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PC-SIG Diskette Library (Disk #2858)
[PCjs Machine "ibm5170"]
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CONFIG.DOC
CONFIGURING VPIC
VPIC must be configured to run correctly with your display board. The con-
figuration process tells VPIC:
1. The title you want for the menu.
2. What VGA chip you have, so it can use the proper bank switching routine.
3. How much memory you have (in 64K banks).
4. The menu color you want (background:foreground).
5. How to set the various modes you want to use.
This method is used instead of trying to autodetect the VGA chip and memory
because:
1. Some chips are very hard to detect, and memory on board is even harder.
2. As new VGA chips are released, there is a delay before the detection is
implemented in the program.
3. The WHICHVGA program is provided to autodetect the VGA chip and memory,
but it fails on some chips.
4. The config file provides more user control than automatic means.
If you aren't sure which VGA chip your board uses, you can run WHICHVGA,
which will try to identify your VGA chip and the amount of memory you have.
Also check for a list of some of the VGA boards each chip was used on. If
this doesn't work, you can remove the display board and look at the label
on the large chip with leads coming out all four sides. Sometimes, you can
tell without removing the board by using DEBUG (or Turbo Debugger, Codeview,
or any debugger) and 'dumping' the contents of display BIOS. To do this,
enter DEBUG at the DOS prompt and you will get a - prompt. Then enter
dC000:0 to display the first part of display BIOS. To dump more of BIOS,
juts enter d. You may recognize the chip manufacturers name here, such as
ATI, Trident, Tseng, Paradise, etc. To exit DEBUG, just enter q.
If WHICHVGA comes back with VESA, that means that your board supports the
VESA standard, which offers a standard interface for VPIC to your SuperVGA
display adapter. It defines the SuperVGA extended modes that your card will
do, and has a standard interface for setting the mode and bank switching,
etc. You may have received a VESA `Terminate and Stay Resident' (TSR)
program with your VGA board. If so, you are encouraged to use it, since it
more or less guarantees that VPIC will work with your display card. The only
disadvantage of VESA is concerned with scrolling the VGA screen, since there
is no standard interface for setting the top of screen beyond 16 bits (line
81 at 800x600x256, line 102 at 640x480x256, or line 204 at 320x200x256).
This version of VPIC automatically reads the VESA info from your display
BIOS, and uses the VESA interface. If you enter VPIC with the /v option,
VESA info is ignored and VPIC uses the configuration file info; this is
helpful when VESA returns info VPIC isn't expecting or no info on certain
modes.
The current VPIC config file VGA chips and the VGA chip manufacturers are:
VGA Chip Manufacturer/version Comments
=================================================================
AHEADA Ahead ver A Older Ahead cards.
AHEADB Ahead ver B Ahead VGA Wizard/Deluxe.
ATIOLD ATI, 1024x768x16 mode 65h ATI ver 1 chip, VGAWonder.
ATINEW ATI, 1024x768x16 mode 55h ATI ver 2 up chip, VGAWonder+.
For the ATI Ultra, be sure to run ATI's HDILOAD program first to
activate the 8514A interface for the 1024x768x256 mode.
CIRRUS Cirrus CL-GD 500/600 MaxLogic MaxVGA boards NOT SUPPORTED YET.
CHIPSTECH Chips & Technology 82C452 Cardinal, Older Boca.
EVEREX Original Everex chip
EVBIOS Everex 673, etc Has bank switching built into BIOS.
GENOA Genoa (Sim ET 3000) 5300/6300 = 256K, others = 512K.
HEADLAND Headland HT-208 Used on VGA-1024i.
NCR NCR Boca, PVGA 1024i, etc
OAK Oak
PARADISE Paradise Older Paradise cards.
REALTEK Realtek Used in RTVGA boards.
S3 S3 GUI Accelerator Used on Orchid Fahr 1280, Diamond Stealth,
Genoa Windows VGA, etc.
TRI88BR Trident TVGA 8800BR Used on older Trident boards, 128K banks.
