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PCXDUMP Version 8.00 ------------------------ THE screen capture program Documentation and technical notes April 13., 1992 Copyright 1991-1992 by Jesper Frandsen All rights reserved Email address : jesperf@daimi.aau.dk DISCLAIMER AND WARRANTY ----------------------- This product is distributed AS IS. The author specifically disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the diskette and documentation, and program license granted herein, in particular, and without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any particular application use or purpose. In no event shall the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. LICENSING AGREEMENT ------------------- PCXDUMP is copyrighted software and all rights are reserved. PCXDUMP may not be changed or modified in any way except by the author. PCXDUMP is SHAREWARE and may be freely distributed as long as it remains in its complete form with all support and documentation files. It may be used for a 10 day free trial period. Regardless of how the copy is obtained, it is requested that all users comply with the following licensing and registration provisions if they continue to use it after the 10 day trial period. Should you find this program useful, you must register it; you will then be provided with the latest releases of the PCXDUMP system. The cost as of this writing is $30.00 U.S. per single-user license. When you register, you receive a copy of the latest registered version of PCXDUMP, plus any enhancements that have been added since this document was released. Check "REGISTRATION" for possible discounts. If you obtained this program from a shareware disk distributor, then you have paid only for the service of copying this disk, but you have not paid for the program itself. The author receives no part of the price you may have paid to a disk distributor for this disk. PC, XT, PC/AT and PS/2 are trademarks, and IBM is a registered trademark, of International Business Machines Corporation. Hercules is a registered trademark of Hercules Computer Technology PC Paintbrush is a registered trademark of Zsoft Corporation. WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation. PageMaker is a registered trademark of Aldus Corporation. Ventura Publisher is a registered trademark of Ventura Software Inc. GIF is a trademark of CompuServe Inc. OVERVIEW OF PCXDUMP ------------------- PCXDUMP is a program which saves the images on the screen of your IBM Personal Computer or compatible PC to a disk file. PCXDUMP is memory resident, which means that having executed it once, the program is always waiting in the background, while you continue to run other programs. You tell PCXDUMP to capture the image currently displayed on the screen by pressing a combination of keys which PCXDUMP reserves for itself. The saved images are put on the disk in the PCX-format. A large variety of word processors, desktop publishers and paint programs are capable of importing PCX-files, e.g. WordPerfect, PageMaker, Ventura Publisher, PaintBrush, almost any Windows program and many, many more. Also included in the package is a utility, PCXLAB, which will show all the images that PCXDUMP can produce (2, 16, 256 or 16.7 million color PCX files) on any EGA, VGA or SVGA display adapter (except EGA mono). PCXLAB will also convert PCX-files to other fileformats, convert color PCX-files to monochrome PCX-files and will reduce the number of colors in a PCX-file. 9 GOOD REASONS TO USE PCXDUMP ----------------------------- THE PRICE - PCXDUMP will cost you only $30.00. THE SIZE - PCXDUMP will use only 15.0 Kb of conventional memory (and no EMS or XMS). THE SPEED - ALL pixels are written/read directly in to the video memory and hence really fast! SUPER-VGA - PCXDUMP recognizes a large number of SuperVGA chips, and is able to use their resolutions as well. PCXDUMP will also recognize the HiColor extension of several of these SuperVGA cards. EASY TO INSTALL - PCXDUMP can be installed with a on-screen menu where you can install PCXDUMP the way you prefer. In the menu you can change things as: the hotkey-sequence to activate PCXDUMP, where to put the PCX-files, the type of your videocard (PCXDUMP autodetects the videocard) and several other features. IT'S EASY TO USE - Just press the hotkey and use the mouse or keyboard to choose which part of the screen to save. PCXDUMP dumps the images directly to the PCX-format. - PCXDUMP offers several ways of "delaying" the installation. Read about it in "PCXDUMP INSTALLATION OPTIONS". In short this means that you are able to capture screens, which you normally are not able to capture. - A lot of (particularly new) games push the EGA or VGA card to the limit and use undocumented videomodes to get smooth scroll and smooth animation. PCXDUMP recognizes these modes. However, as the registers are write-only (can not be read) on EGA-cards, PCXDUMP