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PCXDUMP Version 9.00
------------------------
THE screen capture program
Documentation and technical notes
October 17th, 1993
Copyright 1991-1993 by
Jesper Frandsen
All rights reserved
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 regi-
stration provisions if they continue to use it after the 10 day
trial period. Should you find this program useful, you must re-
gister it; you will then be provided with the latest releases
of the PCXDUMP system.
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.
The cost as of this writing is $30.00 U.S. per single-user li-
cense. 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 "Registra-
tion" 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 recei-
ves no part of the price you may have paid to a disk distribu-
tor for this disk.
PC, XT, PC/AT and PS/2 are trademarks, and IBM is a registered
trademark, of International Business Machines Corporation.
All other products or services mentioned in this manual,
including: VGA, Paradise, Everex, Trident, Video 7, Tseng Labs,
MS-DOS,PC-DOS, PCX, Windows, Hercules, PC Paintbrush, Word-
Perfect, PageMaker, Ventura, GIF, Compuserve are trademarks,
registered trademarks, service marks, or registered service
marks of their respective companies or organizations.
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 pro-
grams are capable of importing PCX-files, e.g. WordPerfect,
PageMaker, Ventura Publisher, PaintBrush, almost any Windows
program and many, many more.
Many programs, particularly games, prevent capture because they
steal the keyboard interrupt vector and refuse to pass inter-
rupts back to previously installed programs. PCXDUMP is able to
get around this major problem by reprogramming the interrupt
controller to a different set of vectors. When a program steals
the keyboard or timer interrupt it no longer gets first pick,
but a fake hardware interrupt generated by PCXDUMP resident
code. This technique works in all but a few rare instances.
Another implication is that, with some restrictions, screens
can also be captured under Microsoft Windows even though
PCXDUMP is a DOS program.
PCXDUMP recognizes a large number of SuperVGA chips, and is
able to use their resolutions as well.PCXDUMP will also recog-
nize the HiColor extension of several of these SuperVGA cards.
If your SuperVGA adapter is not directly supported by PCXDUMP,
PCXDUMP will recognize and use EVERY VESA mode available (VESA
Version 1.2). PCXDUMP will of course dump images from EVERY
tweaked mode derived from 320x200, like 320x240, 360x240,
360x480 etc.
PCXDUMP is installed with the most user-friendly interface any
screen grabber provides. In the menu you can change things such
as as: the hotkey-sequence to activate PCXDUMP, where to put
the PCX-files, Sound on/off and several other features.
With exclusively use of assembler and memory optimisations, you
will find PCXDUMP to be one of the most compact Terminate and
Stay Resident (TSR) programs you ever load. It can use EMS
memory, Upper Memory Blocks provided by an XMS/UMB driver and
normal system memory to maximum effect. Typical system memory
use amounts to under 1.5 Kb (on many systems no conventional
memory is used at all!). When loaded on a PC with no EMS or
UMB memory, PCXDUMP will use 15 Kb of conventional memory.
Finally, in the package is included 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 file formats, convert color PCX-files to
monochrome PCX-files and will reduce the number of colors in
a PCX-file.
PCXDUMP requirements
--------------------
To use PCXDUMP, you will need:
a) an IBM PC, AT, PS/2, or 100% compatible computer.
b) at least one floppy diskette drive.
c) the IBM-PC DOS (Disk Operating System), or MS-DOS,
in a version numbered 3.1 or higher.
d) At least an EGA graphics adapter card.
A Mouse System compatible mouse will also be convenient.
You can NOT use PCXDUMP on XT's or on CGA or Hercules graphics
adapters!
What PCXDUMP is able to 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)
PCXDUMP captures images in any of the video modes listed in
the following table, which have been standardized by manufac-
turers of the various video adapters mentioned above:
Video Graphics Adapters
Mode Resolution Colors Supporting
----- ---------- ---------- --------------------
4 320 x 200 4 CGA/EGA/VGA *)
5 320 x 200 4 CGA/EGA/VGA *)
6 640 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.
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.
And if you have any of these SVGA-cards, you are able to
capture screens from their SVGA modes as well!