TRI88CS Trident TVGA 8800CS Used on older Trident boards (Maxxon)
TRI89 Trident TVGA 8900 Latest Trident VGA chip, 1M memory avail.
TS3000 Tseng ET 3000 Used on early Genoa, Orchid, others.
TS4000 Tseng ET 4000 Recent Orchid, STB, other, 1M memory.
TS4000HI Tseng ET 4000 HiColor Does 32K colors to 800x600, 1M memory.
WD90C Western Digital WD90C00 Recent Paradise cards, same operation.
VIDEO7 Video 7 Earlier Video 7 boards, BIOS bank switch.
Hewlett Packard SVGA.
ZYMOS Zymos Poach 51 True Tech HiRes and others.
VESA VESA Standard For boards which have VESA in BIOS.
As new chips become available, they will be added to this list. Run WHICHVGA
to find your VGA chip (works most of the time), and then run CONFIG and find
a CFG file using that VGA chip. Check that the modes agree with the graphics
modes in your manual (16 and 256 color modes only); if they match your card
exactly, use that CFG file by pressing ENTER. If not, copy the closest file
to a new filename with extension CFG and change the modes to agree with your
manual. Make the title and menu color whatever you like (see CONFIGURATION
FILE FORMAT). Then rerun CONFIG, pick that file, and press ENTER to
configure VPIC. There are numerous configuration files which come with VPIC,
but there are so many boards out there that I can't list all of them.
MENU CONFIGURATION
To configure VPIC, make sure that VPIC, CVPIC, CONFIG, and all the .CFG
files are in the current directory. By running the CONFIG program, VPIC can
be configured from a menu. CONFIG lists all the configuration files (with a
.cfg extension) in the current directory, and shows you the contents of each
as you move around the list using the cursor keys. ESCape aborts the CONFIG
program without changing VPIC, and ENTER configures VPIC for the highlighted
file. Pressing a letter key jumps to next filename starting with that letter
(or number).
MANUAL CONFIGURATION
You can use CVPIC to configure VPIC manually by entering:
CVPIC config_file[.ext]
where the default extension is .cfg and config_file is the configuration
file you want to use.
CONFIGURATION FILE (.CFG) FORMAT
CVPIC ignores leading spaces and blank lines in the file, and all characters
after a semicolon are considered comments and ignored. The .CFG file contains
the following lines, which can be up to 150 characters in length each:
1. Board name, which will appear in the VPIC menu. This is user define-
able, and could be something like 'Joe's VGA Board'.
2. VGA CHIP should be one of the names supported by VPIC; see above.
Upper or lower case is OK.
3. The number of 64K banks of display ram usable for pictures (1 for
standard VGA (no extended modes), 4 for 256K, 8 for 512K, 16 for 1M).
4. Menu text color. A number whose value is background*16 + foreground.
The allowable background colors are 0 thru 7, and the allowable
foreground colors are 0 thru 15. This number is easiest to figure if
entered in hex (prefixed by 0x); then the 1st digit is the background
color (0-7) and the 2nd digit is the foreground color (0-F). The
digits correspond to black (0), blue (1), green (2), aqua (3), red
(4), violet (5), brown (6), and white (7), and the digits 8-F are
intensified versions of the 0-7. For example, 0x3E would tell VPIC to
use bright yellow text on an aqua background. CONFIG gives the value
in hex, and the corresponding foreground-background colors.
5 thru n. The following lines describe the modes supported by the board.
Each line is of the form: F1 F2 AX BX CX DX W H C G P where:
* F1 = 0 for 16 color modes, 1 for 256 color modes, > 1 for Sierra
DAC modes (for Targa's only) as follows:
2 => 15 bits/pixel (32,000 colors)
3 => 16 bits/pixel (64,000 colors)
4 => 24 bits/pixel (16,000,000 colors)
* F2 = 0 for EGA (640x350x16) with 64 colors to choose from, and 1
for all others modes (which have 256,000 colors to choose from).
* AX,BX,CX,DX register values used to set this mode. Preceding the
numbers by 0x indicates hex; ie., 0x10 = 16. Using 8514 for AX
indicates an 8514A interface, where BX is the mode.
