Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!usc!ucsd!nosc!crash!pro-graphics.cts.com!bobl From: bobl@pro-graphics.cts.com (Bob Lindabury) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: re: investing in a II gs Message-ID: <4491@crash.cts.com> Date: 19 Sep 90 02:56:26 GMT Sender: root@crash.cts.com Lines: 81 In-Reply-To: message from $CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET > The A500 has better graphics than the GS, but not because of 400 mode. > If you remember, the Amiga's 400 mode is interlaced (pronounced use-less) > which causes the display to flicker on anything by a slow scan monitor. > Microway produces a device called a "flicker-fixer" which de-interlaces > the 400 mode. Interlaced graphics are quite poor for animation, which is > the Amiga's forte. The Amiga has two custom processor chips for graphics: > one to handle most of the drudgery, one to manage sprites, multi-planar > graphics, etc. Very little software for the Amiga uses 400 mode, most use > the 640x200 screen (which is the same resolution as ours, though much > better for animation). How can someone post information like this when they obviously don't know what they are talking about? It is almost completly incorrect. Let's see if I can clarify a few points: The interlaced mode (400/480) is far from useless. The author contends that interlace mode is poor for animation, which is the Amiga's forte. He's right that animation is the Amiga's forte. However, anyone that does ANY animation on the Amiga for video knows that the interlace mode is a REQUIREMENT. All NTSC is interlaced video. The Flicker-Fixer was created to de-interlace productivity software such as CAD and WP programs for use in 400 line mode. He then goes on to say that very little software uses the interlace mode. Again totally incorrect. Every Graphics program on the Amiga uses the interlaced mode and most other program also use the interlace mode. You can pick whether you want interlace on or off in about 95% of the available programs and even the Workbench (like Finder). > A lesson for Apple: Commodore realized the mistake they made by giving > the Amiga a interlaced 400 Mode and have included de-interlacing hardware > on the Amiga 3000 (plus 640x480 minimal VGA. I say minimal since VGA > works with 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768; and VGA cards for the 1024x768 > resolution on the PC aren't that expensive: $350 at most) I already covered the inaccuracies concerning the interlace mode. Now he is totally incorrect about de-interlacing hardware. The new chipset that comes standard in the Amiga 3000 (optional upgrade for 2000's) produces a non-interlaced 640x480 output signal as well as the interlaced signal if you want it. The de-interlacing hardware that is built into the 3000 also acts as a scan doubler which takes intterlaced high-resolution screens and outputs them without flicker to a 31.5kHz VGA monitor for the purpose of VGA monitor compatibility. His contention that the Amiga produces VGA output is totally inaccurate. Although the Amiga works in VGA resolutions, it certainly doesn't do any VGA. Resolutions are software selectable in the following: 320x200, 320x400, 640x200, 640x400, 640x480(non-interlaced), 1280x400. Each resolution can be put into overscan which increases such resolutions as 640x400 to 704x480 for full video output. Yeah..and it's all standard! No $350.00 price tag on these resolutions. Apple should take a lesson from Commodore, but certainly not the incorrect lesson you elude to. > Rumors in the July '90 Nibble seem to indicate that the GS's graphics > may be augmented with a 400 mode in the future. I certainly hope that > they have the forsight to make that mode NON-INTERLACED. It would be like > watching a train wreck in slow motion for Apple to put a useless video > mode on the GS. Well, I've had about all the rumors I can stand about upgrades to the Apple //GS's graphics. It's been too many years and too few improvements in this department that makes the GS the slug it is today for animation. Maybe that's why there are only a handful of graphics/animation programs for the GS with it's "great" 640x200 graphics mode and why there are a ton of people out there with Amiga 500's and 2000's actually doing animation (in 2D AND 3D) rather than just talking about it! > ---------------------------- > Mark Orr + > $CSD211@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU + > ---------------------------- -- Bob (GS AND Amiga owner) I also have an IBM AT with super-VGA 800x600x256 if that makes any difference. ______ Pro-Graphics BBS `It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!' ________ UUCP: crash!pro-graphics!bobl | Pro-Graphics: 908/469-0049 ARPA/DDN: pro-graphics!bobl@nosc.mil | America Online: Graphics3d Internet: bobl@pro-graphics.cts.com | CompuServe: RIP _________ ___________ Raven Enterprises 25 Raven Avenue Piscataway, NJ 08854