can neither detect nor use these modes on EGA-cards. But on VGA-cards or better ALL these modes will be detected! Even if these modes includes a splitscreen configuration (like the shareware version of 3D Wolfenstein game from Apogee)! IT'S NOT CRIPPLED - And last, but not least. It is not crippled in any way. PCXDUMP is designed to capture graphic screens and will work with no limitations in graphics modes. But when you register PCXDUMP, you will get the "text capturing" function as a bonus! PCXDUMP REQUIREMENTS -------------------- To use PCXDUMP, you will need: a) an IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or 100% compatible computer; b) at least one floppy diskette drive; and c) the IBM-PC DOS (Disk Operating System), or MS-DOS, in a version numbered 2.0 or higher. A Mouse Systems compatible mouse will also be convenient. You can use PCXDUMP with either a color or a monochrome EGA or VGA display card (and naturally with a SuperVGA display card). WHAT PCXDUMP CAN CAPTURE ------------------------ PCXDUMP is capable of capturing graphic images on systems equipped with any of the following video display adapters: * Multicolor Graphics Adapter (MCGA) * Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) * Video Gate Array adapter (VGA) Although PCXDUMP can dump images from mode 4, 5 and 6 (which are CGA modes, see table below), you still need at least an EGA or MCGA card to install PCXDUMP. No Hercules support, sorry! PCXDUMP captures all of the video modes listed in the following table, which have been standardized by manufacturers of the various video adapters mentioned above: Video Graphics Adapters Mode Resolution Colors Supporting ----- ---------- ---------- -------------------- 04 320 x 200 4 CGA/EGA/VGA *) 05 320 x 200 4 CGA/EGA/VGA *) 06 640 x 200 2 CGA/EGA/VGA 13 320 x 200 16 EGA/VGA 14 640 x 200 16 EGA/VGA 15 640 x 350 2 EGA/VGA 16 640 x 350 16 EGA/VGA 17 640 x 480 2 VGA/MCGA 18 640 x 480 16 VGA 19 320 x 200 256 VGA/MCGA *) In these two CGA-modes, PCXDUMP will always use a palette of Black, Cyan, Magenta and White. And if you have any of these SVGA-cards, you are able to capture screens from their SVGA modes as well! - ATI-WONDER (up to 1024x768x16, 1024x768x256, 800x600x32768) - TRIDENT (up to 1024x768x16, 1024x768x256, 800x600x32768, 800x600x65536) - GENOA (up to 1024x768x16, 800x600x256) - PARADISE (up to 1280x1024x16, 1024x768x256, 800x600x32768) - TSENG ET 3000 (up to 1024x768x16, 800x600x256) - TSENG ET 4000 (up to 1280x1024x16, 1024x768x256) - TSENG HiColor (up to 1280x1024x16, 1024x768x256 800x600x32768) - TSENG TrueColor (up to 1280x1024x16, 1024x768x256 800x600x32768, 800x600x65536, 640x480x16.7 million) - OAK-037C (up to 800x600x16) - OAK-067 (up to 1024x768x16, 800x600x256) - OAK-77 (up to 1280x1024x16, 1024x768x256, 640x480x32768) - VIDEO-7 (up to 1024x768x16, 800x600x256) - CHIP & TECH. (up to 1024x768x16, 1024x768x256) - AHEAD A/B (up to 1024x768x16, 1024x768x256) - VESA CARDS (up to 1280x1024x16, 1280x1024x256, 1280x1024x32768, 1280x1024x65536, 1280x1024x16.7 million) - REALTEK (up to 1280x1024x16, 1024x768x256, 800x600x65536) - MXIC (up to 1024x768x16, 1024x768x256) PCXDUMP is not designed to work with high-resolution 4-color images. If you try to activate PCXDUMP in an unsupported video mode, PCXDUMP will produce a long deep tone. HOT-KEYS -------- When PCXDUMP is installed, these (default) hotkeys can be used: ALT+SHIFT+C dumps a color PCX-file ALT+SHIFT+E dumps the whole screen in colors (dumps immediately) ALT+SHIFT+N dumps a black/white PCX-file ALT+SHIFT+R dumps the whole screen in black/white (dumps immediately) ALT+SHIFT+I dumps a inverted black/white PCX-file ALT+SHIFT+G dumps a color PCX-file, where image is gray scaled ALT+SHIFT+H dumps a color PCX-file, where image is inverted gray scaled ALT+SHIFT+T will dump a text screen to a TEXT-file ALT+SHIFT+A will dump a text screen to a ANSI-file When dumping a color PCX-file, the screen mode (the available colors on the screen) determines which file format should be used (1, 2, 8 or 24 bits format), except dumping a gray scaled dump in 32768, 65536 or 16.7 million colors, which will produce a 256 color PCX-file. PCXDUMP will beep once when activated and (once) again when having finished dumping graphics. If you activate PCXDUMP in an unsupported video mode, such as a 4 color hires mode, PCXDUMP will emit a long low-pitched sound. You can only use the C, E, G & H hotkeys when there are at least 4 colors on the screen. You can only use the T and A hotkeys in text mode (registered version only). It is possible to change the hotkeys, read about it in "PCXDUMP INSTALLATION" NOTE: if you activate PCXDUMP in text mode, PCXDUMP will dump the screen immediately. TEXT MODES ---------- The registered version of PCXDUMP holds a bonus facility which enables you to capture screens in these text modes: Video Text Adapters Mode Resolution Colors Supporting ----- ---------- ---------- -------------------- 03 80x25 16 EGA/VGA/MCGA 03 80x43 16 EGA/VGA/MCGA 03 80x50 16 VGA/MCGA 07 80x25 2 EGA/VGA 07 80x43 2 EGA/VGA - 132x25 16 Some SVGA-cards - 132x28 16 Some SVGA-cards - 132x44 16 Some SVGA-cards - 132x60 16 Some SVGA-cards - 100x40 16 Some SVGA-cards - 100x60 16 Some SVGA-cards - 80x66 16 Some SVGA-cards - 80x60 16 Some SVGA-cards Text screens can be captured in three ways, either to a text file (.TXT), to a ANSI-file (.ANS) or to a bitmap (graphic) file (.PCX). To dump a text screen to a text file, press hotkey ALT+SHIFT+T. Instead of the PCX extension on the file it will be the TXT extension. These text files can be imported to almost any kind of wordprocessor or desktop program. When you dump to a text file, only the characters (no colors) are dumped to file. To get both, use the following. To dump a text screen to a ANSI-file, press hotkey ALT+SHIFT+A and PCXDUMP will dump the screen immediately. Instead of the PCX extension on the file, it will be a ANS extension. These ANSI-files can be typed (with the DOS command TYPE) and the correct colors (if any) will be printed on the screen, if you have the device driver ANSI.SYS installed (if not consult your DOS manual on how to install this device driver). This option is great for SysOp's, who wants to capture text screens with colors for use on their BBS. All other hotkeys will produce a bitmap file (with the PCX extension). In all modes except mode 07, you can capture the screen in both color or monochrome. In text mode, PCXDUMP uses the RAM resident font to convert the screen into a bitmap. This means that the resulting bitmap represents the captured text screen exactly as it appears on the screen, even if the program loads a specialized font (such as an emulated mouse cursor in text mode). Note that with Ventura Publisher or WordPerfect 5.1 the size of the image when incorporated into your document depends on the size of the frame (VP) or figure (WP). For best results, you must adjust this size (within VP or WP) so that pixels are not truncated or compressed. You can calculate the best size for the image in your document based on the horizontal and vertical resolution of your printer. Lets say you capture a VGA text mode screen with 80 columns and 25 lines. The font size in this mode is 8 by 16 pixels. This means that there are 400 (16 times 25) scan lines in the image and 640 pixels horizontally (80 times 8). You must size the image so that the number of pixels in the image is evenly divisible by the printer resolution. Therefore, if you have a laser printer or DeskJet printer which prints at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (both horizontal and vertical), a frame size of 2.13 inches by 1.33 or 4.27 inches by 2.67 inches would produce non-distorted output. Note that you must account for the inside border space and border width when sizing figures in WordPerfect. ADJUSTING FRAME SIZE ------------------- If you have a mouse and your mouse-driver is installed, you are able to cut out part of the screen with a on-screen frame controlled by the mouse. This can also be done by using the arrow keys and <SPACE>. It is only in graphics mode that you are able to cut/clip. In text mode the whole screen is dumped immediately. The size of the frame is shown in upper left corner. MOUSE: Press RIGHT button and move mouse to control frame-size. Press LEFT button and move mouse to control frame-position. Press MIDDLE button to adjust horizontal panning (described below) KEYBOARD: Press the arrow keys to control frame-size. Press <SPACE> and arrow keys to control frame-position. Press Keypad 5 to adjust horizontal panning (described below) BOTH MOUSE and KEYBOARD: Press <ENTER> to dump graphic within frame. Press <ESC> to cancel You can only adjust the frame size when you have pressed one of these hotkeys: C,N,I,G,H. NOTE for EGA card users: Just a piece of advice. If you capture a screen in a program (e.g. a paint program) which is also using the mouse, "noisy" pixels may appear when the mouse is moved. If you dump the whole picture without using the mouse (hotkey E & R) and use PCXLAB to show the PCX-file, you can now use the mouse to cut out the exact area. HORIZONTAL PANNING: Some programs/games uses horizontal scrolling to improve the graphics. PCXDUMP will know which part of the graphics is currently shown, except for a "few" pixels (up to 7 pixels). There is no way to determine these "extra" pixels in a safe way. If you can see that the frame start to the left of the screen, press the middle mouse button or Keypad 5 until the frame position is correct. In 16 colors mode the frame can be up to 7 pixels wrong, in 256 colors up to 3 pixels wrong. You can only adjust horizontal panning if the program uses horizontal scroll. HOW FAST IS PCXDUMP? -------------------- Direct memory read/write will be performed in ALL modes: 2, 4 (CGA), 16, 256, 32768, 