Copyright 1990 L & V Productions VBHI Text Scroll Program Doc File Include on the Distribution Disk are the following Files: VBHI -Text scrolling program(and its Icon) VBHI_1meg -Identical VBHI that runs in a 1 MEG Amiga system VBHI.doc -This file scrollme.txt -Text file to DEMO VBHI Arp.library -Public Domain Library Execept for the Arp.library, this material is the property of L & V Productions. This program is a COMMERCIAL PRODUCT! that is very fairly priced at $29.99 US. Please do not Pirate this. BEGIN DOC FILE: VBHI is a very flexible and easy to use TEXT SCROLL program. Its primary use is as a GENLOCKED TEXT SCROLLER. If you want to put Hi-Res characters, read in from an external Text file, onto the Amiga screen, this is the easy way to do it. VBHI surrrounds each Character with a "ROUNDED" Shadow. This is extruded to a depth that you specify. This produces an extremely professional result that compares directly to what you see rendered on Broadcast TV! VBHI will read Text in from an ASCII file. It will also read in a file in Binary format and strip off the unecessary codes. The MAXIMUM Text file size for this release is 100,000 bytes. **REQUIRES** AMIGA 500 or 1000 or 2000 with 1.5MEG and 1 Floppy.(1.3 WB) 380,000 CHIP MEMORY & 560,000 FAST MEMORY FREE! Arp.library in your currently ASSIGNed libs: directory ******Also on DISK 1 MEG version- VBHI_1MEG******** ******which is limited to reading in Text ********* ******files up to 30000 bytes in length ********* ******but will work on a 1Meg Amiga ********* ***INSTALLING VBHI*** To copy VBHI onto your Workbench Disk, Hard Disk or wherever, simply DRAG the VBHI Icon over to the appropriate Window. Besides the file ARP.library, there are no support files to copy other than the main program file VBHI. The actual program file size is under 20000 bytes. The small size is possible because VBHI is written entirely in ASSEMBLER. ***************BEGIN QUICK START Section.*************** ***INSTALLING the ARP.LIBRARY*** The included file Arp.Library must be in your currently assigned libs directory. To install the Arp.library into your libs directory do the following: Open a CLI window and type: assign The CLI Window will now show you a list of the FULL Paths of the current assignments. We are interested in the ":libs" PATH and the "SYS:" PATH. If these two paths are the same then you simply type copy df0:Arp.library sys:libs If the "SYS:" PATH and the "libs:" PATH are different then you must change the above CLI command accordingly. For example if the "assign" list shows "BOOT:libs" then you would type copy df0:Arp.library BOOT:libs The above series of CLI commands assumes the file Arp.library is in the Root directory on a disk in drive DF0:. Please adjust this as necessary. ***STARTING VBHI*** To start VBHI simply double-click on its ICON or open a CLI window and type VBHI . The CLI mode requires you to be logged on to the directory containing VBHI or have previously "SETPATH"ed to the proper directory. A file requester will appear asking you to select the TEXT file you wish to SCROLL. Select the included File "scrollme.txt" if you do not have any Text files on your Disk. You may load any File up to 100000 bytes in length. Plain ASCII is preferred though BINARY will be loaded but all CODES below $20 and above $7e will be stripped. After the Text file is loaded a Second, identical file requester will appear prompting you to select the FONT you wish to use. Here the File Requester will go directly into your currently assigned FONTS directory. Once you get there go right into the actual directory of the Font you want to use. For example if you wanted DIAMOND 15, you would enter the DIAMOND directory and double click on the file 15 (MAX SIZE=89). Please make sure you have selected a FONT that is in your currently assigned :FONTS directory. Read the Section ***HINTS,TIPS*** for a thorough explanation! At this point you will notice 3 gadgets at the bottom of the window. ***GADGET "Shadow Depth"*** The one labelled "Shadow Depth" should be activated, if not Click once in the gadget with the Left Mouse button to activate the gadget. Now enter a number between 1-9. This is the amount of shadow depth given to the DROP shadow expressed directly in pixels. The DEFAULT value is ZERO (0). This will result in your Letters being OUTLINED in a Centered 4 PIXEL WIDE SHADOW. For every 1 PIXEL increase in this value, the SHADOW will be "Extended" at a 45 degree angle to the left. Once you have enterd your Value for Shadow Depth press the RETURN key. You may now press the TAB key to automatically Activate the Second Gadget labelled "Line Spacing", or you may prefer to use the Mouse to manually