Speed of Light
__________
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|__________| | ____/ \_______| \_______| \_______|
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__ |__| | _ | | ____|
| | | | | | | ___|
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| | |__| ______ | |_____ ___| |___
| | __ / \ | \ | |
| | | | | __ | | ___ | |___ ___| _____ _____
| | | | | / | | | | | | | | |____ | | _ |
| | |__| | | | | | | | | | | __| | | |_| |
| |________ | \__| | | | | | | |___ |__ | __ | _ |
| | | | | | | | | | ___| | | | | |_| |
|___________| \____ | |__| |__| \_____| |_____| |__| |_____|
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____________________| |
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|______________________/
This document and all included documents are
(C) Copyright 1993-1995, Stuart Denman
All Rights Reserved.
This document may only be reproduced for personal use.
All coding and design by Stuart Denman.
Internet: sdenman@cs.washington.edu
(Valid through summer 1996)
Released April 16, 1995
Speed of Light is a comprehensive image processor/viewer with many
advanced and highly configurable features.
Speed of Light is SHAREWARE!
SHAREWARE!
SHAREWARE!
This SHAREWARE! version is an incomplete demonstration
version until you register and receive a keycode to gain access to
the disabled features. See the registration section for complete
information on how to register.
*******
NOTE: If you have already read the manual for version 3.1, you need
not read this whole manual again. Simply read the CHANGES.DOC file,
as well as the new (or changed) sections in this manual marked with
an (*) or (**) below.
Please take a look at the file SOL_AEO1.DOC which is an article I
did for Atari Explorer Online about how to get the most out of
Speed of Light. Check it out!
I have included a file called GLOSSARY.DOC which defines some of the
more complicated image processing terms used throughout this manual.
So if there are any words that you don't understand, chances are
that it is in the glossary.
*******
This manual is a semi-brief introduction to the features of Speed of
Light version 3.8. Unfortunately, I do not have enough time to
completely discuss the features in as much detail as they should be,
so the best way to learn them is by playing with them. PLAY, PLAY,
PLAY! Also, I have not discussed items which are redundant or
obvious (like some of the items on the display-screen popup menu).
This manual is organized into the sections, so even if you do not
feel like reading the whole manual, at least keep in mind what the
different sections are so if you have trouble figuring something out
(and I know you will) you can find your way to the section you need
quickly. I recommend printing this whole thing out and following
along with the program.
The manual is organized into the following sections (in order):
>> WHAT IS SPEED OF LIGHT?
>> HOW TO REGISTER (**)
>> LEGAL STUFF/DISCLAIMERS (**)
>> RUNNING THE PROGRAM AND IMAGE LOADING
>> IMAGE FORMATS (**)
>> DIALOG BOX TRICKS
>> THE DISPLAY SCREEN
>> THE OPTIONS DIALOG (**)
>> THE HISTOGRAM EDITOR
>> THE COLOR EDITOR (*)
>> SAVING IMAGES
>> THE DISPLAY SCREEN POPUP MENU (*)
>> FILTERED IMAGE SCALING (*)
>> IMAGE WARPING (*)
>> DITHERING
>> PREFERENCES (**)
>> COLORS TO PLAY WITH
>> GRAPHICS CARDS
>> KNOWN BUGS
>> FINAL REMARKS
(*) Indicates that a significant amount of new information was added
as of version 3.5.
(**) Indicates that a significant amount of new information was added
as of version 3.7.
---------------------------------------------
---===>>> WHAT IS SPEED OF LIGHT? <<<===---
---------------------------------------------
Speed of Light started as a GIF viewer with a twist. It could
display more colors and shades on a standard ST than usual. It was
also the FASTEST GIF decompressor on the ST, written in pure
assembly language. NOW, Speed of Light is still the fastest GIF
viewer, but also the fastest JPEG viewer (for machines without a DSP
chip). Version 3.8 contains all the features of version 2.x, but
also adds more image formats, more image processing features, and
many other impressive tools, including the most extensive color map
editing capabilities available on Atari systems.
As of version 3.5, SOL includes two new capabilities fully available
only to registered users: Filtered Image Scaling (FIS) and Image
Warping. FIS allows images to be scaled to any size, yet retain their
clarity. It can also be used to blur images, smooth out blocky zoomed
images, and take into account lost pixels due to reduction. Version
3.5 includes 8 new filters for some unusual effects including
sharpening and "3D Pixel" effects. It is probably the most advanced
tool the program has to offer. Image warping allows you to shift and
bulge your image in a variety of ways. You can stretch one part of
your image, or repeatedly warp the whole image. A variety of waveforms
can be used for the warping effect.
Speed of Light (here on referred to by SOL) has been tested on all
Atari computers and works on ST,MEGA,STE,TT, and Falcon computers. SOL
3.8 now runs in all resolutions of 256 colors or less, including
MONOCHROME (2 color) and medium (4 color) resolutions! It also runs
under MultiTOS, and allows switching from image to desktop in a flash.
Several people have asked why SOL does not fully use GEM. The main
reason is speed. I draw directly into screen memory for speed. This
causes SOL to be very device-dependent, but it is a trade-off that
myself and other users are willing to put up with. Believe it or
not, all of SOL's dialog boxes and menus are 100% GEM. If I used
the standard "desktop" look instead of my custom colors to create
SOL's unique dialog boxes, it would be a lot different. It's just
too hard, at this point, to convert all the dialogs to plain GEM.
-------------------------------------
---===>>> HOW TO REGISTER <<<===---
-------------------------------------
When you register for SOL 3.8, you will receive a keycode that will
allow you to access the disabled features. Filtered Scaling and
Warping will also display without blank lines. Your Shareware
donation will help support my Shareware efforts so that I may bring
you more quality Atari software like SOL. Once you type your
keycode into the registration dialog box, this copy of SOL becomes
your personal registered copy, and your keycode will work with any
versions released after 3.8. The keycode will also make it so that
the SOL title/information dialog and registration box will not come
up when you run the program.
To register, fill in the registration dialog box with the required
information, and click on "Print EZform" to print the information
and EZform registration letter. You will be asked whether you want
to print a filled out form to the printer or to a disk file called
REGISTER.TXT in ASCII format. A blank form is also included in the
file REGIFORM.TXT. Send an EZform (with all the information
required in the registration dialog box) and AT LEAST $25 United
States funds (see below for foreign registrations) to this address:
Stuart Denman
1751 N.E. NAOMI PL.
SEATTLE, WA 98115 <<==-- This was wrong in SPOFLT35.DOC!
U.S.A.
Make checks or money-orders payable to Stuart Denman, or send CASH.
Please allow at MOST one month for a response (especially during the
summer) before you try to contact me again. PLEASE SEND YOUR E-MAIL
ADDRESS IF YOU HAVE ONE. If using E-mail, you will get your keycode
within one week (of when I received it), sometimes the day I receive
your letter (for cash shareware donations). I do sometimes go on
vacation, so please be patient with me, especially during the
summer, thanks!