-------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+--------
CHIPSET | 16 col. | 256 col.| 32k col.| 64k col.| 16M col
| up to: | up to: | up to: | up to: | up to:
-------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+--------
Ahead A/B |1024x768 |1024x768 | - | - | -
ATI-Wonder |1024x768 |1024x768 | 800x600 | - | -
Chip & Tech. |1024x768 |1024x768 | - | - | -
Genoa |1024x768 | 800x600 | - | - | -
MXIC |1024x768 |1024x768 | - | - | -
OAK-37 | 800x600 | - | - | - | -
OAK-67 |1024x768 | 800x600 | - | - | -
OAK-77 |1280x1024|1024x768 | 640x480 | - | -
Paradise |1024x768 |1024x768 | 800x600 | - | -
Realtek |1280x1024|1024x768 | - | 800x600 | -
Trident |1024x768 |1024x768 | 800x600 | 800x600 | -
Tseng ET 3000|1024x768 | 800x600 | - | - | -
Tseng ET 4000|1280x1024|1024x768 | - | - | -
Tseng HiColor|1280x1024|1024x768 | 800x600 | - | -
Tseng TrueClr|1280x1024|1024x768 | 800x600 | 800x600 |640x480
VESA |1280x1024|1280x1024|1280x1024|1280x1024|1280x1024
Video-7 |1024x768 | 800x600 | - | - | -
-------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------
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.
Text modes
----------
PCXDUMP is able to capture screens in at least these text mo-
des:
Video Text Adapters
Mode Resolution Colors Supporting
----- ---------- ---------- ----------------
0 40x25 16 CGA/EGA/VGA/MCGA
1 40x25 16 CGA/EGA/VGA/MCGA
2 80x25 16 CGA/EGA/VGA/MCGA
3 80x25,80x43,80x50 16 EGA/VGA/MCGA
7 80x25,80x43 2 EGA/VGA
- 80x60 16 Some SVGA cards
- 80x66 16 Some SVGA cards
- 100x40 16 Some SVGA cards
- 100x60 16 Some SVGA cards
- 132x25 16 Some SVGA cards
- 132x28 16 Some SVGA cards
- 132x44 16 Some SVGA cards
- 132x60 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 if you
have the device driver ANSI.SYS installed the correct colors
(if any) will be printed on the screen. 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 7, 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.
HOTKEYS
-------
One of the powerful features of PCXDUMP is the number of
hotkeys. Instead of just one hotkey, as ordinary screen grab-
ber provides, PCXDUMP gives you 9 different hotkeys (C,E,N,R,
I,G,H,T,A).
With these hotkeys you control how you want PCXDUMP to dump
the screen.
5 of the 9 hotkeys (C,N,I,G,H) will draw a frame on the
screen when pressed, and you will be able to decide which
part of the screen you want saved by adjusting the size and
position of the frame. You can use both the mouse (if your
mouse driver is installed) or the keyboard to control the
frame. Read the section "Adjusting framesize" for a precise
explanation.
ALT+SHIFT+C dumps a color PCX-file.
ALT+SHIFT+E like ALT+SHIFT+C but without the frame.
ALT+SHIFT+N dumps a black/white PCX-file.
ALT+SHIFT+R like ALT+SHIFT+N but without the frame.
ALT+SHIFT+I dumps a inverted black/white PCX-file.
ALT+SHIFT+G dumps a color PCX-file with the image
converted to grayscale.
ALT+SHIFT+H dumps a color PCX-file with the image
converted to inverted grayscale.
ALT+SHIFT+T will dump a text screen to a TEXT-file.
ALT+SHIFT+A will dump a text screen to a ANSI-file.
This is the default set of hotkeys. It is of course possible
to choose a custom hotkey sequence (read the section "PCXDUMP
INSTALLATION OPTIONS").
When dumping a color PCX-file, the video mode (the available
colors on the screen) determines which file format should be
used (1, 4, 8 or 24 bits format), except when 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 gra-
phics.
If you activate PCXDUMP in an unsupported video mode, such as a
4 color hires mode, PCXDUMP will emit a long deep sound.
You can only use the C, E, G & H hotkeys when there is at least
4 colors on the screen. You can only use the T and A hotkeys in
text mode.
NOTE: if you activate PCXDUMP in text mode, PCXDUMP will dump
the screen immediately.
Adjusting framesize
-------------------
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 <CTRL> or <ALT>.
The frame will appear in GRAPHICS mode only. 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 posi-
tion.
Press MIDDLE button to adjust horizontal panning (descri-
bed below)
KEYBOARD:
Press the arrow keys to control frame size.
Press <CTRL> or <ALT> 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 wanted area.
