OS4 Screenshot Running AmIRC

[takemehomegrandma]

I think it's pretty good looking (nice blue colors and all :-P). Except perhaps from the Icons that doesn't fit in with the new, fresh look.

[Glaucus]

It says PPC750, so I doubt it.

Plus the ID for the Agnus and Denise chips are NULL.

At any rate, it's good to see it online, and I must admit this new GUI looks rather slick. I love the gradients and I find the grey look gives it a more professional look.

I agree with the above post about the icons though, they do seem a bit out of place, but it's forgivable (for now).

  - Mike

[Herewegoagain]

86.7MB OS install? Seems excessive.

I'm sure there are other things installed as well, and maybe a few things in that "downloads" folder.  I read recently that the first OS4 showing on the A1 were using only around 40-45MB installs.

[Argo]

I don't think that's all OS. AmiIRC is running so it has to be on that partiition somewhere. Not to mentiong the Internet drawer probably has more than just AmiIRC. Then there is the Download drawer and what ever is hidden by the top window.
Windows along ate up my 4 gig drive on my last computer. Yes, just Windows XP nothing else. Scary.

[FuZion]

While this is partly true you are missing one fact. While each icon can have its own palette of 256 colors, an icon with a total of 256 colors in the palette will take up all of the available pens of the workbench. If you have two icons each with 256 colors in them both with different colors on the same workbench you will get a generalized dithered color for each of the icons. That means you cannot have a unique palette for each icon unless you want to take away the available pens from the workbench.


Does this mean that the, I take it, icon.library doesn't find colours that are being used but 'steels pens'? So, even on a 24bit screen, which in my calculation has the potential to display 16.7 million colours, the icons would take colours away from the rest of the gfx system?

Is it me, or is that an odd way of doing it. Maybe that's one of the reasons they want the icon system replaced...

[xeron]

The AmigaOS pen sharing scheme works like this...

Screens have an associated colourmap, which applications can make use of. When they want to display an image, they go through all the colours needed to display the image, and request a pen for each one. They can do this two ways.

One way (which hopefully nothing that expects to open on the workbench screen uses) is to call ObtainPen(). This grants exclusive access to a pen to an application, and that app can modify the colour of the pen to whatever it wants.

The other way (which the icon system uses) is called pen sharing. The app calls ObtainBestPen() with the colour that you need. The graphics library goes through all the currently used shared pens to see if any of them are close enough to the desired colour (the app can specify how close the pen has to be to count as a match. This is what the "Best/Good/Bad" cycle gadget in WB prefs changes). If no pens are close enough, it will use a new pen, change it to the desired colour and tell the app it can use the pen. If another app wants a similar colour, it can share that pen.

So, if you have two 16 colour icons that have totally different palettes, they could in theory steal 32 pens. However, if all your icons share the same palette, they all use the same pens.

[Glaucus]

Is it me, or is that an odd way of doing it. Maybe that's one of the reasons they want the icon system replaced...

Oh how easily we forget the days of 8 bit graphics and color look up tables! :-)

Back in those days the Amiga system was never designed to work in a 24bit graphics system. Back then we had 256 colors tops - and damn it, we liked it! :-D

If I'm not mistaken, anything could "steel" (also known as locking) pens or colors on the WB screen. The backdrop image for example could also use up some of those colours, and the system would always lock the colors needed for window outlines and text. Considering the limitations, this was indeed a pretty clever way to display images on screen where the colors available (or even the number of colors to choose from) are undefined and completely arbitrary.

Unfortunately it doesn't make much sense once you get into the TrueColor, non-mapped GFX world. Of course it's no secret that all TrueColor GFX solutions for the Amiga are nothing more then really well thought out hacks, and for the most part work seamlessly, but there are times when the Amiga's 8 bit GFX past comes back to haunt us!  :-)

Anyway, I would expect all this to be ironed out with time.

  - Mike

[NeRP]

>86.7MB OS install? Seems excessive.

Quake is installed, and the Quake pak files are rather big...

Pak0 = 18689235 bytes
Pak1 = 34257856 bytes

That's not including the quake executable or any of the other demos I have installed, so that explains almost 53 megs of HD space gone :-)  

Then there is the downloads drawer.... :-)

For everyone else, I want to make it clear that the screenshot was not to demo AmIRC, but to show that the AmigaOne is online and working well via ethernet.