65536 and 16.7 million colors mode. So this program is pretty fast! I am using a 386sx/20 Mhz system (and a Tseng ET4000 card), and these are my measurements: picture sec (approx.) -------------------------------- 320 x 200 x 256 1-1.5 640 x 480 x 256 6 800 x 600 x 256 9 1024 x 768 x 256 14 640 x 480 x 16 11 800 x 600 x 16 17 1024 x 768 x 16 27 640 x 480 x 32768 23 Because it is more complicated to encode and read and write pixels in 16-colors mode it takes a little longer than in 256 colors mode.. Due to the 24-bit coding in PCX-files, capturing of graphics in 32768 colors mode involves 3 readings of every pixel and is therefore making capturing of these modes slower than that of the corresponding mode with 256 colors. If the picture is a simple one, PCXDUMP will be faster since it needs to write less information to the disk. IF THE COMPUTER IS TOO BUSY TO CAPTURE -------------------------------------- There may be times where you request PCXDUMP to capture your screen, and nothing seems to happen. This is usually because the foreground application program is in the middle of a sensitive task which cannot be interrupted safely. In these cases, PCXDUMP is aware that you have requested a screen capture, and will pop up as soon as it becomes safe to do so. PCXDUMP INSTALLATION OPTIONS ---------------------------- PCXDUMP is easily installed with the menu that appears, when you write "PCXDUMP" + <ENTER>. You can, however, install PCXDUMP with "command line switches" alone. In this way you will be able to install PCXDUMP from a batch file, such as AUTOEXEC.BAT. This section identifies the "command line switches" which PCXDUMP recognizes and responds to. A command line switch is a string of characters which you type after the PCXDUMP command itself. The purpose of these switches is to allow you to modify the way PCXDUMP performs certain of its operations. Turning PCXDUMP's beep sounds off and removing PCXDUMP from memory are just two examples of functions which the command line switches allow you to control. A single command line may contain as many switches as you desire, in any order, in either uppercase or lowercase letters. Please note that DOS limits the maximum line length to 127 characters. Option: /ON ------------- Usage: PCXDUMP /ON Installs PCXDUMP. This option is only necessary if no other options are given. Option: /OFF -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP /OFF This option removes PCXDUMP from the memory. Do not use this switch if PCXDUMP was not is the last TSR loaded. If another resident program was loaded AFTER PCXDUMP and you use this option, memory may become messed up and you may have to reboot. Option: /NOSOUND ------------------ Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /NOSOUND Tells PCXDUMP to be quiet. Option: /TIME=number ---------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /TIME=number Use this option to "delay" the installation of INT 09h. Many programs (e.g. games like "4D STUNT DRIVE") will take complete control of INT 09h at upstart (INT 09h is the hardware keyboard interrupt, remember) and never calls the original INT 09h. For that reason PCXDUMP's own INT 09h will not be called. This obstacle can be overcomed by using the /TIME option. If it takes your program, say, about 20 seconds to start up, it's a good idea to delay the installation about 30 seconds. PCXDUMP uses the hardware clock interrupt at INT 08h to keep track of time. Example: PCXDUMP /time=60 Will install PCXDUMP, and PCXDUMP will be waiting 60 seconds before grabbing INT 09h. Bear in mind that when you use this option, you are not able to use PCXDUMP after exiting the program (or game) you wished to save images from. The reason for this is that the interrupted program remembers the "old" INT 09h address, and when you exit this program it restores INT 09h and thereby overwrites your INT 09h address. If you want to use PCXDUMP again, you do not have to reboot. Remove PCXDUMP from the memory by writing: PCXDUMP /OFF and then install PCXDUMP again. NOTE: when using the /TIME or /DISK options to delay the instal- lation, PCXDUMP will beep twice when it installs itself. This is a great help, since you now will know if it was possible for PCXDUMP to take over INT 09h, and when PCXDUMP is ready to dump images. Option: /DISK=number ---------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /DISK=number This is another way to "delay" the installation of INT 09H. In fact this option "delays" the installation of both INT 08h and INT 09h. In some programs (I have seen this in the WING COMMANDER game) it is not possible to gain access to the keyboard even with the /TIME option. The reason for this is that the WING COMMANDER game takes complete control of both INT 08h and INT 09h WITHOUT calling the original interrupt procedures. Instead of counting how many seconds it takes before the program is ready, you count how many times the