HORIZONTAL PANNING: Some programs/games uses horizontal scrol-
ling to improve the graphics. PCXDUMP will know which part of
the graphics is currently shown, except for a "few" pixels (1-7
pixels). There is no way to determine these "extra" pixels in a
safe way. If you can see that the frame starts to the left of
the screen, press the middle mousebutton or Keypad 5 to make
the frame position 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 horizon-
tal scroll.
If the computer is too busy to capture
--------------------------------------
There may be times when 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 sensi-
tive 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.
The PCXDUMP Environment Variable
------------------------------------
Another supported feature is the environment variable PCXDUMP.
You can write your preferred settings into the variable, so you
don't have to write them every time you start the program. For
example, if you have the PCXDUMP variable set as follows:
SET PCXDUMP=/DIR=C:\PICTURES /MONO /SHIFT=1
This will then use these parameters every time PCXDUMP is run,
overriding the defaults so that you only need to type "PCXDUMP"
to access your most used setup.
Note that you still need to write "PCXDUMP /ON" if you do not
want the installation menu to appear. The command line para-
meters will override the environment variable. Thus
PCXDUMP /DIR=C:\TEMP
will put all dumped images in C:\TEMP rather than C:\PICTURES.
PCXDUMP INSTALLATION OPTIONS
----------------------------
PCXDUMP is easily installed with the menu that appears, when
you write "PCXDUMP" + <ENTER>. Do not attempt to start PCXDUMP
from a command shell such as Norton Commander or Dosshell.
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
-----------
Installs PCXDUMP. This option is only necessary if no
other options are given.
Option: /OFF
------------
This option removes PCXDUMP from the memory. This is only
possible if the interrupt vectors used by PCXDUMP still
point to its resident code. Normally this will be where
PCXDUMP was the last TSR program loaded. Note that any
other command line switches or parameters will be ignored
if this option is present. Users are advised NOT to use
TSR release programs such as MARK and RELEASE. Only
PCXDUMP can remove itself from memory correctly.
Option: /BATCH
--------------
This option can only be used from command-line. When this
option is used, PCXDUMP will not write a status screen
after installation. This option is for registered users
only!
Option: /CHIPSET=number
-----------------------
If PCXDUMP somehow fails to recognize your video card
(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 Wonder 16 Chips & Technology 451
5 Trident 17 Chips & Technology 452
6 Genoa 18 Chips & Technology 453
7 Paradise 19 VESA
8 Tseng ET 3000 20 Tseng ET 4000 TrueColor
9 Tseng ET 4000 21 OAK-77
10 Tseng ET 4000 HiColor 22 MXIC
11 OAK-37 23 Realtek
Option: /DIR=directory
----------------------
This option places the PCX-files (DUMP????.PCX) in the
specified directory instead of the current directory.
Many programs have some data in other directories than
the startup directory, and this option saves you the
trouble of tracking down the PCX-files after capturing
the images. Example:
PCXDUMP /DIR=C:\ (Will place files in C:\)
PCXDUMP /DIR=C:\PCX\ (If C:\PCX\ exist files will be put
here)
Instead of writing /DIR=C:\PCX\ you can write /DIR=C:\PCX
The /NAME option will allow you to change the name of
files that PCXDUMP will dump the images to. See /NAME.
Option: /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 (hotkey G or H).
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, other-
wise 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 is all there is to it.
I have found a GAMMA value near 170 good when dumping
textscreens (and graphics screens too) and printing them
on a laserprinter.
Option: /HELP
-------------
Clears the screen and prints all available command-line
switches.
Option: /H
----------
Same as /HELP.
Option: /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 or keyboard to cut out a
piece of the screen. The image will be saved immediately
and PCXDUMP will automatically determine wether to dump a
color or a monochrome image.
The scancode must be in the range 1-88.
Option: /INT=number
-------------------
Use this option if you want to call PCXDUMP from other
programs. You will be able to call PCXDUMP from your own
program via an interrupt, which you specify here. This
interrupt may be any interrupt in 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 your own program, if you enter this piece of
code in your program:
TURBO PASCAL 4.0 - 5.5 CODE:
----------------------------
Uses Dos;
Procedure DumpScreen(Func:Word);
Var
Reg : Registers;
begin
Reg.AX := $1234;
Reg.BX := Func;
Intr(5,Reg);
Delay(60); (* Remember this delay *)
end;
TURBO PASCAL 6.0 CODE:
----------------------
Procedure DumpScreen(Func:Word);
begin
ASM
MOV AX,1234h
MOV BX,Func
INT 5
END;
Delay(60); (* Remember this delay *)
end;
The AX register 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 (that is the reason for the delay). If AX does not
equal 1234h, PCXDUMP will ignore the interrupt and call
the old interrupt. If you use interrupt 5 as the inter-
rupt 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).