* W, H, C are width, height, colors in this mode. For 24 bit modes
the colors field has the color order; 123=>BGR, 321=>RGB.
Additional Information if known
* G is the bank granularity in Kbytes; for instance, the Paradise
has 4K banks.
* P is the number of color planes; usually 1 for 256 color modes
and 4 for 16 color modes. However, the ATI in 1024x768x16 and the
S3 in 800x600x16 and 1024x768x16 uses 1 plane and 2 pixels/byte.
The modes amy be entered in any order, but listing all the VGA (256
color) modes followed by the EGA (16 color) modes, followed by the
Sierra DAC modes makes sense, and the mode numbers can be determined
by looking at the configuration file.
For specifying the mode N from the command line (/mN option for VPIC), the
mode numbers increase with increasing resolution and can be found from
the menu screen as follows:
* The 256 color modes are numbered 1 thru 10 starting at 320x200.
* The 16 color modes are numbered 11 thru 20 starting at 640x350.
If you are configured with the Sierra DAC, Targa's will be automatically
shown in 32K colors if you pick a resolution supported by the board
for the Sierra DAC.
GO.TXT
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ <<<< PC-SIG Disk #2825 VPIC >>>> ║
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ To print the introductory instructions, type: ║
║ COPY README.1ST PRN (press Enter) ║
║ ║
║ To print the documentation, type: COPY VPIC.TXT PRN (press Enter) ║
║ COPY VPIC.DOC PRN (press Enter) ║
║ COPY CONFIG.DOC PRN (press Enter) ║
║ COPY WAIT.DOC PRN (press Enter) ║
║ ║
║ To select the correct graphics configuration, type: CONFIG (press Enter)║
║ ║
║ To print the order form, type: COPY ORDRFORM PRN (press Enter) ║
║ ║
║ (c) COPYRIGHT 1992, PC-SIG INC. ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
VPIC.TXT
VPIC ver 5.1 REFERENCE CARD
@Copyright 1990 - 1992 by Bob Montgomery, All Rights Reserved. [CIS 73357,3140]
VPIC is a file viewer/converter for EGA, VGA and SuperVGA display adapters. It supports 8514A, Ahead (A & B chip), ATI, Chips
& Technology, Everex, Genoa, Headland (Video 7), NCR, Oak, Paradise, Realtek, S3, Trident (8800 BR & CS and 8900), Tseng
(ET3000 & ET4000 chip), Western Digital, and Zymos VGA chips in all VGA/EGA graphics modes. If your board supports the VESA
standard, it is autodetected and used. It is configurable for your display card using a plain text configuration file and the
accompanying CONFIG and CVPIC configuration programs.
VPIC will display ,and convert to, the following graphics file formats:
BIF Binary Image Format B&W Image Capture board files (display only).
BMP Microsoft Windows 3.0 Bitmaps, uncompressed and compressed (change RLE to BMP extension). Save is W.
GIF (GIF87a and GIF89a) viewing, normal and interlaced (Fractint FRA viewing too).
GIF (GIF87a) saves in normal (G), interlaced (I), inverted (U), mirrored (M), rotated CW (>) or CCW (<) 90°.
LBM Deluxe Paint VGA format, regular and enhanced (IFF Electronic Arts files too). Save command is D.
MAC file (display only).
PIC Pictor/PC Paint and ViewPoint (ViewSonic) files. Save command is P.
PCX including the VGA version 1.61 of PC Paintbrush. Save command is Z.
CUT Dr Halo machine independent format with a palette file. Save command is C.
SCx file formats for Colorix and EGA Paint. Save command is R.
TGA Targa 8 thru 32 bits/pixel normal and compressed file formats. Sierra and ATT DAC support too. Save is T.
