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1993-07-21
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PICEM is a general purpose picture view program which also allows you to
adjust the brightness and contrast in your pictures and save them back out.
PICEM is not shareware, it is freeware, meaning that you can copy and
distribute PICEM on a non-profit basis (you cannot sell it). You may use
PICEM to display images in a commercial circumstance. For instance you
can use PICEM to show sample images at a trade show, or give away PICEM
to show some example images in a book on fractals. But you cannot sell
a book on "creating presentations with PICEM" and include PICEM (as a
widely unlikely example (grin)). And you cannot sell a "Swimsuit Calendar"
with PICEM as the engine which drives it.
If you are unsure if your particular use of PICEM does not fall under
the free-use description above, contact me for clarification.
.PIC images are PC Paint and PICTOR images. PC Paint is published by MSC
tech, (previously named "Mouse Systems"). PICTOR is the Paint program
which is part of the GRASP package published by Paul Mace Software.
.PCX images are PC Paintbrush format images. PC Paintbrush is published
by Z-Soft.
.GIF images are Graphics Interchange Format, a generalized picture format
supported by Compuserve, The PICS Series of Forums on Compuserve
is one of the best places to obtain an assortment of image files
including some stunning high resolution 256 color images (ideal
for VGA and SuperVGA cards).
.TGA images are Targa HiColor format images. Originally created for the
AT&T Targa series of video cards for IBMPC's. The two types of
Targa files PICEM accepts are Targa 16 files (which are actually
15 bits per pixel), and Targa 24 files.
Keys available in PICEM when in the picture select list screen:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arrow keys - scroll around picture list to select picture filenames
SPACE - mark/unmark image names for display
* - mark all image names for display
RETURN - display the current selected picture and any others selected
with SPACE
ESC - exit program
Keys available in PICEM while viewing images:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arrow keys - scroll around picture (if image is larger than screen)
* - reset to original contrast and brightness
+ - increase contrast, (bring out colors in a flat image)
- - decrease contrast, (reduce washed-out dark colors in pale image)
Ins - increase brightness, (bring up details hidden in darkness)
Del - decrease brightness, (reduce the overexposed effect of a high
contrast setting)
1,2...8,9,0 - set speed for +,-,Ins and Del, (how fast contrast and brightness
controls function with 1 slowest and 0 fastest
SPACE - skip to the next picture selected
RETURN - exactly the same as SPACE
TAB - Scale image to exactly screen size (great for large images
that don't fit on screen, favorite of users of standard
VGAs that use mode W for viewing 640x480 images)
W - write picture to disk as BAS PIC GIF PCX or IMG
BACKSPACE - display test pattern (in 256 color modes only)
ESC - exit program
Command line Parameters for PICEM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICEM {/k /l /w:t /v:vmode{,xsize,ysize,vnum} /d:x,y /m /c} fname ...
/k - do not wait for a keypress between pictures
/l - display pictures in continous loop
/s - scale all images to screen size (like TAB key)
/w:t - Wait t number of 1/100ths of a second after each picture
/n - Don't sort list of filenames
/e - Don't clear screen on exit (leave image on screen)
/d:x,y - set lower left hand coordinates to display picture
/d - force centering of image (default)
/m - multi-picture display prevents palette switch between
display of multiple images
/c - clear the screen
/v:vnum
vnum - BIOS video mode number to set (vmode defaults to 'L')
this is the short order version of the full /v: option
it is intended for SuperVGA modes.
/v:vmode{,xsize,ysize,vnum}
vmode - video mode most similar to the mode you are choosing:
A CGA 4 color B PCjr/Tandy 16 color
C CGA 640x200 2 color D EGA 640x200 16 color
E EGA 640x350 2 color F EGA 640x350 4 color
G EGA 640x350 16 color H Hercules 720x348 2 color
I VGA 640x350 16 color J EGA 320x200 16 color
K AT&T/Toshiba 640x400 2 color L VGA/MCGA 320x200 256 color
M VGA 640x480 16 color N Hercules InColor 720x348 16 color
O VGA/MCGA 640x480 2 color P EGA/VGA 800x600 2 color
Q EGA/VGA 800x600 16 color R S-VGA 640x400 256 color
S S-VGA 640x480 256 color T S-VGA 800x600 256 color
U S-VGA 1024x768 2 color V S-VGA 1024x768 16 color
W VGA 360x480 256 color X S-VGA 1024x768 256 color
Y S-VGA 1280x1024 16 color Z S-VGA 1280x1024 256 color
L1 S-VGA 320x200 HiColor 15 S1 S-VGA 640x480 HiColor 15
T1 S-VGA 800x600 HiColor 15 X1 S-VGA 1024x768 HiColor 15
Z1 S-VGA 1280x1024 HiColor 15 L2 S-VGA 320x200 HiColor 16
S2 S-VGA 640x480 HiColor 16 T2 S-VGA 800x600 HiColor 16
X2 S-VGA 1024x768 HiColor 16 Z2 S-VGA 1280x1024 HiColor 16
L3 S-VGA 320x200 HiColor 24 S3 S-VGA 640x480 HiColor 24
T3 S-VGA 800x600 HiColor 24 X3 S-VGA 1024x768 HiColor 24
Z3 S-VGA 1280x1024 HiColor 24
xsize - optional width of the video mode you have chosen in pixels
ysize - optional height of the video mode you have chosen in pixels
vnum - the BIOS video mode number for the mode you have chosen
Other command line options:
/vesa - Only test for VESA VBE support, do not do any low level
SVGA chipset detect (which can cause problems on some
video cards).
