Atari Power User Online Magazine Issue 1

Febuary 15 , 1993

Editor and Publisher.............Brian Hilbern
DTP Editor.......................Dave Trutzenbach
Telecommunications Editor........Darren Trutzenbach
Games Editor.....................Jeff Coon
Technical Editor.................Position Open
Programming Editor...............Position Open
Business Editor..................Brian Hilbern

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Online Connections............(405) 691-0244 3-14.4K ISIS Node 54
The Roundtable................(609) 268-7524 3-14.4K ISIS Node 39

Atari Power User Magazine is available through the ISIS Network via node #54. This magazine will be sent to all ISIS Nodes.

Contents this Week

General Information:
* User Group Newsletter Exchange

Business:
* Atari Business: FAX Modems

Telecommunications:
* ISIS Network

Software Review:
* STraight FAX! 1.6
* PhotoChrome 3.0
* Oxyd

Editor's Notes

We're Back!!! That's right ST Power User Magazine is back online. After 2 years of being gone we are back. In case some of you don't remember what happened we suffered a massive hard drive loss and all our work went down with the hard drive. After that a couple of our writers jumped the ST boat and swam over to IBM's and a couple more just disappeared.

Let me take this opurtunity to introduce myself again. My name is Brian Hilbern. I have been in the business of selling Atari hardware and software for almost 5 years now. I have run a BBS using an ST for almost 5 years. I originally started this magazine 2 years ago because I felt that the magazines currently out were big heads. This magazine was originally to be devoted to the programming wizards of the PD and shareware world and to let you the readers know what is available and wether you should waste your money buying the disk from a PD software company or downloading from a pay service. We will still be doing that but we will also be doing commercial programs as well.

We want to continue with the same quality that we had before. The magazine has a new group of writers some of whom have written for ST magazines in the past and a few first time writers that I'm sure will do a fine job and will become even better in the future.

We now have a new name also. We are changing from ST Power User to Atari Power User because of the new Atari computers. And with the soon to be released Falcon 030 there will be even more to talk about in the future.

I want to take this time to thank the readers of ST Power User for their support in the past. We are glad to be back and hope that you are happy to see us once again.

User Group Notice

Atari Power User is compiling a list of ST User Groups who are interested newsletter exchanges with other user groups. Please send us your groups name and address and it will be added to the list.

All articles in this magazine may be reproduced for non- commercial use as long as credit is given to the magazine and writer and the article is not edited.

Desktop Publishing

Coming Next Month!!

Atari ST/E PhotoChrome v3.00

Douglas Little
160 Goremire Road,
Carluke, Lanarkshire
Scotland. ML8 4PN.

Shareware 2-5 pounds suggested (apprx 3-8 US Dollars)

The following is extracted from the DOC's for PhotoChrome.
The author of the program says it better than anyone.
The review of the program follows at the end.
You are now the proud owner of the PhotoChrome graphics card emulator. It is the only one of its type currently available for the Atari ST and is capable of out-performing all other screen modes including the infamous HAM and HalfBrite displays on the Commodore Amiga.
It's basic specification is the ability to load most IFF formats, 24-Bit True colour screens (16 million colours), GIF files and VidiChrome digitised 'RGB' colour separations (4096 colours) before converting to one of six powerful screen modes.

THE 6 CONVERSION MODES

The six screen modes are...

Spectrum 512 > 42/45 cols per scanline from 512 on an ST or STE.
Spectrum 4096 > 42/45 cols per scanline from 4096 on an STE.
PCS-ST > 48 colours per scanline from 512 on an ST or STE.
PCS-STE > 48 colours per scanline from 4096 on an STE.
Super HAM > A full 4096 colours out of 4096 on an ST or STE.
STE PhotoChrome > 19200 colours out of 32768 on an STE.

Modes 1 and 2 are basically real Spectrum-512 files. They are not compressed, but Spectrum can do this if you need it. STE mode seems to handle pictures better than I had expected, since with such a large palette the colour assignments tend to be used up twice as quickly.

