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1994-11-17
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======================================
= ScreenMod v1.0 =
= ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ =
= Program and Documentation by: =
= Syd L. Bolton =
= =
= Copyright ©1991 =
= Legendary Design Technologies Inc. =
= Freely Redistributable =
======================================
WHAT IS SCREENMOD?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ScreenMod is a small utility program that was developed primarily
to change the position of a custom screen opened by another program. Some
PAL utilities open their screens so low that most of the gadgets are
unreachable by the mouse. Using a PAL-BOOT program doesn't always help
the situation. Not everybody is able to permanently alter someone's
executable code (especially if it's compressed in some form or another)
and that is why ScreenMod came to life.
ScreenMod allows you to change several parameters of any screen
that has been opened. You can change the TOPEDGE parameter, and the
LEFTEDGE parameter (although at the time of writing, changing the LEFTEDGE
parameter of a screen has no effect since the operating system does not
support it yet, but someday ...). You can even manipulate the display modes,
such as HAM and HIRES, and adjust the palette of any screen -- even if it
normally does not allow this.
ScreenMod also allows you to save the changes you've made to a
file, which can then later be called by a companion program called
ScreenSet. This has been set up so that you can create a batch file
to run your application program first, and then ScreenSet will put any
of the changes you have made into effect. See the separate ScreenSet
documentation for more details.
GETTING STARTED WITH SCREENMOD
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
ScreenMod can be run from the CLI or Workbench, although full
Workbench support has not yet been implemented. Refer to the "FEATURES
TO BE ADDED" section of this documentation for more details.
When you first run ScreenMod it will open its own custom screen
using 2 BITPLANES and a RESOLUTION of 640 X 200. The program contains
an "ICONIFY" feature that will close the main screen and open a small
window in the Workbench title bar. Normally, this feature is selected
through the SPECIAL menu (or Right-Amiga-I) but ScreenMod can be told
from startup to be iconified. To do this, when you run the program
just specify the "small" option. For example:
1>screenmod small
^---- This parameter causes ScreenMod to start in an
ICONIFIED state.
With this release, starting up in an ICONIFIED state from Workbench
is not possible.
If the program is iconified, and you wish to return it to its full
screen, you must do two things:
1) Activate the small ScreenMod window, by clicking the left button
somewhere in the title bar.
2) Click the RIGHT BUTTON to tell ScreenMod to UN-ICONIFY.
THE MAIN SCREEN
~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~
On the left-hand side of the screen, you will see a listing of
all available screens that are currently opened. They are ordered the
way the operating system orders screens: The front screen is listed first,
and then the screen behind that one is next, and so on. Note that the
"SCREENMOD" screen itself will ALWAYS be the first one on the list.
You will see the NAME of the screen and the RESOLUTION. If the
screen does not actually have a title, ScreenMod will put in "** NO NAME **"
in it's place.
To make an alteration to a screen, you first decide which screen
you would like to change, and then click the left button on it's title
on the left-hand side of the screen. The "settings" will all change
accordingly on the right-hand side.
THE PARAMETERS AND WHAT THEY MEAN
~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~
LEFT EDGE: The number of pixels the screen is offset from the left. Please
note this feature is not currently implemented in the operating system,
and changing its value will have no effect. It DOES however ask the
operating system to make the change so when it is implemented, this program
should still be compatible.
TOP EDGE: This is one you may play with a lot. It indicates the number of
raster lines (pixels) the screen is offset from the top of the display.
For most screens this will be 0, but for some it will be another value.
Try changing ScreenMod's value to say 10, and then REMAKE the screen.
WIDTH: The width of the screen, in pixels. Note that playing with this
parameter will NOT have many useful effects. If you make the WIDTH
wider than what it normally is, ScreenMod does NOT allocate the extra
memory that would be required. This would require closing all windows
on the display, closing the screen, then re-opening it with the new
memory allocation and then re-opening the windows -- a daunting task,
especially if the programmer puts things other than standard INTUITEXT
and GADGET structures on the screen (which most do). If someone has
any thoughts on this, I would love to hear them. Perhaps it wouldn't
be too hard to allocate the new memory and append it?
HEIGHT: This is the height of the screen, in pixels. The same notes apply
as to the WIDTH, above. Experimenting with this value can produce some
interesting results though.
DETAILPEN: This is the color register number that the operating system
uses when drawing things like the title of the Screen.
BLOCKPEN: This is the color register number that the operating system
uses when drawing things like the background of the Screen Title.
DEFAULT TITLE & TITLE: These are simply the name of the Screen. Keep
in mind that often times the ACTUAL name of the screen is covered up
by a window. ScreenMod will have no effect on WINDOW titles, only
SCREEN titles. Secondly, some programs have turned the screen title
OFF to allow a fuller display on the screen (for titling programs and
so on). ScreenMod will ONLY UPDATE THE TITLE if the program has allowed
the SCREEN TITLE TO SHOW.
DEFAULT FONT: This is the default font that this screen uses, but is
not currently supported in this release.
And now for the VIEW MODE flags:
HIRES: This flag should be turned ON if the screen width is greater than
320 pixels.
INTERLACE: This flag should be turned ON if the screen height is greater
than 200 pixels. However, it will produce an interesting effect if
turned on when the screen is 200 pixels or less.
SPITES: This flag should be turned ON if this screen is to use hardware
sprites.
DUALPF: This flag should be turned ON if this screen uses dual playfields.
Dual playfields are often used in games where a "window" is necessary,
like for example the window of an aircraft. One playfield contains the
cockpit and the other playfield contains a view of the sky and/or ground.
When combined, the user sees the cockpit playfield which is in front,
and sees the sky/ground view playfield ONLY where the "window" of the
cockpit is.
HAM: This flag should be turned ON if the screen in question should be
in HAM mode (4096 colors).
EXTRA_HALFBRITE: This flag should be turned ON if this program is to use
the extra 32 colors available in EXTRA HALFBRITE mode.
*** NOTE: ***
Just because ScreenMod lets you modify the state of these flags
it does NOT mean that the program running with that screen will take
advantage of the changes. For example, you can't make DPAINT work in
HAM MODE just by changing the status of the screen. They are changeable
for experimentation purposes only although you may find some programs
that do neat things because of the changes you make.
VIEW SCREEN: By clicking this gadget, whatever screen you have highlighted
from the list will be moved to the front. To get back to the ScreenMod
screen, do one of two things:
1) Press any key on the keyboard
2) Click the RIGHT button.
Clicking the LEFT BUTTON will cause that screens windows to
become active, and then the only way back to the ScreenMod screen will be
with the LEFT-AMIGA-M and LEFT-AMIGA-N keys.
ADJUS