NEOchrome Master

                      - NEOchrome Master -

     by Chaos, Inc. of the Delta Force (member of the Union)



Preview:

NEOchrome Master offers you the following features:
     - four different workscreens
     - totally keyboard controlled
     - faster drawing of the board.
     - calculate colors
     - using of the Fileselectbox by loading AND saving
     - loading- and saving-routines for different picture types:
          - NEOchrome
          - Degas packed and unpacked
          - IFF
          - Doodle
     - Checking the commandline and changing to the right picture 
     type and loading the picture.
     - formatting of disks 100% MS-DOS
     - deleting files
     - rotate objects at any angle (not only 90ø)
     - cutter utility to cut objects into a library
     - saving of the copybox in image format
     - totally new animation tool
     - saving of the color palette (assembler and C syntax)
     - and changing the color palette in every scanline



1. Keyboard codes:

'A'       Animate tool
'B'       Brush
'C'       Copybox
'D'       Disk
'E'       Eraser
'F'       Fill
'G'       Grabber
'I'       Grid
'J'       Jack Knife
'L'       Line
'N'       Nozzle
'P'       Pencil
'R'       Rasters
'S'       Shapes
'T'       Text
'X'       Cutter

Escape    turn board on and off

Shift-ESC select color #0 as painting color
'1'       select color #1 as painting color
'2'       ...
.         ...
'9'       ...
'0'       select color #10 as painting color
'ž'       select color #11 as painting color (on German keyboard)
'''       select color #12 as painting color (-'-)
'#'       ...
Backspace ...
Help      select color #15 as painting color

(On american and other keyboards the colors can be changed by the 
buttons on the upper row of the keyboard including all special 
chars.)

'('       select workscreen #0 (on numerical keyboard)
')'       select workscreen #1 (-'-)
'/'       #2
'*'       #3

Space     selects the actual color palette


What now follows is a description of all new functions:

2. Copybox
You can now rotate the contents of the copybox at any angle. To 
select any angle diffenrent to 90ø klick on the angle value by 
the left or (right) button. This will increase (decrease) the 
angle. You can also select the direction of the rotation by 
clicking on the small arrow right of the angle.

3. Grabber
NEOchrome Master is able to calculate the needed colors between two 
colors. Put the left and the right color mark (move them by 
dragging with the right mouse button) to the desired left and 
right value of the colors. Select 'calculate colors'. NEOchrome 
Master will now calculate all colors between the left and right 
color mark so that there is a continues color flow from the left 
color marked color to the right one.
You can now save the selected color palette (see Rasters for more 
details on selecting palettes) in an ASCII-file to include it 
into your sourcecode. NEOchrome Master can save for use by 
assembler or by C.

4. Fill
Left button will fill as usual. The right button will fill with 
color #0 to delete a polygon.
The whole miscellany options are now available by the fill 
function. This was necessary to get a new place in order to put 
the Raster function there.

5. Eraser
Clicking once on the eraser icon selects eraser function. If you 
click with the right button again on this icon NEOchrome Master 
quits. Pressing the left button again deletes the whole picture 
without any UNDO.

6. Disk
NEOchrome Master is now able to load files from different picture 
types. Clicking once at the disk icon you're able to select the 
desired picture type for loading and saving seperatly.
NEOchrome Master is able to check for the right picture type and 
select this type automatically. This is only possible when the 
selected picture is saved in IFF-format, by NEOchrome Master in 
NEOchrome format, or as packed Degas picture. Otherwise NEOchrome 
Master will try to load the picture by the selected 
format.
Saving pictures is always done in the selected format.

You can format disk 100% MS-DOS compatible on any TOS version by 
clicking at 'format' (single- and double sided).

To delete files simply click 'delete'.


7. Cutter
This is one of the most complex new routines in NEOchrome Master. 
I'll try to explain it as good as possible, but you've to try it 
on your own for full understanding.

With the help of the Cutter you can cut objects to animate them 
or to save them into a special file called 'object-file'. This 
file contains all information about the cutted objects, so you 
can use this object file to be loaded by your own program as a 
graphix library.

