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Documentation for DPatch v4.00 by Colin Bell.
--------------------------------------------
Docs by Colin Bell & Tom Ellard.
Distribution and Legal.
-----------------------
DPatch is copyright 1991 by Colin Bell. It may be freely distributed
for no more than the cost of the media. It may not be sold, sold as part of
a commercial product or placed under restricted access for profit. This
prohibits sale by commercial shareware libraries.
Use this program at your own risk. The author will not be responsible
for any losses or damages resulting from use of the program.
Synopsis.
---------
Dpatch replaces values within the code for Deluxe Paint 4.0 and 3.25.
These values control the screen sizes. By editing a configuration file you
can run DPaint with any screen size.
Why you need DPatch
-------------------
Version 3.1 of DPaint was the first to offer painting and animation in
overscan. Version 3.14 added PAL television support (3.1 would work under
PAL but crash under some conditions.) Under the PAL system, overscan was
provided at 352 pixels by 290 pixels. This size looks OK on a computer
monitor and most televisions but leaves a gap at one side of the screen
when viewed on broadcast quality monitors. To use DPaint images for
broadcast required stretching the picture horizontally with something like
an ADO.
When Workbench 2.0. arrived, DPaint had problems with requesters and a
conflict with 2.0.'s use of the left Amiga key. So version 3.25 was
released. 3.25 adds a new maximum overscan mode which makes it useful for
broadcast. Stupidly, the size for normal overscan has been revised to be
352 by 283. Any animation made by Deluxe Paint 3.14 is distorted into
interlace mode and unusable. So you have a situation where you need to have
two copies of DPaint available for old and new sized animations.
Another problem is that DPaint3.25/4.0. will not load animations that
don't match its preset screen size. Just about every different program has
its own idea of overscan and so the IFF standard is made useless.
After putting up with situation for many years and owning three copies
of Deluxe Paint we declared a new interface guideline for all Amiga
programs. No preset overscan size, always offer a way to enter a custom
size. And if they don't do it right - we'll show them how! :-)
Installing DPatch.
------------------
Place all the DPatch files in the same drawer as your copy of DPaint.
Note - I said copy. Never patch the original.
Using a text editor such as Ed, TxEd, TransWrite or any that saves
pure text without formatting, load DPatch.config.
You will see a list of all the different screen sizes under which
DPaint can operate. Alongside these are the names given to these sizes. For
example:
#0283 ;STD PAL LORES
means that standard PAL LoRes will be 283 pixels tall. Ugh, we want
290. Change #0283 to #0290. Do this for any other screen size you want to
change. You can make comments anywhere to the right of a ; symbol, but
don't alter the format of the numbers. Now resave the file Dpatch.config to
the directory holding DPaint
Ok, now double click on the DP4 icon. This uses Iconx to execute a
script that runs DPatch and then DPaint. You'll see a menu asking:
NORMAL
OLD
CUSTOM
Normal means keep to the sizes provided with DPaint 3.25/4.0. Old
means use the sizes that came with DPaint 3.14. And most fun of all, Custom
means use the sizes that were set in the configuration. Click on one of
these and up comes DPaint, with the sizes you want.
Running from CLI and scripts.
----------------------------
At the CLI prompt type DPatch [path]
If no filename is specified the program looks for "Dpaint" in the
current directory & path. If you supply the path/name from the CLI eg.
dpatch Gfx:Paint/Deluxepaint
then it will attempt to find that file. You cannot specify a different path
from Workbench.
If Dpatch aborts for any reason it will set an ERROR returncode (10)
for a fatal error (One which displays an error message) or a WARN (5)
returncode if you click on the close gadget. This is useful in your script
file so that you can abort running Dpaint if there is a problem.
Problems
--------
- Wrong version of DPaint. You need Dpaint 3.25/4.0., 3.25 has a bright
green sticker on the box saying AmigaDOS 2.0. compatable. 4.0. has the
multiple ghosted Tut face on it.
- Can't find the configuration. It should be in the same directory as
DPatch and Dpaint or S: of the workbench from which DPatch and Dpaint are
run.
- Dpatch cannot be used on crunched versions of Dpaint. If you have used
Powerpacker or Imploder to compress DPaint, decompress it, patch it, and
compress it again.
- All hell breaks loose! Well, go easy on those screen sizes! This patch
runs fine on an Amiga 3000 under 2.0. but if you are using a 1000 under 1.3
you're going to have problems with CHIP memory running out and 1.3 not
liking big screens. Also setting the sizes to stupid things like 2 by 2
pixels will just get you in trouble.
How DPatch works.
-----------------
Basically, the table of screen sizes built into Dpaint gets overwritten by
Dpatch. It was found that this table of screen sizes is used by dpaint to
completely control the screen sizes AND memory allocated for the screen.
The patch is done to the file on disk. For this reason, it may be best to
completely delete the Dpaint icon & only use the Dpatch script to launch
dpaint.
Colin can be contacted at:
PO Box 1058 FidoNet: 3:712/512
Bondi Junction
N.S.W. 2026
Australia