Modes 3 and 4 are my own custom versions of the Spectrum display. They both have a few extra colours to play with, filling up the streaks and dots Spectrum can often leave behind. This is my own 'PCS' format (PhotoChrome Screen) and uses the best of 2 compression methods.

Modes 5 and 6 are actually impossible, so just accept they work and don't ask too many questions! SUPER HAM is an emulation of the Hold And Modify mode normally exclusive to the Commodore Amiga. After some experimentation with my own Amiga, I found that HAM is not actually as capable of displaying some of the more detailed colour images (especially with high levels of contrast or lots of sharp lines) and so renamed my own format 'SUPER HAM'. Many HAM pictures are of course better as they have many more colours per line, but have to smudge and blend to obtain them.

PHOTOCHROME is only available when the source picture contains in excess of 4096 colours (i.e. QRT 16-million colour pictures), and then only to STE owners. However, if you do have an STE and some RAW files knocking about (STF cover disk 35!) then you are in for a treat indeed! Eat your heart out, VGA! This is the most powerful mode available short of a real Graphics card, with 19200 colours on-screen at once from a largish palette of 32768! (15-bit colour). The picture requires two conversion passes, but is well worth the wait!

N.B. Pictures saved out as Super HAM or PhotoChrome tend to be anywhere from large to enormous, even with fancy compression. Bear this in mind when testing out the hatched and fractal stippling options! (Check out PCSVIEW.DOC for info on better compression...)

FEATURES

STIPPLING.

Generally, if the source picture holds more colours than the destination format (i.e. RAW > SPU) then you are allowed stippling. The three options are CLEAN - just leave the picture as it is, HATCHED - use levels of hatching to make up in-between colours and FRACTAL - the weird one. This uses fractal numbers to highlight/leave each pixel on the screen, the result being that graduated colours look more obvious but you get a weird 'oil-painting' effect. It really only works well in PhotoChrome and super-HAM modes.

ERROR/FLICKER FREE. (SUPER HAM/PHOTOCHROME ONLY)

Error-free mode makes a better job of mega-colourful pictures but is not normally needed (a sort of last-resort). 'Flicker-free' should be used where available, the only problem being that it chews through the colour tables at an alarming rate (keep an eye on QRT screens). N.B. STE PhotoChrome mode is fixed at ERROR-FREE in 60Hz, since flicker is minimal with such a large palette.

FLICKER-FREE mode CAN sometimes reduce the quality of the screen...

50/60 Hz MODES. (SUPER HAM and QRT PICTURES ONLY)

Basically, everything runs at 50Hz, with a couple of exceptions. QRT pictures tend to have a 60Hz aspect ratio (not fixed but the option is there) causing the screen to look squashed at 50Hz. Also, PHOTOCHROME mode looks best at 60Hz anyway, so it is left as the default frequency. 60Hz also helps when 'flicker-free' option has been avoided for accuracy. To change the default, click on the 50Hz button. All screens will now run at 50Hz regardless of how they might look. To switch modes while viewing the picture, hit the '*' key.

SPECTRUM OPTIONS.

Spectrum 512 does not use all of it's available colours. Colour 0 (background colour) is always black and colour 15 is reserved for drawing and for the mouse pointer etc. leaving 14 variable colours for use in the picture. There are 3 palette changes per line meaning (16-2)*3 or 42 cols available for alteration on each individual scanline of the screen. The 'LEGAL COLOURS' option uses just these colours. The 'ALL COLOURS' option however releases colour 15 for use, meaning (16-1)*3 or 45 cols per line. The only disadvantage is that Spectrum will crack up if you try to load them in. Any pixels using colour 15 will turn bright orange and look a right mess. You have been warned... (N.B. slideshows should display these pictures no probs.)

LIMITATIONS

Hmmm, I'm not sure there are any, really..

No, seriously, there are a few bits you should know about before creating slideshows full of pretty pictures!