The BX register 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").
It is possible to check if PCXDUMP is installed and which
version (again in Turbo Pascal code):
Uses Dos;
Var
Reg : Registers;
Pcxdump_Installed : Boolean;
Pcxdump_Version : Word;
Pcxdump_Interrupt : Byte;
Begin
Pcxdump_Installed := False;
Reg.AX:=$9999;
Intr($28,Reg);
if Reg.AX=$AAAA then
begin
Pcxdump_Installed := True;
Pcxdump_Version := Reg.CX; {Major in CH, Minor in
CL}
Pcxdump_Interrupt := Reg.DL;
end;
if NOT Pcxdump_Installed then
begin
Writeln('PCXDUMP is not installed!');
Halt(1);
end;
Writeln('PCXDUMP version ',Pcxdump_Version/100:4:2,
' is installed');
if Pcxdump_Interrupt<>0 then
Writeln('PCXDUMP uses user-interrupt ',
Pcxdump_Interrupt);
end.
Option: /MEMORY=number
----------------------
PCXDUMP will search your computer for available UMB or
EMS to put most of its code. If your system has 15 Kb
of free UMB, PCXDUMP will install itself there and use
no conventional memory. If you do not have 15 Kb free
UMB but you have EMS available, PCXDUMP will use 16 Kb of
EMS and only just under 1.5 Kb of conventional memory.
With this option you can tell PCXDUMP if it is allowed to
search for upper memory.
/MEMORY=0 {use only conventional memory}
/MEMORY=1 {search for UMB memory}
/MEMORY=2 {search for EMS memory}
/MEMORY=3 {search for both UMB and EMS memory}
Option: /MONO
-------------
The installation menu for PCXDUMP contains a lot of
colors. On color monitors they should not be a problem.
However, on notebook PC's or other computers equipped
with a Black&White monitor it may be difficult to tell
the different colors apart. Applying this option from
the command-line forces PCXDUMP to use Black&White only
in the installation menu.
This option can only be used from command-line.
Option: /MOUSE
--------------
Normally you will activate PCXDUMP from the keyboard. But
if you use this option (by setting it to ON in the in-
stallation 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: /NAME=name
------------------
Usually PCXDUMP will dump the screens to files with the
name: "DUMP0000.PCX". You can change this with the /NAME
option. If you set NAME=GAMES, PCXDUMP will dump to file
"GAMES000.PCX", "GAMES001.PCX" etc. You can only specifi-
fy a name up to 8 characters, and the name must consist
of letters only, no digits or others characters is allo-
wed. As the filenumber is increased, it may overwrite
some of the last letters in the name. Example:
PCXDUMP /NAME=TESTING
will produce TESTING0.PCX - TESTING9.PCX and the next will
be named TESTIN10.PCX.
If a file with a particular name already exists, it will
not be overwritten unless PCXDUMP is instructed to. See
/OVERWRITE
Option: /NOSOUND
----------------
Tells PCXDUMP to be quiet.
Option: /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: /OVERWRITE
------------------
PCXDUMP will not overwrite existing files in the default
configuration. Instead the next available filename will
be used.
If you install PCXDUMP and the files DUMP0000.PCX,
DUMP0001.PCX and DUMP0003.PCX (assuming that PCXDUMP
uses the default name for files) 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 ON in the installation menu
or you install PCXDUMP with the command line switch
/OVERWRITE, PCXDUMP will overwrite any existing file with
the same name as the file PCXDUMP wants to save.
Option: /SHIFT=number
---------------------
Instead of using the default hotkey sequence which is
ALT+SHIFT+<some hotkey>, you can tell PCXDUMP to use any combi-
nation of the ALT, SHIFT and CTRL keys.