program reads from the disk during upstart (that is: how many times INT 13h is called). I have included a tiny TSR-program that counts exactly how many times INT 13h is called. This program is "GETINT13.EXE". You run "GETINT13.EXE". Start the program you wish to save images from. When it is loaded, exit the program. Back in the DOS you press the hotkey to activate GETINT13 -> ALT+SHIFT+2 and GETINT13 will tell you how many times INT 13h was called. Example: When I wanted to save the logo from WING COMMANDER, I did this: C:\>GETINT13 <+ENTER> C:\>WC <+ENTER to start WING COMMANDER> As soon as possible I quit WING COMMANDER by pressing ALT+X (I think). Back in DOS I pressed ALT+SHIFT+2 to see how many times INT 13h has been called (about 190 as I remember). I then installed PCXDUMP: C:\>PCXDUMP /DISK=150 /SHIFT=0 /HOTKEY=14 and started WING COMMANDER again. When the logo appeared I pressed BackSpace which was the new hotkey for PCXDUMP. Well back in DOS, it was no longer possible to activate PCXDUMP (for the same reasons as with the /TIME option). But you can remove PCXDUMP from the memory with the option /OFF and then reinstall PCXDUMP. Bear in mind that when using this option that although your computer can not be harmed in any way the risk for the computer to "hang" is present. But at least you have now a chance to save your precious image. As mentioned above, WING COMMANDER called INT 13h about 190 times, but I gave PCXDUMP the option /DISK=150. Remember that almost any program is loading a lot of data when started, at least it is loading itself. But some programs save some data when you exit, and sometimes COMMAND.COM needs to be read from disk again. Therefore use a smaller number than GETINT13 tells you, since GETINT13 counts the total number of calls to INT 13h. Option: /AUTODUMP ----------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /AUTODUMP This option has no effect unless it is used in conjunction with either the /DISK or /TIME option. If you install PCXDUMP with "/TIME=10 /AUTODUMP" this is what happens: after 10 seconds PCXDUMP will install its own keyboard routine and will immediately start dumping the screen in mode the screen is in. It is not possible to make a grey scaled auto-dump of a color image. Option: /SHIFT=number ----------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /SHIFT=number Instead of using the default hotkey sequence which is ALT+SHIFT+ <some hotkey>, you can tell PCXDUMP to use any combination of the ALT, Left SHIFT and CTRL keys. number Effect on hotkey sequence ----------------------------------- 0 No shift keys 1 Press (Left) SHIFT 2 Press ALT 3 Press ALT + (Left) SHIFT 4 Press CTRL 5 Press (Left) SHIFT + CTRL 6 Press ALT + CTRL 7 Press (Left) SHIFT + ALT + CTRL Option: /HOTKEY=scancode -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /HOTKEY=scancode Instead of using the default hotkeys (C,E,N,R,I,G,H,T,A), you can tell PCXDUMP to use a custom hotkey. When doing so all other hotkeys will be disabled and you will no longer be able to use the mouse. The image will be saved immediately and PCXDUMP will automatically determine to dump either a color or a monochrome image. In Appendix A you will find a list of possible hotkey scancodes. If you don't have a standard keyboard or if you want to use a hotkey not listed in Appendix A, I have included a program "SCANCODE.EXE" which may help you. Just run the program, press the key you want as hotkey and remember the scancode number (in decimal). Press ESC to exit the program. Use the scancode number you just saw when installing PCXDUMP. The scancode must be in the range 1-88. Option: /DIR=directory -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /DIR=directory This option places the PCX-files (DUMP0000.PCX etc) in the specified directory instead of the current directory. Many programs have some data in other directories than the upstart directory, and this option saves you the trouble of tracking down the PCX-files after capturing the graphics. Example: PCXDUMP /DIR=C:\ (Will place files in C:\) PCXDUMP /DIR=C:\PCX\ (If C:\PCX\ exist then files will be put here) Instead of /DIR=C:\PCX\ you can use /DIR=C:\PCX Option: /WIDE=number -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /WIDE=number If a program uses smooth scroll (that is, defines a virtual screen bigger than physical display), e.g. like the COMMANDER KEEN series, you can use the /WIDE option, and PCXDUMP will try to dump the virtual screen instead of the physical screen (which is default). Since PCXDUMP automatically determine the logical screen width (which is bigger than the physical display width), but have no way of calculating the logical screen height, you here specify how many times higher than the physical display height the logical screen height is. Lets say you want to capture the full logical screen of COMMANDER KEEN 4. This game runs in 320x200 in 16 colors. You do not have to worry about the logical screen width, since PCXDUMP will take care of that (actually 512 pixels in this game). The logical screen height is approx. 