Is there something wrong with my Workbench 45.3?

[Foebane]

This version of Amiga Workbench I'm using came from the Cloanto Amiga Forever 2012 DVD, I copied it over into Windows 7 folders for use with WinUAE 3.4.0, and as far as I know the only loss has been Amiga-specific file attributes.

What bothers me is in these two pictures (attached):

001.jpg - Why does the colour wheel in Palette Preferences here look like it's missing colours in the middle?

002.jpg - Why do the Country flags look fragmented?

Is my Workbench install corrupted?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

What color screenmode are you running it in?

[Foebane]

What color screenmode are you running it in?

PAL Hi-Res, 640x256, 256 colours.

[Foebane]

This Workbench install, it turns out, has a more comprehensive palette editor which is better, I'd say. It's called FullPalette (pic 1).

The second picture (pic 2) is what happened when I ran Palette Preferences (PP) before running FullPalette again: the PP spectra are clearly in the palette, this time, but still not being shown in PP itself. Notice how FullPalette says "Locked", perhaps meaning that palette colours cannot be changed outside of the program?

The third picture (pic 3) is what happened when I set the ScreenMode to 64 colours and ran PP again: there's no colour in the wheel at all this time!

What do you know about FullPalette? Is it known to interfere with Palette Preferences in this way?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

FullPalette is great. It's what I've used for years. Check out this pretty neat guide, which mentions it:

http://www.mfilos.com/2012/01/guide-making-workbench-prettier-using.html?m=1

[Foebane]

FullPalette is great. It's what I've used for years. Check out this pretty neat guide, which mentions it:

http://www.mfilos.com/2012/01/guide-making-workbench-prettier-using.html?m=1

It's certainly more versatile than the standard WB Palette utility, which is always included in WB installs, but it seems that FullPalette supercedes it, so I wonder why I'm complaining.

EDIT: It's not FullPalette that is interfering with the standard Palette utility, after all. Must be something else, or maybe that particular Palette utility has always been this way?

[Foebane]

I have a second WB install (3.1) and that works perfectly in 3.1, so I figured I'd copy it over to the 45.3 WB install and see what happens. Guess what? The 3.1 Palette behaves exactly the same way as the 45.3 Palette, so something in 45.3 is obviously limiting what Palette can do in displaying the palette. I'm guessing it's down to the multicolour icons in 45.3.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

You're using UAE, so try changing your screenmode from 256 colors to something higher - like a 16-bit or 24-bit screenmode.  Even still it will probably look pretty similar - I don't know if the basic Workbench Palette tool was ever written to take advantage of more than 256 color screenmode.  It's 3am local time here, but I can check my setup tomorrow to see how it compares.  

[Foebane]

You're using UAE, so try changing your screenmode from 256 colors to something higher - like a 16-bit or 24-bit screenmode.  Even still it will probably look pretty similar - I don't know if the basic Workbench Palette tool was ever written to take advantage of more than 256 color screenmode.  It's 3am local time here, but I can check my setup tomorrow to see how it compares.  

Eh?

My Windows 7 is already 32-bit 1080p.
My WinUAE config for Workbench is A4000/060 with AGA at most. How am I supposed to get more colours from Workbench?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Eh?

My Windows 7 is already 32-bit 1080p.
My WinUAE config for Workbench is A4000/060 with AGA at most. How am I supposed to get more colours from Workbench?

Eh?

You're running WinUAE, you're not limited to standard Amiga screenmodes (i.e., AGA).

Emulate a 16-bit or 24-bit screenmode to increase you're color depth and see if it gives you smoother gradients.  If I understand correctly from your picture of the color palette wheel, that's what you think you're missing, yes?

[Foebane]

Eh?

You're running WinUAE, you're not limited to standard Amiga screenmodes (i.e., AGA).

Emulate a 16-bit or 24-bit screenmode to increase you're color depth and see if it gives you smoother gradients.  If I understand correctly from your picture of the color palette wheel, that's what you think you're missing, yes?

How do I do that?

