Borland Programmer's Resource/Borland_Programmers_Resource_CD_1995.iso/code/graphics/improc41/newstuff.doc

Text File | 1995-05-19 | 20.4 KB | 422 lines

     IMPROCES(C). Copyright John Wagner 1991-92. All rights reserved.

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This section covers all additions to the program for version 4.1.

"The Image Lab", Tim Wegner - published by Waite Group Press, ISBN
1-878739-11-5:
I just have to say something about this book! In my opinion, The Image
Lab by Tim Wegner is simply the largest plethora of graphics knowledge
and know-how ever sewn up into the binding of a single book. The book
includes a high density diskette with three shareware and two freeware
programs for creating and editing incredible images. Tim covers viewing
(C-Show), ray tracing (POV), image processing (Piclab), painting and
modifying (Improces) and file conversion (Image Alchemy).

The Image Lab takes you step-by-step through all of the programs, with
tutorials and examples to guide you. The last chapter guides you through
creating some very complex, incredible images. You just wont find the
information that Image Lab offers anywhere else.

Be prepared to spend weeks working through this book, it's that good and
you don't want to miss a single thing it has to offer. Thanks to Tim
Wegner (and Waite Group Press), we now have a "textbook" for us graphics
nuts!

GERMAN REGISTRATIONS:
Users in Germany who wish to register may now do so by contacting the
official IMPROCES distribution site in Germany:

        CDV Software
        Ettlingerstr. 5
        W-7500 Karlsruhe 1
        Germany
        Tel [phone]
        Fax [phone]


A few things:
I've been moving around quite a bit lately. Hopefully this will stop
soon! The San Diego address for registrations is still good, and will
remain so. My phone number however has not been so lucky. As of this
release, I'm living in Las Vegas and my number is [phone]. If I
move again, this number will change. If/when you call, please make sure
it is after 12pm and before 10pm PST.

If you want to contact me with a question about the program, I _prefer_
you do it by telephone or through the Dust Devil BBS [phone]. If
you write me a letter and it isn't a registration, don't expect a
response in the near future. I'm very sorry to have to say this and it's
nothing personal. I support unregistered users as well as registered
and I pride myself on this support. It's just that I'm getting buried in
letters and I don't have the time to answer them within any kind of
reasonable time frame, so the telephone or BBS is your best bet if you
want a reply. I'm one guy deep here and the telephone is fast.

Lets put this way, I would rather you called on the phone and got an
answer, then didn't call and had to stop using the program because of
something that could be easily fixed with a phone call. Again, I pride
myself on supporting IMPROCES.

A reminder for Mail in Credit Card orders:
Please be sure to include your cards expiration date on your order form
and be sure to sign the form. Thanks!

Bug fixes:
The PCX 16 Save had a bug that would cause a problem with some other
programs when they tried to use the file. Fixed.

Problem loading interlaced GIF files that needed to be scaled. Fixed.

New features:

* Tweaked VGA video modes:
Added the tweaked 320x240x256 (mode x), 320x400x256 and 320x480x256
modes to IMPROCES. These modes should work with any VGA card with 256K
of memory. Tweaked modes are neat beacause they can squeeze extra
resolution out of a standard 256K VGA adapter.

The TWK256.BGI driver provides these modes. Do not substitute the
TWK256.BGI with the one that is currently available in other packages.
The TWK256.BGI driver was modified to work with IMPROCES. If your system
has trouble with the tweaked modes, do not attempt to continue using
them.

* UNDO in 320x200 TOOL-PAINT menu:
While in video mode 320x200, if you hit the BACKSPACE key while using
the TOOL-PAINT icon menu, you will undo the last change to the image
that was made with a tool from the PAINT menu, during the current PAINT
menu session. What I mean by that is, once you leave the PAINT menu you
cannot come back and undo the last change.

This only works in video mode 320x200. If you require an UNDO in the
other modes, use the "UNDO BEFORE PAINT" option in the FILE-SET PREF
menu.

* Sprite Anitmator!!!:
IMPROCES is being used extensively by game developers (including
myself!) for developing sprites. For them I have added the
TOOL-SPRITES... options for testing animated sprites while they are
still under development. Under Sprites...:

        Draw Grid:
        Draws twelve 64x64 pixel boxes over whatever is on the screen.
        You place the sprite in its various positions in these boxes.
        I suggest you draw the grid before you start adding sprites.

        Animate:
        Rapidly cycles between the twelve 64x64 boxes. While the sprite
        is being animated, you can click on any of the boxes to control
        whether or not to display it. You can also reverse the sprites,
        and control the speed of the sprite.

