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1990-12-01
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PicView 1.3
An Picture Viewer
Copyright 1989,1990 by Greg Thomas & Brad Mettee
What is PicView?
PicView is an picture viewer that offers features not found in
other viewers. This is not the end all program (yet). Other viewers
do offers some features that PicView does not, such as graphic
conversion. Some of the 'deficiencies' of PicView will be added to
later releases.
Currently PicView will read and display GIF, Colorix and MAC
formats. We are currently working on implementing more formats,
notably compressed RIX files, PCX and Deluxe Paint LBM files. Other
formats are being looked into, and will be implemented as we accrue
information on them.
What makes PicView different than these other viewers?
Ahh glad you asked that question (you did ask that, didn't
you?) Well, for starters, our biggest pride with this product is the
superb ADJUSTABLE palette animation. A picture can be animated
through the entire palette, a portion of the palette, and through a
range of colors in the palette. The effects of the animation must be
seen to be truly appreciated.
It also sports a very easy to use window interface that if not
for the complex animation capabilities, would preclude the need for
docs at all. It uses very easy pop-down windows for all parameter
setting and selection very similar to the environments used in
Borland's Language's (Guess will have to look out for the look and
feel police.)
PicView supports ATI, Tseng, Trident, Video7, Paradise, C&T,
Everex, Cirrus, and Ahead A & B chipsets. It will auto detect if
these adapters are installed, and adjust the mode selections (screen
size) accordingly. Also, for you True Blue users, a special
360x480x256 mode is implemented for you to get almost SVGA perfor-
mance out of your motherboard VGA. This will also work on all
register compatible VGA cards. PicView currently does not (and most
likely won't ever) support standards less then VGA. There are several
viewers on the market that support EGA and below, so it seemed rather
pointless since PicView's animation abilities are best done on VGA.
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Files contained in PicView.zip
PV.EXE PicView executable file
PVDOC.TXT PicView documentation
REGISTER.TXT PicView registration form
REVHIST.TXT Revision History
PICVIEW.GIF PicView.gif is a gif file which
demonstrates the viability of partial
palette animation. Using the random
palette (any palette will do, but works
best with random or plasma) set starting
register to 92, and end register to 112.
DATA.PIX Data for laserline opening credits.
WAVE1A.GIF Wave1a.gif, boxesa.gif, and tunnela.gif have
BOXESA.GIF continuous smooth palettes making
TUNNELA.GIF experimentation of the default palette's
possible settings.
DEMO.BAT Batch file which creates and demonstrates
PicView's Slideshow abilities.
In the Works
Some of the features that PicView will be incorporating in
future releases are:
A script language for slideshow presentations.
Support for more file formats i.e. PCX, LBM, etc.
Mode lockout.
Getting Started with PicView
You can start PicView by either typing PV at the DOS prompt to
get into menu mode, or you can specify a filename or listfile from
the command line to immediately display a file or slideshow.
When starting PicView in menu mode, a credit screen will pop
up. By default, PicView starts in 50 line mode. If you prefer, you
can start it with the command line option -25 or /25 to have it
default to 25 line mode. Strike a key, and you will be in the file
selection window. From the main menu, you have 5 choices, detailed
here.
Note: If you get tired of viewing the laserline, you can delete the
data.pix file and it will no longer display.
Info
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Pops up the opening credit screen. (In case you get bored, or
want to know who wrote this contraption.)
File
Pops up a sub menu used for file selection.
Environ
Pops up submenu for options pertaining to environment.
Options
Brings up a submenu to select PicView's options.
Exit
Exits the program. (That's a hard one to figure out, eh?)
Submenus have a varying number of selections that either pop up an
additional submenu, prompt you for data, or display a selected file.
Submenu options will be detailed here.
File
Select File(s)
This selection pops up a file selection window which allows
you to select the file to be viewed. The window sports a scroll
bar to give you an indication of how far along you are in the
list of files. There is a real file limit of 16,384 files that
can be read into the directory (assuming you have a 640k
machine). You can use first character selection to speed you
through your files. Hitting 'T' once will take you to the first
file beginning with T. Hitting it again will take you to the
next and so on. The list can be scrolled beyond the end or
beginning if scrolling in reverse. When you find the file you
want to display, Hit the 'ENTER' key and it will be displayed.
If viewing a MAC file, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, up & down arrow
keys will scroll the picture. After the file has been
displayed, strike any key to return to the file selection
window. When you return, you will have the last file displayed
still highlighted.
File Type
This selection will pop up a little window that allows you
to select which type of file you wish to have in the selection
window above. Currently your choices are, GIF, RIX, and MAC.
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Environ
Screen
This will pop up a submenu allowing you to select which
screen mode you want the picture displayed in. Depending on
your video adapter, you may not be able to select all of the
choices. The Auto select option will let the program select the
best video mode for the picture to fit in.
Note: You can hot-key into this window with the F3 key.
Options
Animate
This will pop up a window prompting you for data to control
the animation facilities of PicView. The first data item you
are prompted for is whether or not you want animation on. If
you select 'N', the window is dropped, and you are returned to
the next level u