VPIC has 3 modes of operation from the DOS command line: Menu: vpic [[path\]filespec] ]options], Single File:
vpic [path\]filename[.ext] [options], and Slideshow: vpic /@[path\]slidefile. The entries inside [ ] are optional, and
path specifies a drive/directory for the Menu, Single File, or Slideshow.
filename[.ext] specifies a Single File to show (GIF ext assumed). filespec = a DOS filespec (ie, c*.pcx) for the Menu.
slidesile is an ASCII command file for the Slideshow. The pictures are shown in the order listed, and you can spec a
delay, resolution, and animation for each picture. Spacebar pauses the Slideshow, Esc ends it.
Options: The following options apply to the Menu and Single File modes except where noted, & need a space between the options.
/a specifies auto resolution select. /b specifies beep after decoding each file.
/d saves files to the directory you started VPIC from; default is the viewing directory.
/e specifies 16 color (EGA) mode. /? shows VPIC help.
/h lists hidden files in menu; great files you don't want to come up in menu normally such as x rated.
/l specifies to not change the video mode; great for multi image screens called from an application with /r.
/mN specifies locking mode N for menu or single file; mode as defined by CONFIG program.
/r specifies return to calling application after showing picture file without changing the screen.
/w specifies to wait for a keypress between images (in a multi-image GIF file only).
/xN & /yN specify a left & top margin (in pixels) for the picture. /v tells VPIC to ignore VESA info.
/z inhibits printing the picture filename when it is displayed.
Fast, easy menu system with mouse support and the following features:
Handles up to 500 files using mouse or keyboard.
Cursor moved with arrow keys, PgUp/PgDn keys, or starting letter/number of filenames.
Files are Marked/Unmarked for viewing with the Spacebar or right mouse button.
F1 displays built in help. F2 does a slideshow of marked files in the order they were marked.
Enter shows marked files individually in the order they were marked, or file at cursor (if none marked).
F3 shows size and colors of picture at cursor. F4 selects between 256 and 16 color modes.
F5/F6 decrease/increase default resolution.
F7 selects Normal/Lock/Auto resolution. Auto picks the best resolution. Lock always uses default mode.
F8 waits for a keypress between images in multi-image GIF's.
F9 prompts for new path and filespec. F10 shows current directory.
Alt_D prompts for new slide delay in seconds. Alt_X deletes file at cursor (with users permission; ESC or N aborts).
Alt R renames a file. Alt_T marks (tags) and Alt_U unmarks all files in the menu.
Picture decoding aborted with Escape, and menu automatically updated after saving, renaming, or deleting a file.
Commands while viewing a picture: (mouse buttons: left=Enter, right=ESC while decoding)
A Animates the picture by rotating the palette; Up/Dn & PgUp/PgDn increase/decrease rate. Spacebar pauses, Enter holds.
B converts screen image to gray shades. E expands a compressed Targa file to disk.
F prompts for another file, and the x,y offset; allows you to make composite pictures. Works best with /m, /x, and /y.
F1-F10 are adjustments for red, green, blue, brightness, and contrast for VGA viewing. Alt F10 restores original.
Up/Down arrows and PgUp/PgDn scroll picture vertically if bigger than screen (with enough display memory). VPIC does not
scroll sideways; see VPIC.DOC section on `How VPIC Works'.
Alt_F momentarily displays filename while viewing./ or ? displays built in help.
Alt_X deletes the current file (with users permission; ESC or N aborts).V inverts video.
C, D, G, I, M, P, R, T, U, W, Z, <, > are file conversion/manipulation commands; see VPIC.DOC.
Configuring VPIC: You can configure VPIC from a menu by simply entering CONFIG from DOS with CONFIG, VPIC, CVPIC and all the
configuration files (.cfg extension) in the current directory. Then select the desired config file using the arrow keys and
press Enter; ESC aborts CONFIG. VPIC can still be configred manually by entering cvpic configfile from DOS. The WHICHVGA
program tries to identify your VGA chip and the amount of display memory you have installed; see CONFIG.DOC.
History: The previous program was VGIF, which could display only GIF files. It became VPIC when it acquired the ability to
display other graphics file formats. The GIF file format is copyrighted by CompuServe Inc., Columbus, Ohio.