There are two ways of selecting objects: Firstly, you can open a 
box similiar to the way of the copybox. Secondly, you can force 
NEOchrome to search for a frame which surrounds the object. Here 
it is necessary to set the painting color to the color of the 
frame (e.g. using the grabber). Afterwards click into the frame 
with the right mouse button.

After selecting any objects it is possible to change the size of 
the selecting box by clicking the left mouse button at any 
side or edge of the selecting box. This will resize the selecting 
box in the way you'd clicked at the object.

In order to move a selecting box you click into the selected area 
with the right mouse button while pressing the button.

Realize, so far you just selected an object. To put it into your 
graphix library click on 'ADD' placed in the options 
menu (F1 or F2 will do the same). The selected object is inserted 
before the right box.

How to replace/show/delete a object that is already stored in 
your graphix library?

(i)  Select the actual object using the right and left arrow.
(ii) click on 'Change'/'Show'/'Delete'.

(Note:    You can only insert or add an object when you'd 
          selected an area before.)

NEOchrome Master knows the position of all cutted objects. By 
clicking on 'Show', NEOchrome Master sets the selecting box to 
its stored position. NEOchrome Master also knows the name of the 
picture from which the objects are cutted. 'Show' also switches 
to the corresponding screen from which the object was cutted.

How to save/load/clear all objects of your library?
(i)  Click on save/load/new.

If you save your library, NEOchrome Master asks you whether it 
should save all headers too. 'No' means that the pure data is 
being saved without any further information (Note: This fromat 
can't be loaded again!). 'Yes' will save all information, like 
position and size too (Note: Only this fromat can be loaded). If 
you load a library, NEOchrome Master asks you whether it should 
load all pictures too. As you may remember, NEOchrome Master also 
knows the name of the pictures from which the objects were 
cutted. All these pictures are loaded by selecting 'Yes'.

In case you've changed some graphix simply select 're-cut' (F10) and 
NEOchrome Master cuts all objects again.


The structure of the object-file (for use with own programs):
For none-C-programmers: char=byte, int=word.

char header[6];               always 'NEOOBJ'
int version;                  version e.g. $0100
char filenames[4][13];        names of the four used pictures
long filelength;              number of bytes following after 
                              this entry
int number;                   number of objects in this file


The following structure is called 'object_header':

( 0) long offset;             Offset to object data (relativ to 
                              object_header[0])
( 4) int width;
( 6) int height;
( 8) unsigned char mask;      Is there a mask? (unused)
( 9) unsigned char planes;    # of planes (always 4)
(10) int width_bytes;
(12) int x_neo;               Position at NEOchrome picture
(14) int y_neo;               -'-
(16) long reserved;           reserved for future use...
                    

Saving without any headers starts at this point:
After all object_headers follows the data of the objects....


8. Animate

The animation tool can show all objects cutted or loaded by the 
Cutter. The number of the actual object is written between the 
two arrows. This object is shown on the screen. The position, 
where this object is drawn, can be changed by clicking in the 
icons at the lower right edge of the screen. There are five 
position where objects can be drawn:
(i)       left top edge of the screen. That means, that all left 
          upper edges ob the objects are placed in the upper left 
          edge of the screen.
(ii)      Right top edge of the screen.....
(iii)     Right bottom of the screen...
(iv)      Left bottom of the screen.
(v)       Center of the screen. All objects are centered in the 
          middle of the screen (e.g. useful for objects that are 
          getting greater). 

Animate can also automatically show all objects. You can tell 
NEOchrome Master where to start and where to end. To do so, click 
on arrow up or down of the desired border. NEOchrome Master will 
start by the number shown in the left arrow. It will end by the 
number shown in the right arrow (e.g. to show objects 5..9 select 
'9' in the right border by clicking on the up/down arrows. Then 
select '5' for the left arrow. ).
Clicking with the left mouse button into one of the arrows shows 
the next/previous object. At the end NEOchrome will start over 
again. Clicking with the right mouse button into one of the 
buttons shows all objects automatically. This means, that 
NEOchrome Master in/decreases the number of the actual object by 
itself. To increase the speed of the animation you must again 
click with the right/left mouse button into the arrow. Whether to 
use the right or left mouse button depends on the direction of 
the animation (it's the same thing than the changing of speed for the 
color animation).
There's one great problem: If the speed of the animation is at 
maximum level there is no more mouse cursor. To decrease the 
speed to a normal level press cursor down. Consequently you can 
press cursor up for more speed. Cursor left and right selects the 
previous/next object to show.