/nosvga - Disable all SVGA testing/support including VESA VBE support.
This option may be required on old or unusual hardware which
may react badly to SVGA detect or even the VESA Video Bios
Extensions detect call.
/biospal - Forces PICEM to use the standard Video BIOS function call for
setting the VGA color palette. This may be required on some
Local Bus video card that do not handle high speed direct
writes to the palette RAMDAC. The symptom is generally random
errors in the image (some colors are wrong). This can also
happen on some early VGA clones which had bugs in their palette
support.
/noems - Disable use of EMS for swapping
/noxms - Disable use of XMS for swapping
/nodisk - Disable use of a Read/Write Swapfile on the current drive.
PICEM accepts wildcard filenames, so you could:
PICEM \PICS\*.GIF
or
PICEM /V:W /W:50 \CIS\*.GIF
or
PICEM /V:L /K /D:20,30 FRAME??.PIC
or
PICEM /V:S1 *.TGA
PICEM supports a wide variety of Video boards, with a primary emphasis on
VGA/SuperVGA boards. On VGA boards PICEM defaults to /V:W which is
360x480 256 colors (a non-standard mode, but it's the best 256 color mode
available on a standard VGA). On SuperVGA boards PICEM defaults to /V:R
which is 640x350/640x400 256 colors on boards with only 256k, and /V:S
which is 640x480 256 colors on boards that have 512k or more.
Some boards such as the ATI and Orchid may be capable of 800x600 256
colors, but since many monitors will not handle this mode, I don't
default to it, you can manually select it with /V:T.
Also if your board has a odd resolution 256 color mode that you would like
to take advantage of (such as the Everex 512x480 mode, or the Genoa 720x512
mode) you can manually override the BIOS mode used. For instance to set
512x480 on a Everex board we would do PICEM /V:0x15 (the 0x means hexidecimal,
the way most bios mode numbers are written in manuals, the same number in
decimal would be PICEM /V:21).
For any bug reports I can be contacted on CIS (Compuserve) ID:75300,2137 in
the PICS Forum, To enter the PICS forum on Compuserve just type "GO PICS"
from any prompt.
John Bridges 7/21/1993
Bug fixes:
10/09/91 - /d:0,0 will now work (it used to center the image)
10/11/91 - /d with no colon resets to centering images
and the /d: and /d parm can be mixed with filenames
to display images at different positions.
10/12/91 - oops, the multiple /d: and /d parms were skipping
filenames.
10/14/91 - /c is new command line option to force screen to clear.
/m is new command line option to prevent palette change
between images.
the first /d: and /d parms MUST be just before the
first filename after all other parms. This applies
to all parms that can be mixed in with filenames
(right now this is /d: /d /c and /m).
@filename on the command line allows a list of command
line parms to be read it from a file.
New tiny version of picem called TPICEM.EXE is now
available. It removed the image selection screen, the
palette manipulation (brightness/contrast), the test
screen, the help screens and the image save.
10/19/91 - support for OAK Tech OTI-077 chipset is in
10/24/91 - better accuracy and overflow checking in brightness and
contrast control code, it's completely rewritten, much
smoother.
10/25/91 - * key selects all pictures when in picture list display.
1/20/92 - new version number because support for ACUMOS and ATI are
added, and some other library bugs are fixed.
1/24/92 - GIF load code corrected to handle extension blocks at the
beginning of images.
10/26/92 - I removed the long list of chipset makers and video mode
numbers. This information is still available in VGAKIT.
6/25/93 - Rewritten to use new virtual memory system I created for
Multi-Media GRASP 5.0
EMS/XMS and disk swapping support
HiColor video modes (15 and 16 bit)
New 32bit bitblit code (on 386/486 processors)
High speed scaling
Uncompressed Targa and TIFF images support
Better support of odd text modes (VESA VBE ones in particular)
7/20/93 - New command line options to control EMS/XMS/Disk swapping.
New command line options /NOSVGA, /VESA, and /BIOSPAL
Support for automatic conversion of 256 color for display in
HiColor modes (including scaling).
Auto conversion of 24 bit, 16 bit and 15 bit images to any
HiColor mode (including scaling).
New hispeed scaling code for HiColor video modes.
HiColor images can be displayed in 256 color modes, there is
a slight delay while the lookup table is generated, and
the current palette is used (which is useually not an optimum
palette).
List of modes in help is now limited to detected available
video modes (making the list more readable, and allowing
HiColor modes to be listed).
7/20/93 - Fixed 256 color display of Hicolor 16 and 24 bit images, and
sped up scrolling/scaling of Hicolor images in 256 color mode.
7/21/93 - VGA 16 color modes weren't working in 3.01 and 3.01b, ooops.