600 pixels. Therefore, to dump the logical screen, you should install PCXDUMP with these options: PCXDUMP /TIME=15 /WIDE=3 (since 200*3 = 600) If you have access to this game you should try it! To have any effect, the WIDE values must be in the range 1-5. NOTE: This option will not have any effect on an EGA card since registers on this card are write-only. Option: /CHIPSET=number -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /CHIPSET=number If PCXDUMP somehow fails to recognize your video adapter that you know is on the list, this is a way to force PCXDUMP to use it. The number must be in the range 2-23: Number Chipset Number Chipset ---------------------- ------------------- 0 UNSUPPORTED 12 OAK-67 1 RESERVED 13 Video 7 2 EGA-card 14 Ahead A 3 VGA-card 15 Ahead B 4 ATI-vga 16 Chips & Technology 451 5 Trident 17 Chips & Technology 452 6 Genoa 18 Chips & Technology 453 7 Paradise 19 VESA 8 Tseng 3000 20 Tseng 4000 TrueColor 9 Tseng 4000 21 OAK-77 10 Tseng 4000 HiColor 22 MXIC 11 OAK-37 23 Realtek Option: /INT=number -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /INT=number Use this option if you want to call PCXDUMP from other programs. You must call PCXDUMP from your program via an interrupt, which you specify here. This interrupt may be any interrupt of the following list: 5, 78, 99, 129, 134, 140, 242, 247 50, 79, 100, 130, 135, 141, 243, 249 69, 96, 101, 131, 137, 142, 244, 252 76, 97, 102, 132, 138, 143, 245, 253 77, 98, 105, 133, 139, 241, 246 If you have chosen, say, interrupt 5, you can call PCXDUMP from you own program, if you enter this piece of code in your program: TURBO PASCAL 4.0 - 5.5 CODE: Procedure DumpScreen(Function:Word); Var Reg : registers; begin Reg.AX := $1234; Reg.BX := Function; Intr(5,Reg); Delay(60); (* Remember this delay *) end; TURBO PASCAL 6.0 CODE: Procedure DumpScreen(Function:Word); begin Asm MOV AX,1234h MOV BX,Function INT 5 End; Delay(60); (* Remember this delay *) end; Register AX must be $1234 or 1234h (hexadecimal), as this tells PCXDUMP that this interrupt is meant to dump the screen. PCXDUMP is not called directly, but will pop up (if it is safe to do so) within the next 6/100 of a second. If AX doesn't equal 1234h, PCXDUMP will ignore the interrupt and call the old interrupt. If you use interrupt 5 as the interrupt to call PCXDUMP and press the PrintScreen key which normally activates interrupt 5, PCXDUMP will not be activated since register AX is not $1234 (PCXDUMP will call the original interrupt which prints text screen to the printer). Register BX holds the function, you want performed. BX = 0 equals first hotkey "C", BX=1 equals hotkey "E" etc. BX = 5 equals hotkey "G". Therefore BX must be in the range 0-8 ("C" - "A"). Option: /GAMMA=number -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /GAMMA=number This option can be used to control the light intensity of the palette. This will only have an effect on grayscaled PCX-files. A value of 100 is default, a smaller value will make the image darker and a greater value will make the image brighter. This value must be in the range 20-400, otherwise it will be ignored. Lets say you want to dump a picture to a gray scale PCX-file so you can print it out to a laser printer. You then discover that the printed image is too dark. Now just (re)install PCXDUMP will a new (and higher) GAMMA value. That's all there is to it. I have found a GAMMA value near 170 good when dumping textscreens (and graphics screens too) and writing them out on a laserprinter. Option: /MOUSE -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /MOUSE Normally you will activate PCXDUMP from the keyboard. But if you use this option (by setting it to ON in the installation menu), you will be able to capture the screen by using the mouse only. When PCXDUMP is installed, you can make PCXDUMP dump the screen by pressing LEFT and RIGHT mouse button AT THE SAME TIME. PCXDUMP will save the screen immediately and will automatically determine whether to dump the image in color or black & white. As usually PCXDUMP will beep when it is activated. Option: /VIDEO=number -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /VIDEO=number Usually PCXDUMP will detect the current videomode. But sometimes this detections fails. This happens very seldom, I have only experienced this in one single game, COMANCHE: MAXIMUM OVERKILL (COMANCHE), a 32-bit protected mode game. By using this option you can explicit tell PCXDUMP which videomode to use. You may need the manual for your video card to determine the video mode number, since these mode numbers differs from videocard to videocard. I.e. mode 1024x768x256 on a Tseng ET 4000 will have mode number 56 (38 hex), but on an Trident this mode has the number 96 (62 hex) and on a Realtek it is 40 (28 hex) etc. Once you have told PCXDUMP to use a certain videomode, it will continue to use this videonumber every time you activate it. You need to un-install PCXDUMP and re-install it to make it autodetect the videomode again. Actually to dump images from COMANCHE, I had to use both the /VIDEO option and the /MOUSE option. Since COMANCHE blocks the keyboard and will not allow PCXDUMP to grab the keyboard interrupt with /TIME or the /DISK, it is NOT possible to dump images from this game using the keyboard! However COMANCHE does not use the mouse and this way (by using the /MOUSE option) it was possible to dump some screenshots. I also used the /VIDEO option (for the reasons mentioned above) to dump the right videomode. COMANCHE runs in mode X (320x240), which is derived from mode 19 (13 hex) = 320x200x256. Therefore to dump screens from COMANCHE, PCXDUMP was installed with these options: PCXDUMP /VIDEO=19 /MOUSE Screens were then captured by pressing both left and right mousebutton at the same time. Option: /ANIMATE=number -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /ANIMATE=number With this option is is possible to dump the screen automatically every time a certain amount of time has elapsed. If you set /ANIMATE=10, PCXDUMP will dump the screen every 10 sec. While PCXDUMP is dumping the screen, time is stopped. The screen will be saved immediately and PCXDUMP will automa- tically determine whether to same the images to a color PCX-file or to a black & white PCX-file. If PCXDUMP is installed with the /TIME or /DISK option then PCXDUMP will start the animated dump AFTER it has installed itself with the /TIME or /DISK option. If you install PCXDUMP with: PCXDUMP /ANIMATE=5 /TIME=30 PCXDUMP will install itself after 30 sec. and THEN dump the screen every 5 sec. Option: /TEXTHI -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /TEXTHI In 16 color textmode the screen can be in one of two modes: A) 16 different background colors or B) 8 different background colors + possible flashing text. As there is NO safe way for a resident program to determine which mode, you must tell PCXDUMP how it should interpretate the color information. PCXDUMP will use the mode with 8 background colors as default as this is the most common mode. By setting TEXTHI = true or by installing PCXDUMP with the /TEXTHI option you tell PCXDUMP to use all possible 16 background colors. Only few programs will use this mode (like SYSINFO.EXE from Norton). NOTE: This option will only have an effect on the registered version of PCXDUMP! Option: /OVERWRITE -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /OVERWRITE PCXDUMP will no longer overwrite existing DUMP????.PCX files. Instead the next available filename will be used. If you install PCXDUMP and the files DUMP0000.PCX, DUMP0001.PCX and DUMP0003.PCX already exists in the destination directory (read elsewhere about the /DIR option, which will allow you to put the dumped images in a specific directory), PCXDUMP will dump the first image to the file DUMP0002.PCX and the next image to the file DUMP0004.PCX. But if you set OVERWRITE to true in the installation menu or you install PCXDUMP with the commandline switch /OVERWRITE, PCXDUMP will overwrite any existing file with the same name as the file PCXDUMP wants to save. Option: /OFFSET=number -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /OFFSET=number Normally PCXDUMP will save the images to files starting at offset 0000 (i.e. with the file "DUMP0000.PCX"). But by specifying a file-offset, you can tell PCXDUMP to save the images to files starting at a specific offset. If you install PCXDUMP with this option: PCXDUMP /OFFSET=20 PCXDUMP will save the first image to the file "DUMP0020.PCX", the next image to "DUMP0021.PCX" etc. Option: /AUTODIRTY -------------------------- Usage: PCXDUMP [other options] /AUTODIRTY This option will immediately dump the screen to disk when PCXDUMP installs itself with the DISK option. It can ONLY be used in conjunction with the DISK option and not at the same time as the AUTODUMP option. This option performs almost the same action as the AUTODUMP option but in a much more dirty way. The difference is that by using the AUTODUMP option, PCXDUMP will dump the screen as soon as it is safe to do so. This involves a lot of checking until it is safe. But some programs (like the COMANCHE: MAXIMUM OVERKILL) will not allow PCXDUMP to check. Therefore it is not possible to dump images from such programs with: PCXDUMP /DISK=some_number /AUTODUMP since PCXDUMP always will think it is unsafe to dump the screen. But if you instead install PCXDUMP like this: PCXDUMP /DISK=some_number /AUTODIRTY PCXDUMP will brutally dump the screen as soon as the INT 13h has been called some_number times. NO safety check will be performed and after PCXDUMP has saved the image, your machine is VERY likely to hang. Actually I could capture a screen from COMANCHE (read