candle Posted August 12, 2009 Author Share Posted August 12, 2009 uhm in BMP You have RGBRGBRGBRGB and so on through alll 256 entries in format i'm using You have RRRRRRRRRRRRRR...RGGGGGGGGGGGG...GBBBBBBBB...B so You can make neat small loop to get them loaded into VBXE, so fades, or patette rotation can be done really fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted August 21, 2009 Author Share Posted August 21, 2009 (edited) first panel done in 90%, second one in 70% - it will take a bit more time... i had some "real life" work over my head i wasn't able to continue the assembly, but the job is done, and i'm back into atari business hope all of You are not getting anxious ps. its 4:13 a.m and i've been working for 17 hours non stop, firstly to get things in way done, so i could focus on vbxe, and then on vbxe - hope you all understand Edited August 21, 2009 by candle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 first panel done in 90%, second one in 70% - it will take a bit more time... i had some "real life" work over my head i wasn't able to continue the assembly, but the job is done, and i'm back into atari business hope all of You are not getting anxious ps. its 4:13 a.m and i've been working for 17 hours non stop, firstly to get things in way done, so i could focus on vbxe, and then on vbxe - hope you all understand I think everybody is fine with it....we know its very time consuming work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 Definitely appreciated! Stephen Anderson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 Now I have ordered one of the extras. I am wondering what game projects can we look forward to? I know someone has a night driver game in development. I mentioned the ideal of doing a better Guantlet/Dark Chambers type game. Combining with Color Map on top of Antic 4, VBXE Sprites, and digital sounds, it could come very close to the Arcade version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted August 21, 2009 Author Share Posted August 21, 2009 i would like to see games like titus the fox, or arcade version of 1945 done with vbxe, but what i can, i'm just lowly designer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelen Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Very good work ! Take your time, sometimes the real life is also important... What will be the max of bytes to be blittert in VBXE vram between atari VBLANK interrups ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted August 22, 2009 Author Share Posted August 22, 2009 depends if antic is on or off and in what mode it operates blitter takes all spare cycles not used by other parts of vbxe, and most important of those parts is the one responsible for gtia emulation - thus - no antic video results in faster system if you want, i can run some tests - just provide sources for it another thing - vbxe boards will be shipped out in order of activities - eg thelen here does something, as few other people i know of - so they will receive their boards faster i think it will be good, since if someone is just for games, and wants vbxe, then when he receive his own, games might be already on "market" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 What is the latest with the construction of these boards? I have a soldering iron now, but no desoldering pump, still trying to locate a store that sells them near me. Looking at the VBXE2 boards, I am wondering where the ANTIC chip plugs in? Does the ANTIC chip remain onboard? If thats the case, it would make installation much simpler. I've been trying to read back through this thread for details. However, I would have to look at the complete installation instructions. I now know I have to get a RGB converter to s-video/composite device also since I only have a NTSC tv and VGA monitors. I use the VGA monitor for my PC, so the Atari will be hooked to the TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 this is adapter for antic that goes into XL series (for 1200XL its separate one, but the general idea stays the same) and as far as NTSC VBXE is concerned, You can buy yourself GBS-8220 converter (i've bought some on eBay for 34$) they are useless for PAL version - don't ask me why - chinese manufacturer is not verry supportive, but NTSC version works just fine! i've posted this info in separate thread some time ago so we as community could email support guy from china and make him to get this problem solved, but... noone seemd interested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 (edited) this is adapter for antic that goes into XL series (for 1200XL its separate one, but the general idea stays the same) ... and as far as NTSC VBXE is concerned, You can buy yourself GBS-8220 converter (i've bought some on eBay for 34$) they are useless for PAL version - don't ask me why - chinese manufacturer is not verry supportive, but NTSC version works just fine! ... i've posted this info in separate thread some time ago so we as community could email support guy from china and make him to get this problem solved, but... noone seemd interested I did a search on ebay for that specific partno, but none are available right now. Found some for $90. Going back through this thread, found this http://jrok.com/hardware/RGB.html at the top of page 4, for like $65 that probably can be mounted inside my 130XE. Do you have a link to this seller? I would be interested in buying one. Edited August 29, 2009 by peteym5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 then you query was not as successful as mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted September 7, 2009 Author Share Posted September 7, 2009 at the end of this week (11.09.09) i should start sending those