Activate this Gadget. ***GADGET "Line Spacing"*** This Gadget allows you to specify directly in PIXELS, the amount of Spacing between each line. The DEFAULT Value is the height in Pixels of the currently selected FONT. Allowable values are from 1-399. Once you have enterd your Value for Line Spacing press the RETURN key. You may now press the TAB key to automatically Activate the Third Gadget labelled "Justification", or you may prefer to use the Mouse to manually Activate this Gadget. ***GADGET "Justification"*** This Gadget allows you to set the Default Line Justification mode. Valid entries are: L Left Justification R Right Justification C Center Justification Either UPPER or lower case will be accepted. Any entry other than the above results in LEFT justification. This may be changed in REAL time during the scrolling process. See the Section ***KEYBOARD COMMANDS*** below. Once you have enterd your Letter for Justification press the RETURN key. You may now press the LEFT AMIGA key to automatically Activate the Fourth Gadget labelled "Scrolling", or you may prefer to use the Mouse to manually Activate this Gadget. ***GADGET "Scrolling"*** This Gadget is the Action gadget to get things going. When selected VBHI will first try to load in the Selected Font. You may hear your disk drive grind if the font must be loaded from one of your drives. The screen will now display a RAINBOW pattern and there will be a short delay as your selected TEXT file is sorted into a Table by Lines with AUTO Wordwrap and justification. This will take 1-3 seconds on a small file depending on the Font size selected(be patient). While the processing is going on the screen and the mouse cursor will cycle through the Amigas color palette. You will now notice each LETTER of the selected Font being printed in the upper and middle left hand side of the screen. If you look closely you will see the SHADOW for each letter is being generated according to the Specifications you entered VIA the Gadgets. This will take from 5-20 seconds depending on the size of the Font and the amount of Shadow selected. The screen will now display a RAINBOW pattern and there will be a short delay as the newly generated FONT data is Bitpacked into an AMIGA compatible Font format. This will take 3-8 seconds depending on the Font size . While the processing is going on the screen and the mouse cursor will cycle through the Amigas color palette. When this stops you are ready to proceed! Presently the Screen will fill with Text and when you are now ready to begin scrolling. **NOTE** If there is no TEXT on the screen you have probably selected a Large font and you MUST press the RETURN key to scroll by the first screen which is probably just blank lines or carraige returns. ***KEYBOARD COMMANDS*** The following Mouse and Keyboard Commands are now available to you. Right Mouse Button -Increases Scroll Speed Left Mouse Button -Decreases Scroll Speed SPACEBAR (key) -Pause Scrolling RETURN (key) -Start Scrolling S (key) -Speed scrolling x 2 times B (key) -Go back to Start of Text file ESC (key) -Escape and QUIT program(hold key down) R (key) -Right Justification L (key) -Left Justification C (key) -Center Justification 0 (key) -GOTO START of Text file 1 (key) -GOTO Start + 10% 2 (key) -GOTO Start + 20% 3 (key) -GOTO Start + 30% 4 (key) -GOTO Start + 40% 5 (key) -GOTO Start + 50% 6 (key) -GOTO Start + 60% 7 (key) -GOTO Start + 70% 8 (key) -GOTO Start + 80% 9 (key) -GOTO Start + 90% Please note that the number keys are those on the Seperate Numeric part of the keyboard(right side). Once you SCROLL to the end of your selected Text file the program will scroll the final 3 screens in a loop until you either: 1. Press the "SPACEBAR"(key) to enter PAUSE MODE. 2. Press the "B"(key) to Backup to the Start of the File. 3. Press the "ESC"(key) to QUIT the program. That ends the QUICK START Section. ***HINTS,TIPS*** *FONTS* First of all VBHI works best with AMIGA fonts around 60 points and under. While larger sizes are supported the blitter cannot draw these larger characters fast enough to avoid "JUMPING" during the faster Scrolling speeds. This only occurs every 3 screens and is a result of the lack of direct support for Bitmaps taller than 800 pixels. Workbench 2.0 will eliminate this problem! To overcome this increase the line spacing value and decrease the Shadow size value. Certain Fonts, notably the older ZUMA Fonts, will produce less than desirable results under VBHI. This is due to improper values in the Character-Width tables of the fonts. Poor results will show up as alignment problems with Shadows, and bad inter-character spacing. The newer updated ZUMA Fonts and the AMIGA Compatible