Number Effect on hotkey sequence
-----------------------------------
0 No shift keys
1 Press SHIFT
2 Press ALT
3 Press ALT + SHIFT
4 Press CTRL
5 Press SHIFT + CTRL
6 Press ALT + CTRL
7 Press SHIFT + ALT + CTRL
Option: /SKIPVESA
-----------------
When PCXDUMP tries to identify your video card it will
always treat your video card as a VESA card if you have a
VESA-driver installed because the very first thing
PCXDUMP checks, is the presence of a VESA-driver. If you
install PCXDUMP with this option no check for a VESA--
driver is performed. If you have a VESA driver installed
some programs will take advantage of the VESA driver and
some programs will not. If a program uses the VESA
driver, you must install PCXDUMP with VESA capabilities.
If a programs does not use the VESA driver and instead
uses the video card directly, you must install PCXDUMP
with the /SKIPVESA switch to make PCXDUMP ignore the VESA
driver. The problem is not PCXDUMP, but whether a program
uses the VESA driver or not. If you have a VESA driver
installed and are using EMM386 (or QEMM) as your memory
manager, PCXDUMP may sometimes cause an exception error.
If you use this option it should fix this problem, but
then PCXDUMP will not recognize any VESA mode.
See KNOWN PROBLEMS for another solution.
NOTE: This option can only be used from the command line.
Option: /STEALTH=number
-----------------------
PCXDUMP will reprogram the interrupt controller if you
invoke it with the /STEALTH option. For this purpose
PCXDUMP need a base interrupt vector. This vector must be
in the range 120-224. The default is OFF. PCXDUMP requi-
res a consecutive run of eight unused interrupt vectors,
and it is VERY important that the ones chosen do not
conflict with other software packages or hardware devices.
The range 120-224 is chosen since it is typically where
the unused interrupt vectors can be found.
You are not likely to come across conflicts unless special
hardware is being used. Software packages rarely use
interrupts in this region. If they do it should be
documented. If you ever suffer from system crashes or
hardware lock-ups, suspect this base interrupt value
first. If in any doubt try booting your PC from minimal
system floppy disk.
NOTE: The /STEALTH option is not compatible with MS-DOS
EMM386.EXE when EMM386.EXE is loaded with the NOEMS or
or SCANHIGH parameter!
Option: /STEALTH
----------------
Same as /STEALTH=216, see /STEALTH=number!
Option: /VIDEO=number
---------------------
Usually PCXDUMP will detect the current video mode cor-
rectly. But sometimes this detections fails. This happens
very seldom, I have only experienced this in one single
game, COMANCHE: MAXIMUM OVERKILL, a 32-bit protected mode
game. By using this option you can explicitly tell
PCXDUMP which video mode 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 video-
card. E.g. mode 1024x768x256 on a Tseng ET 4000 card will
have mode number 56 (38 hex), but on an Trident card this
mode has the number 96 (62 hex) and on a Realtek it is 40
(28 hex) and so on. Once you have told PCXDUMP to use a
certain video mode, it will continue to use this video
mode every time you activate it. You need to un-install
PCXDUMP and re-install it to make it autodetect the video
mode again.
Actually, to dump images from COMANCHE, I had to use the
/VIDEO option, the /MOUSE option and the /STEALTH option.
Since can not cope the the reprogramming of the Interrupt
controller, /STEALTH must be set to off. As COMANCHE
monopolizes the keyboard it is NOT possible to dump
images from this game using the keyboard! However, COMAN-
CHE 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 video mode. COMANCHE runs in
mode X (320x240), which is derived from mode 19 (13 hex)
= 320x200 pixels with 256 colors. Therefore to dump
screens from COMANCHE, PCXDUMP was installed with these
options:
PCXDUMP /VIDEO=19 /MOUSE /STEALTH=0
Screens were then captured by pressing both left and
right mousebutton at the same time.
NOTE: On some Genoa cards PCXDUMP cannot recognize the
extended graphics video modes. But you can force PCXDUMP
to dump from these modes with the VIDEO option. Below is
a table with the video modes and the corresponding mode
number for Genoa cards:
GENOA: Mode no. Color Resolution
--------------------------------------
92 (5C hex) 256 640x480
94 (5E hex) 256 800x600
95 (5F hex) 16 1024x768
108 (6C hex) 256 800x600
115 (73 hex) 16 640x480
121 (79 hex) 16 800x600
125 (7D hex) 256 512x512
126 (7E hex) 256 640x400
Option: /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 determines the logical screen width (which
is bigger than the physical display width), but has no
way of calculating the logical screen height, you have to
specify how many times higher than the physical display
height the logical screen height is. Let us say you want
to capture the full logical screen of COMMANDER KEEN 4.