***** FOREIGN ORDERS READ BELOW *****
If you are registering from a country other than the United States,
you have two choices on how to register. You may either send your
registration money and form to me, or send it to a designated foreign
registration site.
IF REGISTERING IN EUROPE:
-------------------------
(This is the preferred way, if you are in Europe).
Denesh Bhabuta will be handling registrations for Speed of Light in
Europe. He will accept UK cheques or cash, Euro-cheques, and Postal
Orders. Eventually, he may accept credit cards (you should contact
Denesh about this). The registration is 20 pounds UK.
Make cheques (20 pounds UK) payable to "Denesh Bhabuta" and send along
with your completed registration form to:
CyberSTrider
203 PARR LANE
UNSWORTH
BURY
LANCASHIRE
BL9 8JW
UNITED KINGDOM
If you have questions about registering with Denesh, he can be reached
at the above address or by e-mail:
dbhabuta@cix.compulink.co.uk
danny@micros.hensa.ac.uk
IF REGISTERING FROM OTHER NON-U.S. COUNTRIES:
---------------------------------------------
Send your registration payment and form to me (Stuart Denman) in the
United States. Foreign orders must send AT LEAST $25 U.S. CASH or
money order, or you can send the EQUIVALENT of AT LEAST $30 U.S. MONEY
IN CASH NOTES OF YOUR FOREIGN CURRENCY. NO UNSTABLE CURRENCIES, only
things like Deutch-Marks, UK Pounds, and other stable currencies that
I can easily exchange with small fees. If you are in Europe, please
register using the prodedure above.
***** FOREIGN ORDERS READ ABOVE *****
---------------------------------------------
---===>>> LEGAL STUFF/DISCLAIMERS <<<===---
---------------------------------------------
Use of this program is restricted to 30 days, after which, if you
do not register the program and pay the $25 Shareware donation, you
must TERMINATE USE.
USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK! The author assumes no liability
what-so-ever for any damages that may result from using this program
or its accompanying files. This program includes absolutely no
warranty, written or implied.
PLEASE distribute this UNREGISTERED program everywhere, provided
that this text file and all other files are included with the
program. DO NOT RE-ARCHIVE SPEED OF LIGHT! Keep a copy of the
original ZIP file so you can upload it to BBS's and distribute it to
your friends.
SPEED OF LIGHT MAY NOT BE SOLD FOR ANY PRICE BY ANYONE OTHER THAN
THE AUTHOR. PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SHAREWARE RETAILERS HAVE PERMISSION
TO DISTRIBUTE THE UNREGISTERED VERSION FOR A MINIMAL FEE NOT ANY
HIGHER THAN THE COST TO REPRODUCE THE DISK.
*** THIS PROGRAM MAY NOT BE PLACED ON A MAGAZINE COVER DISK WITHOUT
MY PERMISSION! YOU MUST WRITE AND ASK FIRST, THANKS! ***
WARNING: Any attempt to alter the program or its supporting files
could result in permanent damage to your computer or i/o devices.
The author assumes no liability or damages resulting from this.
The Graphic Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of
CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of
CompuServe Incorporated.
-----------------------------------------
---===>>> RUNNING THE PROGRAM <<<===---
---===>>> AND IMAGE LOADING <<<===---
-----------------------------------------
To run SOL, double click on SPOFLT35.APP from the desktop, or drag
an image file (in newer TOS versions) to the program name or icon.
The title dialog should come up (if an unregistered program),
followed by the registration dialog box (see "HOW TO REGISTER" above
for information on how to use this box to register). Click on
Cancel in the registration box to go to the Options Dialog. This
is the main settings dialog where you tell SOL how to display the
image. Click on "Add" to load an image and you will be prompted
with a fileselect box.
Select an image to load with the fileselect box. Some example
images are included in the IMAGES folder. You can also type in
wildcards like "*" and "?" to make SOL load in all the images in a
particular directory that match the wildcard. Use "*.*" to load in
all the images. You will then get a status/information box
informing you that your image is being loaded, uncompressed, or
whatever. Next, the Options Dialog box will appear again where you
can change the display parameters before displaying the image.
I recommend that you use a program like Warp 9 or NVDI with SOL, as
it often can take a long time to draw the dialog boxes without these
software accelerators, especially the Options Dialog. Selectric
Fileselector is now supported, so you can select multiple files if you
have it installed.
A description of the items in the Options Dialog will appear in a
section below, but there is a row of buttons at the bottom of the
dialog that I will describe now. These are buttons for loading,
saving, and displaying the current image, as well as for quitting
the program.
Click on "Quit", "Save As", and "Display" to quit the program, save
the image, and display the image. "Add" and "New" are for loading
in images. Clicking on these will call up the fileselect box again
and you can select an image to load or Cancel. "Add" will load an
image and place it at the end of the list of loaded images (this
will occur even if you are not on the last image when you click on
Add). "New" will replace the current image with the one you load
in. Use "Purge" to remove the last image (or images) in the list
and free up memory if needed.
-----------------------------------
---===>>> IMAGE FORMATS <<<===---
-----------------------------------
Speed of Light version 3.8 identifies the images it loads by their
file extension. SOL can LOAD and display the following image
formats:
FORMAT NAME EXTENSION
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) *.GIF
JPEG *.JPG
Degas Uncompressed *.PI?
Degas Compressed *.PC?
Prism Paint *.PNT
GEM (X)Image Format *.IMG
SOL 3.8 now supports Brainstorm's DSP JPEG decoder for the Falcon030.
If you have this program installed in your AUTO folder, SOL 3.8 will
use it to quickly decode JPEG images.
SOL version 3.8 can also SAVE in the following formats:
FORMAT NAME SAVE TYPE
GIF As original (as on screen
only with graphics cards)
Degas Compressed/Uncompressed As on screen
Prism Paint As on screen
GEM (X)Image Format As original and as on screen
--------------------------------------
---===>>> DIALOG BOX TRICKS <<<===---
--------------------------------------
SOL uses an "enhanced 3D GEM" interface with special features that you
can take advantage of:
* Popup menus are easy to use ways of selecting several items.
Click on these to "pop" them up, then click again to select the
item you want.
* On any slider box, DOUBLE-click on the arrows to move the
slider bar all the way to that side of the bar.
* Real-time slider bars allow instant results. Click and hold on a
slider bar until the mouse cursor turns into two arrows (like <>).
Then drag it back and forth to see the numbers change.
* In places where there are two or more slider boxes in a row, you
can double click on the slider bar and the other slider boxes will
move to the same position as the one you clicked on.
* Keyboard equivalents in the dialog boxes were left out so that
they would not interfere with programs like Let 'em Fly that enhance
the dialog boxes.
----------------------------------------
---===>>> THE DISPLAY SCREEN <<<===---
----------------------------------------
After you load an image and the Options dialog box appears, click on
DISPLAY to look at the image. SOL will scan the image and create
tables of color conversions that it uses for display, and then it
will draw the image onto the screen. This is called the Display
Screen. To return to the previous dialog, click the RIGHT mouse
button.
