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PYROVIEW.DOX
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1996-05-09
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[insert fractal's pv ascii here]
┌─────────────────────╖
│ * Pyroview Features ║
└═════════════════════╝
Pyroview is a self-contained graphics viewer capable of displaying all
formats currently included in art packs. (well, maybe not *all* formats,
yet :) )
Features:
■ Views ansi/ascii files in standard textmodes (80x25, 80x43, 80x50),
tweaked text modes (80x28, 80x30, 80x34, 80x60), and VESA textmodes
(132x25, 132x43, 132x50, 132x60). Viewing at higher resolutions is
also supported via the VGA 320x200, 320x400 modes, 360x240, and
360x480 modes and the VESA SVGA 640x400, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768,
and 1280x1024 modes. Supports smooth and auto-scrolling. (Smooth
scrolling is currently only supported in 80x25 mode)
■ Views binary ansi files in standard textmodes (80x25, 80x43, 80x50),
tweaked text modes (80x28, 80x30, 80x34, 80x60), and VESA textmodes
(132x25, 132x43, 132x50, 132x60). Viewing at higher resolutions is
also supported via the VGA 320x200, 320x400 modes, 360x240, and
360x480 modes and the VESA SVGA 640x400, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768,
and 1280x1024 modes. Supports smooth scrolling in all 4 directions.
(80x25 is the only supported mode in this beta version)
■ Views RIPscrip format files and incorporates Fire's new RIPscrip 1.62
specification, providing for fully animated RIPs. The entire set of
BGI stroked fonts is supported and included with Pyroview. Note: the
font files (*.chr) must be located in the same directory as the Pyroview
executable file, which is not neccessarily the current directory.
■ Displays JPEG, GIF, PCX, and BMP files, using standard VGA and VESA
SVGA modes, from 320x200 to 1280x1024 pixels, and from 8 to 24 bits
per pixel. The appropriate mode to use is automatically-detected.
■ Shows your mom.
┌──────────────────────────╖
│ * Program Configuration ║
└══════════════════════════╝
Pyroview can be configured to operate to your liking. Pressing the F10
function key while in the interface puts you in configuration mode. You
can also change most program options from the interface by pressing the
appropriate key (see the help screen (F1) for a list). Any changes you
make while in the interface or configuration mode will not be saved unless
you enter confugration mode and choose the "Save" command (Alt-S), which
saves all the options active at the time of the save so that you can use
those settings the next time you run Pyroview. All changes are written
directly to the executable, so there's no need to fool with an external
configuration file.
Brief descriptions of the options available in configuration mode are
listed below:
Resolution: This option selects which video mode to view ansis and binary
ansis in. Not all video cards can handle all the modes listed.
Due to time constraints, I'm using only VESA modes in this
version, so your video card must support VESA BIOS extensions
in order to display ansis in VGA modes higher than 320x400.
FontSize: This option affects the aspect ratio of the displayed image;
ie., the width vs. the height. You are selecting actual video
modes to use when the previous option is set to "Textmode".
Otherwise, you are selecting the scaling ratios to use when
converting the textmode characters to the graphics mode pixels.
Note: The 132x??? textmodes are only available on VESA systems.
Like the previous option, this option only affects the viewing
of ansi and binary ansi files.
Baudrate: This option lets you simulate a modem connection to a remote
host, and is most often used to slow the speed at which files
are displayed. This option only affects the speed at which RIP
files are displayed, and the speed at which ansis are shown
while in Animation mode. It does not affect the viewing of
any file type while in View mode.
Color mode: Ansi - Default. Colors will be displayed as stored in the
graphics file.
Gray - The palette will be reduced to 3 shades of gray.
Ascii - All color information will be stripped and replaced
with standard DOS color 7 (dark white). Allows viewing
of "invisible" greets.
IceColor: Default is on. When enabled, a full 16 colors can be used for
the background, as opposed to the standard 8 colors. Blinking
text is no longer possible while IceColor is enabled. Any text
that was blinking will be non-blinking, but on a high-color
background. Note: Why the hell do people call this IceColor?
Wintermute and Maxwell were using this well known part of the
video BIOS long before Ice, so we should call it FireColor :)
Scrolling: Smooth - Default. Scrolls by pixel. Some multitaskers won't
like this very much.
Normal - Scrolls line by line.
Auto - This toggle controls whether or not the ansi starts
scrolling as soon as it is loaded, or whether the
viewer should wait and let the user control the
scrolling.
