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EGA2VGA Copr. (c) 1989 Lawrence Gozum & Marvin Gozum
────────────────────────────────────────────────────
User Manual
DISCLAIMER
This product is distributed AS IS. The authors specifically disclaim
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 authors 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
You may use this program for a 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 VGACAD system see last section of this
manual).
You can freely distribute copies of unmodified EGA2VGA and charge $10
max for distribution, in lieu of recognized Users Group guidelines
(e.g., Asso. of Shareware Professionals or NY Amateur Computer Club).
WHAT IS EGA2VGA ?
EGA2VGA is a conversion program that will convert ANY viewable EGA
640x350x16 color and 640x480x16 (EGA/VGA) picture into a real MCGA/VGA
320x200x256 color picture or MVGA 320x400x256, MVGA 360x480x256, SVGA
640x350x256, SVGA 640x400x256, SVGA 640x480x256 or SVGA 800x600x256 !
EGA2VGA actually generates 256 new colors from the original 16 color
EGA palette and interprets color mixtures. EGA2VGA calculates the
correct aspect ratio for translation and saves your converted screen
and palette for conversion with RAW2GIF (SVGA) or BLD2GIF (MCGA/VGA).
Not only can you create LARGE SVGA GIFs but you can apply extensive
image processing since you have 256 colors to play with. VGACAD is
designed to edit and process such images. EGA2VGA comes with THREE
resident programs: EGADMP (EGA DuMP), VGADMP (VGA DuMP) and XGADMP
(eXtended EGA DuMP) which will capture the raw screen data of any EGA
640x350x16 or VGA 640x480x16 or EGA 640x480x16 respectively.
REQUIREMENTS
EGA2VGA needs about 512KB of RAM and 64KB of diskspace for each
processed BLD/PLT picture (more depending on secondary SVGA
processing). A VGA/MCGA card is required to use VGADMP, and 128KB EGA
for EGADMP. XGADMP requires an Extended EGA card (e.g., ATI EGA
Wonder 800, Quadram Prosync EGA, Video7 Vega Deluxe EGA, BOCA EGA,
Paradise EGA 480, STB Auto EGA, etc ...) or a VGA compatible card.
EGADMP, XGADMP and VGADMP use about 3K of RAM each. EGADMP needs
224,016 of diskspace for each captured picture, while VGADMP and
XGADMP needs 307,984 of diskspace per picture; these resident programs
do not check for available disk space, thus a HardDisk is highly
recommended.
EGA2VGA needs 64KB of diskspace to save each processed picture. GIF
files vary in their disk space requirements. A 640x480x16 GIF picture
will decompose to 307,200 bytes, while a an EEGA 800x560x16 (e.g., ATI
EGA Wonder) will decompose to 448,000 bytes. The program will abort
creation of decomposed GIF files if there is insufficient diskpace.
When in DOS or using a picture viewer (e.g., PICEM, EGAGIF, FASTGIF,
VPIC, CSHOW, OPTIKS) or application which requires a keypress to
continue, it is necessary to hit any key or a specified key (e.g.,
<Spacebar> or <Return> or <Esc>) after hitting the 'HOTKEY' before
EGADMP or VGADMP or XGADMP saves the screen and palette.
HOW TO USE EGADMP, XGADMP and VGADMP
Simply run EGADMP, VGADMP or XGADMP before entering your painting/CAD
or digitized picture viewer. After loading, press <ALT-F10> for
EGADMP, <ALT-F9> for VGADMP, or <ALT-F8> while viewing your picture in
any drawing/paint/CAD or viewing program. Your current screen and
palette will be saved in your default drive and directory.
The first time you run the program it will save your screen and
palette to EGA350SC.000 and EGAPAL16.000 respectively; VGADMP saves to
VGA480SC.nnn and VGAPAL16.nnn files while XGADMP saves to XGA480.nnn
and XGAPAL16.nnn files. If there is an existing EGA350SC.nnn or
EGAPAL16.nnn, then it will increment to the next higher number; the
same rule applies to VGADMP and XGADMP captured files.
Dual Floppy users (5.25 inch types) have a problem. Since the raw
pixel dumps per file are quite large, you have save the "dump" files
in another drive.
For example:
With EGADMP resident in memory, TESTPIC.GIF in Drive A: and
viewing program (e.g., EGAGIF) in Drive A: you must switch the
default drive and view the picture from the other drive.
1) Type "B:"<ret> to switch to Drive B: as default.