There are a lot of image manipulation things that you can do from
this screen without going to the Options Dialog. All of these
things are accessible by pressing the appropriate key or by clicking
and holding the mouse button. When you click and hold the LEFT
mouse button, a popup menu appears with a large selection of items,
as well as their keyboard equivalents listed beside them. The
function of these items will be described below in the section "THE
DISPLAY SCREEN POPUP MENU". The section you are reading now will
discuss some basic things not available in the popup menu.
If the image is larger than the size of your display screen, you can
move around in the image with the arrow keys, or by using the mouse.
Pressing the UP, DOWN, RIGHT, and LEFT ARROWS will move your display
in that particular direction on the image by 20 pixels. To move the
screen by one quarter of the screen, hold down CONTROL when you
press the arrow keys.
MOVING WITH THE MOUSE is more complicated. When you enter the
display screen, the mouse appears in the center of the screen (even
if it is not being displayed, it will still be in the center).
Imagine a small box centered in the middle of the screen. The mouse
can move freely inside of this box, but when it goes outside of the
box, the display will move in the direction that the mouse went
outside of the box. The farther the mouse goes outside of the box,
the more the display moves. If the mouse is being displayed, and
arrow will briefly appear showing the direction of motion.
To stop the display screen from scrolling, move the mouse back to
the center of the screen OR quickly press the left mouse button to
return the pointer to the center. Holding it down longer will make
the popup menu appear. You can also hold down ALTERNATE to prevent
the screen from scrolling when the mouse goes out of the center box.
If you have more than one image loaded, you can press the function
keys to go to the first TEN images (F1-F10). To go to the NEXT TEN
images, hold down SHIFT and press a function key (F11-F20). Use
ALTERNATE for F21-F30. You can also press ']' to go to the next
image and '[' to go to the previous image.
In flicker mode, you can stop SOL from flickering the screen by
pressing the SPACEBAR. This shows you the first of the two screens
that SOL flickers to get the expanded palette. Press the SPACEBAR
again to resume flickering. You can also use the SPACEBAR to pause
during the drawing of the screen. Pauses during FIS as well.
----------------------------------------
---===>>> THE OPTIONS DIALOG <<<===---
----------------------------------------
The related items (text, buttons, sliders, etc.) in the Options
Dialog are arranged in the same area with a thin line dividing each
area. Each item is discussed in order from left-to-right, then
top-to-bottom, in each specific group. Text items are indicated by
a T>, buttons are indicated by a B>, editable items are indicated
by an E>, slider bars are indicated by an S>, and popup menus are
indicated by a P>. Group titles are surrounded by astrixes (**) and
the specific items are listed under the group title.
** Image Specifications **
T> Image Filename - name of current image file whose display
specifications are shown in the rest of the options dialog.
T> Image Dimensions - size of the image in pixels. An 'I' is
printed after this to indicate and interlaced image.
T> Image Palette - the size of the palette used by the image.
T> Image Colors - the actual number of colors in the current image.
B> "H" Button - Displays the histogram for the current image. The
histogram is separated into its red, green, and blue planes and you
can switch between them with the buttons at the top of the histogram
screen. A greyscale image (loaded in as greyscale, not displayed as
Shades) will have the same histogram for red, green, and blue planes
(as expected). Notice that additive color transformations will not
effect this histogram, but complex histogram transformations will
(see below for info on these color effects).
B> "P" Button - This optimizes the palette of the image. The initial
palette value is taken directly from the image header, or the
expected palette. This button scans through the image and tries to
find the actual palette resolution. A lot of times I get GIF
pictures that say they only have 64 color palette when they actually
have 16 million. I did not automatically optimize the palette on
loading because it can take some time, and it is not necessary for
normal use.
** Machine Specifications **
T> Machine - the machine you are using.
T> Resolution - the size of your display.
T> Palette - the size of the palette your system can display.
T> Colors - Number of colors in the system. This can be changed by
clicking on the arrows next to it. This sets the actual number of
colors that the image will be displayed with. This allows you to
reduce the number of display colors.
B> "Delta" Button - On TTs and STs, you can change the resolution
that you display in by clicking on this button and selecting the
resolution in the popup menu. Machine specifications for color and
resolution should change. The mouse does not always look right and
has a limited range when enabled on ST Medium.
B> "3-Bars" Button - This allows setting of program preferences as
well as truecolor loading and inverse colormap settings. See the
"PREFERENCES" section below for complete information.
** Picture Number, Display Mode, and **
** Color Transformation Settings **
S> Picture Number - This slider bar selects the current image. There
may be a pause after switching to a different picture. This is due
to the computer taking some time to draw the new image parameters
into the Options Dialog (the screen blanks during redraw).
P> Display Mode - This selects between a color interpretation of the
image and a shades display of the image. "Shades" are normally
greyscale unless you change the color with the color transformation
settings. On TT computers, you can select "TTGrey" mode which
allows you to display 256 shades of grey when in TT Low display.
B> Red Downward Pointing Arrow - This changes the color
transformations so that the image looks as close to the original as
possible (sets sliders to zero, or changes histograms to a
one-to-one transformation).
B> Complex - This switches between additive color transforms and
histogram color transforms. When this is highlighted, three small
histograms are displayed (one for red, green, and blue). Click on
any of these histograms to edit that particular color plane in the
histogram editor (see below). These histograms take a particular
intensity of red, green, or blue color and map it to a new
intensity. That is why the one-to-one transformation is a
triangular shape (the graph represents the line y=x). Flipping this
transformation will cause inversion of the color map (low
intensities map to high ones, and visa-versa). For some
interesting effects with these transformations, see the section
"COLORS TO PLAY WITH" below.
S> Additive Color Transforms - These three slider bars are active
when "COMPLEX" is NOT highlighted and they allow you to add various
levels of red, green, and blue to your image. Positive values
increase the intensity, negative values decrease the intensity. For
example, moving the green slider bar to the left makes the image
look purple/red/blue when displayed. Putting all three sliders to
the same value will brighten or darken the image without changing
the colors' relative differences. NOTE AGAIN that these sliders are
used only when the "COMPLEX" button is NOT highlighted.
** Color Reduction/Selection Settings **
P> Color Reduction Method - If the display colors are fewer that the
number of colors in the image, then SOL will try to reduce the
number of colors using the method selected by this popup menu. All
color reduction methods take into account the "Color Contrast"
settings (described below). The "Frequency" method is the most
automatic and it selects the colors based on their frequency in the
picture. The next two methods, "Influence" and "By Rank", use a
ranking histogram to choose the colors. The only difference between
these two methods is that "By Rank" selects the colors purely upon
how they are ranked in the histogram, whereas "Influence" takes into
account the frequency of the color in the image as well as its rank.
