Picasso Mailing List
Questions & Answers
For the Picasso II Graphics Board
Questions and Answer
If you have questions relating in some way to the Picasso board, you may
find an answer below. If you do not find the answer, please ask on the
Picasso Mailing List (see Using the Picasso Mailing List
below.) If your question is relevant to others, I will -- provided I find
the time -- add the question and answer to this list.
For your convenience, I've sorted the issues into several categories. All
are available also by browsing further down this page:
- Using the Picasso Mailing List
- Subscribing, Unsubscribing and what to do if you can't seem to unsubscribe yourself
- Posting to the Picasso Mailing List: what's OK; commercial messages?; How to post
- Subscriber problems: reasons why messages from the list might stop coming...
- Support Issues
- How to reach Village Tronic: Email, Telephone, Snailmail
- Status of the Picasso software: latest version, where to find upgrades
- Will the Picasso software be upgraded or is it "dead"?
- Is CyberGraphX available for the Picasso?
- Should I switch to CyberGraphX?
- Is there a FAQ on the Picasso?
- Setup Issues
- How good is the Picasso's AGA emulation?
- Can I drive two different displays when the Picasso is installed?
- Do I need two monitors, one for the "native" and one for Picasso screens?
- Can the Picasso double as a flicker fixer?
- What kind of memory (RAM) chips do I need when expanding the Picasso?
- Do I need a VGA monitor to use the Picasso?
- Can I get 24bit displays on a 1080/1084 monitor?
- I have KS2.x and a 1080 monitor: what will I get from the Picasso?
- When the Picasso isn't recognized, is AUTOCONFIG(tm) involved?
-
- CyberGraphX Information
- Picasso II+ Specifications
- Miscellaneous
- PML? PML??? Does it hurt? Is it contagious?
- How many members are subscribed to the list?
- Is the list dead? I haven't gotten mail for two days now!
- What's with the images on the page? Aren't they a little weird?
- Files available for downloading
Using the Picasso Mailing List
- Subscribing and Unsubscribing
- How can I subscribe to the mailing list?
Send a message with subscribe picasso to
majordomo@ninemoons.com.
- How can I unsubscribe?
Send a message with unsubscribe picasso to
majordomo@ninemoons.com.
- I tried it and it didn't work. It said I'm not subscribed!?
You need to unsubscribe from the same account that you used to
subscribe. If that is no longer possible, add your old address to the
line, as in unsubscribe picasso oldaccount@your.site;
messages like that require my intervention, so please use that format
only if necessary.
- Posting to the Picasso Mailing List
- What sort of stuff may I post?
In the interest of everyone, I ask that topics do not drift too far
from the Picasso II or from important Amiga news. If you experience a
problem with your board, suspect a difficulty with your monitor, need
some help with software compatibility issues, etc. someone else on the
list probably has a solution or suggestion to offer and posting such
queries to the list is perfectly fine. It helps if you include some
details on your system's configuration, of course.
- Is posting commercial announcements OK?
If your product pertains in some significant way to the Picasso board,
then it's usually OK.
If you or your company has released a package that makes special use of
the Picasso board, you're welcome to announce this package. If, on the
other hand, you are releasing a package that is well-written and for
that reason also happens to work with the Picasso board but has no
other significant link to this hardware, then I'd ask you either to
refrain from posting or ask me for permission first.
- How do I post messages to the list?
Send your message to
picasso@ninemoons.com.
- Subscriber problems
Any of the following may cause your subscription to the mailing list to be
voided, meaning that you will suddenly realize that you're no longer
receiving any mail from the mailing list. If that happens, do not
send "test" messages to the mailing list; send an email with "help" to
majordomo@ninemoons.com (which is
the list's managment software): you will then get information back that
tells you how to inquire of the list's software if you're still subscribed
or how to get off the list or back on, etc. If you have indeed been
removed from the list, please check with the list manager before sending
a subscribe request again -- any of the following problems could have
been the reason for your removal and by resubscribing without the problem
having been resolved you only make a nuissance of yourself and cause me
a lot of grief:
- Local configuration problems.