the section about the /MOUSE option for more information of this game) when I installed PCXDUMP like this: PCXDUMP /DISK=300 /AUTODIRTY /VIDEO=19 As soon as PCXDUMP had saved the screen the machine hung! But at least I captured one screen. I later discovered the /MOUSE option was a lot better to use, since that I could easily capture 10-20 screens if I wanted. If you use this option, it is on your OWN risk!. As mentioned before: In no event shall the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. OK, I have used this option and I have had no data loss, I just wanted to mention it. I don't think any program will be able to fool PCXDUMP if you use the /DISK and /AUTODIRTY options. NOTE: Because the system will possibly hang after the image is saved it is highly recommended to disable any diskcache before using PCXDUMP with this option! REGISTRATION ----------- PCXDUMP is copyrighted software and all rights are reserved. PCXDUMP may not be changed or modified in any way except by the author. PCXDUMP is SHAREWARE and may be freely distributed, as long as it remains in its complete form with all support and documentation files. It may be used for a 10 day free trial period. Regardless of the way the copy is obtained, it is requested that all users comply with the following licensing and registration provisions if they continue to use it after the 10 day trial period. Registration of PCXDUMP is based on 'personal usage'. Corporate or organizational users must register all copies used on an individual basis; a specific person (name) must be explicitly assigned to each registrant who will be provided with a new version of PCXDUMP where the name of the specified person will be seen to indicate registered usage. Registration grants a specific person (not a juridical person or corporate entity) the right to 'use' PCXDUMP. Shareware distributors may distribute this program. The "per disk" charge may not exceed $8 and the shareware distributor will not change the above license agreement for the end user of PCXDUMP. End users are still required to register each shareware copy of PCXDUMP. You may license multiple copies of PCXDUMP with discounts as follows: +---------------+----------------+ | No of copies | Price per copy | +---------------+----------------+ | 1-10 | US $30 | | 11-50 | 25 % discount | | 51-100 | 40 % discount | | 101+ | 50 % discount | | Site License | US $500 | +---------------+----------------+ Discounts apply only to individual orders, they are not cumulative. Registration entitles you to: * Use all updates (shareware versions) at no cost. * Receive free technical support by letter. * A registered user may install PCXDUMP on more than one machine, provided he is the only user on each machine. The registration and license policy is similar to a book, which can be taken with you but used only by you. You will find a complete order form in the file "ORDERFRM.TXT". WHERE TO GET PCXDUMP -------------------- The prices of the registered PCXDUMP packages are subject to change after January 1st, 1994. The latest shareware issue of PCXDUMP, which includes the most up-to-date information on pricing and new features, is always posted for downloading in these places: * American users: The mighty simtel base. FTP-address: wsmr-simtel20.army.mil in pd1:<msdos.graphics> and its mirror-sites FTP-address: wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/msdos/graphics FTP-address: oak.oakland.edu in /pub/msdos/graphics or through Public Software Library. * European users: FTP-address: nic.funet.fi in /pub/msdos/graphics/graphics FTP-address: garbo.uwasa.fi in /pc/graphics * German users: CDV Software, Ettling Ettlinger Strasse 5 7500 Karlsruhe 1 Germany (Telephone 0721/22295, FAX 072121314, CIS 100022,274) * Danish users: JOSTI-BBS, Tlf: 47 38 05 24, N-8-1 FLASH NIGHT BSS, Tlf: 86 93 68 22, N-8-1 Prof. ShareWare, Benl¢se Skel 4 G, DK-4100 Ringsted, Tlf 53-619042 Plus several other BBS around the country. If this document is more than nine months old when you receive it, it might not be current. To make sure that you have the latest information on pricing and availability of new features, contact the author or look for the latest shareware release of PCXDUMP in one of the places listed above. APPENDIX A ---------- These are the codes you may use with PCXDUMP's "/HOTKEY=scancode" parameter to change the hotkeys. Key Code Key Code Key Code Key Code --------- --------- ----------- ------------------ A 30 1 02 F1 59 Keypad plus 78 B 48 2 03 F2 60 Keypad minus 74 C 46 3 04 F3 61 Keypad 5 76 D 32 4 05 F4 62 Space 57 E 18 5 06 F5 63 Backspace 14 F 33 6 07 F6 64 Enter 28 G 34 7 08 F7 65 H 35 8 09 F8 66 I 23 9 10 F9 67 J 36 0 11 F10 68 K 37 F11 87 L 38 ` 41 F12 88 M 50 - 12 N 49 = 13 Tab 15 O 24 , 51 Esc 01 P 25 . 52 Q 16 / 53 R 19 ; 39 S 31 ' 40 T 20 [ 26 U 22 ] 27 V 47 \ 43 W 17 X 45 Y 21 Z 44 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------