        Pages...
        Same as Pages... under the FILE menu. Put here to give faster
        access while using the Sprites. This Pages sub-menu also has the
        Clip... sub-menu under it.

To use this new feature most effectively, I suggest drawing your grid on
Page 1. Use Pages 2 - 5 to store your sprite images on. Transfer the
sprites to page 1 with the clipboard and use the CPY in the TOOL-PAINT
menu to position them. Consider the Sprites options open to change in
later versions, this is a really neat feature and I'll probably be
adding a lot more to it.

* ROTATE tool is improved:
You can now rotate a rectangualr area up to 64K in size (320x200 max),
around any center point at any angle.

To use the new TOOLS-TWIRLS-ROTATE tool, you first define a rectangular
area to rotate. You then have the option of using overlay mode (color 0
transparent).

After selecting overlay mode or not overlay mode, the rectangle will
start to flash, indicating that you are in position mode. Move the
rectangle to where you want it be located and hit the LMB, or RMB to
abort.

Four flashing lines, starting from the four corners of the rectangle
will appear on the screen. The lines will converge on the point that the
rectangle will rotate around. At this time, you can re-position this
point to anywhere on the screen. Hit the LMB when the center point is
where you want it, or hit the RMB to have IMPROCES place the center
point exactly in the center of the rectangle.

Now you can rotate the rectangle around the center point until it is
positioned where you want it and press the LMB, or the RMB to abort the
process. After you hit the LMB, the image will be redrawn, rotated and
moved to it's new position. This can take a little time if you have a
machine without a math-chip on board, so I suggest only rotating small
areas if you haven't got a math-chip. A '486DX cures this!

* Gradient Floodfill options allow for greater control:
In previous versions, you were somewhat limited in the way the gradient
floods worked. Actually, you were very limited. Things have changed...
you can now pick the width of the area you want the palette to cycle
through. You also have a new type of gradient flood, called the Dithered
Flood.

The dithered flood lets you pick two colors to create a dither pattern
from. When the flood is then used, the colors will cycle from one color
to the other, in a dithered pattern. The limitation of this tool is that
the seed color (the color where the fill starts) cannot be the same
color as either of the two colors that are used in the fill. IMPROCES
will prevent you from doing this.

The way that you pick the gradient color cycle area follows: Select the
point where the flood should begin from (seed point). The cursor then
turns into a stretchable line. Stretch the line so that it's distance is
equal to the area you want the colors to cycle between. You can press
the RMB while resizing the line so that the start point of the line may
be repositioned. When the line is the desired length, hit the LMB to
begin the fill. NOTE: Even though you can reposition the start point of
the line by hitting the RMB once, the seed point remains the same unless
you hit the RMB another time (two times total) while stretching the
line. Thanks to Steve Lumos for keeping after me to add this.

* Added WIDTH and SATURATION setting to AIR switch:
When the AIR mode is selected for the TOOL-PAINT menu, you can adjust
the settings for the AIR brushes. OVERSPRAY controls how wide the spray
pattern will be and SATURATION controls how much color will be splattered
on the image. I've found the best settings for these options is 4 and 4.
I've also found that I really like this new feature!

* Added high-low setting to RAINBOW brush:
When the RAINBOW (RNB) mode is selected, you will be allowed to adjust
the colors that are cycled through when the brush is applied.

* Easier to pick color from PAINT menu:
When you click on the current color box in the PAINT menu, a larger
color selection area will appear. You can choose a color from the
selection area or the image. Hit the RMB when you want to return to the
paint menu.

* Clip Submenu now an option under Pages sub-menu:
Since the clipboards main responsibility has shifted from pasting
between images stored in image files (GIF/PCX, etc...) to images stored
on Pages, I've added the Clip... menu to the Pages sub-menu. This really
speeds things up.

* FAT BIT gets better:
Color selection in the Fat Bit editor has been a little tricky. Now, 16
colors at a time are displayed above the full 256 color palette in
large, easy to pick from boxes. Using the RIGHT and LEFT ARROW keys, you
can cycle through which group of 16 colors you have to choose from.

* Dithering:
The FAT-BIT editor now adds a Dither Pattern option. The dither pattern
you select in the FAT-BIT editor applies to the REG paintbrush as well
as the FAT-BIT editor.