VPIC is continually being improved, and new features are added all the time. Check it out. You can register your current copy
of VPIC for only $15, or register and get the latest version for $20 ($25 foreign). For updates from me, please include $5
($10 foreign) to cover shipping and handling. As a bonus, I will fill the rest of the disk with good GIF pictures. Please
specify disk type; 1.2M 5.25" or 1.44M 3.5" (don't have low density), and EGA, VGA, or SuperVGA (640x480x256, etc) pictures.
For foreign orders, please send an International or US Postal Money Order, check drawn on a US Bank, Travelers Check, or cash,
since the banks charge up to $60 total collection fees for foreign checks.
Bob Montgomery; 543 Via Fontana #203; Altamonte Springs, FL 32714-3172
WAIT.DOC
WAIT.COM by Bob Montgomery 1-19-89
WAIT is a program to delay for the specified number of seconds. Format is:
wait seconds
where seconds is in the range 1 to 65535 (about 18 hours). Defaults to 1 sec.
If a key is pressed before wait times out, wait returns to DOS.
If Control C is pressed, wait calls the DOS ^C routine. From a batch file this
gives the 'Terminate batch job (y/n)' message, and allows you to terminate a
batch program.
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #2858
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
8514A CFG 386 6-23-92 5:29p
AHEADA CFG 437 8-27-91 8:27p
AHEADB CFG 516 8-27-91 8:23p
ATINEW CFG 596 8-27-91 8:23p
ATIWONDR CFG 529 8-27-91 8:23p
ATIXL CFG 663 3-14-92 8:21a
CHIPTECH CFG 613 8-27-91 8:23p
QVISION CFG 485 8-12-92 12:06p
CONFIG EXE 20379 2-17-92 8:50p
CVPIC EXE 22751 9-03-92 3:53p
DEFINCON CFG 627 8-27-91 8:24p
DIAMON24 CFG 749 6-07-92 8:19a
EGA CFG 234 8-27-91 8:24p
EVERX673 CFG 600 8-27-91 8:24p
EVERX678 CFG 553 8-27-91 8:24p
GENO5400 CFG 534 8-27-91 8:24p
GENO6400 CFG 505 8-27-91 8:24p
GENO7900 CFG 829 6-07-92 8:19a
HEADLAND CFG 701 8-27-91 8:24p
HIRES CFG 506 8-27-91 8:25p
MAXXON CFG 469 8-27-91 8:25p
MK82452 CFG 384 8-27-91 8:25p
NCR CFG 491 4-08-92 10:23a
OAK CFG 483 7-29-92 2:58p
ORCF1280 CFG 710 5-21-92 7:00p
ORCPRO2 CFG 529 8-27-91 8:25p
ORDRFORM 2912 6-23-92 5:55p
PARADISE CFG 431 8-27-91 8:25p
README 1ST 2542 6-23-92 5:55p
REALTEK CFG 558 5-28-92 11:14a
S3 CFG 710 5-21-92 7:00p
STB4000 CFG 529 8-27-91 8:26p
TRI8800B CFG 406 8-27-91 8:26p
TRI8800C CFG 469 8-27-91 8:26p
TRID8900 CFG 599 8-27-91 8:26p
TS3000 CFG 506 8-27-91 8:26p
TS4000 CFG 565 8-27-91 8:26p
TS4000HI CFG 725 2-27-92 9:28a
VGA CFG 300 2-17-92 7:07p
VIDEO7 CFG 643 8-27-91 8:27p
VPIC DOC 72947 9-03-92 9:40p
VPIC EXE 99875 9-16-92 3:03p
WAIT DOC 458 1-20-89 10:39a
WAIT COM 98 1-20-89 10:41a
WD90C CFG 490 2-04-92 11:13p
WHICHVGA COM 2544 8-11-92 10:42a
ATIULTRA CFG 602 6-29-92 12:33p
VPIC TXT 7560 8-27-92 1:51a
CONFIG DOC 10678 9-03-92 9:33p
GO BAT 31 3-19-92 11:44a
GO TXT 1309 9-21-92 1:14p
51 file(s) 264746 bytes
31744 bytes free