855 replies to this topic

[ilmenit]

Hi,

Quantizator is a new tool for the 8bit Atari.


Currently only the gr.15 mode (4 colors) is supported.

The current version does not generate executables  monkeyisland.xex   14.51K   290 downloads,
but you can load a created MIC and COL files to Graph2Font:


Post your pictures, executables, questions and comments in this thread.

Have fun

Edited by ilmenit, Fri Jan 8, 2010 12:13 PM.

[ANTIQ]

[ilmenit]

Soon I will send a new version with many changes, including better color selection algorithm and nice dithering

[Allas]

I have to congratulate for the software. Just today i was testing with 10 pictures, some of them C64 pictures, real pictures, HD pictures. The tool works very fine and get a good work. Off course need post manual adjustements on G2F, but it's interesting to see how can the Atari improve the quality on pictures changing colors on DLIs.

I feel the tool should use the 5th color, but I guess that will be so hard for an algorithm.

Greetz
Mario

P.D. Maybe you can add a small verification on filename source. The tool works even if you give a non exist filename.

ilmenit, on Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:16 AM, said:

Soon I will send a new version with many changes, including better color selection algorithm and nice dithering

Edited by Allas, Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:55 AM.

[ilmenit]

Allas, on Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:53 AM, said:

I feel the tool should use the 5th color, but I guess that will be so hard for an algorithm.

The 5th color have some limitations (4th and 5th can't be used together on a 8 pixel grid).
It's not easy to add in a color selection algorithm.

I plan however to add sprites and color changes in line.

Edited by ilmenit, Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:17 AM.

[Philsan]

Do you plan to add a graphic interface to your program?

[ilmenit]

Philsan, on Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:20 AM, said:

Do you plan to add a graphic interface to your program?

I hate programming GUIs
If anyone wants to make it, I can change the Quantizator to be DLL for it.

[snicklin]

I've found that if the .col file is locked (as I had a hex-editor open examining it) when creating a new output image of the same name, quantizator will crash.

It's a great bit of software though, we need more and more of these PC based Atari development utilities as they really do help our software to become more professional and quicker to develop.

[ilmenit]

Version 0.95

A lot of changes - new algorithms, preview modes, locking colors.
Take a look into readme.txt for help.

Original picture vs quantized picture

Attached Files

•  Quantizator095.zip   1.26MB   142 downloads

Edited by ilmenit, Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:37 AM.

[ilmenit]

[ilmenit]

[ilmenit]

Important bug-fix version. New parameters 'cf' and 'dist' weren't parser properly.

Attached Files

•  Quantizator096.zip   1.26MB   128 downloads

[twh/f2]

Ilmenit,

this is a very nice tool. I did some experiments on it and I have to say it's the best in its class which I have seen so far.

some more feedback:

I use on my system windows 7 64bit. When using the quantizator this DLL was missing:
http://www.dll-files...s.shtml?msvcr71

furthermore, while converting, the tool somehow gets in conflict with the systems palette (changing the color depth). an argument for a "head less" execution (e.g. showing no processing window) would be very nice.

keep working on it!! maybe some talented programmer like you finds one day a nice processing algorithm that would make use of the 5th color, pmg and in-line rasterchanges while considering all given limitations.

grtx,
\twh

Edited by twh/f2, Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:05 PM.

[twh/f2]

ilmenit, on Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:44 AM, said:

Version 0.95

A lot of changes - new algorithms, preview modes, locking colors.
Take a look into readme.txt for help.

Original picture vs quantized picture

Hey Ilmenit,

it would be nice if you couldshare the command line args you have used to convert the pictures!

grtx,
\twh

[ANTIQ]

(I couldn't set /w=150.)

[Stephen]

Are those images really being displayed on the Atari?

Stephen Anderson

[ilmenit]

Stephen, on Tue Jan 12, 2010 7:57 PM, said:

Are those images really being displayed on the Atari?

Yes, you can try to make your own

 parrot.xex   4.97K   139 downloads


Version 0.97  Quantizator097.zip   1.27MB   140 downloads

Changes:
- new: for /fastpreview and /preview additonal parameters (like setting height or palette) work and are added to the .bat files
- new: XEX file is generated (gr. 15) if width<=160 and height<=192  
- new: close application button is active
- fix: wrong command was written to .bat
- fix: screen flashing in Windows Vista and 7 shouldn't happen any more.

ANTIQ, on Tue Jan 12, 2010 7:11 PM, said:

(I couldn't set /w=150.)

The width must be dividable by 4, because 4 pixels are encoded in one byte in gr. 15.

Edited by ilmenit, Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:32 AM.

[GroovyBee]

I'd like to display these sorts of images on the Atari 7800 (when I get time to write an app to do it). What is the format of the MIC and COL files?

[ANTIQ]

MIC
COL

[atarixle]

Wow this little masterpiece of software is the most impressiv and usefull program this year (until the new version of g2f came out ofc ) ... well done, I hope for the 5th color too (I know you can :-) )

[GroovyBee]

ANTIQ, on Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:28 PM, said:

MIC
COL

I'd seen those but there is not enough information for me to write a display app. I'm interested how things are packed into the file at a byte encoded level. I'm not an A8 coder (yet).

[ANTIQ]

I think the MIC file Quantizator creates is just a raw ANTIC mode E bitmap with the dimensions you ask for.

ANTIC E has 2bpp:

00 BAK
01 PF0
10 PF1
11 PF2

The COL file is a COLBK value per line, then zeros to the end of the page, then COLPF0 values, more padding, and so on.

I think!

[JAC!]

ilmenit, on Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:35 AM, said:

Philsan, on Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:20 AM, said:

Do you plan to add a graphic interface to your program?

I hate programming GUIs
If anyone wants to make it, I can change the Quantizator to be DLL for it.

Hi ilmenit,
Any chance for porting this to Java? I would volunteer even. This masterpiece would fit perfectly into WUDSN IDE which can act as the graphical frontend. I already have some GFX tools in there, so the frameworkis ready to plug this in (including storage of Quantizator parameter files).
JAC!

[nonner242]

GroovyBee, on Sat Jan 16, 2010 5:04 PM, said:

I'd like to display these sorts of images on the Atari 7800 (when I get time to write an app to do it). What is the format of the MIC and COL files?

I would love to have that GB!
The things I could do!

[emkay]

Well, after weird things happened I wanted never to come to C64age erm Atariage. But this tool is really worth to break with it.
Seen people asking "can the A8 really show them" makes me asking myself, what have they realized ever?

Ilmenit, your tool is a real milestone. Showing the real feature of using 4 colour grahpics with the huge A8 colour palette.





Have a look t the pillar to the left. This really is some style, we could name it "Line-Arts".
Based on this, a dream may come true



The picture shows just simple midline changes on the bottom .... lda ... sta ..  
Using  x and y registers can double the amount of changes.

Well, not using Charmode and PMG, but just using the midline changes could enhance the style of the pictures, because we had less colour crossings and thus even more colors for the single elements.
The simple midline changes allow to reuse colours 2 times in fixed ranges. Do you think you can add this somehow into your converter?