The dither pattern can be up to a 4x4 grid. When the grid is a 1x1 (the
default), the dithering is "OFF". You can adjust the size of the grid by
clicking on the number next to the grid in the FAT-BIT editor. To use
the dithering, first click on the "1" (grid size) in the FAT-BIT editor
to increase the size of the grid to at least a 2x2. You then create you
grid by placing the colors you want to use in the grid. Now, whenever
you go to place a pixel in the FAT-BIT editor, the dither pattern is
used to determine which color pixel gets placed. The same goes for when
you use the paintbrushes and single pixel tool. The brushes only use
the dither pattern when in the REG brush mode.

* Pick a color from any pull-down:
While the pull the pul-down menu system is active, you can choose a
color from anywhere on the image or from the palette at the top of the
menu. The current color is also shown at the top of menu bar next to the
current palette.(I knew I put the palette up there for a reason!).

* Last font name is saved:
After you've used the bit-mapped fonts, the name of the last font you
used is saved in a file in the same directory as IMPROCES, and is called
LASTFONT.CFG. When the program is started again, this file is read and
the font is automatically registered as the current font.

* Targa loader, even faster:
Yes, it's true, Targa color reduction is now faster then before, even
faster then 4.0.

* More Targa stuff:
You have a few more options when loading a Targa image now. First, you
must choose how you want IMPROCES to get a palette for the image: Color
Reduction, Use a .MAP file, Use a QuickPal (pre-defined, general use)
palette or Use the current palette. Then you need to tell IMPROCES how
to use the palette, Map the image, do a Slow dither or do a Fast dither.
The mapping is the fastest, the Slow dither yields the best results and
the Fast dither yields fair results sometimes. When you use the
QuickPal, the Fast and Slow dither are about the same speed, but they do
give different results.

You'll need to experiment with the options to get a feel for what each
one can do. What I think you'll find is that there is no one option that
is best for all images. Ensure that the DITHER.DAT file is in the same
directory as IMPROCES when it is run, otherwise the Targa decoder will
refuse to run.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Mr. Lee Crocker for writing and
releasing the source code to Piclab. Piclab is an excellent public
domain image processing program that is widely available on BBS's,
C-Serve and other online services. I highly recomend it.

The dithering code that IMPROCES uses is based largely on the code that
Lee wrote for Piclab. Lee aknowledges Frankie Sierra for his Sierra
filter. Seeing as I'm using it now, I will do the same here. Thanks to
both of you.

* Work Area for EFFECTS:
The functions in the effects menu now confine themselves to the current
work area instead of using the whole screen. The work area does not
effect the new 3d Effect. Thanks to Bob Sherburne for this idea.

* Three Dimensional Effect:
Takes the current screen and maps it onto a plane. Has three options:
Map on plane (flat, like paper), Points as heights (height of point
depends on its color index value and Lines Up (points are drawn as lines
up from the ground to the height of their color index value). If you
choose the Point as heights or Lines Up, you will then need to choose a
scaling percentage (fraction) for the heights of the pixels/lines. For a
neat example of the 3D transform, run a full screen Plasma cloud in
video mode 320x200 using all of the colors in the default palette and a
Graininess setting of 2.0. Select Three Dim and use Lines Up and a
scaling percentage of 1/8. Very cool when color cycled. Then again, what
isn't cool when color cycled?

* Added "Swap" color to the palette editor:
The palette editor introduces what I call "the secondary color". The
secondary color is selected with the RMB and is shown next to the
current "primary" color. When you click on the area that the primary and
secondary color are displayed, those two colors swap their register
values. Thanks to Chuck Streb for this idea.

In the future, the secondary color will be expanded to the shadow area
on the text tool and other areas as well.

* Added HISTO/CTRST... submenu to ENHANCE:
Shortened the ENHANCE menu considerably by consolidating the HISTOGRAM
and CONTRAST STRETCH options into a sub-menu under ENHANCE.

* Added LINE FREQ to HISTO/CTRST menu:
Move the mouse up and down to display a graph of line that that mouse is
over. Toggle between the graph and a moving line (so you can see what
line you are looking at) by hitting the LMB. Hit the RMB when you are
done. This tool is interesting because it shows the spatial frequency of
your image graphically and you can analyze the effects of the filters
more effectively. It's also interesting becuase it lets you "listen"
to an image.

For an interesting experiment that demonstrates the use of this feature,
load a 320x200 (or less) greyscale image into video mode 640x400. Make a
copy of the image just to the right of the original. Now, sharpen the
copy by first defining the copy as the work area and then using
GreySharpen. Go to the HISTO/CTRST section and select LINE FREQ. Move
the mouse up and down to display the graph of each line. Notice how the
graph of the original and the sharpened copy have the same shape, but
the sharpened image has a much higher rate of change over the same area.
This shows (and proves) how the sharpening filter actally works, it
passes and accentuates high-frequency parts of the image (edges, or
areas of with a high rate change in a short amount of space) and filters
out low-frequency parts of the image (areas with little change).