Usually these "fix themselves" as many people tend to be affected by
this sort of thing and the people responsible for the glitch figure
it out pretty quickly. Most of the time I wait a day or two for the
problem to resolve itself, but sometimes I get sick of a dozen messages
from the mailer-daemons involved and I kill the subscription.
- System unreachable.
Occasionally a computer (or whole network portion) goes off line for
reasons of hardware or software failure. That can affect many people
and if the system doesn't come on line again in a day or two, I get
rid of the affected subscriptions. These tend to be the most annoying
and messiest of problems. I hate them.
- Mailbox full.
Some people either don't read their mail very often or they are on so
many lists that their mailbox blows up in no time at all. It has
happened that mailboxes were full for weeks at a time (sometimes I
have too much patience, no?)
Support Issues
- How can I reach Village Tronic? Do they have email access?
- Email:
- Phone numbers:
- +49 5066 70 13 10 (Technical hotline)
- +49 5066 70 13 18 (Orders)
- +49 5066 70 13 40 (Mailbox)
- +49 5066 70 13 49 (FAX)
- Mailing Address:
Village Tronic
Wellweg 95
D-31157 Sarstedt
Germany
- What's the status of the Picasso software? Am I using the latest
versions? Where can I find upgrades?
Village Tronic have not released updates since v2.51 in August 1994.
Some of their programmers "finished" the software (which is to say
they fixed the vast majority of bugs) which resulted in several more
versions that culminated in the monitor driver "Picasso 2.56."
Click here for more details on the
driver (which includes an unofficial
statement supporting the above summary.)
- Will the Picasso software be upgraded or is it "dead"?
I'm not associated with Village Tronic, the makers of the Picasso, so my
word is by no means an official statement. Everything I've heard over the
last few years, however, points to the likelihood that Village Tronic is
NOT further upgrading the Picasso software. There are several reasons for
this as far as I can see:
- All the original programmers have left Village Tronic. Being a
programmer myself, I know how difficult it is to get new programmers
started on someone else's code and improve it. This, however, is not an
insurmountable obstacle by any stretch of the imagination (unless the
original code was done in obfuscated APL ;-)
- The original programmers "finished" the code -- i.e. they fixed just
about every bug left in the Picasso software; aside from additional
features, there is little left to be done on the Picasso driver
software.
- CyberGraphX is significantly more advanced, and it is the original
Picasso programmers who are working on the CyberGraphX stuff. Also,
CyberGraphX has become a superset and widely supported standard on the
Amiga. This would put the Picasso software in a catch-up position, even
if Village Tronic decided to continue work on their drivers.
- Is CyberGraphX available for the Picasso?
Yes! Click here for details,
including a brief comparison of CyberGraphX and the "standard"
Picasso software.
- Should I switch from the Picasso software to CyberGraphX?
If your needs are met with the Picasso drivers, then you need not worry too
much about CyberGraphX. Considering, however, that the CyberGraphX software
is actively supported, is definitely faster than the Picasso
drivers, supports 15/16/24 bit screens (kludgy, but functional), and
is the only widely supported 24bit display standard on the Amiga, you
just might want to invest in CyberGraphX!
- Is there a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) File?
Yes and no. You're reading the most up-to-date FAQ at this time, but
there is an old one that has a few bits of useful information in it.
That old one is very rarely updated these day, though, so don't expect
too much from it. If you want to get a copy, perhaps bring it up to
date for all of us, why not grab the PICASSO.FAQ
(this may take up to 60 seconds, it's not big, though: 11K)
Setup Issues
- How good is the Picasso's AGA emulation?
- If, by AGA emulation you mean support for 256 colors, then
the answer is: "quite good, provided you are running Kickstart 3.x"
- If, by AGA emulation you mean support for HAM6, HAM8, video
output, etc. then the answer is: "none whatsoever."
