@DATABASE intro (20.3.2001)

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@NODE MAIN "1   Introduction"
@PREV main.guide/MAIN
@NEXT basix.guide/MAIN



 @{b}@{u}1   Introduction                                                           @{ub}@{uu}



 The Tricky Color System (TCS) is a new, fantastic, software-only, video
 system which provides some @{"new cool video modes" LINK feat} on normal AGA Amigas by
 exploiting some basic concepts of the @{"composition of colors" LINK tech.guide/idea}.
 It comes in the shape of a @{"shared library" LINK lib.guide/MAIN}, but, if you want, you can
 write you own routines thanks to this documentation, which fully describes
 the @{"system's internals" LINK tech.guide/MAIN}.

 1.1 @{" Detailed Features List " LINK feat}
 1.2 @{" How TCS Was Born       " LINK birth}
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@NODE feat "1.1   Detailed Features List"



 @{b}@{u}1.1   Detailed Features List                                               @{ub}@{uu}



 Here's what can be (almost effortlessly, with the @{"tcs.library" LINK lib.guide/MAIN}) achieved
 with TCS:

  - TrueColor-like pixels, i.e. the value of a pixel is its own @{"RGBx" LINK basix.guide/RGBx} value
  - @{"chunky access" LINK basix.guide/pxls}, i.e. a pixel is read/written with a single access to
    memory
  - 2 horizontal resolutions: HalfRes (280 ns pixels) and FullRes (140 ns
    pixels)
  - all the display sizes allowable by the Amiga hardware
  - screens of any size (limited only by the available memory)
  - 256 independent colors per screen
  - up to 256 unique colors per screen
  - variable display brightness
  - @{"Cross Playfield mode" LINK tech.guide/XPfld} (a kind of Dual Playfield mode without a transpa-
    rent color and with variable front playfield opacity)
  - @{"Dual Cross Playfield mode" LINK tech.guide/XPfld.dual} (@{"Cross Playfield mode" LINK tech.guide/XPfld} with selectable tran-
    sparent color)
  - up to 337 unique indipendent colors in @{"Dual Cross Playfield mode" LINK tech.guide/XPfld.dual}
    (background: 256 colors; foreground: 81 colors + transparent color)
  - multiple RGB-like color definitions, named "@{"RGBx" LINK basix.guide/RGBx}"
  - @{"scrollable screens" LINK tech.guide/scrl} with horizontal increment of 35 ns
  - freely @{"bufferable screens" LINK tech.guide/ScrBuf}

 The @{"library" LINK lib.guide/MAIN}, besides the functions for @{"displays management" LINK lib.guide/DsplFnx} (which im-
 plement all the features listed above), provides also many other comfor-
 table functions for:

  - @{"handling RGBx color/palette/data" LINK lib.guide/ColFnx}
  - @{"drawing graphics                " LINK lib.guide/GfxFnx}
  - @{"handling picture files          " LINK lib.guide/PicFnx}
@ENDNODE

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@NODE birth "1.2 How TCS Was Born"



 @{b}@{u}1.2   How TCS Was Born                                                     @{ub}@{uu}



 Not many years ago, Fabio Bizzetti used in some of his productions a new
 technique (as far as I know, he was the first one) for chunky screens that
 aroused a good deal of varied reactions among the Amigans. 
 Personally, I was impressed by its cleverness, but not to the same degree
 by the quality of the final output. So, inspired, I left some ideas free
 of floating in my mind for many months (or years...), until a nice (or
 bad? - I had an exam getting closer) night everything was so clear that I
 got up and started writing a general design document that slowly turned
 into these amigaguides (the @{"technical section" LINK tech.guide/MAIN}, in particular, is a sort
 of "chronicle" of my (twisted) mental processes).
 Please let me stress that "inspired" does not mean "documented": if I had
 done so, I would have stuck to Fabio's ideas, so nothing really new could
 possibly come. The only thing I ever read was a scenemag's acid article
 intended as a sort of personal attack of the author to Fabio: there were
 some tech indications, but I did not put myself into studying them... just
 a superficial glance was enough at that time.

 Anyway, TCS _should_ be quite different from Fabio's technique (ignoring
 much of it, I can give no guarantee - I just remember he talked about
 "fooling the RF signal" and things like that; besides, I also asked him
 about it but I had no answer (he suddenly disappeared, after many months
 of e-mailing!)): it's brand-new (at least, I totally designed and written
 it from the scratch, without any source/hint from Fabio or anybody else)
 and offers some @{"really cool features" LINK feat} that I must admit I am very pleased
 (and impressed!) of.


 @{u}                                                                           @{uu}

 - many months have passed since I wrote the lines above and something new,
   something *great* has happened: I proposed this project for my Computer
   Graphics exam to my professor and he proved to be a very open-minded
   person (I'll be grateful to him forever) by accepting despite TCS did
   *not* meet many of the exam's requirements!
 - several months (8) have passed since I wrote the note above; now I'm
   writing here just after I passing the exam: TCS has been given the best
   rating possible ("30 e lode")... I'm feeling extremely proud of being
   an Amigan among a sea of dumb Wintelers (I even had to bring my Amiga
   and my C=1940 at the Computer Lab)!
@ENDNODE