
29870 BORDER #0,1,255
29880 CLS : CLS #2 : CLS #0
29890 END DEFine XTV
29900 :
29910 DEFine PROCedure XMON
29920 OUTLN #0,SCR_XLIM,SCR_YLIM,0,0
29930 WINDOW SCR_XLIM/2,SCR_YLIM-54,SCR_XLIM/2,0
29940 WINDOW #2,SCR_XLIM/2,SCR_YLIM-54,0,0
29950 WINDOW #0,SCR_XLIM,52,0,SCR_YLIM-52
29960 BORDER #1,1,255
29970 BORDER #2,1,255
29980 BORDER #0,1,255
29990 CLS : CLS #2 : CLS #0
30000 END DEFine XMON
As for resolution, there's two easy ways:
1. Set it in the startup settings screen - choose one of the preset values
such as 1024x768 or even type in your own values. If the startup
configuration screen doesn't show itself as QPC is started, you need to
start it with the SHIFT key held down.
2. If the QPC is already running, use a DISP_SIZE x_size, y_size command,
e.g. DISP_SIZE 1024,768 or whatever resolution in pixels you want.
if you want to change colour depth, use DISP_COLOUR colour_depth where
colour_depth is 0 for QL modes, 3 for 16 bit colour or 2 for 156 colour
modes. DISP_COLOUR can also take 3 parameters, DISP_COLOUR
colour_depth,x_size,y_size so you can change colour depth and screen size
with one command.
If you want to continue using a given screen size but want to stretch it to
occupy more of the screen, just drag the bottom right corner of the QPC2
display, although at some sizes it might look a bit blurred.
Slow-down:
SLUG delay_value
delay_value is thousandths of a second, e.g. SLUG 15 is 15 thousandths of a
second delay. Some trial and error will likely be needed!
A good source of help on these commands is Martin Head's QPC concepts and
keywords guides on my website at
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/index.html - scroll down to the 'QL
Manual' section to download the two guides as either Word or PDF files
(sorry, can't remember which format off hand!).
The QPC2 manual supplied on the DVD is just the QPC-specific stuff and
doesn't go into the more general SMSQ/E stuff or SBASIC extensions which are
not QPC2-specific. This is where Martin Head's guides come in really useful,
since the SMSQ/E manual has always been a 'core' SMSQ/E manualplus
supplements for the specific machine or system on which that particular
SMSQ/E runs, e.g. QXL, Atari, QPC, Gold Card, Q40/Q60... AFAIK there has
never been a 'complete' SMSQ/E manual covering all systems. Could do with
someone extending the good old QL user guide perhaps!!!
Dilwyn Jones
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