2) From Drive B: type "A:EGAGIF A:testpic.gif" <ret>.
3) Now when you hit <ALT-F10> the pixels and palette will be
"dumped" in Drive B:.
HOW TO USE EGA2VGA
STEP 1 Specify [E]GA, [V]GA, [X]GA or GIF 16-color conversion.
If a GIF file was processed previously, you can reprocess it
with the [T]EMP file option.
STEP 2 Select any filename by moving a highlighted bar (with the
arrow keys) and pressing the <return> key. Pressing <Spc>
allows a new PATH, while <Esc> exits. If a GIF file is
selected, you can optionally specify the VPATH (Virtual Disk
PATH) where the TEMP files are to be created; specify any
existing drive or a RAMDISK for speed.
STEP 3 Specify the FILENAME that will be given to the converted
BLD/PLT picture; a BLD/PLT picture must always be generated
since it creates a reference 256-color palette which is
required for generating LARGE SVGA GIFs. If there is an
existing file with the same filename(s) then an error beep
will follow and your input will be rejected. If you specify
MYPIC as the filename, the converted picture is saved as
MYPIC.BLD and MYPIC.PLT in your DEFAULT drive/directory.
STEP 4: OPTIONAL FOR VGA and SVGA users.
Modify the 16 color palette. EGA provides only 16 colors
from 64 hardware-generated colors; these are fixed and
cannot be modified. In VGA 640x480x16 color mode, you are
allowed 16 colors from the 262,144. Your captured picture
will be displayed in 640x480x16 color mode; EGA pictures
will appear flattened while VGA 640x480x16 pictures will be
"cropped" above the menu options.
After a moment, your picture appears with a color line
having asterisks ("*****") representing the 16 colors. You
can stop the display at any time by pressing <Esc>. Adjust
each of the 16 colors with the following keyboard commands.:
a. [SpaceBar] - cycles through the 16 colors and highlights the
current selected color with a "██████" highlight block.
b. [R], [G] or [B] - selects the Red, Green or Blue component
of current color; an arrow appears beside the RGB value.
c. [+] increases the value of current RGB component and
reflects changes in your picture while modifying.
d. [-] will decrease the value of your selected color component
within the range 0 to 63.
e. [U]ndo restores the original RGB values as long as you do
not move on to another color to be modified.
f. [Esc] exits palette modification and sets the palette.
STEP 5: Select Matrix Type and Color Match Cutoff. THIS IS THE MOST
IMPORTANT PART OF EGA2VGA CONVERSION !.
You are using this utility to convert color-dithered
pictures which be ordered or error-distributed (i.e.,
"random"). If dithering is ordered (i.e., 2x2 matrices or
3x3 matrices) then selecting a 2x2 matrix or 3x3 matrix type
will make a tremendous difference in color generation and
avoidance of striated patterns. Generally, the 2x2 Matrix
type performs adequately, you can opt for the 3x3 Matrix
type for richer color generation.
By pressing return as a response to each input prompt for a
matrix type and color match cutoff, the default values will
be entered instead of your specification.
Color Match Cutoff: 40
Matrix Type : 2x2 (A)
Color Match Cutoff or Cutoff (for short) determines how
closely matched colors are to be generated. If an existing
color is "close" enough to the required color, then it will
be used; otherwise a new one is generated.
Press <Esc> at any time while the picture is being generated
to see the total number of new colors generated (MCGA/VGA).
You can ABORT the processing and choose a new Matrix Type
and/or Cutoff. All other video cards will show a status
line showing the Matrix Type, Cutoff, Colors generated and
Lines to Go; pressing <Esc> returns you to this step. While
the picture is being generated, monitor the number of colors
being generated. If the processing slows down at the start
of a few lines then your Cutoff is too low but VERY RICH.
<Esc> to this step (i.e., abort processing) and reselect a
HIGHER Cutoff. If colors being generated are too few then
decrease the Cutoff. Your mission is to find the ideal
Cutoff value and generate as many colors (255 maximum)
without running out of colors. The picture is generated in
an interlaced fashion which ensures that colors are sampled
and generated from all over the screen.
VGA/MCGA users should monitor the quality of the picture and
speed of processing; this will give you an indication of the
colors being generated. Press <Esc> anytime to interrupt
the processing and monitor actual number of colors generated
and go back to this step to find the optimal Cutoff.
All other users should watch the Colors generated on the
status line; if you generate over 100 colors after the first
3-5 lines then your Cutoff is too low.
