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1991-05-22
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VGAMAX 2.0
by Christopher Antos
Introduction
------------
VGAMAX is a TSR utility that intercepts BIOS requests to change
the video mode or the video font. VGAMAX will substitute a font
of your choice for the default ROM fonts that you usually see on
your screen. VGAMAX only affects text mode, and does not do
anything when a graphics request comes in--VGAMAX lets the ROM
BIOS handle all graphics requests.
VGAMAX has a built-in help screen which lists the valid
commands. To see the help screen, type VGAMAX ? at the DOS
prompt.
Using VGAMAX
============
First, you must install VGAMAX. To do this, you must decided
how many "font banks" you want to have. A font bank is a chunk
of memory which VGAMAX uses to store your custom fonts. You can
tell VGAMAX to reserve up to 8 font banks, each of which can
hold a different font.
To make VGAMAX substitute one of your custom fonts for a ROM
BIOS font, you tell VGAMAX which font bank contains the
particular custom font you want to use.
The following three sections explain how to install VGAMAX using
the three different types of memory: conventional memory, EMS
memory, and XMS memory. If you have High RAM and utility that
lets you use it, you can load VGAMAX into High RAM, too. See
your High RAM memory manager manuals for information on how to
do this.
Conventional Memory
-------------------
If you don't have High RAM, EMS memory, or XMS memory, you will
have to install VGAMAX into conventional memory. This method of
installation takes the most memory away from DOS (or High RAM).
VGAMAX will take 3k for the program code, and 4k per font bank.
To install VGAMAX, use this command:
VGAMAX /N<z>
where <z> is the number of font banks to reserve. See the
section "Features" to find out what you can do with VGAMAX once
it's installed.
EMS Memory
----------
VGAMAX can use EMS memory for its font banks. This allows
VGAMAX to only take away 3k from DOS (or use 3k of High RAM).
However, since EMS memory can only be reserved in 16k chunks,
VGAMAX will give you either 4 or 8 font banks. If you request 4
or fewer, VGAMAX will give you 4. If you request 5 or more,
VGAMAX will give you 8.
To use EMS memory, use this command:
VGAMAX /N<z> /E
where <z> is the number of font banks to reserve. See the
section "Features" to find out what you can do with VGAMAX once
it's installed.
XMS Memory
----------
VGAMAX can use XMS memory for its font banks. If you use XMS
memory, VGAMAX will take 7k away from DOS (or use 7k of High
RAM). The font banks will be in XMS memory, though. You can
reserve up to 8 font banks. Each font bank will take 4k of XMS
memory.
To use XMS memory, use this command:
VGAMAX /N<z> /X
where <z> is the number of font banks to reserve. See the
section "Features" (below) to find out what you can do with
VGAMAX once it's installed.
Features
========
VGAMAX has many options, which are outlined below. Keep in mind
that I'm a college student and don't have the time to explain
each feature in detail. You'll have to do some experimenting.
I've done my best to make VGAMAX easy to use and understand,
though.
Loading Fonts
-------------
Before you can do anything with fonts, you must load a font into
a font bank. Use this command:
VGAMAX /F<z><fontfile>
where <z> is the number of the bank into which you want to load
the font in the file <fontfile>. You can load a different font
into each font bank VGAMAX has reserved.
Activating a Custom Font
------------------------
Once a font is loaded into a font bank, you can tell VGAMAX to
activate that font by using this command:
VGAMAX /F<z>
where <z> is the number of the bank into which you loaded the
font.
Substituting for the ROM Fonts
------------------------------
VGAMAX can substitute the font of your choice for the 8x8 font
(used in 50-line and 43-line display modes), the 8x14 font (used
in 28-line mode on the VGA, or as the default font on the EGA),
or for the 8x16 font (the default font for VGA cards).
To tell VGAMAX to use a custom font in place of the 8x8 font,
use this command:
VGAMAX /A<z>
where <z> is the number of the bank into which you loaded the
font. This font will be activated automatically whenever any
program tries to switch to 50-line mode or 43-line mode. (Note
that your custom font doesn't need to be an 8x8 font--it can be
whatever you want--an 8x16 font, or maybe an 8x7 font to give
you even MORE lines of text on the screen!)
To tell VGAMAX to use a custom font in place of the 8x14 font,
use this command (for EGA cards, don't use this command, use the
next one):
VGAMAX /B<z>
where <z> is again the bank where the font resides. This font
will be used whenever a program tries to activate the ROM 8x14
font. (Note that your custom font doesn't need to be an 8x14
font!)
To tell VGAMAX to use a custom font in place of the default
system font, use this command:
VGAMAX /M<z>
where <z> is (you guessed it) the bank where the font resides.
This font will be used whenever a program switches to normal
25-line text mode. (Note that you can use any size font--you
could use an 8x8 font, for instance, to force the computer to
always be in 50-line mode!)
To disable any of these font substitutions, use the same letter
command as you did to enable them, but tell VGAMAX to use bank
zero. For example:
VGAMAX /A0
VGAMAX /B0
VGAMAX /M0
VGA Palettes
------------
If you have a VGA card, you can tell VGAMAX to replace the
default text mode palette with a custom palette you create. See
the section "PMAKE: The Palette Creator" for information on
creating palettes.
To load your custom palette into VGAMAX, use the command:
VGAMAX /P<palettefile>
where <palettefile> is the filename of your custom palette. Now
that the palette is loaded, you need to tell VGAMAX to use your
palette. To do this, use this command:
VGAMAX /P
Note that the "/P" command with a filename is very different
from the "/P" command without a filename. The former loads a
custom palette, the latter activates your custom palette. If
you want to revert to the default palette, use the command:
VGAMAX /R
The Hotkeys
-----------
VGAMAX lets you switch between fonts and palettes at the touch
of a key, too!