B> Color Rank - The "Rank" button switches to the Color Ranking
Histogram Editor where you can define the ranks of the red, green,
and blue color planes. See "THE HISTOGRAM EDITOR" section of this
manual for more information on how to use the editor. The ranking
histogram for each color plane is organized with intensity on the
horizontal axis from dark to light (left to right) and rank on the
vertical axis from low to high (bottom to top). For example, if I
wanted to make red, green, and yellow colors chosen more often than
other colors, I would draw histograms like this:
^ Red: Green: Blue:
^ | ___ | ___ |
R | / | / |
A |______/ |______/ |___________
N | | |
K +----------- +----------- +-----------
Intensity > >
When ranks for intensities are the same for all color planes, then
the order of those colors will be chosen based on the order that
they appear in the image's original palette (unless you are using
the "Influence" method, in which case the frequency that they appear
in the image will also have an effect). Rank has no effect when
using the "Frequency" method; that is why you cannot edit the rank
histograms when this method is selected. Rank also has no effect
when all intensities, in all color planes, have the same rank. The
height of the rank has no importance, except relative to the height
of the rest of the histogram.
B> Complex - This button selects between simple color contrast
slider bars and a more complex histogram color contrast. If
"COMPLEX" is highlighted, the three contrast slider bars will be
replaced by three histograms which allow you to define the contrast
for each intensity level of the red, green, and blue planes. To
edit a particular contrast histogram, click on the small histogram
of the one you want to edit. Contrast is on the vertical axis, and
intensity is on the horizontal axis of each histogram. Read about
the contrast slider bars (below) for more information on how
contrast effects the image...
S> Color Contrast/Separation - This trio of slider bars defines the
minimum separation between the colors that SOL chooses to display
the image with. This contrast can be set from 1 (choose colors as
close together as possible) to 256 (choose colors with highest
contrast, like black and white). A setting of 1 is best when the
picture has equal or less than the number of displayed colors, but
when the color must be reduced, like from a 256 color image down to
a 16 color display, a contrast between 18 and 32 is best. If the
contrast is too high, the color map will not be completely filled
due to rejected colors. The best separation value is just below
the point where colors are starting to be omitted from the map (use
the "color-loss warning" alert box (see Preferences section) to help
you find this point).
** Image Scaling and Some Miscellaneous Buttons **
E> Horizontal and Vertical Size in Pixels - These two editable
fields define the size (in pixels) that the image will be scaled
to. Click or use the arrows to move the editing cursor.
P> Axis Effect - This popup menu selects "Horizontal, Vertical, or
Both" as the axis that the buttons to the right of this popup
effect (see below). The buttons "+, -, O, and A" will change the
scaling of the axis that you set here. The first letter of your
selection will appear in the button (either H, V, or B).
B> "O" Button - With this button, scaling is set to the original
size of the image.
B> "A" Button - This calculates the aspect ratio of the original
width and height of the image based on the effected axis (if "Both"
is selected, then this button bases its effects on the horizontal
axis). It then sets the other axis to the proper value to match
this ratio.
B> "-" Button - This button will halve the selected axis. This
reduces the image by a factor of two.
B> "+" Button - This button will double the selected axis. This
enlarges the image by a factor of two.
B> "Fltr" Button - This turns filtered scaling on and off. The
filter that it uses is set with the "Set" button below.
B> "Set" Button - Clicking on this button will switch to the
Filtered Scaling Settings Dialog where you can set the filter type
and scaling.
B> "Fit" Button - This stretches the widest edge of the image out
to the width or height of the screen so that the image is at its
largest size without exceeding the screen's borders. The image's
original aspect ratio is restored.
B> "Mous" Button - If this is highlighted, then the mouse will be
displayed in the Display Screen, otherwise it will be hidden. This
is the same as pressing TAB from the Display Screen.
B> "SmDr" Button - This turns on and off "Smooth Draw" mode. When
flickering is used to increase the number of colors, this will make
SOL flicker the screen even when it is drawing for a smoother
effect. The only drawback is that drawing is considerably slower.
B> "Warp" Button - This switches to the Warp Setting dialog where
you can set various warping and stretching effects. See the
Image Warping section for more details.
** Flicker Contrast and Dithering **
S> Flicker Contrast - This slider bar sets the maximum contrast
allowed between flickered colors. Greater contrast may cause
increased flickering, while lower contrasts will reduce flickering.
When the slider is moved all the way to the left, the slider will
indicate "OFF". Drawing will be twice as fast when flickering is
off. If you have a large display palette and number of colors,
flickering SHOULD be turned off, because you DO NOT NEED IT.
Flickering may produce weird effects on graphics cards, and is
unavailable with Byteplane Mode (see Preferences Dialog). There is a
known bug on the Falcon when you have the mouse being displayed while
flickering; the screen jumps around in funny ways on large resolution
displays and sometimes may not flicker at all. This is due to a
hardware bug that is unavoidable.
P> Dither Pattern - This popup menu selects between dither patterns.
See the dithering discussion section below for more information.
B> "Set" Button - This switches to the Dithering Dialog so that you
may have more detailed control over dithering than just what pattern
is used. See the dithering section below for more information.
** Miscellaneous Buttons **
B> "Desk" Button - SOL allows you to go to the desktop to access
accessories (or return to other programs in MultiTOS). Some menu
items are available there, and a scrolling list of all the loaded
images is also accessible from the menu. Most entries are
self-explanatory. Keyboard equivalents for menu items are listed
next to them. Loading can be done WITHOUT returning to the
non-windowed environment of SOL.
B> "?" Button - This displays the title dialog with credits and
shareware information. It also shows you how much free memory you
have available and who the program is registered to.
B> "Purge" Button - This allows you to remove the last image from
the image list and free the memory it takes. Unlike version 3.1,
3.8 lets you purge an image if it is the only one loaded into SOL.
You can also double-click on "Purge" to remove all the images from
memory.
B> "Colors" Button - This goes to the powerful color editor. This
is not available in Shades or Greyscale modes. See the section
below on how to use the color editor.
** Lower Row of Buttons **
B> ">>" Button - This calls up the Slideshow Settings Dialog. Here
you can move the slider bar to select the number of seconds to
display each image. When the direction is selected (forward,
backward, etc) SOL will automatically switch between images,
displaying each one for the specified number of seconds. The way it
switches between images is determined by the second popup menu.
"First" and "Last" allow you to select the first and last image for
display. Only images between and including these images will be
displayed. If the first image comes after the last image, the two
image numbers will be exchanged. If you display an image outside of
this range of images while in the middle of a slideshow, the
slideshow will terminate until you enter the range again. The
display time is calculated from the point where the image finishes
drawing. The Record Script button is described in the file SCRIPTS.DOC.
Other buttons are described in the section "RUNNING THE PROGRAM AND
IMAGE LOADING" above, but are fairly obvious.
------------------------------------------
---===>>> THE HISTOGRAM EDITOR <<<===---
------------------------------------------
This editor makes it easy to edit graphical histograms for color
manipulation purposes. The main editing area is a large box in the
center of the dialog. To set the level for a particular intensity,
click the mouse where you want the level to be. You can hold the
mouse button down and SLOWLY move it right or left to draw the shape
of the histogram. You can easily switch between the red, green, and
blue color planes by clicking on one of the three buttons at the top
of the dialog.