If you run out of colors too soon then other colors in your
picture will have to settle for the closest match in the
existing palette. If you can generate 180-240 colors then
an optimal compromise has been met. This version uses a
very effective algorithm; often you need specify a Cutoff"
or "1" and less than 255 colors are generated.
SVGA OPTION
Any user can create a LARGE 256-color SVGA GIF file from any size
16-color picture. EGA2VGA will take care of interpolating and
synthesizing the new colors for you; it MUST have an initial 256-color
palette generated which it adds to; this is advantagous for
MCGA/VGA/SVGA users since you can visually compromise the color
selection before a SVGA GIF is generated. A MVGASCRN.RAW and
MVGASCRN.PLT file is created which can be directly converted (NO VIDEO
REQUIRED) with the RAW2GIF utility included in this package. Simply
select the screen size you want to convert to; best results are
created when the same screen size (e.g, a 640x480x16 to 640x480x16) is
selected. THIS PROCESS TAKES SEVERAL MINUTES SO BE PATIENT (have
dinner or take a bath <grin>). MVGASCRN.RAW AND MVGASCRN.PLT ARE
CONSTANTLY OVERWRITTEN BY MANY OF OUR PROGRAMS; CONVERT TO GIF AND
RENAME THEM IMMEDIATELY.
CONVERSION FLOWCHART
╔═══════════════════════════════╗
║ Input/Output Files ║
╚══════════════╤════════════════╝
┌─────────────────┼──────────────────────┐
│ ├─Display Picture <────┼────┐
│ │ (VGA required) │ │
│ ┌──────────────┴─────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ Palette Modification │ │ │
│ └──────────────┬─────────────────┘ │ │
│ │ <Esc> │ │
└─────────────────┼──────────────────────┘ │
│<──────────────────────────┤
┌──────────────┴─────────────────┐ │
│ Cutoff/Matrix Type │ │
└──────────────┬─────────────────┘ │
│ <Esc> │
┌──────────────┴─────────────────┐ │
│ Conversion ├─────────┘
└──────────────┬─────────────────┘ <Esc>
╔══════════════╧════════════════╗
║ Save & Exit ║
╚══════════════╤════════════════╝
┌──────────────┴─────────────────┐
│ SVGA Screen Size ├─────────┐
└──────────────┬─────────────────┘ │
┌──────────────┴─────────────────┐ │
│ Conversion ├─────────┘
└──────────────┬─────────────────┘ <Esc>
╔══════════════╧═════════════════╗
║ Save & Exit ║
╚══════════════╤═════════════════╝
│
RAW2GIF
USING RAW2GIF
You can convert the MVGASCRN.RAW and MVGASCRN.PLT to SVGA GIFs through
this utility. Simply run it and select filenames as you would in
EGA2VGA; once selected, RAW2GIF converts it automatically. You can
convert single *.RAW files by passing the filename at Command-line
(e,g., "RAW2GIF MVGASCRN" <return>).
THE CHAINED VGACAD ENVIRONMENT
BRUN41.exe is a runtime module distributed under licence with Microsoft
in connection with this program. Place it with EGA2VGA or anywhere
your PATH has access to. EGA2VGA will be a part of VGACAD (v1.7 and
up). ONLY ONE COPY OF BRUN41.EXE IS REQUIRED.
TEMP files in this version match the same 'workspace' files used by
VGACAD v1.6 (and up). Any GIF picture decomposed to TEMP files can be
directly processed/enhanced with VGACAD (via VSCRN menu) and converted
to SVGA GIFs with RAW2GIF via VGACAD (v1.6 and up). At the end of an
EGA2VGA session, you have the option to delete them.
REGISTRATION
Any registered user is registered for EGA2VGA v5.0; simply replace your
old version with this version. EGA2VGA will be a part of VGACAD (v1.7
and up). To register personal use of EGA2VGA send registration fee of
$27.95 USD (out of USA/Canada add a $15 US handling fee). For 3.5"
updates, add a $10 USD 3.5" updating fee. Registered users get the
complete VGACAD system (w/c may include an updated version of EGA2VGA),
which are provided in appreciation of your support (via registration).