A more detailed answer is: AGA is hardware that's on the motherboard of
Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 computers. The Picasso II does not magically
add these chips to your non-AGA computer. It couldn't and it won't.
- Can I drive two different displays when the Picasso is installed?
Not reliably, no.
I've managed to have a Picasso screen on my main monitor and an NTSC
screen displayed on my TV, but this situation is more a fluke than a
reliably reproducible method. The limitation probably lies with the
current version of the operating system.
- Do I need two monitors, one for the "native" and one for Picasso
screens?
Not unless your monitor cannot display your ordinary ("native") Amiga
screens. The Picasso supports a so-called "pass-through" where you
connect a 15-pin VGA-style cable from your Amiga's flicker fixer
(Microway, Commodore A2320, etc) to the Picasso II. Whenever the
Picasso does not display one of its own screens, it activates
the pass-through, letting whatever signal through to your monitor
unmodified.
- Can the Picasso double as a flicker fixer?
No. The passed-through signal is not modified. If you pass through a
15.75kHz NTSC/PAL signal, your monitor will receive that same signal.
- What kind of memory (RAM) chips do I need when expanding the Picasso?
From the manual:
"The Upgrade-kit ( with 1 MB Fujitsu MB 81 C 4256 A - 60 P or Vitelic V 53
C 104 HP 45) can be obtained through your dealer. We do not recommend
usage of any other RAM-type, as we can not accept any guarantee claimes
associated with it."
- Monitors...
- So, I need a VGA monitor to be able to use the Picasso at
all?
No, you can use your old 1080 or 1084/1084S monitors, but you must
keep in mind that these monitors have their limitations. You need to
configure the Picasso so that it produces only the low frequencies
that these monitors can handle.
- Ok, but I can get cool 24 bit super highres screens, no?
Alas, a 1080/1084 monitor has limitations that won't let it
produce resolutions better than about 640×512 (640×400) and
flicker in interlace modes is not taken care of, either, as the
Picasso does not act as a flicker fixer (see above.) If you have
Kickstart 3.x you can get access to 64K color or 24bit screens, but
these will be limited to a resolution that your monitor can handle.
- Well, what good is it then?
Up to 256 colors on your Workbench or other custom screens. With
CyberGraphX software installed you can even get 65536, or 16.7
million color screens. That does require Kickstart 3.0, of course.
- Ok, the prize question: I have Kickstart 2.x and a 1080 monitor.
What will I get with the Picasso?
Hmmm, probably not a whole lot to be quite honest. With Kickstart 3.1
you would get support for screens with more than 16 colors. With a
better monitor you'd get support for higher resolution screens (at
least something like an 800×600 or 1024×768 Workbench.) With
both, you'd get all of that, but with neither, you're pretty much out
of luck.
- The Picasso isn't recognized. Is AUTOCONFIG(tm) to be blamed?
Possibly. The Picasso always requires 2MB of AUTOCONFIG(tm) memory so
that its on-board RAM can be quickly addressed by the Amiga. As the
Amiga has only ~8.5MB of AUTOCONFIG(tm) space, another memory board or
accellerator card might be using up more than the remainder, leaving
not enough for the Picasso to use.
Brilliant! What can I do?
- Convince one or more of your other boards to give up some of their
AUTOCONFIG(tm) memory. This is frequently done by changing a jumper
on the board.
Caveats:
- Changing an 8MB accellerator to make available 4MB autoconfig and
have the other 4MB added via 'AddMem' will create to
non-contiguous chunks of RAM. The largest block of memory then
available is 4MB and not (as before) 8MB.
- Changing ALL memory on an accellerator (or RAM board) to be
non-autoconfig WILL keep it together as a contiguous chunk of
RAM, but your system will boot without fast (or even
32bit) memory available, which means
exec.library
and other system structures will have to remain in the much
slower Chip RAM (or 16bit RAM at best.)
- Change the jumper on the Picasso II that forces the board to run in
segmented mode. This uses up only 64K of AUTOCONFIG(tm)
memory.
