Re: [Ql-Users] Wallpaper program
Hi, I was supplying Q60 cased computers with Wallpaper as standard in 2004. I have to convert the Jpeg file by hand with Photon. Wish I had Dilwyn's excellent programme then. I will use it on the Q68, in the High Colour modes. --- Regards, Derek ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] Wallpaper program
Dilwyn Jones via Ql-Users wrote: > Recent versions of SMSQ/E from about version 3.00 feature high colour and > high resolution screens along with the new Window Manager. So "recent" being within the last 16 years ;-) > The downside of using wallpaper on a high-colour system is the amount of > memory it takes. On a 16-bit colour system such as QPC2 each pixel needs two > bytes of memory, so a 1024×768 pixel display in mode 32 or 33 could need up > to 1,572,864 bytes just to hold the uncompressed wallpaper – at the time of > writing SMSQ/E does not support compressed wallpaper screen images. Technically SMSQ/E never had the concept of a background, the wallpaper is just a window that cannot be brought to the front. And as such it needs the same amount of memory every full-screen window needs for its save-area. This was even true if you set the background to a plain colour! For v3.00 I at least implemented true plain-coloured backgrounds so that they do not need any additional memory but are drawn on-the-fly. > Download the Wallpaper software and a few example graphic files from > http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/graphics/index.html Nice one, thanks. Cheers, Marcel ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] Wallpaper program
Having smaller, tiled images like the backgrounds often used on for example the Acorn Risc PC helps with this. That machine did a tremendous amount with a limit of 2MB of VRAM. Using smaller images actually increases the CPU load, so that was the trade-off. Memory or CPU. Pick one ;) Ah yes, fun times. Dave On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 6:26 AM Bob Spelten via Ql-Users < ql-users@lists.q-v-d.com> wrote: > Op Tue, 19 Feb 2019 11:19:19 +0100 schreef Dilwyn Jones via Ql-Users > : > > > Wallpaper Program > > > > Recent versionsof SMSQ/E from about version 3.00 feature high colour > and > > high resolution screens along with the new Window Manager. This makes > > them very suitable for displaying colourful and attractive background > > images behind your program windows. > > (...) > >The downside of using wallpaper on a high-colour system is the amount of > > memory it takes. (...) > > > Thanks Dilwyn for automating the wallpaper process. > > Just a word about memory and compressed images. > As other programs or other OSes appear to put compressed images straight > to the screen, I suspect they all need to keep a final uncompressed > version in memory to work. > The space demands may go unnoticed as other systems have more RAM to play > with. > This is also true for compressed sprites that WMAN2 processes directly. > Compressing _pic or _scr files is feasible but it's mostly WIN space that > is won. > > Bob > > > Download the Wallpaper software and a few example graphic files from > > http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/graphics/index.html > > > > -- > The BSJR QL software site at: "http://members.upc.nl/b.spelten/ql/; > > --- > Deze e-mail is gecontroleerd op virussen door AVG. > http://www.avg.com > > ___ > QL-Users Mailing List > -- Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] Wallpaper program
Op Tue, 19 Feb 2019 11:19:19 +0100 schreef Dilwyn Jones via Ql-Users : Wallpaper Program Recent versionsof SMSQ/E from about version 3.00 feature high colour and high resolution screens along with the new Window Manager. This makes them very suitable for displaying colourful and attractive background images behind your program windows. (...) The downside of using wallpaper on a high-colour system is the amount of memory it takes. (...) Thanks Dilwyn for automating the wallpaper process. Just a word about memory and compressed images. As other programs or other OSes appear to put compressed images straight to the screen, I suspect they all need to keep a final uncompressed version in memory to work. The space demands may go unnoticed as other systems have more RAM to play with. This is also true for compressed sprites that WMAN2 processes directly. Compressing _pic or _scr files is feasible but it's mostly WIN space that is won. Bob Download the Wallpaper software and a few example graphic files from http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/graphics/index.html -- The BSJR QL software site at: "http://members.upc.nl/b.spelten/ql/; --- Deze e-mail is gecontroleerd op virussen door AVG. http://www.avg.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List
[Ql-Users] Wallpaper program
Wallpaper Program Recent versionsof SMSQ/E from about version 3.00 feature high colour and high resolution screens along with the new Window Manager. This makes them very suitable for displaying colourful and attractive background images behind your program windows. These images are called wallpaper. SBASIC provides a convenient to use command called BGIMAGE which lets you display saved screens as background wallpaper. With the wealth and variety of free images available on the internet as JPEG, GIF and PNG files, for example, I decided to write a program which converts these images to the type of QL screens which the BGIMAGE command can use. My Wallpaper program uses David Westbury’s PHGTK toolkit which shoulders the burden of the work in converting these files and resizing images to fit your system or emulator’s screen. It can convert the graphics to mode 16 (Aurora and QPC2), mode 32 (QPC2, SMSQmulator and QXL), or mode 33 (Q40, Q60, Q68 and possibly even a registered QemuLator with its own customised mode 33 version of SMSQ/E). Simply select a JPEG, PNG or GIF file using the pointer driven file selection menu, then select whether it needs to be rotated, and how to resize the image (e.g. preserve aspect ratio, stretch, crop) and wait a few seconds for the conversion to take place. Small previews help you view the screens. Once the conversion is done, you can see a preview in full-screen mode, apply it as a BGIMAGE wallpaper, save as a screen in the current screen mode for future use and even get help editing your boot program to add or amend a BGIMAGE command so that the wallpaper is loaded at startup. The program can even select a background colour to use in place of wallpaper if you wish (e.g. apply a dark background colour late at night to save your eyes from a bright screen). The downside of using wallpaper on a high-colour system is the amount of memory it takes. On a 16-bit colour system such as QPC2 each pixel needs two bytes of memory, so a 1024×768 pixel display in mode 32 or 33 could need up to 1,572,864 bytes just to hold the uncompressed wallpaper – at the time of writing SMSQ/E does not support compressed wallpaper screen images. Couple this with the copious amounts of memory needed during conversion, and you can see that you will need to set your emulator to have quite a generous amount of memory! So, the Wallpaper program lets you choose whether the graphics are converted more quickly in RAM, or as files on your hard disk if you keep running out of memory. The Wallpaper program uses the system palette so will follow whatever colour theme you’ve applied to your system (colour themes can be designed using the Q-CoCo program from Wolfgang Uhlig and Bob Spelten Jr.) A Quill _doc file is included which explains a lot about wallpaper on SMSQ/E systems,the file formats used, the BGIMAGE command, use of programs such as Photon and so on. Download the Wallpaper software and a few example graphic files from http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/graphics/index.html Dilwyn ___ QL-Users Mailing List
