Which format to use on backdrop?

[lauri.lotvonen]

Hi guys,
What format are you using for your wallpaper on your mig, JPG,GIF, or IFF ?
I'm having some probs with memory (chip) running out when I use pictures size of 1024x768 with 256 colors. From cold boot I have 962 kb of free chip ram without using any wallpaper at all.

Regards,
Lauri

[Piru]

Hi guys,
What format are you using for your wallpaper on your mig, JPG,GIF, or IFF ?
I'm having some probs with memory (chip) running out when I use pictures size of 1024x768 with 256 colors. From cold boot I have 962 kb of free chip ram without using any wallpaper at all.

The format of the wallpaper makes no difference to the memory consumption at all.

[amigadave]

Hi guys,
What format are you using for your wallpaper on your mig, JPG,GIF, or IFF ?
I'm having some probs with memory (chip) running out when I use pictures size of 1024x768 with 256 colors. From cold boot I have 962 kb of free chip ram without using any wallpaper at all.

Regards,
Lauri

Check out some of the threads about the Unofficial Boing Bag 3 that was put together by a few people.  It has programs and/or utilities which will allow you to move several parts of the OS into Fast RAM instead of Chip RAM and should help you out.  It has been several months since I played around with those extras, but I did get a significant amount of Chip RAM freed up after installing some of them.

[marcfrick2112]

I agree with Amigadave, check out BoingBag 3 ... Not sure if FBlit is in BB#3, but check that out as well... you may need to adjust the default config. in FBlit a bit, FYI.....

Also, give us your full Amiga specs. .... it might help us answer better. OS version, programs running, etc....

filetype for the backgrounds?.... As Piru said the format doesn't matter, what could help tho', is if you can reduce the colors/resolution of your backdrops, using e.g. ImageFX. (which does a very nice job, IMHO)

Tried to do a little test, no 1024x768 mode that I could see on my A1200T, so I tried 1432x556 laced w/256 colors, no backdrop ... TaDa! 885K of precious chip RAM left.....

Man, why couldn't they have enabled the 8MB Chip RAM jumper on the 4000?

[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.

[Franko]

Hi guys,
What format are you using for your wallpaper on your mig, JPG,GIF, or IFF ?
I'm having some probs with memory (chip) running out when I use pictures size of 1024x768 with 256 colors. From cold boot I have 962 kb of free chip ram without using any wallpaper at all.

Regards,
Lauri

Hi Lauri,

I tried out using a 1024x768 256 colour screen on the following set up,

A1200 Blizzard060/PPC603 60Mhz/240Mhz / 256Mb RAM / 2 x 500GB HDs / 2 x DVD Burners / FASTATA MKIII / Cocolino Wireless Mouse / Custom built Amplifier

Even with Fblit, Ftext, MCP, WBctrl running the most free chip mem I could achieve was 1,046,816 bytes free, either with or without wallpaper. The only way you'll be able to achieve more free chip mem is to, either reduce the number of colours your using or select a lower screen mode/resolution/size or both.

I don't know of any other utills out there that will help you achieve more chip ram than the ones I've mentioned.

Cheers :drink:

Franko

[Bamiga2002]

With BoingBag #4 (ongoing project) you don't need FBlit anymore, the new graphics.library + new icon.library + new Setpatch should give you needed functionality to save chipmem. Just install recent BB #4 and try it out yourself

[lauri.lotvonen]

Thanks for the replys everyone.
Once I saw a screenshot here at A.org, where OS 3.9 was just booted and there was 1900> kb of free chip ram left with backdrop of 256 colours and 1024x768 resolution. And using a A1200 for the job. I just wish I could find that pic again .

And I have Fblit, Ftext and IconbeFast installed. If I remeber right they come with AmigaSYS 4.0 installation anyways. I did not mention that earlier, sorry.

[Thomas]

Once I saw a screenshot here at A.org, where OS 3.9 was just booted and there was 1900> kb of free chip ram left with backdrop of 256 colours and 1024x768 resolution. And using a A1200 for the job. I just wish I could find that pic again .

It's impossible to do this with native Amiga graphics. 1024 x 768 x 8 needs 768 kb of gfx memory. 2 MB - 768 kb = 1.25 MB. That's the absolute maximum you can get. But gfx is not the only thing which needs chip ram. There's also sound, floppy disk and all the stuff in the zero page. It's hardly possible to keep 1 MB free with this high screen resolution.

To have more free chip memory than that, you need a graphics card. The Indivision is not a graphics card. It does not come with its own graphics chips and memory. It just manipulates what the native gfx chips do.

[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.

[Franko]

Hi Cammy, pretty damn neat, thanks for that, I've always wondered what the miggy would look like using a browser...

What screen mode is that your using and do think I'd be able to do the same on my set up...

A1200 Blizzard060/PPC603 60Mhz/240Mhz / 256Mb RAM / 2 x 500GB HDs / 2 x DVD Burners / FASTATA MKIII / Cocolino Wireless Mouse / Custom built Amplifier

Cheers
Franko

[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

[Franko]

Thats gotta be the best 16 colour palette ever... :cool:

Well, you made my mind up for me. time to start sourcing the bits'n'bobs I need to get my old miggy on the net...

Cheers :drink:

Franko

[RMK305]

Cammy,

What is that dynablaster game called and is it an online game?

Thanks,

Robert

[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!