Caveats:
- The driver software has to "squeeze" all data through the tiny
64K "window" which is necessarily slower and requires
additional support from all drivers that access the board
directly. ADPro, for example, cannot provide 15/16/24 bit
displays when the Picasso is in segmented mode.
- Workbench 3.1's support for fast CHUNKY displays is not
available when the Picasso runs in segmented mode.
As CHUNKY displays are the only supported display mode used
by the CyberGraphX
software, you are then limited to the Picasso's "standard"
(Village Tronic) software.
Summa summarum: Your best sort of setup is...
- 2-6MB AUTOCONFIG(tm) 32bit memory for system libraries and such.
This can help speed up your system significantly,
- 2MB for Picasso II in linear address mode for fastest
and most compatible operation of your graphics board,
- Any and all remaining RAM should be mapped outside
AUTOCONFIG(tm) space and made available to the system via
'AddMem' (or equivalent software.)
A TIP: If you have an accellerator and a memory board,
check the memory chips used by the memory board. If they are exactly
what the accellerator uses and your accellerator has space available,
you can eliminate the memory board and give the accellerator more
memory. The accellerator's memory will be faster, and you gain a
larger contiguous chunk as well.
If you are not hardware savvy, please let someone open up your Amiga
who knows hardware -- you could electrocute your Amiga without even
noticing that you did it!
CyberGraphX Information
CyberGraphX...
Includes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cybergraphics 40.65 cyberintuition 40.30
cyberlayers 40.8 vilintuisup 2.37
gtlayout 26.12
Where to Get
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FTP Aminet
~~~~~~~~~~~
Shortly, It should be in:
ftp.ninemoons.com://pub/aminet/gfx/board
FTP Netcom
~~~~~~~~~~~
If you can't wait, I keep the latest stuff at:
ftp.netcom.com://pub/en/envoy
- Here is a Current list -
CGraphX216u.lha - Latest Libs & Monitor Updates
CyberGfxDrivers.lha - Program drivers (adpro, amax, ect..)
CGraphX-DevKit.lha - Dev Docs
Monitor-80khz.lha - 80khz for RetinaZ3, PiccoloSD64, CV
PreCVModeDocs.lha - Basic CVMode docs
CVMon141.lha - Latest CyberVision Monitor File
(This is a very busy site so you may have to try a few times to get on.)
(Best time to try is 2am-5am PST, GMT -8)
Mailing Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Discussion (tulp)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Setup for discussion of CyberGraphX
- To join -
Email To : listserv@colombo.telesys-innov.fr
InMsgBODY: subscribe cgraphx
- To unsubscribe (End of subscription) -
Email To : listserv@colombo.telesys-innov.fr
InMsgBODY: SIGnoff cgraphx
- Help -
Email To : listserv@colombo.telesys-innov.fr
InMsgBODY: HELp
- Post Msg To List -
Email To : cgraphx@colombo.telesys-innov.fr
Binary (majordomo)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Setup for mailing out the CyberGraphX updates and a for
CyberGraphX PD authors to post there updates and notices
to people who can get ~900K uuencoded files in the mail....
This is an open list
- To join -
Email To : majordomo@netcom.com
InMsgBODY: SUBSCRIBE cybergfx-l
- To unsubscribe -
Email To : majordomo@netcom.com
InMsgBODY: UNSUBSCRIBE cybergfx-l
- Help -
Email To : majordomo@netcom.com
InMsgBODY: help
- Post Msg To List -
Email To : cybergfx-l@netcom.com
Email uuencoded ** Use these as a last resort! **
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Send request to:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cybergfx.up@vgr.com - latest Update file
cybergfx.pd@vgr.com - last full PD archive
cybergfx.drv@vgr.com - latest program drivers (adpro, ect..)