Most of the buttons at the bottom of the dialog are for editing and
creating the shape of the histogram. "Stretch" and "Squash" are for
doing just that. They effect the level of the histogram. "Invert"
subtracts the maximum level of the histogram from the histogram
level at each intensity and makes that the new level. The "Flip"
button flips the image horizontally. The four ARROW buttons move
the histogram in the direction specified. "Copy" will copy the
histogram onto the GEM clipboard (disk) and you can use "Paste" to
copy it back in to any other histogram. If you DOUBLE-CLICK on
"Copy", it will copy the current histogram to the other two color
plane histograms. For example, if you double-click on "Copy" in the
green histogram, red and blue will become the same as green.
"Undo" reverts the histogram back to what it was when you first
started editing that particular color plane. "OK" goes back to the
Options Dialog, and "Cancel" will Undo any changes you have made to
any of the color planes since you entered the editor, and then goes
back to the Options Dialog.
"Gamma" allows you to automatically make a gamma-correction
histogram. This is used for color transformations and is the most
realistic way to brighten or darken an image without getting
washout. After clicking on the button, type in the gamma-
correction value and click on "Generate" to create it. A value
greater than 1 will darken the image, less than 1 will brighten the
image. A value of 1 is a one-to-one transformation.
"Linear" allows you to automatically generate a linear histogram by
setting the rise and run. The histogram has a width and height of
256, so a rise and run of 256 will have a slope of one. You can
also shift the graph by a positive or negative pixel value to the
right.
"Step" was never implemented.
--------------------------------------
---===>>> THE COLOR EDITOR <<<===---
--------------------------------------
Ten colors are displayed at the top of the dialog and each has its
actual color number above it. These colors are displayed in either
VDI-order or Device-Dependent order, depending on whether you have
"VDI Order" selected or not. To move the "window" of ten colors
around in the larger color map, you can either adjust the slider bar
below the colors, or click on the arrows to the right and left of
the ten color boxes. Double-clicking moves all the way to the
beginning or end.
You can change the red, green, and blue color values of a color by
clicking on the color. It is marked by an inner box. Even when you
move the color "window" to a different spot in the color map, the
one being edited always stays the same, even if it is not displayed
in the current window of colors. To alter the color, use the three
slider bars labeled RED, GREEN, and BLUE under the color map to the
right.
If a color exists in the color map that is not being used by the
current image, it will be marked with a small X in the middle of the
color box.
The buttons in the editor are divided into two groups. The ten
upper-left-hand buttons are tools for manipulating two or more
colors. This is the "Toolbox." These buttons are slightly thinner
than the other buttons. The lower-left-hand and right-hand buttons
are for switching to other dialog boxes, undoing, or are used for
other global operations.
All the "toolbox" buttons are used in the same way. To apply the
tool to the whole color map or to define the first and last colors
in the color map as the "hot" colors, double click on the tool
button. Otherwise, you must manually mark the "hot" colors. Click
on the first "hot" color that you want in the color map and it will
be marked with an inner box. Next, click on the tool button you want
to use. The mouse pointer should turn into a pencil pointer. Then
move to the second "hot" color and click on it to apply the tool
between the two colors. To cancel the tool, click off the color
map, or press the right mouse button.
Here is the effect that each tool has:
COPY - this copies the first color to the second one.
SWAP - the two colors are exchanged.
FILL - this fills all the colors in between and including the second
color with the color of the first one.
FLIP - this flips the colors in the selected area so that the first
color goes the the last color's position and the last color ends up
in the first color's position.
< ROTATE - this shifts the colors to the left and takes the first
color in the selected area and puts it in the last color slot.
ROTATE > - this shifts the colors to the right and takes the last
color in the selected area and puts it in the first color slot.
SORT GROUP - this groups the colors in the selected area based on
their color values. For example, all the greens and blues will be
sorted into separate groups.
GRADIENT - this smoothly fills in all the colors in between the
first and the second color so that there is a gradual change from
one to the other. For example, a gradient between black and white
would fill in with increasingly brighter greys until it finally
reaches white. Play with it!
SORT DK > LT - this button sorts the colors in the selected area
from the darkest color to the lightest color.
SORT LT > DK - this sorts the colors in the selected area from the
lightest color to the darkest color.
The functional buttons are located in the left half of the Color
Editor Dialog under the three RGB slider bars and on the right half
under the "toolbox." Here is the what each button does when you
click on it:
MATCH - this is a on/off highlight button. When "Match" is
highlighted, any changes to the color palette will cause SOL to try
to match the images colors to the new palette. If it does not use
one of the colors in the color map, it will be marked with a small X.
If "Match" is NOT highlighted, then the pixels will retain their
mappings to the old palette, and your changes will appear in the
displayed image. NOTE that FIS matches your palette to the
original image no matter what.
DISPLAY - this goes to the display screen. You can press the right
mouse button or the 'E' key to return to the Color Editor.
UNDO - you can undo any changes you make to the palette using this
button.
CPY/SWP - this allows you to swap or copy the current palette to
another image. Select the image in the small dialog and click on
"Copy" or "Swap" depending on what you want to do.
IMAGE - this allows you to edit another image's palette. Select the
new image in the dialog box and click on "OK" to make it the current
image.
RESCAN - sometimes you want to revert back to the original palette
that SOL calculated for this image originally. This button will do that.
SELECT - clicking on this will switch to the display screen where
you can click on any pixel in the image and that color entry in the
palette will be selected in the Color Editor when you return. This
is so you can be sure that you are editing the correct color.
TAKE - this allows you to select a pixel from the image in the same
way as SELECT. The color that you are currently editing will then
take on the value that that pixel had in the original image.
LOAD - this loads a .PAL palette file into the current color map.
If there are more colors in the .PAL file than will fit into the
current map, only the first ones that will fit are used.
SAVE - this saves the current palette as a .PAL file.
CANCEL - this aborts any changes you have made and returns to the
previous screen.
OPTIONS - this goes to the Options Dialog.
.PAL FILE FORMAT:
=================
BYTE OFFSET DESCRIPTION
----------- -----------
0 Number of Colors in the file - 1
1 Red intensity (0-255) color 0
2 Green intensity (0-255) color 0
3 Blue intensity (0-255) color 0
4 Red intensity (0-255) color 1
5 Green intensity (0-255) color 1
6 Blue intensity (0-255) color 1
7 color 2...etc.
-----------------------------------
---===>>> SAVING IMAGES <<<===---
-----------------------------------
Clicking on "Save As" in the Options Dialog or from the Display
Screen popup menu will bring up the Saving Dialog where you can
select the image format that you want to save in. There are two
ways to save images, some only apply to certain formats:
SAVE AS ORIGINAL - this saves the image as it is stored in memory.
The display scaling and display palette has no effect. The only
things that have effects are flipping, rotating, clipping, and
complex histogram color transformations.