JDK fonts(Modern etc.) work extremely well. Remember the Fonts you want to use MUST be in the currently assigned FONTS directory. Open a CLI window and type "ASSIGN" to see the current assignment. The FONT FILE REQUESTER defaults to the CURENT FONTS: assignment, so if you have re-ASSIGNED the FONTS directory to another DISK, a DOS file requester may appear asking to insert the proper Disk. Therefore you must ASSIGN the Fonts directory to wherever you wish BEFORE you run VBHI. **TEXT FILES** For best results the Text files should be formatted similar to the included file "scrollme.txt". Example: Director [CR] George Lucas [CR] [CR] [CR] Producer [CR] George Lucas [CR] [CR] Caterer [CR] Romeos [CR] [CR] [CR] Please note [CR] refers to the ENTER or RETURN key. Also the above format takes the pressure off of the Word-wrap algorithm. If you scroll a file and notice the Shadow alignment or Justifications are out of whack, it is probably because of the Word-wrap routine. Simply reformat the File as explained above. You will notice when you first run VBHI there will be some Shadow descenders from the bottom of some letters at the very top of the first screen. This is related to internal programming and will be fixed under the new WorkBench 2.0. Just start each of your text files with a few CR's(carraige returns). Then scroll a few lines before you start taping. **LINE SPACING** Line spacing values should divide as closely as possible into 399. An internal algorithm averages(evens) out the lines per screen so that adjoining lines of Text from Screen - Screen keep their proper line spacing values. If a line of text is outputted every single possible line in a screen, and you have selected a line spacing value that is not closely divisable into 399 you will have a problem. The screen -screen line spacing algorithm can only work if there are blank lines between your lines of text. Again WB 2.0 will render this problem obsolete! **COLOR SELECTION** Color selection is now performed directly through the Amiga Pereferences. Whatever RGB values are preset in Preferences will be used by VBHI. Reading the color palette from Left to right Color 0 -Color0 - Background Color 1 Color1 - Front Face Color 2 Color2 - Shadow Remember not to overdrive the WHITE! **FILE REQUESTER** For those of you not familiar with the ARP File Requester I suggest you spend a few minutes getting aquainted with its features. Once the Requester is active, if you CLICK on its DRAG BAR(at the top of the Requester), with your RIGHT mouse button, a LIST of the attached System devices appears in the File Selection Window. This enables you to easily jump from Disk or device to wherever you desire. Thanks to the people behind ARP! **TELEPROMPTER SUPPORT** Select Left or Center Justification. Using preferences change the default color black to match the blue background color. Run vbhi with 0 Shadow Depth, and a LARGE line spacing. Use a Font between 25 & 55 points. Voila! Instant simple Teleprompting. **SPEED** If you must have an increased Scroll rate use a FONT under 30 points. Press and hold the "S" key. If you are using a 68020 or 68030 you will be able to Scroll larger point sizes at the increased rate(2x) without "jumping"! **1MEG Version** Included on the supplied Disk is VBHI_1MEG. This is an identical copy of VBHI except Text files are limited to 30000 bytes. It will run in a 1 Meg Amiga system. **END Section HINTS,TIPS** **BUGS** No "NOT ENOUGH MEMORY" error messages. Fixed in update. Font sizes under 12 points are not supported. The right Justification mode only likes well formatted ASCII files. If it gives you trouble, reformat your text file or reduce the size of your Font. If you run VBHI and the program exits before you press the "ESC" key then you are either out of MEMORY or the System has asked you to respond to a Requester and you responded negatively(CANCEL). Type "AVAIL" from the CLI to see if there is enough memory. If this fails simply REBOOT! ***COMING UP!!*** REWRITE for WORKBENCH 2.0! Text file format code filtering. This means support for MULTI-COLUMN documents, with MULTIPLE FONTS in Bold, Italics, Underline etc. Same program but in PAGE-FLIPPING mode. Flipping tied to timed-events and/or Mouse/Keyboard events. Absolute or relative Line specifications. Colorfont Support Overscan Faster scrolling speeds Graphic primitives support Support new enhanced VIDEO modes! REAL teleprompter support Improved error Handling Please feel free to report any bugs/suggestions to: Stephen Lebans PLINK SLEBANS L & V Productions 110 Columbus Ave Moncton, New Brunswick Canada E1A-5E4 PHONE: (506)-532-0094 FAX: (506)-859-2709 Please note We are on the EAST Coast!!