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====================
= PTC051 (23/9/97) =
====================
What is PTC?
------------
PTC is a portable truecolor graphics system designed for use in games, demos
and other realtime graphical applications. PTC is written in C++ with a fast
assembly language core. PTC currently supports DJGPP 2.x and Watcom C++ 10.5,
10.6 and 11.0
The goal of PTC
---------------
The main goal of PTC is to provide a fast, stable, portable, and easy to use
truecolor system for programmers. When PTC reaches version 1.0 it will be
possible to write portable graphics code that compiles without change under
dos, win32, linux, and xwindows
Pixel format conversion
-----------------------
A long standing problem with truecolor graphics has been the lack of any
"standard" pixel formats. Some graphics cards have 15bit modes, others have
16bit, others still have 24 or 32 bits per pixel. The problem is, you cannot
rely on all cards to have any single one of these formats available! To
complicate things further there are many variations available. For example,
32bit can be either ARGB8888 (most common), ABGR8888, RGBA8888, BGRA8888 or
even one of the other less common variations.
How then can the programmer make sure that their program will be viewable on
all video hardware? Clearly writing tailored rendering routines for each pixel
format is not practical. It is just too much work to provide a version of each
routine for every output format possible. The other side of the spectrum is
generic routines that are flexible enough to work in any pixel format. The
problem with this approach is that generic rendering routines are always going
to be too slow for use in high speed graphics.
This is the problem that PTC was created to address. PTC provides a set of
fast pixel format routines that let the programmer work internally in 8bit,
16bit RGB565 or 32bit ARGB8888 pixel format, and not worry about what output
format the display is in. PTC provides this with pixel format conversion
routines that are so fast there is literally no noticeable overhead when
converting instead of just straight copying the pixel data. For example, PTC
can convert from 32bit ARGB8888 to 16bit RGB565 at a faster rate than a
straight copy 32bit->32bit. Try the example program "profile.cpp" and see
exactly how fast PTC is for yourself.
PTC051 Release
--------------
* Added DJGPP 2.x compiler support
* Added simple image loading routines for Targa 8, 16, 24 and 32bit
uncompressed images.
* Increased stability, several minor bugs were fixed since PTC050
PTC050 Release
--------------
* Completed full converter set 8/16/32bit -> X
* Faster and more efficient library internals (totally redesigned)
* Large improvement in stabilty - PTC050 has been extensively stress tested
* Easy to follow example programs with accompanying tutorials
* New fakemodes (9 in total), GREY8 output and RGB332 output
* Added the abilily to retrieve a list of all available video modes
* Win32 support removed while it is rewritten - DirectX will be back in 060
* DJGPP support removed - will be back in PTC060, perhaps sooner.
Planned features
----------------
* Increased platform support - dos, win32, linux and xwindows platforms
* New graphics interfaces - VGA, VESA, VBE/AF, DirectX, GDI, X11, GGI
* Greater compiler support - Watcom C++ 10.0, 10.5, 10.6 and 11.0, Visual C++
4.x and 5.x, Cygnus GNU-Win32, Borland C++, Symantec C++, and GNU G++
* Transparent hardware acceleration for BitBlts, StretchBlts, Clears, and
pixel format conversion (where available)
* Dithered pixel format conversion blitter option for increased quality when
blitting down to a lower bit per pixel format
* High quality quantizing routines
* Access to advanced hardware blt operations such as color key, alpha
blending and more...
* Windowed graphics output (where applicable)
* "Native" surface and interface access. Access the LPDIRECTDRAW interface
when working in DirectX, or access the HDC when writing to a windowed
output under win32. Portabilty AND flexibility when required.
* Extensive diagnostics support for the programmer to obtain details about
the level of hardware acceleration available.
Getting started
---------------
Check out the example programs in the "examples" directory. You can find some
detailed tutorials in the accompanying text files. The random putpixel
example "rand32.cpp" is a great place to get started using PTC.
Legal Information
-----------------
Please read the "license.txt" now.
cheers
--
Gaffer [xtatic]
gaffer@bigfoot.com
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