This game runs in 320x200 pixels with 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 /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.
Option: /?
----------
Same as /HELP
Use Under Microsoft Windows
---------------------------
PCXDUMP will work under MS Windows even though it is a
DOS program, with certain limitations. Windows versions
prior to 3.0 are not supported. In order to capture the
complete screen (including active menus, the cursor
etc.), you must run Windows in Standard Mode or Real Mode
with the WIN /S (or /R) command and you MUST install
PCXDUMP with the /STEALTH option BEFORE running Windows.
The same capture hotkeys work as before, although you may
wish to choose a hotkey which does not conflict with any
Windows application accelerater keys. Also be cautious
about Super VGA cards which are supplied with Windows
drivers but which PCXDUMP does not yet support in high
resolution modes. When capturing the Windows screen you
will get a distored dump if you move the mouse during the
grabbing.
If you attempt to run Windows in 386 Enhanced Mode with
PCXDUMP resident and using the /STEALTH option, a message
will appear after the Windows logo asking you to use the
/S switch or to remove PCXDUMP from memory.
Once up and running in 386 Enhanced Mode (PCXDUMP is not
installed), PCXDUMP can be run from within a DOS box.
However, the capture hotkey is only active when the DOS
window has focus, and then only the contents of the
window are captured. When PCXDUMP is run from a DOS-box
under Windows, it is not possible to use the /STEALTH
option.
System crashes
--------------
If PCXDUMP crashes your machine when run, or when you
attempt to grab a screen, you should first suspect the
STEALTH base interrupt setting (see /STEALTH for more
details). This is by far the most likely cause of a
system crash, and you can work around it by specifying a
different base interrupt vector or turning STEALTH off.
PCXDUMP and EMM386.EXE, QEMM386.EXE or other memory managers.
------------------------------------------------------------
If you use PCXDUMP together with a resident VESA-driver,
AND you're using a memory manager like EMM386 or QEMM,
you may sometimes get an exception error from your memory
manager. It is because QEMM (or EMM386) does something
weird with the Video BIOS. In order to fix this problem,
you should use the QEMM 'exclude' options to exclude the
Video BIOS area. Do this by including the following in
the QEMM options:
EXCLUDE=C000-C1FF
This problem does not seem to appear with the 386Max
memory manager.
IMPORTANT: The /STEALTH option is NOT compatible with
MS-DOS EMM386.EXE if you use the NOEMS or the HIGHSCAN
switch for EMM386.EXE. Please do not use /STEALTH if you
want to continue using EMM386.EXE with either the NOEMS
or the HIGHSCAN switch!
On some systems using EMM386.EXE (from Microsoft) or
QEMM386.EXE (from Quaterdeck) PCXDUMP will generate an
exception error #12 when activated. The most likely
cause is your CONFIG.SYS configuration! If you have the
following line:
STACKS = 0,0
in your CONFIG.SYS file and you get an exception error
from your memory maneger, try to increase stacks to:
STACKS = 8,256
This will leave 2 Kb RAM less for applications, but
will save you a lot of trouble in the future!
Known problem
-------------
On some Genoa cards PCXDUMP cannot recognize the extended
graphics video modes. But you can force PCXDUMP to dump
from these modes with the VIDEO option. Please read the
section about the /VIDEO option to see a table over the
extended Genoa video modes.
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 share-
ware 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 cumula-
tive.
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 "ORDER.FRM".
Where to get PCXDUMP
--------------------
The prices of the registered PCXDUMP packages are subject to
change after January 1st, 1995. 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:
Mirrors of The Mighty Simtel Base, e.g.:
FTP-address: wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/msdos/gra-
phics
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 BBS, Tlf: 86 93 68 22, N-8-1
Prof. ShareWare, Benloese Skel 4 G, DK-4100 Ringsted,
Tlf: 53 61 90 42 plus several other BBSs around the coun-
try.
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.
Getting in contact with the author
----------------------------------
If you have any questions, suggestions or you find any bugs,
please contact me at the following address:
Jesper Frandsen
Fredens Torv 7, 2.sal
DK-8000 Aarhus C
DENMARK
Phone: +45 86 18 22 06
Email: jesperf@daimi.aau.dk
Special thanks goes to:
-----------------------
Helle for being understanding.
Soren for testing, finding bugs, inventing new features and
correcting misspelled words.
Finn for providing information on various SuperVGA adapters.
------------------- End of document ------------------------