POWERPICTURE GRABBER VERSION 1.04a ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Written in 1992-94 by Geoff Lohrere Suggestions for improvement and bug reports on PowerPicture grabber or this document are encouraged. A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ The PowerPic utility along with PowerBoot, PowerMem, PowerFont and PowerDocs are all supplemental programs supplied with the purchase of the backup utility PowerCopy Professional. Four years full time development went into PowerCopy which incorporates eight different backup modes including parameter, hardware for tough protections and has over 100 functions. For information on buying or selling PowerCopy, contact Power Software Development or the author. The current address or phone number can be obtained by calling Melbourne directory assistance, Victoria, Australia. There is only one Geoff Lohrere listed. HELPFUL HINTS FOR FINDING PICTURES ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ For best results in finding pictures use KickStart 2.0, as it does not clear chip RAM after a reboot. KickStart versions under 2.0 clear chip RAM if areas of the operating system have been altered, which non DOS software normally does. This will result in no pictures being found. Another problem with KickStart versions under 2.0 is with 1 meg chip RAM configuration, due to a bug, KickStart considers 1 meg chip an error and will also clear chip RAM and the reboot vectors used by PowerPic, RAD, viruses and other programs. If possible switch the memory configuration to 512k chip or run 'SetPatch r' in your startup-sequence. Note: 'SetPatch r' needs to be run after each reboot. POWERPIC INSTRUCTION SUMMARY ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Program control is by mouse or joystick and keyboard if from the Options Menu. The search and address gadgets 'Picture Search', 'Copper Palette', 'Memory Palette', 'PALETTE:', address under 'PALETTE:' and 'Bitplane Address gadgets' search or address direction can be reversed by holding the right mouse button when selecting these gadgets with the left mouse button as normal. The Close Gadget in top left corner exits PowerPic. If PowerPic is installed on the cool capture vector, this can be cleared by holding the right mouse button while selecting the Close Gadget with the left mouse button. 'SWAP' alternates the Picture Search and Memory Search gadgets to Copper Palette and Memory Palette. All the search functions, when searching large areas of empty memory, may take several seconds. After a search function has been selected the PowerPic logo is replaced with the messages PALETTE: and PICTURE: with the current address for the last palette or picture copper list found printed underneath. These can be used to recognize when all memory has been searched. 'PICTURE SEARCH' searches chip memory for copper lists used for pictures. 'MEMORY SEARCH' enables scrolling through memory, using mouse or joystick to search for pictures which have no copper list or have had the copper list destroyed. Holding the right mouse button will lock horizontal movement. For fine adjustment it is easier using the joystick. Systems with 512k chip RAM mirror the 512k RAM at $80000-$fffff, $100000-$17ffff and $180000-$1fffff. Systems with 1 meg chip RAM mirror the 1 meg RAM at $100000-$1fffff. 'COPPER PALETTE' searches chip RAM for any copper lists with a color palette and uses colors found with the current picture. 'MEMORY PALETTE' searches memory for contiguous color values which may be a color palette and uses the values found for the current picture. Some pictures have their palette in memory instead of in a copper list. The size of the palette searched for is determined by the plane depth. 1 plane = 2 colors, 2 = 4 colors, 3 = 8 colors, 4 = 16 colors, 5 and 6 planes are for 32 colors. This gadget has auto repeat to speed up searching. The message PALETTE: is a gadget and will do an extremely fast search. The address under the message PALETTE: is also a gadget and will change the current search address in increments of 64k, $10000 up to 4 meg where the address will change to the 512k block of fast RAM at $c00000, present with some memory configurations. Do not attempt a search on the 512k block at $c00000 if no memory is installed there as this will cause a system crash. Copper palettes are found in chip RAM only, but memory palettes can be anywhere in memory. The gadget with the capital 'A' and half size 'A' represent interlace mode. Two copper lists are normally used with interlaced pictures to display the odd and even fields that make up an interlaced picture. When searching for pictures and two copper lists are found, use the first copper list as this should be for the even field which will include the first line of the picture. The 'HI LO' gadget toggles between hi-resolution and lo-resolution. The gadget half highlighted in white is the current resolution. 'DOUBLE PLAYFIELD' and the 'HOLD AND MODIFY' gadgets toggle dual playfield and hold and modify display modes on and off. 'MENU OPTIONS' returns to the multitasking environment, displaying a menu with options for saving your picture in IFF and raw formats, returning to picture search, exiting PowerPic, relocating PowerPic to the top of chip RAM and installing PowerPic on the cool capture reboot vector and exiting. If the last option is installed, after each reboot PowerPic will be executed. This gives a much better chance of finding pictures as there is less chance they have been overwritten at this time. If booting a program select exit to continue. If PowerPic is overwritten by a loaded program, but the cool capture is still intact, it will be necessary to turn off and restart. WARNING: Do not return to picture search before completion of writing a file as multitasking is forbidden during picture search. If a file write was not completed before returning to picture search, on exiting PowerPic or returning to Menu Options the file write will be able to continue. 'POWERBOOT Option' As some programs destroy system areas, including the cool capture, a boot block has been provided in the 'PowerBoot' utility which will give the option of executing PowerPic at boot time. The chance of finding the picture looked for is still good, as no screen or windows have been opened. 'MOVE PICTURE' replaces 'MENU OPTIONS' when PowerPic has been relocated as saving pictures at reboot time is not possible. After finding and adjusting the picture required, Move Picture will relocate the picture and its copper list as high as possible in chip RAM where it should not get overwritten. After booting, PowerPic can be loaded, the picture quickly found and saved. NOTE: Only bitplanes with their gadgets selected will be moved. The up and down arrow symbols for 'Width', 'Height', 'Modulo' and 'Depth' will raise or lower the selected value. These gadgets have auto repeat. The area between the arrows, where the values are displayed, are gadgets also and can be changed by selecting and then moving the mouse or joystick back and forth to change the values. The height can also be changed by placing the mouse pointer on the first line of the control panel and dragging the panel height. When there is no copper list used with a picture, 'Memory Search' in conjunction with one of two techniques can be used to manually overlap the bitplanes. When moving individual bitplanes using 'Memory Search' the movement of other bitplanes can be turned off by temporarily deselecting unwanted planes using the rectangular bitplane gadgets numbered one to six. The first method is to deselect all but plane one, select plane depth one and position the first bitplane ie: the plane with the lowest address, then deselect plane one and select plane two, plane depth two and position the bitplane with next highest address. Repeat this procedure until the picture is complete and then reselect all bitplane gadgets used with the picture. The second method is to use the message gadget 'PICTURE:' which will automatically overlap the other planes if other factors are first set correctly. First note how many bitplanes make up the picture and whether they are behind each other or appear to be side by side. Next deselect all but bitplane one, select plane depth one, position the first bitplane and then select the observed correct Plane Depth. If the bitplanes are directly behind each other, select the correct picture Width and Height and select the 'PICTURE:' gadget. If setting the correct picture height moves the 'PICTURE:' gadget off the display, temporarily select 'Interlace' to double the display height. If the bitplanes appear to be side by side, set the correct picture Width and select the 'PICTURE:' gadget while holding the right mouse button. The bitplane addresses under the bitplane gadgets are also gadgets and can be increased or decreased by one display page at a time. These address gadgets are only active if the corresponding bitplane gadget is selected. Note: Picture files cannot be saved unless the requester library (reqtools.library) is in the Libs directory of the currently assigned drive. Note also ReqTools is Copyright ฉ Nico Fran็ois.