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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: dougal on January 26, 2012, 07:39:11 PM

Title: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: dougal on January 26, 2012, 07:39:11 PM
Here is a picture of my desktop.

I need ideas to make it look nicer. The resolution is PAL Hi-Res 640x256 @ 64 colors. The display is an old(ish) 20" LCD TV and connected via scart. The TV does NOT flickerfix.

If i go any higher in resolution i will get flicker, so any higher is out of the question.

Maybe when the Indivision AGA MKII comes out and if i have money i'll buy one but till then i would like to make my workbench look nicer with the hardware i have.

A1200 060/50, 64MB fast and OS3.9
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: carvedeye on January 26, 2012, 07:56:57 PM
Wheres the pic? or am i missing something?
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: dougal on January 26, 2012, 08:13:31 PM
Quote from: carvedeye;677582
Wheres the pic? or am i missing something?


Lofl ooops your right. i forgot to up it :P Its there now
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: Matt_H on January 26, 2012, 08:18:27 PM
The 3.9 icons are designed for a higher resolution screen (640x400 or higher), so you may want to consider replacing those. Zillions of options on Aminet. MUI comes with some nice textures that you can use in WBPattern (I'm fond of MarbleDark myself). Beware of chip RAM limitations, though.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: Karlos on January 26, 2012, 08:25:05 PM
Quote from: Matt_H;677590
The 3.9 icons are designed for a higher resolution screen (640x400 or higher), so you may want to consider replacing those. Zillions of options on Aminet. MUI comes with some nice textures that you can use in WBPattern (I'm fond of MarbleDark myself). Beware of chip RAM limitations, though.


Magic workbench for the win. There are plenty of decent icons suitable for those pesky 1:2 aspect modes too.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: Khephren on January 26, 2012, 08:50:16 PM
you can plug your composite and vga (Amiga Rgb)  into the lcdtv at the same time. (asuming your lcd has vga)
Run your workbench in a vga compatible mode, and play your games through composite. My lcdtv autoswitches between the two signals, perhaps yours will also.

Failng that, run in 16 colours using rebels palette and magicTV (a software flicker fixer for 4bit mode).
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: yssing on January 26, 2012, 08:57:27 PM
Start by removing the borders, and I guess your lcd can show highres-laced with no flicker, my old one does it perfectly.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: bbond007 on January 26, 2012, 10:26:24 PM
Quote from: dougal;677580
Here is a picture of my desktop.

I need ideas to make it look nicer. The resolution is PAL Hi-Res 640x256 @ 64 colors. The display is an old(ish) 20" LCD TV and connected via scart. The TV does NOT flickerfix.

If i go any higher in resolution i will get flicker, so any higher is out of the question.

Maybe when the Indivision AGA MKII comes out and if i have money i'll buy one but till then i would like to make my workbench look nicer with the hardware i have.

A1200 060/50, 64MB fast and OS3.9

This is my minimig 1.1's dedktop. I'm kind of limited by an 68000 and ECS..

I'm running BetterWB, 724x283-16color overscan, FullPallette(Cammy and Rebel's palette) PowerWindows, and I converted the background pic with Hamlab+

I stretched the pic vertically a bit so it would look more like it does on my widescreen monitor.

With that 1200 you could run VisualPrefs and Birdie to really dress up WB.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: dougal on January 26, 2012, 10:31:56 PM
Quote from: Karlos;677593
Magic workbench for the win. There are plenty of decent icons suitable for those pesky 1:2 aspect modes too.


I saw MagicWb but not keen on the classic Workbench look and i much prefer the OS3.5+ look.

I would like to work with the icons and stuff (i know they look too big) of OS3.9. But i cannot find any backgrounds for my screen res.

I'm also looking for a dock kind of thing. I removed Amidock because at my resolution and at anything less than 256 colors it looks like crap.

I'm also looking for something that can add a boing ball or amiga tick logo to the status bar at the top.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: dougal on January 26, 2012, 10:32:49 PM
Quote from: yssing;677598
Start by removing the borders, and I guess your lcd can show highres-laced with no flicker, my old one does it perfectly.


I removed the borders. Unfortunatly Hires Laced still flickers on the LCD
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: Matt_H on January 26, 2012, 10:39:00 PM
Quote from: dougal;677619
I'm also looking for something that can add a boing ball or amiga tick logo to the status bar at the top.


What's the name of it, VisualPrefs, maybe? I think that will do it.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: bbond007 on January 26, 2012, 10:42:54 PM
Quote from: dougal;677619

I'm also looking for something that can add a boing ball or amiga tick logo to the status bar at the top.


Look at Visual Prefs to do what you want, but I think adding anything to the status bar is going to look crappy unless you run in multiscan or interlace.

as far as the background image, I just download and re-size/crop/edit the picture using photoshop 7.0 and then send it to my minimig where I convert it to IFF and my WB 16 color palette using Hamlab+.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: Khephren on January 27, 2012, 11:42:21 AM
Quote from: dougal;677620
I removed the borders. Unfortunatly Hires Laced still flickers on the LCD


why are you using interlace on an lcd? dblpal or euro36 would be more suitable.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: danwood on January 27, 2012, 01:17:24 PM
Quote from: Khephren;677709
why are you using interlace on an lcd? dblpal or euro36 would be more suitable.

Not via scart, I don't know of any LCD TV that will display those modes via Scart.

You could install MagicTV to get non-flickr higher res.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: dougal on January 27, 2012, 01:23:31 PM
Quote from: danwood;677720
Not via scart, I don't know of any LCD TV that will display those modes via Scart.

You could install MagicTV to get non-flickr higher res.


Don't like MagicTV as it has to be 16 colors. Shame my LCD TV does not flicker fix.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: utri007 on January 27, 2012, 01:30:14 PM
Just buy another LCD-TV you can get VERY cheap old analogic LCD-TVs from second hand.

I've old samsung and I'm very pleased to it. Price was 45€ :D
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: mfilos on January 27, 2012, 03:21:52 PM
I just made some custom backdrops to check out at a resolution of 640x256@16 colors based on Rebel's palette and his awesome skins for VisualPrefs/Birdie.
The system I used was Bloodwych's ClassicWB Full based on Workbench 3.1

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/low1.png)


(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/low2.png)


(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/low3.png)


(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/low4.png)

I kept the proportion to 640x512 to be able to see it better here... (just to get the picture)




With a High-Laced (interlaced) resolution of 640x512 you can have a lot better results (like a test one bellow from my A600 with ClassicWB 3.9)...

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/A600_Screenshot.png)
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: utri007 on January 28, 2012, 06:12:03 PM
Here is my 640x512 WB with 256 colors. With FBlit/FText it is quite usable. Just wondering, last time I used FBlit and FText I used to have almost all chip ram free??? I might be wrong??

My desktop A1200 has a slim CD-rom and PCMCIA WLan card in left side.

Second picture show my "retro corner" with 2 amigas.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: Ratte on January 28, 2012, 06:20:23 PM
Quote from: mfilos;677742
I just made some custom backdrops to check out at a resolution ...
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/A600_Screenshot.png)


I like to see it on SuperPlus ... please.
Title: Re: Need ideas to make my workbench look nicer (PIC)
Post by: mfilos on January 28, 2012, 07:02:06 PM
Just tested the new core and the new version of SuperPlus!
There you go Ratte mate...

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/A600_Screenshot_800x600_1.jpg)


(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/939939/Pics/A600_Screenshot_800x600_2.jpg)


Awesome job there \o/