To hear the line that is currently displayed, first make sure you are in
"graph" mode and then press the LEFT SHIFT key. And no, SoundBlaster
support is not planned for the future.

* BLOCK is now a sub-menu:
The BLOCK section of the COLOR pull-down is now a sub-menu. Contained in
the BLOCK... submenu are: Adjuster (same as original BLOCK), Remove Red,
Remove Green, Remove Blue and FastMap. The Remove xxx options remove all
of the designated color from the palette. The FastMap is described
below. Since all of these options apply themselves to the entire image,
they are grouped under the BLOCK sub-menu.

* Added "FastMap":
Under the COLOR-BLOCK section is FastMap. What this does is allow you to
quickly pick colors from your image and set them to the current color.
The last color you changed can be undone by pressing the backspace key.
After you are done picking the colors, click the RMB. You will have the
option of applying the changes to the image or reverting back to the way
things looked before you started. If you choose to apply the changes,
the image will be re-mapped. This feature makes it a lot easier to cut
out section of images and use the remap/overlay mode of the clipboard.
To do this, select color 0 as your current color, then use the FastMap
feature. Thanks to Chuck Streb for this idea.

* Hitting the 'L' key in the palette editor:
Hitting the 'L' key while in the palette editore will now toggle the
index that is used to display the r,g,b palette registers. The default
is a number between 0 and 63, while striking the 'L' key shows the
setting as a value between 0 and 1.

* The Index Avrge:
Actually, the "new" Index Avrge option in the EFFECTS menu is the old
Average from pre 3.0 versions of IMPROCES. It's a very neat feature that
just uses the look up value in the palette for doing a 3x3 average of
the specified work area. Try it using the default IMPROCES palette on
some color 255 text over a color 0 background. Run it a few times to get
the best effect.

* New Default 256 color palette option:
The COLOR-PALETTE menu now has a STAND 256 option. This palette is the
hardware default palette from the VGA 256 color modes. The first 16
colors of this palette are identical to the 16 color EGA modes, so this
is quite a useful addition for developing 16 color sprites and
backgrounds for 16 color games.

* Gamma Adjust:
Use this to adjust the Gamma of the current palette.

* Changed the TOOLS-PAINT menu:
This menu has been modified to make future expansion of it possible.

* Speed-Search with the filepicker:
When selecting a file with the filepicker, you can now enter in a search
string and IMPROCES will take you to the first file containing the
string you specify and move the hi-lite bar over the file. Pressing
enter will use that file, or you can move around as before.

You can also specify a drive as the first two letters of your search
string and press enter. IMPROCES will change to that drive. Example: To
change to drive A: while selecting a file, enter A: as your search
string and press ENTER.

* Added -CT command line parameter:
Toggles the checking of the Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys. Defaults to ON.

* Added -P256 command line parameter:
Loads the hardware default 256 color palette instead of the IMPROCES
default 256 color palette at runtime.

* Added -ML command line parameter:
Uses a cross hair for the mouse pointer instead of the standard arrow.

* Took out the saving of color cycle info:
Past versions IMPROCES used to save the color cycle setting in a file
with a .CCL extension. This has been discontinued as of this version.

A few more Q's:

Q. How do I edit and save a 640x350x16 EGA image?

A. You must use a Virtual Mode when loading the image. Be sure not add
any color with a value over 15, and save then image as a PCX 16.

Q. Is there a way to cut out a non-rectangular size piece from an image
and then paste it somewhere else, or save it with the clipboard?

A. Yes. First, select the color 0 as your drawing color. Then, use a
paintbrush in REG mode or the ERASER tool to outline the irregular area
you want to cut. Then select COPY from the Clipboard and place the
rectangle around the area you want to copy/save. To copy it back, select
COPY from the CLIP menu and then select OVERLAY after deciding where you
want the image to go. OVERLAY treats color 0 pixels as transparent.

Q. My monitor and card support 640x480, but it's not working in IMPROCES.
Why?

A. Make sure your setup supports 640x480 in 256 colors. A lot of
manufactuers will say their cards/monitors support 640x480 (or
1024x768), but they are talking about a 16 color mode, not 256 colors
and believe me, 16 color and 256 color modes are two different animals.

Thats about it. Enjoy the program!