You can press Ctrl-Alt-0 (NOT on the numeric keypad) to cycle
through the loaded fonts until you find one you like.
To switch to the 8x8 font (the ROM default font, or your custom
font if you've used the /A option), press Ctrl-Alt-6.
To switch to the 8x14 font (the ROM default font, or your custom
font if you've used the /B option), press Ctrl-Alt-7.
To switch to the 8x16 font (the ROM default font, or your custom
font if you've used the /M option), press Ctrl-Alt-8.
(Pressing Ctrl-Alt-9 will do the same thing).
To switch to your custom palette, press Ctrl-Alt-[ (that's the
left square bracket, next to the "P" key).
To switch to the default ROM palette, press Ctrl-Alt-] (right
square bracket).
Changing the Number of Font Banks
---------------------------------
If you are using EMS memory or XMS memory to hold the font
banks, you can tell VGAMAX to change the number of font banks it
has reserved. Just use this command:
VGAMAX /N<z>
where <z> is the new number of banks. If this is fewer than the
number of banks you had previously reserved, VGAMAX will release
the unneeded banks (thus losing the fonts in them). If the new
number of banks is greater than it was before, then VGAMAX will
make room for more fonts, but will not affect the fonts
currently loaded. If the number is the same then nothing
happens.
If you are using conventional memory, then you will have to
uninstall VGAMAX and reinstall it to change the number of font
banks (thereby losing ALL the loaded fonts).
Uninstalling VGAMAX
-------------------
To uninstall VGAMAX, first make sure that there are no memory
resident programs still installed which were installed after
VGAMAX was. Then use this command:
VGAMAX /U
Hints
-----
The VGAMAX commands have each been explained separately above.
However, you can mix multiple commands together. For instance,
to install VGAMAX, reserve 4 font banks in EMS memory, load a
font into bank 2, load another into bank 3, activate the font in
bank 2, load a custom palette, and activate that palette, you
might use this command:
VGAMAX /N4/E/F2myfont.a/F3myfont.b/F2/Pmypal/P
The Font Utilities
==================
FED: The Font Editor
---------------------
FED is a quick and dirty font editor which lets you create and
modify fonts for VGAMAX (and similar custom font programs). It
is fairly self-explanatory, so please just experiment with it
and figure out how it works on your own. I'm just a struggling
student. I can't fully document everything I do. My apologies.
GRABFONT: The Font Grabber
---------------------------
If there's a program that uses a cool font and you'd like to use
that font yourself, you can use GRABFONT to snag the font for
use with VGAMAX (and similar custom font programs).
GRABFONT only works from the DOS prompt, so you will have to
either shell to DOS or hope that your program doesn't switch
back to the ROM font when it is done.
To grab a font, use this command:
GRABFONT <fontname>
where <fontname> is a filename you want to save the font under.
PMAKE: The Palette Creator
---------------------------
PMAKE lets you create VGA palette files for VGAMAX's user
palette feature. The input file is an ASCII script file, and
the output file is a VGAMAX palette file.
The ASCII script file must have 16 lines which describe the 16
colors you want to use. Each of these lines must have three
decimal (base 10) numbers which give the Red, Green, and Blue
values for the color. Each individual RGB value can range from
0 to 63. The three values must be separated by commas. An
example follows:
0, 0, 0 ;black
0, 0, 42 ;blue
0, 42, 0 ;green
0, 42, 42 ;cyan
42, 0, 0 ;red
42, 0, 42 ;magenta
0, 42, 63 ;brown
42, 42, 42 ;gray
21, 21, 21 ;dark gray
0, 0, 63 ;bright blue
0, 63, 0 ;bright green
0, 63, 63 ;bright cyan
63, 0, 0 ;bright red
63, 0, 63 ;bright magenta
63, 63, 0 ;bright yellow
63, 63, 63 ;bright white
This example defines the default color palette that your VGA
video card uses (in fact, all the video cards use the same
default palette, but VGAMAX can only work "palette magic" with
the VGA card). The file "USER.ROM" is a good starting point for
creating your own palette files (it holds the above default
definitions).
The ASCII script file may contain more than 16 lines, but the
additional lines must be either blank lines or comment lines.
Comment lines must begin with a semicolon (;).
PMAKE is used to "compile" the script file into a VGAMAX palette
file. To compile a script file, use this command:
PMAKE <infile> <outfile>
where <infile> is the filename of the ASCII script file and
<outfile> is the filename of the VGAMAX palette file to produce.
Donations
---------
As I mentioned earlier, I'm a struggling student. This utility
is a quality utility, with a couple years of use behind it (I
only recently decided to release it to the public). It's
DonationWare. In other words, if you like it, please send a
donation of $5 to the US address below.
Known Bugs
----------
Since I don't have access to a computer with an EGA or MCGA
video card, I can't say that VGAMAX will work for sure on them.
In fact, I think it will encounter some problems, because I
added some code to VGAMAX to make it figure out if you have an
EGA or MCGA card and do some things differently than for a VGA.
These things probably will not work, since currently I have no
way to debug them.
Other than this shortcoming, VGAMAX should be bug free. If you
find or think you may have found a bug, please contact me:
Internet: christopher_antos@ub.cc.umich.edu
US Mail: Christopher Antos
2115 Windsor Drive
Ann Arbor, MI. 48103
U.S.A.
Disclaimer
----------
In the (unlikely) event that anything goes wrong or that VGAMAX
in some way damages your computer or your data or causes any
kind of liability to you, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY.
Thank you for trying VGAMAX. I hope it is useful for you.