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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: vic20owner on October 11, 2005, 04:23:51 PM

Title: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: vic20owner on October 11, 2005, 04:23:51 PM

My WB is ugly.  I mean, sure I love the simplicity of 3.1, but I'm tired of looking at a plain boring screen. Which addons can I use to get that OS3.9 look? I'm using MagicWB and MUI but it still looks pretty sad.  :(

Is OS3.9 really that slow on a 030/50mhz? Is it too slow to use?

There MUST be a way to add a video card to my A1200. Couldn't I get an adapter to use an picasso or something and make a special cable to make it external to my a1200? I hate towers.
Seems like a card could be crammed in the case if there's a way to wire it up?
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: jimmyboy on October 11, 2005, 04:46:13 PM
Only way ive seen is to get a blizzard ppc and a bvision card but thats alot of £$£$£$£ just for better WB graphics....
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: utri007 on October 11, 2005, 04:55:37 PM
There is a litlle program MagicTV magictv2.lha which gives you allmoust usable 640 x 512 Workbench screen with 16 colors.

Try it

After that download Visual preferenses
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: Varthall on October 11, 2005, 05:15:43 PM
Eyetech once produced a single slot Zorro II adapter for the A1200, its purpose was mainly for adding a videocard. Once fitted, the card would stay horizontally over the motherboard, maybe it could be somehow crammed in the original casing. I don't know if it's still available for purchase though.

Varthall
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: Thomas on October 11, 2005, 06:11:21 PM

The only visual differences between 3.1 and 3.9 are:

- the background picture -> is already possible in 3.1
- the colorful icons -> can be achieved by installing NewIcons. You have to find some good-looking icons yourself, though.
- AmiDock -> can be replaced by ToolManager or similar.

Regarding speed, there is no difference between OS3.1 + NewIcons and OS3.9.

Of course, in order to have a nice wallpaper and icons with many colors, you also have to choose a screen mode with many colors. While MagicWB only needs 8 colors, NewIcons needs at least 16 or 32 colors. The backdrop picture might need even more.

Considering that more colors also cost more chipset power this means that on AGA it might get slower. However, I ran my A4000/030 on Multiscan Productivity with 256 colors and NewIcons for years and never missed anything. So you should at least try it out.

OS3.9 itself is not a single tick slower than OS3.1.

Bye,
Thomas
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: cecilia on October 11, 2005, 06:15:32 PM
OS3.9 made my amiga2000 faster!
of course, i tried to not load up my systems with alot of geek stuff. but still, just get OS3.9

you won't regret it  ;-)
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: itix on October 11, 2005, 06:21:00 PM
Get Birdie and MagicMenu.
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: mr_a500 on October 11, 2005, 11:54:43 PM
Quote
OS3.9 itself is not a single tick slower than OS3.1.


On my Amiga, 3.9 was MUCH slower than 3.1. The 3.9 picture.datatype takes about 3x longer to display the WB background picture (even on lowest settings) and stupidly tries to remap and dither pictures that are already mapped. The new prefs using Reaction are much slower than the 3.1 prefs and the icon editor is unbelievably slow (although who would use that piece of crap when there's Iconian). I eventually trashed 3.9 and went back to 3.1. The only useful thing I got out of 3.9 was the 43.3 scsi.device for harddrives >4Gb. I extracted it and now use it with 3.1 when I want to access >4Gb.

Why try to make 3.1 look like 3.9? Make it look BETTER than 3.9. ;-)
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: Minuous on October 12, 2005, 01:48:28 AM
Why not just buy OS3.9? It is damn good. You are also missing out on all the modern software which requires OS3.5 or 3.9... [like Report+ :-) ]
Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: vic20owner on October 12, 2005, 02:32:08 AM

MR A500, how fast was your a1200? I'm running an 030 at 50mhz.

Title: Re: How can I make WB3.1 look like 3.9?
Post by: mr_a500 on October 12, 2005, 02:45:27 AM
I don't have an A1200. I've got an A500 like the name says. It has a 33Mhz 020.

If you don't have a graphics card, I would suggest that you don't buy 3.9. I wish I never bought 3.9. I was very VERY disappointed.

Oh, and there is very little good software that requires the Reaction GUI from 3.5/3.9.