RAW's

QRT screens can be any width or height (<=320*200) and will be centred on the screen with a black border. If you use the 'flicker- free' option (SUPER HAM only) some loss of detail or palette-errors might occur on very complex pictures. To avoid this you may have to use the 'error-free' mode instead (at 60Hz there is very little flicker anyway). To cut down any flicker you may still see, reduce the contrast setting on your monitor.

GIF's

The program can load GIF's of any height or width and will offer the option to either squash the picture, or select a 320*200 zone. 320*200 GIF's will bypass this stage. To select a zone, use the arrow- keys and 'SPACE' when satisfied.

IFF's

The program can load ILBM IFF's of any height or width but will crop them to 320*200 (a later version will contain squash/interlace options). The real bonus is that it eats up colours like nothing else. All of the Amiga pictures I fed it looked identical to the originals, with no loss of colour or detail! (HalfBrite 64 colour IFF's are supported properly)

RGB's

VidiChrome RGB screens suffer from very few limitations. Generally you should choose the 'flicker-free' option all the time and if you spot dots/errors on the screen (rare) you can resort to 60Hz and 'error-free' mode.

SYNC PROBLEMS.

It came to my attention some time ago that both Spectrum-512 and GFA Raytrace suffered from video-synchronisation problems. This caused very irritating little dots or vertical lines to appear from time to time and totally ruin the effect of the picture. It was also very embarrasing when trying to show off the ST's capabilities to other members of the computer world (i.e. Amiga-people). These programs are supplied with a 'SYNC.PRG' which, contrary to many peoples beliefs does sod-all to fix the problem. All it does is TELL you whether your ST is READY to display a picture or NOT, having no effect on the machine at all. The only way to rectify a 'no-sync' situation is to TURN OFF and reboot, resetting the video-clock hardware and hopefully reversing the situation. Generally it takes a few tries before success, and although I have seen a few ST's that ALWAYS boot up properly, the effect on STE's is generally quite bad (just try to merge a colour digitised picture in 4096 colour mode in VidiChrome and you'll probably see what I mean).
Anyway, Since my own display code incorporates similar colour- switch techniques, PhotoChrome was initially prone to this bugging effect. After a lot of work and an equal amount of problems it has been solved, and as far as I know, is rectified on all ST's and STE's. All pictures saved out from PhotoChrome (including Spectrum-512/4096) are 'immunised' against sync problems, regardless of which slideshow program you choose to display them (they even load into Spectrum itself! Although if you mess about with the picture, Spectrum will re- assign the colours and destroy the immunised structure of the screen.

SAVING A PICTURE

To save a screen, hit 'RETURN' or 'S' once it has been converted and is being displayed. The file will take a few seconds to compress before giving you a file selector. The program will check diskspace prior to saving the screen.
To switch 50/60 Hz on the same screen, hit the '*' key. This will be recorded into the file for displaying in the slideshow.
While selecting a part of a GIF picture, use the arrow keys and 'SPACE' when done.

PhotoChrome Review
By Brian Hilbern

There are not enough good things I can say about this program. The quality of the converted pictures is excellent. The program is very simple to use. Included with the program is a viewer and a slide show program. If you own an ST or STe you will be delighted with the results. The picture quality is outstanding and you can't beat the price.

Overall Rating
This part is easy. I have to give it a 10 all around. Download this program. You'll really like it.

Oxyd

By Brian Hilbern

Oxyd is an interesting new PD game. The object of the game is to move this round object through different scenes without destroying it. And to move from one scene to another you turn on these other boxes to show their colors. You match the colors of one object with the color of another then they are locked in. Then you go to the next color. Only 2 objects may show their color at the same time. If you open one and then the next one doesn't match the first one you opened will close.

You must move the round object through different areas trying to avoid obsticles and trying to find a way past obsticles. Later in the game you must put an explosive to blow up certain objects so you can get around them.

All the movement is done with the mouse. I have only gotten through about 8 levels so far. It's a tough game. One thing you must remember is to record what level you are on. Before you enter a level you are given a level code. Write the code down and if you loose you can type the code and it will allow you to start where you left off.

The graphics are very well done. I'm sure you will enjoy playing this game.

Overall Rating: 9