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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: bradhansen1 on February 16, 2021, 10:03:28 PM
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Hi All, I am running Amiga OS 3.5 on an Amiga with 030 processor at 40mhz. Using Ken's icons and
Iconlib.46.4. And it takes just forever for these icons to populate in their window. I have 2gig chip ram and
64gig fast ram. Any idea why this is so slow? How do I just copy Workbench to ram or something like that to
get them to display quicker? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Brad Hansen
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What kind of drive are you using Compact flash or 2.5" standard ide drive?
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Erm... why? I never could fathom why anybody would want WB3.5. More bug, less resources.
What version of Kickstart are you trying to do this with?
I did find this on actually making the things more usable (upgraded icons in WB3.5). Have no idea how relevant this is;-
http://www.gregdonner.org/os35faq/iconoperation.html
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LOL, Very funny, That would be 2 and 64 Meg not gig, dream mode off. Try FBlit, should be on Aminet. If they are more than 4 color it will take longer.
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Hey, thank you all for replying here. First I am using a 8gig CF card. Second, the instructions say to
put FBlit in your startup sequence like "C:FBlit" but when I do that all it does is hang my startup sequence!
So if someone could clue me in on how to make it work, that would be great.
Thanks anyway for chipping in!
Brad Hansen
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Yes, when instructions say "install from aminet" that means download the thing. Then your startup-sequence might find it, assuming you unextracted the download and put FBlit program in your c drawer. And always assuming that you didn't replace the entire startup-sequence, but added the line to it.
http://aminet.net
Go there, you will find FBlit.
You will also need WBCtrl, although you should have that in your Distribution drawer as per the instructions. You could try reading them, I don't just post links for my own entertainment.
EDIT: You didn't actually get back to me to tell you which Kickstart ROM you are trying to do this with. Consequently, it's very tricky for me to help you any further.
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Probably you need to do
Run >NIL: <NIL: C:FBlit
Read the instructions that come with it
?
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@BradHansen1
The speed and quality of icon rendering depend on the settings in Workbench prefs, your amount of colours selected in screenmode prefs and your wallpaper, which may take over all free colour pens making it more difficult for icon.library to find proper colours that normaly would not be in your wallpaper, possibly.
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Let me just add to the confusion here by saying that I just put FBlit in DEVS:Monitors, but I also remembered to copy the appropriate FBlit.cfg file to envarc: and perhaps most importantly- copy fblit.library to LIBS:
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Did WB 3.5 have a Workbench prefs editor in the Preferences folder? You may want to have a look there. There are some options about how to render icons. Maybe moving the icons to fast memory will help. Generally speaking, my 3.9 system is dog-slow without EXEC being in fast memory as well. If you have an MMU or certain makes of accelerator, you can relocate exec into fast. The default is chip memory which is really slow memory because it's shared with all custom chips.
Hope this helps!
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@D00kie Thanks, this wonderful advice, only I don't know how to do any of those things you
said. How do you put anything in fast ram? Please instruct.
Much appreciated,
Brad Hansen
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If you were successful with FBlit you should see more chip ram available, it puts Icons and some other stuff in Fast ram.
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You're going to have to do one of these two procedures first to get your icons loaded to fastmem.
1. When using PK’s icon library, you need to use LoadModule or use the “IconsToFastRAM” tool from PeterK's IconLib archive to load icons into fastmem. Because OS3.5 has no ability to set icons to use fastmem in WB Prefs (OS3.9 does). You might be able to avoid using LoadModule all together by using WBCtrl described below. See 2.
LoadModule actually comes with the IconLib_46.4 in the ThirdParty drawer
To install LoadModule, simply copy it to your C directory on your boot partition
At the top of your Startup-Sequence you want to put something like
LoadModule icon.library REVERSE NOREBOOT
Do the above and you’re done.
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2. I've never tried this but WBCtrl may be a simple alternative to using LoadModule (as described above) to use icons in fastmem.