┌─────────────────────────╖
│ * Command-Line Options ║
└═════════════════════════╝
Like most dos utilities, Pyroview supports command-line parameters:
Pyroview [/R:#] [/F:#] [/B:#] [/C:{N,G,A}[I]] [/S:[N|S][A]] [/V] [files]
┌─────────────────┐┌──────────────────┐┌───────────┐┌─────────────┐
│ Resolution (/R) ││ Font Size (/F) ││ Baud (/B) ││ Colors (/C) │
├─────────────────┤├───┬────────┬─────┤├───────────┤├─────────────┤
│ 0 │ Text Mode ││ │ TEXT │ VGA ││ 0 │ Off ││ N │ Normal │
│ 1*│ 320 x 200 ││ ├────────┼─────┤│ 1 │ 300 ││ G │ Grey │
│ 2*│ 320 x 400 ││ 1 │ 80x25 │ 1x2*││ 2 │ 1200 ││ A │ Ascii │
│ 3*│ 360 x 240 ││ 2 │ 80x28 │ 1x4*││ 3 │ 2400 ││ I │ IceColor│
│ 4*│ 360 x 480 ││ 3 │ 80x43 │ 2x2*││ 4 │ 4800 │├─────────────┤
│ 5*│ 640 x 400 ││ 4 │ 80x50 │ 2x4*││ 5 │ 9600 ││ Scroll (/S) │
│ 6*│ 640 x 480 ││ 5 │ 132x25 │ 2x8*││ 6 │ 14400 │├─────────────┤
│ 7*│ 800 x 600 ││ 6 │ 132x43 │ 4x4*││ 7 │ 28800 ││ N │ Normal │
│ 8*│ 1024 x 768 ││ 7 │ 132x50 │ 4x8*││ 8 │ 38400 ││ S │ Smooth │
│ 9*│ 1280 x 1024 ││ 8 │ 132x60 │ 6x8*││ 9 │ 57600 ││ A │ Auto │
└─────────────────┘└──────────────────┘└───────────┘└─────────────┘
* = unsupported :)
The `files` parameter can be one of the following:
mask(s) - Up to 10 standard DOS filemasks, with wildcards, each
seperated by a space. These masks temporarily replace
the 10 masks specified in the config. Each mask can be
up to 12 characters in length, except the first mask,
which can contain up to 80 characters and can contain
directory information. If you specify a directory in the
first mask, that mask will be used in reading the files.
Otherwise, Pyroview will look in the current directoy for
files matching the masks. Interactive mode will be used by
default. To force Slide Show mode, include the `/V` parameter
on the command-line.
Example:
Pyroview HAL*.ANS GOD*.RIP MAX*.EXE
@Filename - Text file containing list of files to view, one file per line.
You can give a full path to the list file if needed, or just
the file name if it's in the current directory. This option
turns Slide Show mode on. Files are viewed in the order they
appear in the file list. Wildcards are supported in the list.
Any lines preceeded by semicolons are considered comments and
will be ignored. When viewing files in Slide Show mode, all
files will be displayed consecutively unless the user aborts
with ESC. Pressing SPACE aborts the current file and proceeds
to the next file in the list. Press SPACE or ENTER to move to
the next file after a file has been shown, or press F1 for more
information. If you do not specify the full path to a file in
the list, Pyroview will check to see if you specified a direct-
ory to search in on the command-line, and if so, it will look
in that directory for the files. Otherwise, Pyroview will search
the current directory. Files in the list which contain path
information will be processed normally.
Examples:
Assume the file `fire0596.lst` contains the following lines:
*.ANS
*.BIN
*.ASC
*.RIP
*.GIF
*.JPG
; show my favorite ansis too
d:\art\ansi\cool\*.*
The following command will display all files in the current
directory matching the wildcards listed above, plus all files
in `d:\art\ansi\cool\`.
Pyroview @fire0596.lst
The following command will display all files in the `c:\art`
directory matching the wildcards listed above, plus all files
in `d:\art\ansi\cool\`.
Pyroview @fire0596.lst c:\art
┌─────────────────────╖
│ * Bugs/Limitations ║
└═════════════════════╝
Since this version of Pyroview was put together in less then 3 weeks,
I haven't had time to thouroughly test everything, there are bound to
be some nasty bugs. If you find anything wrong with pyroview, let me
know at spectre@expert.cc.purdue.edu and I'll see what I can do to help.
There are also quite a few limitations in this version which will be
eliminated in future versions (see below). These limitations include,
but are not limited to the following:
- Ansis will smooth scroll only in 80x25 mode, and you won't be able
to switch to another mode/font while in 80x25 smooth scrolling mode.
Change to 'normal' scrolling to use the vga modes or the extended
textmode fonts (the 132x?? fonts kick ass)
- VGA viewing of ansis doesn't exist yet. I was toying around with the
idea of using 64K color modes so I can represent the shading of the
ansi more accuately than is possible in the standard 256 color modes.
What do you think?
- .BIN's will be FUBAR if they're bigger than 64k or so. I'll fix it
later.
- There's no game in this version. Give me suggestions of which game
you'd like to see, like 80's arcade games.
- The Alt-E (editor) key from the Interface currently just runs the
DOS editor, but it'll be configurable later. If you really want to
run another editor, or include a file on the command line, simply
make a batch file called 'EDIT.BAT' and put in whichever directory
you'll be viewing files from. Whenever you hit Alt-E from the Inter-
face, whatever is in that batch file will be executed. This might
come in handy for various other utilities besides text editors. Maybe
you could put TheDraw in there... Thus will be configurable in the
future.
- It sucks, I'm tired, I'm bored, and I WANT MY INTERNET ACCOUNT BACK! :(
┌─────────────────────╖
│ * Acknowledgements ║
└═════════════════════╝
This version of Pyroview is dedicated to wintermute. and obscurity. and
crisis. and the immortal. and neurosis. and distortion. and my mom. and
your mom. and halaster's dad.
Pyroview was coded by maxwell, with help from Lord Cracker and Aphelion.
Art by: Halaster, God Amoung Lice, and Squidulator2.
I have learned from coding examples provided by other coders,
most notably Greater Evil (Relicvu), Mr. Kite (Shiver View),
and SiDS (ACiDViEW).
Pyroview was written using Borland Turbo C++ 3.0, Borland C++ 4.5,
and Borland Turbo Assembler 4.0. Not bad for my first C program. :)
The RIP 1.61 specification is by God Amoung Lice and Panacea.
The JPEG code is by the Independent JPEG Group.
"The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of
CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of
CompuServe Incorporated."
This document and Pyroview are Copyright (C) 1996 Clay McClure (maxwell).
(Well, not really, but you get the idea)
SAUCE00Pyroview Documentation for v5.0 Maxwell fire 19960508á1 P