Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!xroads!aman From: aman@xroads.UUCP (Chris Minshall) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics Subject: Colorburst Info! Keywords: colorburst mast amiga 24-bit Message-ID: <1220@xroads.UUCP> Date: 15 Feb 91 20:38:15 GMT Organization: Crossroads, Phoenix, Az Lines: 168 Here is the real info. on colorburst from MAST. Any ?'s, send me e-mail. ***** COLORBURST ***** TRUE 24 BIT COLOR! At last! An affordable 24 bit colorcard with high resolution and great flexibility. ColorBurst delivers TRUE 24 bit color with 16.8 million colors per pixel in full overscan. With a resolution of up to 768 x 580 pixels,this is a professional graphics card at a consumer price. ColorBurst is more than just a display card. It includes a powerful graphics coprocessor that generates many real time video effects. ColorBurst is a complete ready to use system, including a slideshow program, Sculpt, Silver, and DigiView loaders, and a 24 bit IFF paint and image processing program. ColorBurst allows you to freely mix Amiga and ColorBurst Video, (WorkBench could be displayed with a 24 bit picture behind it, and because ColorBurst has its own memory, it doesn't tie up any Amiga memory). ColorBurst is compatible with ALL Amigas, and is fully transparent allowing your Amiga to work in normal graphics mode. ColorBurst gives the impression that the new graphics modes are an inbuilt part of your Amiga. ColorBurst connects to the RGB connector and does not tie up any ports. Once installed there are no switches to set. ColorBurst is available in PAL or NTSC and is fully GenLock compatible for extremely high quality Broadcast video. No special monitor is necessary. You can use your standard Amiga monitor! ColorBurst has 1.5 megabytes of video memory built in for its own use. Pictures can be loaded into this memory and use no Amiga chip RAM. Up to four full screen overscan 24 bit images can be stored in memory. ColorBurst's Video Coprocessor makes many realtime video special effects possible, including: * Continuous Hardware Vertical and horizontal scrolling in 24 bits (for video titling and games) * Dual playfield displays, freely mixing Amiga graphics in front of or behind ColorBurst graphics. Video priority can be set for every pixel on the screen, e.g. an apple and an orange could be displayed overlapping side by side and an Amiga-displayed man could walk in front of the orange and behind the apple * Dual 24 bit display - two 24 bit images can be stored in memory and switched pixel by pixel with Hardware stencil. (24 bit image with 24 bit overlay) * 24 Bit virtual sprites (even as large as screen) * Change graphics modes, priority modes, display modes and palettes on any scan line * Double buffered and page flipped animation. (up to 60 fps) * Hardware Stencil for video priority when mixing Amiga and ColorBurst Graphics. Every pixel's priority can be independantly controlled. Stencil defines if that region of the ColorBurst picture will appear in front of or behind Amiga Graphics. * Display modes, Palettes and Priority can be controlled on every scan line. * Explodes, dissolves, wipes in any shape or pattern between ColorBurst, Amiga and live GenLocked video * Many Display resolutions and modes including hi-res 8 bit VGA, 15 bit true color. Because ColorBurst is true RGB, it is vastly superior in resolution and picture quality to composite video. For video production you can output in high quality composite or Y/C video with over 700 lines of resolution, by using a GenLock or Video modulator. The visual difference between RGB video and composite video is like the audio difference between Compact Disc and low quality Audio Cassette. Unlike some composite display cards, a special attachment is NOT required to use ColorBurst with a GenLock. ColorBurst has 3 times the effective video bandwidth of DCTV. ColorBurst picture quality is sharp and clean. Image manipulation and processing is a lot faster than Hold and Modify (HAM) graphics because each pixel is purely described by its own 24 bit number, avoiding the bleeding, dithering, streaking, inaccuracies, and slow processor intensive algorithms required for HAM picture manipulation. ColorBurst has twice the pixel resolution and far superior shading to any HAM card available. Once loaded into Amiga Memory, picture update is instant, allowing fast realtime image processing and painting in full 24 bits before your eyes. ColorBurst is capable of continuous double buffered, full overscan, flicker free 24 bit animation at up to 20 frames/second or 60 frames/second in 8 bit mode. ColorBurst also supports 24 bit virtual sprites; allowing you to move 24 bit brushes or images (even as large as the whole screen) around in real time. When animating in 24 bits it is important to consider the Amount of data that you are moving. Full overscan hires interlaced 24 bit screens require 1.2 M of memory! Animation that moves subscreen areas of a picture on a full screen is much faster than updating a completely new screen each time. The only bottle neck to animating speed is how fast you can load from memory or your hard drive. Subscreen animations though, can easily realize speeds of 20 frames/sec. Also, you can use some of the other modes such as 15 bit or 8 bit to achieve faster animation. For full independant frame animations in real time (30 fps) you will need to go stop frame edit. Some display cards such as the Video Toaster and the Mimetics frame buffer require you to edit and paint your pictures in a HAM paint program because they cannot update their pictures fast enough, then you must do a SLOW transfer and wait before seeing the picture. ColorBurst updates the changes to your screen instantly so you can paint and image process with 16.8 million colors in real time! See your results as you go! All of the display modes are palette-mapped and can be updated at 60 frames/second. This makes many more real time special effects possible. These include: * Complex color cycling animations * 'Smooth as butter' digital fade in/out to any palette or color. * Solarizing, paint effects, negatives, color schemes smoothly growing from one palette to the next. * Realtime white balance correction. ColorBurst is set to become the standard for the Amiga because of its low cost, universal compatibility, powerful features, very high quality, and accessibility by the Copper, Blitter and Intuition for Amiga friendly access to the device. Full comprehensive Developers kits are available, and strong developer support will be provided through the MAST BBS (702) 359 0132. Full 'C' and 68000 source code will be provided. Beware of others insinuating 24 bit video, but are inferior in image quality, such as some HAM or composite cards and are not TRUE 24 bit. TRUE 24 bit is HERE NOW. This is the Most Affordable and powerful 24 bit card available. Maximum resolutions chart Bits per Pixel Maximum resolution Screens in memory ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 384 * 580 (480 NTSC) 1 24 768 * 580 (480 NTSC) 1 18 768 * 580 (580 NTSC) 1 15 768 * 580 (480 NTSC) 1 12 768 * 580 (480 NTSC) 2 8 768 * 580 (480 NTSC) 3 7 to 1 768 * 580 (480 NTSC) up to 96 ____________________________________________________________________________ Full overscan is supported. Lower resolutions can be used to provide more screens in memory if required. A 6 megabyte expansion may be provided if there is sufficient demand. One other piece of info regarding the colorburst. The routines that control the colorburst (callable from C and assembly) allow 24-bit screens to be opened in FAST MEM or on a hard drive. This allows one to open up a 24-bit virtual screen that could conceivably be the size of the hard drive!!!!! Have I got your attention yet????? -- \ / C r o s s r o a d s C o m m u n i c a t i o n s /\ (602) 941-2005 300|1200 Baud 24 hrs/day / \ hplabs!hp-sdd!crash!xroads!aman