SAVE AS ON SCREEN - this saves the image as you see it on your
screen. Any part of the image that is off screen will not be
saved. If the image is being flickered, then you will be prompted
for which of the two flickering screens should be the one that is
saved. These are essentially the same except for some small
dithering differences. It is best to turn off flickering and use
dithering if you need to before saving.
Select the image to save in with the popup menu. For some images,
you can save the display information and scaling with the image
(like with GIF images). Select this option with the small button.
You can also save a text comment file with GIF89a images. Upon
saving, you will be prompted with a fileselect box asking for the
text file that you wish to incorporate into the image as a comment.
GIF Images can only save as original on non-graphics card systems,
so to save the screen as a GIF image, simply save the screen as a
GEM Image or Prism Paint picture, the load that one in, clip if
necessary, and save as original in GIF format. You can also use
the new feature "Image = Screen [X]" from the Display Screen menu
to make the original image the same as the screen. Then, just save
as original. Using this feature is easier and faster than
converting it from another format.
---------------------------------------------------
---===>>> THE DISPLAY SCREEN POPUP MENU <<<===---
---------------------------------------------------
While displaying an image, click and hold the left mouse button
until the popup menu appears. All of the commands listed can also
be used by pressing the corresponding key in square brackets [] next
to each item. Move up and down while holding down the mouse to
highlight an entry and release the mouse button to select it.
Canceling can be done by releasing with "Center Mouse/Cancel"
highlighted or by releasing outside of the menu. Most of the menu
items have been discussed before or are self explanatory, so only
some of them will be explained below. The keyboard equivalent is
indicated in brackets.
CLIP IMAGE [C]- this displays the mouse as the corner of a frame.
Click on the image where you want to start the upper-left corner of
the clipped area. Clipping outside of the image will cause the
mouse to turn into an X and it will not let you click there. To
cancel at any time before clipping, click the RIGHT mouse button.
You can now drag a box from the upper-left corner that you defined
down to the lower-right corner of the clipping area. Click again to
finish marking the area. A dialog box will come up where you can
either replace an image with a copy of the clipped area or add this
clipped area to the end of the image list. Clipped images have the
same filename as the image that they were clipped from, but the
extension is ".CLIPxx" where "xx" is a number that increases with
each clipped image.
ZOOM [+/-/Z/O/I] - this pops up another menu to select one of four
items. "Zoom Area" allows you to select an area of the image to
zoom in on. You can select an area the same way as you do with
clipping (see above). "Zoom In" and "Zoom Out" will double and half
the size of the image, respectively. "Zoom Original" will resize
the image to its original size, and "Fit to Screen" will enlarge or
reduce the image to fit onto the screen while keeping its original
aspect ratio.
ROTATE IMAGE [,/.] - this pops up another menu to select the
direction of the 90 degree rotation. Extra memory is required for
rotation, so you will be alerted if there is not enough.
FLIP IMAGE [H/V] - this pops up a menu where you can select the
direction of flipping (horizontal or vertical). This requires no
extra memory.
CHANGE PICTURE/VIEW [P] - this goes to the picture selection dialog
where you can select the next picture you want to view by using the
scroll bar. Each picture is shown in miniature greyscale. You can
also change the location of your view-screen on the image. Do this
by moving the mouse over the small greyscale image until a box
appears. Click inside of the box and drag the mouse to move the
box. Release the mouse to place the box and click on OK to view the
new position on the image.
TOGGLE COLORING [T] - this switches to "Shades" mode if in "Color"
mode and visa-versa.
IMAGE = SCREEN [X] - this allows you to make the current screen
into an image. This way, you can permanently keep any warping or
filtering changes and modify them with other effects. This also a
way of saving GIF images by converting the screen to an "Original"
image. When you select "Image = Screen [X]" from the popup menu (or
press 'X') a dialog box will appear where you can select the image
slot where you would like to store the screen image. Click on
"Convert" to make the screen into an image without clipping. Click
on "Shrink" to do the same, but the image will be clipped if it does
not take up the full screen.
NOTE: clipping, flipping, and rotating, all effect the original
image (not just the screen), so "Save As Original" will save these
kinds of changes. However, zooming, warping, filtering, and other
features only effect what is on screen and therefore saving "As On
Screen" should be used to save these changes. Use "Image = Screen"
to make any screen changes permanent.
--------------------------------------------
---===>>> FILTERED IMAGE SCALING <<<===---
--------------------------------------------
Filtered Image Scaling (FIS) is a similar feature as "averaging" was
in SOL version 2.6, but is MUCH more powerful. This technique is
used to smooth out or alter images that have been enlarged or
reduced. FIS is very calculation intensive and takes a long time to
draw, so it was not meant as a quick way to view images. Instead,
you should position and scale the images to the way you want them,
and ONLY THEN use filtering. To turn on filtering, highlight "Fltr"
in the Options Dialog Box or, from the Filter Settings Dialog, click
on the round button above the filter graph until "Filter On"
appears.
FIS has been improved since version 3.3 and before. Color scaling
is now almost as fast (when not dithering) as greyscale and "shades"
modes by utilizing inverse colormaps. You can improve the quality of
color FIS by using at least a 5 bit Inverse Colormap and dithering.
Dithering only works with color FIS. Likewise, flickering only
works with "Shades" display mode.
To see how FIS works, load in a small 256 color picture, and switch
to "Shades" display mode in the Options Dialog. Then click on
"Display" and press the '+' key several times from the display
screen to zoom in. Press the 'F' key to go to the Filtered Scaling
Dialog. Click on the popup menu under "FILTER CURVE:" to select a
Standard filter (select B-Spline). Then click on "OK" to display
it. There may be a small initial pause, but then scan lines will
appear one by one. You will notice that the completed output will
look much better than the blocky original. It looks like a slightly
blurred representation of the original.
Enhancing filters were added in version 3.5 and can be used for
weird effects. Note that these filters work best when the scaling
is a multiple of the original image (i.e. x 2, x 4, etc.) Often you
will get banding due to the inability of these filters to shift
phase. Sharpening and Diffusion filters works best on the original
image (no scaling) and the other enhancing filters work best when
the image is enlarged. These other filters can be used to create
interesting effects on the pixels themselves. For example, the
Sharp Bias filter produces a 3-D pixel effect by lightening one side
of the pixel when enlarged.
Some of the enhancing filters are asymmetric and therefore can be
flipped for different effects. The filter can be flipped when
filtering horizontally or vertically by highlighting the appropriate
selection in the Filter Settings Dialog. Filters can also be
wrapped at the edges of the image or faded. Both have drawbacks in
that fading will darken the edge of the image, while wrapped edges
can sometimes produce duplicate pixels close to the edges.
When reducing an image without FIS, lines are removed to make the
new size, so a lot of the image is lost. Standard filters are used
to accurately take these lost lines into account.
Box and triangle filters work better for integral reduction/
enlargement factors because they are not phase-adjusting filters. In
other words, if you scale the image by a factor of 1.7432, you will
get banding across the image with these filters. The smoother, more
curved filters are better for most scaling factors. Banding also
occurs with some of the Enhancing Filters. Play with all the
settings to get the best feel for how filtering works.