cybergfx.dev@vgr.com - developer Docs
cybergfx.cvmon@vgr.com - latest CV Monitor File
These must have the subject of the message 'cybergfx bugs'
or will not be handled correct.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cybergfx.bugs@vgr.com - bug reports
cybergfx.dtbugs@vgr.com - bug reports for CyberPCDT
cybergfx.instbugs@vgr.com - bug reports for Installers
Send request to:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cybergfx.up@vgr.com - latest Update file
cybergfx.pd@vgr.com - last full PD archive
cybergfx.drv@vgr.com - latest program drivers (adpro, ect..)
cybergfx.dev@vgr.com - developer Docs
cybergfx.cvmon@vgr.com - latest CV Monitor File
These must have the subject of the message 'cybergfx bugs'
or will not be handled correct.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cybergfx.bugs@vgr.com - bug reports
cybergfx.dtbugs@vgr.com - bug reports for CyberPCDT
cybergfx.instbugs@vgr.com - bug reports for Installers
Picasso II+
Simon McGill <simon@smcgill.powernet.co.uk>
posted to the Picasso Mailing List on 3-Jun-1996 the following
specifications for the new Picasso II+
Tech Specs - according to the manual:
=====================================
Memory: 1Mb or 2Mb DRAM 256x16 (Fast Page Mode), Access time 50ns or less.
VGA Chip: Cirrus Logic 5428
Bus: Zorro II
Colour: 256 from 262,144 - Workbench Mode
256 from 262,144 - Chunky Pixel Mode
32,768 at once - High Colour Mode
65,536 at once - High Colour2 Mode
16,776,216 at once - True Colour Mode
Resolution: Freely selectable, 300x200 up to 1600x1300
Monitor: Almost any monitor, preferable multiscan. Monitors mixing
a Sync signal with the colour signal cannot be used at this
time.
New Features:
=============
PicassoII+ now supports "vertical blanking interupts".
PicassoII+ now supports DPMS power saving monitor features.
The on board Blitter runs considerably faster.
The video memory responds faster, applications to write directly to the
graphics board memory will see a noticeable speed increae.
If a Pablo is connected to the board it auto corrects the brightness
of the video signal.
What about new software?
The Picasso II+ is software compatible with the Picasso II. In other words,
it neither comes with new software, nor will it need new software. Treat it
as a normal Picasso II, and the Picasso II+ will have simply some better
performance.
Miscellaneous
- PML? PML??? Does it hurt? Is it contagious?
PML is the abbreviation for Picasso Mailing List. The list was started
in November 1993 by Udo
Schuermann in a totally selfless and vastly magnanimous attempt
(which is to say, I had always wanted to run a mailing list and suddenly
saw my chance and took it ;-) to provide a common meeting ground for
users of Village Tronic's 24-bit graphics board for the
Amiga computer.
- How many members are subscribed to the list?
As of July 1996, the Picasso Mailing List has approximately 325 members,
many of which are mailing lists in their own rights.
- Is the list dead? I haven't gotten mail for two days now!
The Picasso Mailing List is rarely as active as some other lists.
It goes for a week, sometimes even more, without any messages flowing
through. Don't worry. If you don't have anything to say, and nobody
else does either, the list is not dead, it's just resting. :)
- What's with the images on these pages? Aren't they a little weird?
Look, pal, Pablo Picasso's artwork wasn't exactly sane...
- Who did the images on these pages?
I did them, and I did them really quickly, but that's not the reason
why the bus connectors on the Picasso board look funny. :-)
- Ok, the board I understand, but what's this cartoon face on the
"Back" link?
A self-portrait. No, no! I'm just kidding!! Really! The way the
hair "moves" he's supposed to look "back" to the left, i.e. you
click on the image and it takes you "back" to the previous page.
I thought it was cuter than a stupid arrow or a house or a turd,
although putting an Microsoft logo there might also invoke a sense
of "going backwards."
Maintained by Udo Schuermann <walrus@uga.umd.edu>
Last updated 23 Sep 1996 and accessed 1,138 times since 7 Oct 1996.
Picasso Home Page