Re: Apple II Graphic programs...

[CUTjblakeney@sympatico.ca (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Tue, 07 May 2002 23:56:52 +1200, Jeff Thomas <a2forever@usa.net>
wrote:

>I have a graphic utilty for my Apple IIe that can display .Gif files.
>Called, "II.Gif.System".

I've used it but have never had very good results with it the few
times I did try it.  I always preferred to convert images to SHR as I
got much better results that way.

>I create my picture on the PC and I scale it down to the standard Apple
>II Hi-Res screen size of (H) 280 x 192 (W) and reduce the colour palette
>down accordingly. It looks perfect on the PC screen and then I convert
>it over to my Apple IIe, load up with the above mentioned GIF viewer and
>the image comes out choppy or displays incorrectly, no matter what Apple
>II graphics resolution, I set it to, e.g. standard, low, double, or
>high. What am I doing wrong? Is there any better programs?? What do
>programmers use to do this???

The problem you are most likely running into is that that the hi-res
screen is capable of 280 x 192 resolution but in black and white only.
If you are using colour, there are a number of restrictions where
those colours (2 blacks, 2 whites, blue, green, violet, orange;
effectively 6 colours) can appear on screen and what can appear beside
what.

You could try reducing the images on your PC down to a 140 x 192 image
with only the 6 colours above and see if that helps your conversion.
You may still need to do some touch ups on the Apple II side, though,
as those colour restrictions can still get you in this case.

If you convert to double-hi-res, then the colour restrictions aren't
quite as severe and you get 16 colours (although there are two greys
that are the same shade) but you would still want to reduce the image
on your PC to 140 x 192 to get the best results from this mode as
well.

>Also, I own an Apple IIGS and would love to convert Deluxe Paint II
>pictures from my Amiga (the closest matching colour palette of 4,096
>colours) or PC to the Apple IIGS. I need a working Freeware program. Any
>suggestions?

I don't remember what formats Convert3200 supports but I see Joe has
already posted a message about it.  That might be your best bet.  I
just took a look at the options in SuperConvert, which I don't think
is available anymore, and the only Amiga format it supports is IFF
(FORM ILBM only) if that means anything to you.  It also supports the
PC version of Deluxepaint, not enhanced, .LBM files.  The precursor to
SuperConvert was a shareware program called SHRConvert which might
still be on some of the archives if you want to give it a try.

By the way, DeluxePaint II was also available on the IIgs but I don't
know if it can directly load the Amiga images or not.  I'm also not
sure of its current status so I don't know if it is available or not.

>And how can I program the Apple IIGS to load (W) 320 x 200
>(H) Super Hi-Res pictures from within Basic? What is the standard file
>format for that resolution? Does it need to be converted?

The format for SHR graphics depends on how they are saved.  If you
save them as uncompressed screen images they will simply be the screen
data followed by the pallette data.  As these images are 32KB you need
to load them in parts into main memory then move them to the
appropriate place in bank 1 (aka aux memory).  The SHR screen starts
at $2000 in aux memory.

I'd have to look up the specifics again and I'm sure there are pieces
of sample code out there you could use to figure this out as well.
There are also ampersand utilities for Applesoft that will give you
commands for dealing with the SHR screen that might do this for you.
Let me know if you still need help and, if so, I'll try to post some
sample code on the weekend to comp.sys.apple2.programmer.

-- 
 Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University in the
                 Apple II Community on Syndicomm.com
 CUT the obvious from my address if you want to e-mail me