Because filtering is limited in unregistered versions, four pictures
have been included in the IMAGE folder showing the effects of
filtering:
ENLWOFIS.GIF is an enlarged image without FIS.
ENLWFIS.GIF is an enlarged image showing the benefits of FIS.
REDWOFIS.IMG is a reduced image without FIS.
REDWFIS.IMG is a reduced image showing the benefits of FIS
In the Filter Settings Dialog, you can also change the scaling of
the filter itself. This can be used, among other things, to blur
the image. First, click on "Scale Filter" to highlight the round
button. This will use the scaling values that you type into the
boxes to the right and below. Values of 1 do not scale the filter,
but values greater than 1 will widen the filter and cause blurring.
A value of 2 is for a little blurring, 4 for even more and so on.
These values need NOT be integers, and they can be less than 1 as
well. Values less than 1 produce a weird patterned darkening
effect. You can also scale the filter in height to compensate for
darkening caused by the horizontal and vertical scaling factors.
The temporary memory usage of filtering is shown at the bottom of
the Filter Settings Dialog and shows how much space you will need
for a particular filter and filter scaling. Higher filter scaling
values take more memory, as do wider filters. You can click on the
memory value to update it when new scaling values are typed in.
-----------------------------------
---===>>> IMAGE WARPING <<<===---
-----------------------------------
This is a new feature as of version 3.3. Clicking on Warp in the
Options Dialog or selecting "Image Warping [W]" from the Display
popup menu will go to the Set Image Warping dialog box. Here you
can turn on warping and type in the values that change how warping
looks.
The basic principle behind warping is that the scan lines of the
image are stretched and shifted in a particular pattern to make an
interesting (and usually amusing) change in the image. To do this,
there are several numbers which you type into the warping dialog
box to create the warping. These are all in units of pixels
relative to the image itself, so if you display the image enlarged
twice, 1 pixel unit = 2 screen pixels. Therefore, each number is
scaled by the same factor as the current image scaling.
The warping is centered around a specified area (referred to as a
"bulge") and can be repeated (a periodic bulge.) This center is
usually at the peak of the curve selected for warping, except when
using a sine wave. There are four numerical entries which define
how the wave looks.
The numerical entries are width, height, horizontal shift, and
vertical center position. Vertical center determines which scan
line in the image will be used as the center of the bulge. This is
where the largest (or smallest if width is negative) bulge point on
the curve is located. The width determines how many pixels on each
side of the image the bulge will extend at its peak. A negative
value causes the curve to bulge inward, squashing the image. If the
width is zero, no stretching occurs, but horizontal shift still has
an effect. Horizontal shift sets how many pixels to the right
(negative is to the left) the image will be shifted at the peak of
the curve. The height sets how many scan lines above or below the
vertical center position that the bulge extends.
The warp pattern popup menu turns warping on by selecting the
pattern of the bulge curve. Flat, Linear, Cubic, B-Spline, and
Plateau are all positive curves (only warp in one direction; in or
out), and the Sine Wave is both positive and negative (stretches or
shifts in and out). Note that the B-Spline curve is twice as wide
as the others, and it actually extends to twice the height that you
specify. Experiment with these curves to see their effects.
The Repeat popup sets whether you get a single bulge or a repeated
(periodic) warping. "Periodic" repeats the pattern after every
period of the currently selected curve. Vertical center position
will then effectively change the phase shift of the resulting wave.
-------------------------------
---===>>> DITHERING <<<===---
-------------------------------
There are three dithering patterns built into SOL (ordered 1+2 and
random dithering). Others can be loaded into two empty slots. These
dithering patterns are the same as the ones used by GEMview and have a
.DIT extension. To load one of these, click on the Load button from
the Dither Settings Dialog, choose slot 1 or 2 from the alert box, and
select the .DIT file with the fileselector. Some dither patterns are
included in the folder DITHER.
Click on "Set" next to DITHER PATTERN in the Options Dialog to enter
the Dithering Settings. Here you can see what the different dither
patterns look like, and set other things. There are two "folder-tabs"
that control dithering patterns for normal and FIS (filter) dithering.
Filter dithering does not have contrast or step slider bars.
When you have the "normal" tab selected, the two sliders control
the number of dither steps and the dithering contrast. Slide the
dither steps bar to see the effect that it may have on your image.
The dithering contrast sets the maximum contrast that two dithered
colors can have between them. This is so that you do not get a lot
of bright specks in your image. Play with these settings to see the
results. These two slider bars have no effect on when FIS is used.
For an example, say you wanted to dither a color image to a black
and white image. Do the following:
1. Turn off flickering.
2. Switch to "Shades" display mode.
3. Turn on dithering and set the dithering contrast to 255.
4. Reduce the display colors to 2.
5. Display the image.
OR:
1. Turn off flickering.
2. Turn on dithering and set dithering contrast to 255.
3. Switch to "Color" display mode.
4. Go to the color editor and fill the palette with black.
5. Make the second color white.
6. Highlight "Match" and re-display the image for the final result.
---------------------------------
---===>>> PREFERENCES <<<===---
---------------------------------
The preferences dialog can be selected from the Options Dialog by
clicking on the "three-bars" button in the upper right corner of the
dialog. The following options are available:
*** Preferences under the "Settings" tab: ***
>> Start program is GEM menu mode. This is mainly for MultiTOS
users, but it causes the program to start at the desktop menu.
>> Warn of lost colors due to contrast. This puts up an alert box
after the colors are reduced if the palette has not been completely
filled. This occurs when the contrast is too high or fewer colors
are created by complex transformations. The number of lost colors
are shown in the alert box.
>> Fit image to screen on loading. This stretches (or shrinks)
the image to fit the screen automatically when the image is loaded
in. It still keeps the proportions of the image, so at least one
side is guaranteed to be as wide (or as long) as the screen.
>> Display image on loading. This displays the image directly after
loading it without going to the Options Dialog or GEM menu.
>> Store histograms for each picture. If this is selected, then
when the program is re-run, it will allocate histogram memory for
each image. Otherwise, the histograms will be common to all
images, and if you make a change in one color histogram, it will
effect the colors of the other images in memory.
>> Capture options dialog. This helps to speed up flipping
to-and-from the Options Dialog by capturing the screen so that it
doesn't have to re-draw it, which can take time. This does take up
some memory to store the screen.
>> Show image comments if supported. This will show the comments
in an image when you load it if the image supports comments. GIF
and JPEG images contain comments.
>> Force "byte planes" in 256 colors. Does just what it says if
selected. See the "GRAPHICS CARDS" section for more information.
>> Blank screen while drawing image. This displays a blank screen while
an image is being drawn to the screen. When the image is done
drawing, the image appears instantly. This is used mostly for
slideshows.
