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- VPIC 6.0 ANNOUNCEMENT
-
- VPIC 5.1e is the last version with a $15 price tag. The newer features
- which users are requesting will require significant time to
- incorporate, and will require a price increase. Version 6.0 will start
- adding advanced features to VPIC, and the base price will be $25. The
- shipping and handling for the latest version with about 1M of pictures
- is the same, at $5 inside the USA and Canada and $10 foreign, and now
- includes a printed manual. The program will retain the fast, easy,
- intuitive operation that VPIC users have come to expect. Registered
- VPIC users may upgrade to version 6.x for $10, plus shipping and
- handling if you want the latest version from me; also includes about 1M
- of good GIF pictures (please specify VGA, SuperVGA, or 1024x768, and
- hi-density disk size [3.5" or 5.25"]).
-
- The first of these advanced features is a directory tree, which is
- already in place in version 6.0 and available now. This makes changing
- directories a snap; you press Alt F9, or click the mouse on DIR, and
- VPIC presents a 4 column folded directory tree on the menu screen with
- subdirectory levels indicated. Then you simply cursor over to (or click
- the mouse on) the directory you want, and the viewable files instantly
- appear in the menu. To make this even faster, the first time you run
- VPIC and request a directory tree, VPIC scans the current drive and
- saves the data to a file. The next time you request a directory tree,
- VPIC simply reads the file and the directory tree appears almost
- instantly. The file ($$drivex where x is the drive letter) is saved in
- the same directory where VPIC is located, so VPIC can be run from
- anywhere (if it is in your path) and the drive files can be found. The
- other drives are listed on line 2 of the directory tree, and you can
- press the drive letter, or click with the mouse, to get a directory
- tree of that drive. You also have the option to rescan the drive if you
- have added or deleted directories.
-
- The second feature is a really good 16 color palette selection for
- viewing 256 color pictures in 16 color modes (ie, VGA 640x480x16).
-
- The third is VESA 1.2 support, so all modes (including hi-color) are
- automatically detected if your display board supports the VESA standard
- correctly. The older S3 boards (Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 and Diamond
- Stealth) didn't, so you have to do vpic /v to make vpic ignore VESA
- info. Also added means of telling vpic which hi-color mode (32K, 64K,
- 0r 16.7M) to use for Targa's.
-
- Other features in the works are:
- TIFF support
- 24 bit BMP and PCX support.
- Color Reduction for 15, 16, and 24 bit files (Targa, TIFF, BMP, PCX).
- Extended and Expanded memory support.
- Intelligent resizing of the picture to the screen.
- Cutting a portion of the screen to a new file.
-