boards, and as i said before - developers firs hope it is okay for everyone anyway i'll be sending pm and asking for actuall shipping address before sending anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Is there a way to convert a 16bit or 24bit BMP image to a 8bit image with a standardized palette? I am using Paint Shop Pro 9 and when I convert to a 8bit .BMP image, it creates an optimized palette. If we were to load it several .bmps for a game with different palettes, would that not create problems. If no one knows of a solution, maybe I can try making a Visual Basic Program that can convert to a standard 256 color palette. Maybe VBXEs default or something similar to that of the Atari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Pretty sure in Photoshop if you just convert from 24 bit to Paletted, it will do a "best fit" operation and change the pic to match your palette. I've found it usually works best if you boost Saturation a bit first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted September 8, 2009 Author Share Posted September 8, 2009 if your program is going to put those on display in sequence - there is no need for standarized palette if you're going to have them on screen at once - you should use common pallette for them all don't know for paint shop pro, but under photoshop you can load any act file as pallette and photoshop will remap colors in the picture you might also do the conversion to standard windows/mackintosh pallette, and this will give you common palette for all those pictures hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRV Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 In Gimp (2.6) you can change the image mode to "indexed" and then choose any palette (with dither and removing the unused colors if you want), like the "laoo" palette.. Also, ImageMagick is your friend: (a command line tool) http://www.imagemagick.org With it you can use any image as the palette! (and do like a billion other things). Regards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Candle, just courious.... how far are we with the boards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Can we have cable building info for LCD TVs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 (edited) I have looked at Gimp a few days ago and created something similar to the Atari 8-Bit Palette, but could not find the option to save as a 8-bit bitmap. I was about to write my own conversion/stripping utility to just save the raw data for the image, removing any headers. Only thing I am not sure about is how to find the best match for RGB values. Thankyou for all the information about ImageMagic & Photoshop. It will help us save lots of time for making future games. Edited September 8, 2009 by peteym5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteD Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 I have looked at Gimp a few days ago and created something similar to the Atari 8-Bit Palette, but could not find the option to save as a 8-bit bitmap. I was about to write my own conversion/stripping utility to just save the raw data for the image, removing any headers. Only thing I am not sure about is how to find the best match for RGB values. Thankyou for all the information about ImageMagic & Photoshop. It will help us save lots of time for making future games. Just got to Image->Mode and chose indexed. You can set the number of colours in there, max 256. There are various options for matching palettes/dithering etc if you want to but just turn off the extras if you just want your image saved as is. That should give you what you want if you save in an 8bit compatible format. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electron Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Can we have cable building info for LCD TVs? Here is SCART connector pinout : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART For proper operation you must connect: - Ground from ATARI to SCART pins 4,5,9,13 and 18 - R component from ATARI to SCART pin 15 - G component from ATARI to SCART pin 11 - B component from ATARI to SCART pin 7 - "RGB Control" signal from ATARI to SCART pin 16 (switches TV to RGB input mode) - Composite Video (CVBS) from ATARI to SCART pin 20 (as SYNC source in TV RGB mode) Optionally you can connect audio from atari to SCART pins 2 and 6. R, G, B and "RGB control" signals are provided by the VBXE board. Composite video is standard atari signal. Of course you have to switch TV to one of "external" inputs as signal source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRV Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I already converted the Laoo palette (PAL) and the Larry palette (NTSC), from .act to .pal format, now at least you can read them with GIMP or convert them to another format.. palettes.zip Regards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted September 9, 2009 Author Share Posted September 9, 2009 BTW - we still can't get the NTSC core done since noone send us (me or electron) "right" .ACT file please do palette can be modified in any time by programmer, but we have to get something by default and NTSC palette differs form PAL one VBXE Core recompilation can take up to 1.5hrs, so it would be good, if the one you send will be widely accepted - it will save a lot of electron's time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I am trying those palettes, looks pretty close. Don't see much difference between PAL & NTSC. I do see that the palettes can be modified. Just if we end up dealing with lots of different .bmp files we want to use as sprite and animation strips, it may be easier if there was to use a common palette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.