Sometimes it is necessary to show the objects in a way called 
"ping pong". Here NEOchrome Master doesn't start over again at 
the right border. In spite it changes the direction and 
animates back. You can select this way by clicking at '<->'. 

But there is more to say....

Maybe you have more than one animation in your graphix library 
(e.g. 1..5 and 6..9). These are two 'sequenz'. You can change the 
actual sequenz by clicking at the right or left arrow beside 
'sequenz'. Every sequenz has it's own parameters. If you change from 
one sequenz to another one NEOchrome Master changes all 
parameters to their last values.

Saving just saves the values of all sequenzes not the objects!

With the help of load you can load new values into the animate 
tool. The objects remain unchanged.


9. Rasters

To get more colorful pictures you can now change the color 
palette at a special scanline. This can be done by 'rasters'.

There are up to 99 color palettes per picture. The actual color 
palette can be selected by clicking on the right and left arrow. 
Color palette #0 is the so called 'vbl-palette'. This palette is 
shown from the beginning of the screen till the 1st raster. 

To set a color palette at a spezific scanline click with the 
mousecursor into your picture. At this position will the raster 
appear.
There's one great problem! If you change the color palette at 
every scanline the system crashes after ~17 rasters. This is a 
problem of Atari, not NEOchrome. (for insiders: NEOchrome will 
stay in the HBL-routine and just wait for the next border. So the 
IRQ mask stays at $2600 and the keyboard can't send its mouse-
coordinates. This crashes the system. If anybody knows a solution 
to this problem please let me know.).
Another problem is the Blitter. The structure of the Atari ST 
makes it impossible, at least for me, to get stable rasters 
without turning the Blitter off. This means that the rasters 
flicker when moving big objects with the copybox. Turn the 
Blitter off (using the miscellany menu) and they stay quiet. 
(Again, solutions to this problem to me, Chaos, Inc.).

The position of the actual raster is written in the options 
board. It can also be showed by clicking at 'Show'. You can 
erase a raster from your picture by either clicking at y=0 or 
clicking at 'Delete'.
To transfer a single color palette click on the arrow-up. This 
stores the actual color palette in a buffer. You can read this 
buffer by clicking at arrow-down. This causes NEOchrome Master to 
replace the actual color palette by the stored one.
You can also save/load rasters by clicking at save/load. All 
rasters are erased from the screen by clicking at 'new'.
All rasters with position and colors can be stored by clicking at 
'Put'. Afterwards it's possible to get all these rasters again by 
clikcing at 'Get'. This is useful to transfer all rasters from 
one picture/screen to another.

Important Note for painting with rasters: NEOchrome Master always 
shows in its board the color palette used at the mouseposition. 
Imagine the following situation. You are drawing a picture with 
two palettes. They are switched at position y=50. The actual 
color palette is #1 (from 50..199). Painting at y=20 shows you 
the color palette which is used at this coordinate. Moving the 
mousecursor into the board always shows the actual color palette 
(here it's the wrong one, because your're painting with palette 
#0). Maybe you get confused looking at the wrong color palette. 
Now it's time to use 'space'. Move the mousecursor back at 
position y=20. Press space. This selects the palette #0 (used at 
y=20) as the actual one. Moving into the option board now shows the 
color palette you are working with. Pressing 'space' works with 
all drawing function, not only rasters....

One more thing about rasters.... Only saving a picture in IFF-
format saves the raster too. Remember: pictures with rasters 
should always be saved in IFF-format (Otherwise you lose your 
rasters).


That's it folks.....

If you like NEOchrome Master send some donation either to Dave 
Staugas or at me, Chaos, Inc.
The adress of Dave Staugas is printed by the scroller of 
NEOchrome Master.

And remember..... NEOchrome beat'em all!


What's planned for future versions....

     - TT/STE support. (much, much work to go)
     - A printer output using grey tones.
     - a selectable grid width
     - only using 1,2,3, or 4 planes.
     - bigger pictures (e.g. 640x400)
     - monochrome painting (?)
     - a 'Lupe' in the lower border of the fullscreen.