*** Preferences under the "Truecolor" tab: ***
>> Truecolor Palette Conversion. This popup selects the type of
color conversion that SOL uses for loading in JPEGs. "2-Pass
Octree" is the best and uses an octree data structure to accurately
convert the truecolor image for display. This method takes three
times the final memory for temporary storage than is required for
final storage of the image when displayed. "Fixed Palette" is
quick, fast, and takes only the memory needed for the final image,
but can be grainy. "Greyscale" is even faster, uses little memory,
and is as smooth as it gets, but is, well, not colored.
>> No Dithering/Standard/Error-Diffusion. This selects the type of
dithering and turns dithering off and on for truecolor conversions
while loading in JPEG images. Error-Diffusion dithering is not
supported as of this version. No dithering is the same as random
dithering only when using "Fixed Palette" conversions. No dithering
is much faster when using "2-pass Octree" conversion, but does not
produce as nice results.
>> Truecolor Dithering. This popup selects the current dither pattern
used for "2-pass Octree" and "Fixed Palette" conversions. Loading a
dither pattern can be done from within the Dither Settings Dialog, and
can then be accessed from the Preferences Dialog for use in truecolor
conversions. Previous version of SOL used only random dithering for
fixed palette conversion, but standard dither patterns can now be used
for better (or just different) results.
>> Octree Pixel Coverage. With this popup you can select the
percentage of the image that will be examined when building the
octree colormap. The smaller percentage used, the less accurate the
results will be, but the conversion will be much faster. Low
percentages (5% or 10%) are good for most viewing purposes.
>> Fixed Palette Principal Colors. This popup selects which colors
will be most abundant in the fixed palette. Older versions of SOL
used the "Red-Green" palette, which is best for most images. There
are a fixed number of bits available for use in the fixed palette,
so this popup menu effectively determines how the bits are
distributed to the red, green, and blue color-planes. The following
table shows how much resolution each selection distributes:
Fixed Palette Red Green Blue
------------- --- ----- ----
Red 16 shades 4 shades 4 shades
Green 4 shades 16 shades 4 shades
Blue 4 shades 4 shades 16 shades
Red-Green 8 shades 8 shades 4 shades
Red-Blue 8 shades 4 shades 8 shades
Green-Blue 4 shades 8 shades 8 shades
Red, Green, and Blue fixed palettes produce a much grainier and
lesser-quality image than the Red-Green, Red-Blue, and Green-Blue
palettes do because of the uneven distribution, and therefore should
be used rarely under normal circumstances.
>> Inverse Colormap Resolution. This popup sets the number of bits
of resolution used in the inverse colormap. The inverse colormap is
used with "2-pass Octree" truecolor conversion as well as with color
Filtered Image Scaling (FIS). 4 bits can be used for most purposes
(requiring only 20K bytes of extra memory) but is best with
dithering. 5 bits produces quite good results, but takes a little
longer to calculate and requires over 100K bytes of extra memory. I
recommend 5 bits for most images, if you can wait. The extra
temporary memory required for the inverse colormap is displayed
underneath this popup menu when you select a new resolution.
*** Load/Save/Accept Buttons: ***
>> Load preferences. This loads a preference file. Display
parameters are only set if you saved the preference file in the same
resolution. Other settings are loaded regardless of the resolution.
>> Save preferences. Save the current preferences to a file. The
file SPOFLT35.PRF is automatically loaded in when the program is
run, but you can save the preferences to other files.
-----------------------------------------
---===>>> COLORS TO PLAY WITH <<<===---
-----------------------------------------
Switch to "complex" color transformation histograms, click on the
red arrow above them to make them all one-to-one, then try these
tricks for awesome effects:
>> FLIP the green histogram and display the image for a NEON effect.
>> FLIP the red, green, and blue planes in different combinations
for interesting "inverted" effects.
>> Use gamma correction (value from 0.5 to 0.8) on the red histogram
(leave green and blue at one-to-one) to brighten the reds. This
produces a warmer image. Brighten the blue plane instead for a
colder image. Brighten the green image for an algae look. =)
>> Try experimenting with some of the histograms in the folder
HISTGRMS included in the SPOFLT35.ZIP. Try these in separate planes
and with different combinations.
------------------------------------
---===>>> GRAPHICS CARDS <<<===---
------------------------------------
Speed of Light version 3.8 was programmed to work mainly on standard
Atari graphics hardware, but it does work on some graphics cards.
SOL v3.8 was tested on NOVA graphics cards and ONLY works in 256
color modes. Other graphics cards MAY work, but you have to
manually tell the program that you have one...
Most graphics cards store their screens in a byte-plane format as
opposed to the Atari format (bit-planes), so if you have a graphics
card, you can see if it will work in byte-plane format by selecting
"byte-planes" in the Preferences Dialog. Make sure you are in a 256
color screen resolution. Flickering will be shut off if in
byte-plane mode.
Any saving "As Original" will work with graphics cards, but the only
saving that works "As On Screen" is GEM (X)Image format and GIF
format. Saving "As On Screen" can be done by using the "Image =
Screen [X]" option from the Display Screen. See the "SAVING IMAGES"
section for more information.
------------------------------------
---===>>> KNOWN PROBLEMS <<<===---
------------------------------------
When reporting bugs to the author, make sure your bug is not listed
below! These problems are already known to the author:
* Flickering acts funny on Falcons due to unknown hardware
incompatibilities. This is not really a SOL bug.
* Flickering does not look too well in MultiTOS due to slowdown.
Giving SOL more processor priority usually helps. This is not a SOL
bug, you just need a faster machine! <grin>
* The clipping and zooming boxes in 4-color and 2-color modes leave
junk behind when you move the mouse. This does not change the image
in memory, only on screen. Just press 'R' to redraw the image if the
lines are still left behind when you finish clipping.
* Error handling is not as good as it could be...when you get a disk
full error, the program quits!
* Image reduction while loading is not supported in version 3.8 as
it was in version 2.6 due to problems. Future versions may include
it, but it is recommended that users of low-memory systems use
version 2.6 to view large GIF images.
------------------------------------
---===>>> FINAL COMMENTS <<<===---
------------------------------------
Speed of Light version 3.8 represents over three years of very hard
work. I would like to thank Dan Aylward for his help in testing. I
would also like to thank all of those who registered for version 2.x
and version 3.x early on...here it is! Finally! Hope it lived up to
your expectations! If you have not registered yet, please do! Your
support helps me bring more quality software to the Atari platform.
Since Atari computers are a dieing breed (*sniff*), Shareware is the
only reliable source of good software, so if you see something you
like, SUPPORT IT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!
During November of 1993, MajicSoft, under the hands of John Stewart,
accidentally (so I was told...) leaked a copy of Speed of Light
version 3.0 into the Public Domain. If you or anyone else finds or
has a copy of this beta-test version, please delete it immediately.
It is very buggy and is an out-of-date copy, as well as NOT being a
Public Domain OR Shareware version of SOL.
For a list of other software available or soon to come by StuSoft,
see the file SOFTWARE.DOC included with this ZIP file.
Enjoy Speed of Light 3.8, and please register!
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