Which format to use on backdrop?

[Cammy]

Hi Lauri,

There are several reasons why you will run out of ChipRAM, a few things you can do to get around the problem, and some things you need to know about the way Workbench handles its images and pens (pens are the colours in the palette).

First of all, a 1024x768x8 (8bit=256 colours) screen uses quite a bit of graphics memory just to open and display itself. Then the operating system starts loading in images like icons, fonts and other GUI elements, which it likes to store in ChipRAM by default. When you also try to load in a large image for the backdrop, it has to load in the full-colour original image into ChipRAM, then remap it to your Workbench's palette before displaying it as your backdrop, which stays in ChipRAM. When Workbench remaps the image, it checks to see which colours it needs, if Workbench already has the same or similar pens locked in its palette it will use those, and any remaining unlocked pens will be changed to suit the image. The problem with this is any other program that's opened on Workbench will now have to use the same colours that are locked by the OS and the new backdrop image. When using 256 colours this isn't such a problem, because you're still usually left with enough colour range for most programs and games to find the colours they need, but if your Workbench is using less colours (to save ChipRAM and speed up response time for example) this can produce some pretty ugly, inconsistent results.

To start saving ChipRAM, the first thing you should do is install these utilities:

FBlit - http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/fblit
FText - http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/FText
IconBeFast - http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/IconBeFast

You can also try running Workbench in a lower colour mode. I run my Workbench in 16 colours and it's nice and responsive, and still looks okay because I use a locked palette, and I remap all my images to this palette in advance so when Workbench loads them, it doesn't have to remap them every time. This speeds up loading and gives me the best looking results for my colour depth. It also leaves me with plenty of ChipRAM left to open several more screens for other programs to run on.

If you decide to reduce your colour depth and want to lock the palette, this is the best tool for the job:

FullPalette - http://aminet.net/package/util/wb/FullPalette22

In any case, since you're using a palette-mapped screenmode, you would be best to reduce the colours in your backdrop with an image processing program first, and saving it as either IFF/ILBM, PNG or GIF. The IFF/ILBM will be the fastest to load, and the PNG will be the smallest file and take longest to load.

[Cammy]

I have 1.45MB ChipRAM free after Workbench finishes loading with all its background and task bar images, here it is running several applications with plenty of RAM to spare. Oh, and it responds and refreshes about ten times faster than it does in 256 colour mode.

[Cammy]

It's 1024x768 in 16 colours. If you get an Indivision AGA you can output this resolution with the HighGFX driver, but without it you might have to make do with setting Workbench in High Res Interlace and making the screen size 1024x768 with Autoscrolling on. You can at least use this method to take fake screenshots of how Workbench would look if you could run it in that resolution.

Crappy YouTube cut the audio out of my video, so you can't hear the explosions and other sound effects from Dynamite, or the streaming internet radio music playing, but you can at least see how responsive this setup is on an A1200 with a 030 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j72NjheWP-A

[Cammy]

Hey Franko, it's a shame your PCMCIA port is blocked off, network cards for A1200s are pretty cheap second hand. This palette is definitely the best 16 colour palette you can get for an Amiga. My friend Rebel worked hard on it over the last few years to perfect it, making it compatible with everything we could think of, including all common iconsets (Magic Workbench, NewIcons, GlowIcons, IconoGraphics...), and several of the best Workbench applications and games with custom GUIs and graphics. It was optimised to remap photos and illustrated images well, eliminates DBL Pal/NTSC flashing caused by certain shades, works with the MagicTV software flicker fixer (on Aminet), and is totally OCS compatible, so can be used by all Amigas with Workbench 3.x.

Robert, the Dynablaster game is called Dynamite, and it is indeed an online game for Amigas! It's extremely configurable, you can change the graphical skin (there are Simpsons ones, anime ones, a cool snowman one...) and you can design your own maps with the included map editor. There's an online high score table where the results from all matches played are submitted and combined too!

If anyone else would like to use the perfect 16 colour palette for Workbench, you should download FullPalette and try this palette preset:

http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/FullPalette.prefs

If you use Scalos instead of Workbench, you can use this preset for Scalos' palette preferences:

http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/ScalosPalette.pre

You can get the FullPalette utility here:

http://aminet.net/package/util/wb/FullPalette22

Download and read more information about Dynamite here:

http://amisource.de/dynamite/


Sorry for derailing the thread a bit!

[Cammy]

That guy is using a retargetable graphics card, so it doesn't need to open any screens or data into the ChipRAM since it's not using AGA, ECS or OCS.