REGISTRATION OF EGA2VGA 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 CORRESPONDING REGISTER.OVL FILE
TO INDICATE REGISTERED USAGE. REGISTRATION GRANTS A SPECIFIC PERSON
(NOT A JURIDICAL PERSON OR CORPORATE ENTITY) THE RIGHT TO 'USE'
EGA2VGA.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ALTHOUGH WE WILL TRY TO RESPOND TO YOUR REGISTRATION IN 2-3 WEEKS,│
│ PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 4-6 WEEKS DELAY TO PROCESS YOUR REGISTRATION. │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
As token of our appreciation (i.e., to registered users), we will send
you the the latest version of the VGACAD system; many of the programs
listed below do not require a graphics card.
GIFPUB - converts 256 color GIF/PCX files to B&W images desktop
publishing (DTP) as .PCX (Ventura, First Publisher, Publisher's
Paintbrush, WP, Pagemaker). Variable sizing/contrast/brightness.
Histogram-equalization. No graphics card required.
GIFDOT - has all the features of GIFPUB for printing on IBM/Epson
printers. Several sizes. 8 pics/page. Single/Double Pass printing.
Preview in CGA/HGC/EGA/VGA/EEGA/SVGA. No graphics card required.
GIFBIT - converts B&W PCX files (e.g., scanner output to 32KBx32KB !)
to grey shades for VGACAD image processing, GIFPUB redithering, GIFDOT
printing, or VGA2EGA conversion - it edits those "scan line jitters".
Viewing modes in MCGA/VGA/SVGA. No graphics card required.
SQZGIF - converts LARGE GIFs (up to 2048x2048x256) to several sizes and
video modes using "color averaging" to blend/smooth "jaggies" and
retain a maximum of color information; use outputs in GIFPUB, GIFDOT,
VGACAD, MVGAVU, VGA2CGA or VGA2EGA. No graphics card required.
EGA2VGA - converts GIFs (16 colors and below) or ANY VIEWABLE 2-16
color EGA/EEGA picture to 320x200x256; creates 256 new colors; outputs
directly to GIFPUB, GIFDOT, VGACAD, MVGAVU, VGA2CGA or VGA2EGA.
No graphics card required.
VGA2CGA - converts 256 color GIFs to CGA! See "405" colors in an
unsupported 160x100x16 CGA mode. CGA/EGA/MCGA/VGA required.
MAC2GIF - converts .MAC ("readmac") pictures to 5-16 grey shades or
color and saves to .GIF or BLD/PLT file. EGA/MCGA/VGA required.
VGA2EGA - converts 256 color pictures to 16-color EGA. Error-
distributed dithering. Variable sizing/RGBICMY/contrast/dithering
levels. EEGA support up to 800x600. GIF or optional PCX save to 4
RGBI planes for Desktop Color Separation. EGA/MCGA/VGA required.
MVGAVU - EGA/MCGA/EEGA/VGA/SVGA viewer for GIF and BLD/PLT files.
Smart slideshows - picks best mode. 320x400x256, 360x480x256 and
640x400x16 modes on regular VGA. EGA posterization. EEGA/SVGA
support. Auto-sizing. Contrast/Brightness. EGA/MCGA/VGA required.
VGACAP - tiny TSR, captures MCGA/VGA/SVGA screens (from 320x200x256 to
800x600x256). MCGA/VGA required.
RAW2GIF - converts SVGA screen captures of VGACAP to GIF.
BLD2GIF - converts MCGA/VGA screen captures of VGACAP to GIF.
VGACAD - extensive paint/image processing program for VGA/MCGA users
(edit GIFs up to 32KBx32KBx256 !!!); airbrushes, color and grey image
processing functions (smoothing, noise removal, shading, contrast
stretching, edge detection, ...), splines, Cut&Paste, variable sizing,
256-color gradient/pattern fills, MORE ! MCGA/VGA required.
WHAT'S NEXT ?
Aside from enhancing existing releases with increased capabilities
(e.g., expanded memory, virtual screen, SVGA functions, other graphics
formats), we are developing VGACBT, a Computer-Based Training program
and MANNEQUIN for Advertising/Fashion Design or creating your own
artistic nudes.
Support maverick authors like us and we will continue developing
products like nothing seen commercially - otherwise they will simply
"DIE" from lack of support ! Compare the cost/benefit ratio of any of
our products with commercial products. You, and you alone, determine
whether it will be worthwhile to continue developing. Support the
User-Supported (Shareware) concept. Register you Shareware copies. To
register, send the registration form and check or money order payable
in USD to:
Dr. Marvin Gozum
2 Independence Place #303-2, 6th & Locust
Philadelphia, PA 19106
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Graphics Interchange Format and GIF are trademarks (tm)
of CompuServe Inc. an H&R Block Company.