[Pat the Cat]

I guess you just set UAE to use a different display type rather than the native Amiga chipset. Then hope your Workbench install has things like RTG graphics setup properly.

It looks to me from first screenshot, Workbench GUI is only using 8 colours to mix from, that's why the display looks awful. The system reserved the first few colours of a pallette for display so windows and gadgets were always visible, at least. It made it difficult to have an invisible and unclickable desktop.

It made looking icons uniform in colour somewhat tricky. Especially if they were inherited from early Amigas. Kind of Commodore 64 icons...

Anyway, setdisplay to Picasso IV or Cyberview or a-n-other RTG graphics, and you should be able to see properly. If you have the drivers installed Amiga side to take care of it (sounds like it).

This version of Amiga Workbench I'm using came  from the Cloanto Amiga Forever 2012 DVD, I copied it over into Windows 7  folders for use with WinUAE 3.4.0, and as far as I know the only loss  has been Amiga-specific file attributes.

... ingenious. I think doing that, especially on files that became write protected and uneditable without the protection bit being reset, would lobotomize any operating system. Not just AmigaOS, any of them, I reckon.

Preserve your flags. Be proud of them, wave them high... or at least make sure the OS can handle them. Otherwise you are asking for trouble. Setting up a system, it has to be organic enough to remember changes.

Later on you back up your progressing, and then you might turn as much as possible into protectable, non editable, but not from the beginning.

[paul1981]

How do I do that?

In the WinUAE options look for graphics adapters or Zorro 2/3 section. It can emulate graphics cards such as the Picasso - but you'd need to install the driver software like you would on a real Amiga.
To be honest I only recently updated my WinUAE from an old version 2011 or there abouts and back then I used UAEGFX which is what appeared in the list of screenmodes on Workbench as there was no Picasso or such emulation then - only UAEGFX. The special driver was included with WinUAE and it was called in the Amiga boot sequence. I think it has been that way since early 2000's. This was great though as you could have huge lighting fast 24bit Workbench and software in excess of any real Amiga Zorro card.
Now though, real Amiga graphics cards can be emulated too and I'm assuming you'll need to download real Amiga drivers for them. My UAEGFX doesn't work now after the update, which I need to look into at some point. LOL

This might help: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=84782

[Foebane]

SUCCESS!

Finally managed to install Picasso96 drivers and get WinUAE to work with them, all on my tod!

I've included a picture of my playing around with a 24-bit Amiga display, and I'm quite impressed by the speed, amongst other things! And finally, the Palette Preferences are finally working as they should! The Amiga is truly unfettered when it comes to 24-bit colour, and it's just a shame Commodore never finished a full 24-bit chipset, not one that was sold commercially, anyway. Yes, the Video Toaster (I think) is 24-bit, but not many home users got a chance to play with it. I'm just glad that the option of True Colour Workbench is open to us, via WinUAE. It's been fun!

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

SUCCESS!

Finally managed to install Picasso96 drivers and get WinUAE to work with them, all on my tod!

I've included a picture of my playing around with a 24-bit Amiga display, and I'm quite impressed by the speed, amongst other things! And finally, the Palette Preferences are finally working as they should! The Amiga is truly unfettered when it comes to 24-bit colour, and it's just a shame Commodore never finished a full 24-bit chipset, not one that was sold commercially, anyway. Yes, the Video Toaster (I think) is 24-bit, but not many home users got a chance to play with it. I'm just glad that the option of True Colour Workbench is open to us, via WinUAE. It's been fun!

LOL.  Where Commodore screwed up, many third party companies were able to shine.  But it sure would have been nice if they'd stopped faffing around long enough to include native 24-bit graphics displays in the system.  Alas, AAA!  

FYI, if you don't have it already the latest version of Picasso96 can be downloaded here:  http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/Picasso96.htm

Also FYI, the Video Toaster was a good many things, but it didn't provide a 24-bit Workbench.  For that you'd need one of the various graphics cards available at the time (or one of the newly designed homebrew ones).  Cheers, glad you got it working!