Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mfci!m3!genly From: genly@m7.multiflow.COM (Chris Hind Genly) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Black Belt Video Message-ID: <1188@m3.mfci.UUCP> Date: 14 Jan 90 01:10:43 GMT Sender: news@mfci.UUCP Distribution: comp Organization: Multiflow Computer Inc., Branford CT Lines: 196 This is posted for Ben Williams who does not have direct access to USENET. ====================================================================== To Wayne Knapp: >>40,000 to 64,000... and the other statement to ( >60,000 colors >>out of 260,000). >>I'm not trying to slander Black Belt No, certainly not. Who could possibly think so? Do you know, this it the _third_ time you've bungled the math involved? Let do it for you. No Charge. The HAM-E board produces pixels at a 320/line rate. It supports interlace. This provides a 400 line environment, in a US machine and without overscan. 320x400 = 128,000. If one counts overscan, which is one of those "things" we don't really like to argue about, because while your monitor might then we can do up to say, 360x480 pixels, a total of 172,800 on screen. If you look at PAL machines (which we support 100%) then the total goes up even more, as they have more vertical scan lines available. It's not relevent to US/NTSC claims, though. I'd say 172,800 (or even 128,000) is one _heck_ of a lot different from 60,000 or 64,000. I'd also say, without reservation now, you need to purchase a calculator... or if you've been using one, you need to get more familiar with the Amiga and it's graphics modes. Have a nice day. :*) Ben Amateur Radio Callsign is A A 7 A S ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To Joe Hutchins: Nah, I won't torch you... those are valid issues, and deserve a valid response. Unlike some things I've seen recently. :*) Kludge? Well, maybe. It was _designed_ to conform to what was there, and to meet the needs of those who wanted more color than they had for graphics use. It has a lot of compatability, re the screens slide and front/back overlay capabilities, as well as the IFF view/show/animate capabilities. More than that we didn't see how to provide; both modes, the REG and HAME modes, are 8 bit, and so for some operations can be made to work with the Amiga's graphics libs. Only some of them, though. We don't think of it as a kludge, though. It's an aftermarket design, working within certain (very rigid) constraints. Yes, the 2000's have a video slot. And, we could have used that easily. Which would have left the 500 and 1000 owners out in the cold. Not very nice, and marketing-wise, not very smart, either. There are an awful lot of those machines out there. And making a unit that works with them ALL makes it that much more likely to succeed, as _anyone_ who wants to can participate, and the only ones left out are those who want to be, for their own reasons... and they can always change their minds w/o buying a new machine. This device is meant to address the image/paint/animation people. It's not meant (the I wouldn't bet we wont see this) to be a workbench screen, or a DTP basis. For what we meant it for, it will work extremely well, and on all machines. Again, doesn't seem to be a kludge to _us_, anyway. You say the Amiga's biggest problem right now is that it's falling behind in display quality. I don't agree. It's a big problem, but nowhere near as bad a problem as CBM's abysmally poor attempts at marketing the thing. Maybe it's the second biggest problem. We'd like to see it addressed, too (graphics res). Dpaint.... you _can_ use DPaint, as it stands, with the box. It's pretty weird, but you can do it. First, you take a brush (which we provide) that is one scan line long. It contains the magic cookie. You stamp this thing at the upper left of your image. You set DPaint's GRID to a 2 pxiel width. And you use 2 pixel-wide brushes to draw. It works. What can I say? :*) Now, EA (who produce the thing) has indicated that they are interested. At this point, that's all that is appropriate for them to say. THey hav not (yet) seen the thing (few have) but are on our notify list for the intial product run at their request. They have told customers on the phone that they are "eagerly waiting" to get the unit... call them and pest them a bit... see what they say to you. I can't speak for them. You have to remember that not everyone thinks of this as a kludge, including users, dealers, distributors, and developers in that. So for them, supporting it may not BE "supporting a kludge". Which makes all the difference in the world for support in general. Try looking at it this way. It's highly compatible. It's easy to install. It works automatically. It provides many more colors and much greater sharpness (at the same time) than any other Amiga graphics mode. It works on all machines, 500 -> 2500/030. And it's inexpensive. To most people it's all this, and it's a "box", never mond how it works. So to most people, the word "Kludge" never enters their minds. Ben Amateur Radio Callsign is A A 7 A S ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To Wayne Knapp: >>Summary: Great, but where do you get the IFF pictures in the >>first place? Ok, valid question. In another message, I described how we are using the _current_ version of DPaint to generate IFF drawings. Any program that produces 18 (or more) bit IFF files is a canidate for this box, right now. That includes things like digitizers (DigiView comes to mind immediately) Ray tracers (Silver) and Scanners (ScanLab from ASDG, for instance). Users, IE the programmer community as opposed to the "developer community" have a long history or writing whatever they need. We expect to see some very interesting software items that support the board in unique ways. Steve Tibbet has some great ideas, and says working on it now. There are others as well. EA and others are interested, and you may see 100% support at the paint program level, but that is in the future. We will probably provide as much of the PD stuff as we can on the release disk with the commercial unit. These are valid concerns, but they have been addressed as much as possible. I think you are missing something here... although this IS a new format, and so is mcuh weaker in the "supported" area than other current modes, it (by virtue of the IFF level compatability and the screen level compatibility) has a MUCH better running start than say, an external board would, even given software libraries to automatically move (most) of the rendering to the new board's output. Ben Amateur Radio Callsign is A A 7 A S ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To Jon Anderson: >I wonder why no one else has seen this.... It's certainly a >kludge Ok, I'll byte. _Why_ is it "certainly a kludge"? It works with all Amiga models... it was _designed_ to. It provides 256 colors, and color registers to go with them. It provides >256 colors, more than 4,096 colors, using what you aptly described as "nasty stuff". It'll come in a nice box, FCC approved, UL approved, quality RGB cable supplied. It doesn't require an extra monitor. What is kludgey about this? Notice this isn't a flame... I'm just asking, since you, and a few others, have made the assertion. Back it up now... that's all. THen, if you have insufficient justification, why THEN I'll flame you. :*) Ben Amateur Radio Callsign is A A 7 A S -- ======================================================================= Chris Hind Genly, N1GLZ - Multiflow Computer - mfci!genly (203)488-6090