The machine itself is an AmigaOneXE G4, and can be found here:

http://www3.telus.net/NeRP/amigaone.html

Edit by Kees - Link added

Someone else mentioned the excessive amount of MUI icons on the Amirc windows.  Yes, I don't like them either, but this is a demo machine, so I leave the system as I got it, no changing anything :-)

You can change these icons now on your Amiga install by going to the MUI prefs, then on the Windows tab.  On the right you will see a heading called "gadgets", that is where you can turn them all on or off.  I prefer to have the one downward pointing triangle gadget only, as it is a pulldown menu that gives you the all the options of all the other gadgets :-)

[Rogue]

Or is this running on a cyberstorm, and the Mouse Pointer an Amiga Sprite so not part of the screen image?

A CyberStorm with a 750FX ;-)

No, it's a Voodoo screen, with a hardware cursor, hence you don't see it on the shot.

[Rogue]

86.7MB OS install? Seems excessive.

What makes you think that this is only OS? Maybe NeRP likes to play Quake ;-)

The RAM readout is confusing too.

That's workbench for you. We really need to update that.

Having said that, it's looking better all the time.

Thanks  :-D

Can I have a copy for Christmas please?

I'll see what we can do...

[Glaucus]

Someone else mentioned the excessive amount of MUI icons on the Amirc windows. Yes, I don't like them either, but this is a demo machine, so I leave the system as I got it, no changing anything

Well well, if it isn't my good old buddy NeRP! So, that was YOUR machine the shots were taken from?!? The News article doesn't say much about the origins of this screenshot...  could ya fill us in on it, and how you got your little hooves on a copy of OS4?!?  ;-)

  - Mike

[KidIce]

.

Still I just don't like those drawers behind every icon.....remove that and you could have some nice icons....

Ahem... They have drawers behind them because they are drawers. You do know that non-Drawer file system elements don't hve drawers behind them, and the "icon" in front of them is a visual to tell you what is in it, right?

What? You want generic "folders" like every other OS uses?

"Workbench"
"Drawers"
"Tools"
"Projects"

;-)

Sounds to me like you've stuff to work on that you want to do..

"Desktop"
"Folders"
"Files"
"Data"

Bah! Work... No thanks. My home computer is for my enjoyment.

I personaly rather like the Glow Icons (and "alikes") sets. You don't HAVE to use them, if you don't like them. Hell use 1.3 icons if you want. :-D

Sorry, but it seemed a silly complaint on a "news" bit that was nothing but positive... And I don't see how anyone can dislike Glow Icons. :-) They certainly look a far cry better than what comes w/ a typical Windows app, IMO. In fact I've spent alot of time making my Wintel desktop look as OS4 as possible... Using this and replacing alot of my Windows icons w/ Glow Icons converted from my A4000. :-)

[T_Bone]

87 MB isn't that bad when you consider the download folder is full of pr0n :-D

[NeRP]

87 MB isn't that bad when you consider the download folder is full of pr0n

It's all Amiga pr0n, honest!

[NeRP]

Well well, if it isn't my good old buddy NeRP! So, that was YOUR machine the shots were taken from?!? The News article doesn't say much about the origins of this screenshot... could ya fill us in on it, and how you got your little hooves on a copy of OS4?!?

Yes, that screenshot was taken from one of the two AmigaOne XE machines that are here at the moment.  

As for the origins of the screenshot, I'm running an alpha release of OS4 for the AmigaOne, and got an alpha ethernet driver from Adam Kowalczyk, and finally got permission from Ben Hermans to post the screenshot

How did I get my hooves on it?  Well first lets establish that it's probably a fact that I have not just a horseshoe up my ass, but a full barn of horses with horseshoes intact :-)

Second, it's important to note that I did not ask for it.  It was offered to me, and after a week of thought I finally decided that maybe I might want to try if I've got enough time and there wasn't anything good to watch on TV :-)  (YEAH RIGHT!)

Right place at the right time, I suppose.

[Kaminari]

What defines a modern OS today is its support for Unicode, FreeType and font antialiasing. Glad to see AOS4 following the path of MorphOS in those domains.