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dlineart.doc
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1989-10-18
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Is your computer BORED? If so, then you need...
DLineArt, by Steve -Raz- Berry with help
from Matt Dillon.
IF YOU ARE IMPATIENT WITH LONG WINDED README'S... skip to the section
labeled Examples and try them out...
This program must be used in conjunction with Dmouse 1.13, and is
intended to be a screen blanker replacement program. IT IS NOT
STAND ALONE. An earlier release of LineArt works without Dmouse.
0) SHORT HISTORY
----------------
This display hack does nothing usefull, but draw pretty lines on a
custom screen. I have seen this program running on everything from Suns
to Mac's, and I decided that it was time that one was done for the Amiga.
Although similar to the lines demo distributed on Workbench 1.1 & 1.2,
It does things on it's own screen in full 4096 color interlaced
splendor :*).
Matt Dillon liked it so much that he stitched in a way to
add your own customized screen blanker via an IPC port. As soon as
I found Dmouse 1.13, I took his example "blanker.c", and hacked it
up to support LineArt graphics. I also fixed a few bugs and added a few
more things along the way.
When I first wrote this program, I was unaware of MACKIE written by
Tom Rokicki, which draws the same kind of lines boxes and splines
as part of a hot-key/screen-blanker type program. Undaunted (although
somewhat embarassed) I proceeded to allow infinite customization
to those who are bored enough to want to play with LineArt. Besides, I prefer
DMOUSE (Thanks Matt!) for my hot-key handler. Don't get me wrong, I really
like the way Tom does splines... In fact I stole his spline code and put
it in (D)LineArt.
1) TO GET DMOUSE TO RECOGNIZE DLineArt -
--------------------------------------
To make dmouse (v1.20+) use the DLineArt screen blanker instead of its
default blanker (a boring blank screen) simply run DLineArt after you
initialize dmouse.
------------------------------------------------------
stack 4000
dmouse -a4 -m3 -s90 -l0003 -w1 -t7 -C NewWSH
runback -1 DLineArt -a -n 3 -c2500 -l30
------------------------------------------------------
To terminate DLineArt do this:
raz's prompt> status
Process 1: Loaded as command: dlineart
Process 3: Loaded as command: status
raz's prompt> break 1
The break command will terminate DLineArt.
Terminating DMouse (1> dmouse quit) will also terminate DLineArt.
2) INVOCATION:
-------------
There are a LOT of comand line options (for a program like this anyway)!
You need to run DLineArt in the background for it to function properly.
You can enter the options in ANY order on the command line, and only the
last occurance of a particular switch will be used. The options are:
run >nil: <nil: DLineArt -[b|t|n|e|c{0-4096}|l{2-1000}] [i]
or use the PD 'runback' program to start DLineArt.
The '-l' and '-c' options require an integer immediately following the
switch in the range indicated in the {}'s, without a space. Descriptions
and examples follow.
Dlineart -t - This leaves a trail (one out of every 'l' lines)
remains on the screen.
-s - Draw splines. Code blatently ripped off from Tomas
Rokicki's Mackie.
"-Tstring"
- This option allows you to "bounce" words around the
screen. You MUST enclose quotes around the entire
string. This example will use "string". The default
is the string "BOING!"
-n - This is the 'nice' option, this makes LineArt much
more friendly in a multitasking environment
(It takes less CPU time.) It also slows things down.
-cXXXX - This switch allows you to specify the initial color
that the program will cycle from. Suggested color
values start from 1900 (decimal) and up.
-lXXXX - This switch allows you to specify the number of
lines to be drawn before the last one is erased.
-b - draw boxes (4 connected lines) instead of lines.
i - This is an integer between 1 and 9 that will change
the minimum distance between sucessive endpoints for
each line drawn. A high number will give the illusion
of unbelievable speed! (Woah... hold me down Toto!)
-e - Draw ellipses instead of anything else.
(I would be interested to see this run with an '020)
-a - Cycle through all of the available line (and circle)
types. This is a good loop mode.
The defaults (if you just type 'run lineart') are as if you entered:
run <nil: >nil: DLineArt 3 -a -c1280 -l10 -TBOING!
3) EXAMPLES:
-----------
Some of my favorites:
runback DLineArt 4 -l100 -c2500 -n
runback DLineArt 1 -l10 -c2500
runback DLineArt 9 -l30 -c2500 -n
runback DLineArt 9 -l30 -c2500 -t
runback DLineArt 4 -l3 -c1500 -n
runback DLineArt -b -c2500 1 -l20
runback DLineArt -s -c2500 4 -l35
runback DLineArt "-TI love Teresa!" -c2500 9 -n -l20
runback DLineArt -e 7 -c1999 -l30
For speed freaks -
run <nil: >nil: DLineArt 9 -c4000 -l7
4) Miscelaneous:
---------------
If you want to time the drawing speed (roughly) turn on the trailing option
and wait for the screen to clear. 60,000 lines would have been drawn in
this amount of time.
I timed it at 2'7" (127 seconds) or 944 lines per second in line draw
mode. Using boxes it climbs to 2400 vectors per second. Not too shabby for
a game machine eh?
5) Future improvements:
It could be faster, if I use the screen's rastport instead of the
windows'. Unfortuneately, CED (which is an excellent editor) does not
co-exist with DLineart when doing this. I have no clue why this is so.
The only symptoms are that retrieving CED via hot-key produces an instant
GURU. And no, I am NOT drawing out of bounds of the rastport, you
should have seen the debugging code I put in to make sure of that!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This program is PD. Use it or abuse it, only you will know.
Steve -Raz- Berry (Note the new address)
1260 Ayala Dr. #214
Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086
UUCP: ...sun!kilowatt!raz ARPA: raz%kilowatt.EBay@sun.com
If you are on USENET, please feel free to use the archive server
on kilowatt. Just send a message of "send help" to the
archive-server%kilowatt.EBay@Sun.com
or {well bonded site}!sun!kilowatt!archive-server
The archive has *all* of the binaries and sources that Bob Page
has posted and some from the days of Pat White. Currently this
totals to over 40 meg of stuff (zoo'ed and uuencoded).
This program is a Public Domain product of The Checkered Ball 1989.
8/07/89