WB 3.5 Workbench prefs editor does not allow setting icons to fastmem. However, as an alternative, you can download and use WBCtrl http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/WBCtrl
Copy the WBCtrl binary to C: and then edit your S:startup-sequence
add the C:LoadWB command at the very end as follows:
C:WBCtrl IMT=ICONFAST
C:LoadWB
The IMT=ICONFAST parameter enables processing icons in Fast RAM.
An alternative to WBCtrl is WBAllocFast that claims to redirect more allocation calls than the former to fast RAM.
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/WBAllocFast
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To additionally use FBlit........
Copy:
FBlit and FBlitGUI to C:
Fblit.library to LIBS:
FBlit.cfg to ENVARC
Add C:FBlit and C:LoadWB SIMPLEGELS in your S:Startup-Sequence
If you get icon artifacts after installing FBlit, in the QBSBlitPatch section, set the synchronization option to INLINE.
@Brad EXACTLY what accelerator do you have?
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Good stuff! I always thought 3.9 was just 3.5 with more third-party additions. I thought suggesting about SIMPLEGELS but when I looked that up it said it changed how icons behaved when clicked or dragged around. I got the improved Peter K icon.library in 3.9 Boing Bag 2, so I'm happy to see that you can use it in 3.5 as a stand-alone enhancement.
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I always thought 3.9 was just 3.5 with more third-party additions.
It makes more sense to look at 3.5 as a "beta" or "preview" of what became OS 3.9 - I really don't see any good reasons to prefer 3.5 over 3.9.
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When you say Amiga I assume you mean an A1200. The A1200 with an 030 and 2MB chip and 64MB fast is still a slow machine when using graphics on OS3.5 or 3.9 and if I am guessing you have banged up the colours in Workbench to max and have a picture for your backdrop and windows. So prefs set to snail mode. Try scaling down to 8 colours and remove pictures/images and see what happens. [ Screenmode Prefs ]. Then ramp up gently till the turtle leaves Texas. [ sorry about that ]
If you want the fast rendering of a high graphical interface with OS3.5 or 3.9 your best with a big box and a graphics card. Same goes for surfing the web. The 030 is only an accelerator. Otherwise you have to moderate your workbench until you find a suitable balance. Anyhoo... Just use DOpus and ditch the ponty/clicky/windows. No need.
Also it depends on which accelerator you have but it is posible to load the WB into memory but that will be something you would need to refer to the manual of the specific card. Not sure you say which card you are using.
PS I never like ever use 3.5 or 3.9 on an A1200 even with a Blizzard or GVP 1230. Its like walking through treacle at times. Only use the later OSs with the 4000 and the PicassoIV.
And who is this Ken you talk of. Does he know you are using his icons.
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I think they're talking Peter K icon.library (Keuntze?), there was a new release a couple days ago.
Looks amazing compared to a Workbench 3.0. Whether anyone can use it or not is a matter of choice as well as enough resources to try.
You can scale the icons up or down. Means updating lots of other stuff too to use. I don't recognize it. Lots and lots and lots added since the last time I saw it.
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I think they're talking Peter K icon.library (Keuntze?),
No, Ken (Lester, aka klesterjr) is not PeterK.
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Yippee! I now have some idea who Ken is.
(Does spontaneous belly dance).
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Yes, congrats. His high/true colour icon packages are quite popular, how could you have missed it?
https://www.letmegooglethat.com/?q=ken+amiga+icons
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I've always been wary of replacement con sets. Perhaps there's a way around it?
One issue I've always had - endemic on the Amiga - is that changing an icon removes any loo settings used by the underlying program.
Plus lookng at icon replacement packages for 30 years can have a certain... numbing effect in the long term.
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Loo settings? You mean tooltypes?
So in 30 years time you haven’t figured out how to copy over an icon image without copying over the entire .info file? Really?
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Loo settings? You mean tooltypes?
So in 30 years time you haven’t figured out how to copy over an icon image without copying over the entire .info file? Really?
Pretty much, in the 1.3 days an icon replacement pack turned everything into "random settings" mode. That's no fun. :'(