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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Software News => Topic started by: System on August 21, 2005, 08:20:19 PM

Title: Screendragging returns!
Post by: System on August 21, 2005, 08:20:19 PM
AmigaZeux is proud to announce a breath-taking *surprise* - DRAGON. DRAGON is a CyberGraphX accelerated screendragging utility combined with a GUI.

With its DRAGON commodity development, AmigaZeux brings to Amiga computers top performance of the latest screendragging technology, the successor of the 68k screendragging AGA dynasty.

'By combining many attractive features like the Drag Anywhere paradigm, Corner Drag and powerful Qualifier Technology, DRAGON-equipped Amiga computers and clones turn into modern, fast and extremely functional power machines,' said Pavel Stefanski, president and polish Amiga user.

With its GUI design, the DRAGON can be easily configured to meet the needs of the most demanding Amiga (and clones) users.

The DRAGON commodity is available now, download here (http://amigazeux.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=71)

A preview video of DRAGON is available here (http://amigazeux.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=72)

DRAGON Commodity (http://amigazeux.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=43&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0)
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: alx on August 21, 2005, 08:55:05 PM
Looks nice - installed it on my UAE setup 8-)

OS4 users may wish to view http://uniweb.free.fr/os4videos/os4intuition.avi to see a new feature of Intuition... ;-)
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: Piru on August 21, 2005, 08:57:36 PM
dragon.jpg (http://www.iki.fi/sintonen/pics/dragon.jpg)

:-)
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: quenthal on August 21, 2005, 09:38:33 PM
Quote
OS4 users may wish to view http://uniweb.free.fr/os4videos/os4intuition.avi to see a new feature of Intuition...


Is that for real?!? Amazing!
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: Matt_H on August 21, 2005, 11:04:26 PM
Heh heh. I knew that developers wouldn't just let screen dragging be forgotten!

Dragon is essentially unusable speed-wise on my 060 + CV3D (CGX) system, but it's the thought that counts. I'm sure it's quite nice on Pegasoses.

EDIT: Just tried it on my OS4 box. Working nicely. I'll be using this until the updated intuition arrives. Thanks, guys.
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: itix on August 21, 2005, 11:24:52 PM
On classic Amiga you probably wish less frequent screen updates. Open Dragon preferences (via Exchange) and you find "Update Frequency" option there. Normally it doesnt matter but when there isnt enough gfx memory it gets slower and on 68k systems even slower.

It is also slow when screen depths do not match or when dragging 8bit screens (they are temporarily promoted to deeper display).
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: CLS2086 on August 22, 2005, 11:02:34 AM
I watched it in Live for my birthday because Crisot (the video's author) came with his machine  :-).
The Intuition's feature seems to be a bit better.
It's more impressive with the WB1.3 skin, seems like a real classic amiga  :-D
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: AmigaMance on August 22, 2005, 11:21:53 AM
Quote
It's more impressive with the WB1.3 skin, seems like a real classic amiga


 I wouldn't think so. I will paste my post from another site to explain why:

----
 Great! :) Now we have screen-dragging too, but there is a minor problem: Although i'm testing it using 2 screens with exactly the same resolution and color depth, the screen becomes black for a second when i drag. Just like when i switch screens with different resolutions. Is this normal? I'm using a BVision. Also, dragging is not possible using the keyboard. (lalt+Amiga)
---

 The problem also occurs even if i have only 1 screen opened.
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: AmigaMance on August 22, 2005, 11:43:55 AM
It's good to see screen dragging ability on a CGX screen, though.
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: alx on August 22, 2005, 12:08:15 PM
@AmigaMance

I believe that CLS2086 was referring to the OS4 implementation, which doesn't have that issue AFAIK.

DRAGON, I imagine, has to create a new screen with a composite of the two dragged screens when a screen is dragged - this might cause the split-second blackness, perhaps?  And since you're running on a Classic system, software screen dragging will certainly use up a heck of a lot of CPU power...

Of course, DRAGON can also move screens horizontally which is a completely new feature.
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: AmigaMance on August 22, 2005, 01:24:48 PM
Right, he was referring to OS4. Sorry. :)
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: dammy on August 22, 2005, 01:40:50 PM
Looks very, very nice.  Well done!

Dammy
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: CLS2086 on August 22, 2005, 01:52:23 PM
Yes dear sir  :-)
I said "seems like a real classic amiga", not " ACT as a real classic amiga".  :-)
The original multiple resolution screen of the classic won't be easy to reproduce.
But that's a good beginning.
I don't see yet a WarpUP/3D port of Dragon for all the PPC machine  :-?  or am I blind ?
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: Piru on August 22, 2005, 02:17:32 PM
@CLS2086
Quote
I don't see yet a WarpUP/3D port of Dragon for all the PPC machine or am I blind ?

You're not blind, but why would there need to be a WarpUP/3D port? Dragon doesn't use 3D or large amounts of CPU inside the app (it uses OS functions to do all the blitting).

It would probably only be slower using WarpUP/3D.
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: djbase on August 22, 2005, 03:47:18 PM
Dont forget both solutions just emulate this feature as the modern gfx hardware doesnt support real dragging like on AGA.

Havent miss this feature but its nice to see it now lives on newer hardware.
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: CLS2086 on August 22, 2005, 04:53:42 PM
Hi Piru,
why don't you let me dream ? (looks at my machine list  :-P  )
Imagine that it convert quickly the 2 "screens" (screenshoots) as 2 patterns applied to a 2D form that you could move it like the way you want in a 3D world. Sun showed that years ago and M$ picked it up into Vista.
I'm sure you remind about the Warp3D demo test, i'm sure it's possible to do that.
And it will be fun to show that to a pro-M$ Vista user. And with the drag feature, imagine his face  :lol:
That's why i was thinked about WOS/W3D, it seems to be possible.
Don't you think so now ?   :-)
What does the author of Dragon thinking about that ?  :-?
Title: Re: Screendragging returns!
Post by: Piru on August 22, 2005, 05:29:27 PM
Quote
Imagine that it convert quickly the 2 "screens" (screenshoots) as 2 patterns applied to a 2D form that you could move it like the way you want in a 3D world. Sun showed that years ago and M$ picked it up into Vista.
I'm sure you remind about the Warp3D demo test, i'm sure it's possible to do that.

It's sure possible in theory, but copying two full screens worth of vmem is way too slow. It'd take upto several seconds to be able to begin dragging (and this would be with static screens, no realtime updates). It's not feasible with Warp3D at least.