MysticView
                              ----------
               ©1996 Captain Bifat / TEK neosçientists

                              0.68 beta

                       This is a beta release.
                       Use it on your own risk.



release notes
-------------

This  software  acts  as  an example for the use of render.library. It
demonstrates  a  variety  of  basic  techniques, such as custom memory
management,  histograms,  palettes,  24Bit  rendering, 8Bit remapping,
scaling, and a pen allocation strategy. (it does NOT act as an example
for good programming in general.)


brief description
-----------------

MysticView  is  a  primitive  workbench  picture  viewer.  It displays
everything  that can be loaded via picture-class datatypes - just drag
&  drop any picture icons over its window. MysticView does intelligent
color-adaption  and  remapping.  It is independent from display modes,
and it handles HAM6, HAM8 and EHB pictures. It always obeys the aspect
ratios  of  both the screen and the image (if available). The image is
automatically scaled to the window's dimensions.

MysticView  is  mainly  intended to act as an example for the power of
render.library. Keep in mind that 99% of the possibilities derive from
the library, not from this bloody utility.

By  the  way,  this  software is pretty hungry for resources. An image
being  displayed  is also kept in memory - in full resolution. If your
system  is  well  equipped  (graphics  card + 68060), try some kind of
opaque-sizing  utility  (MultiCX  for  instance). Such a configuration
allows  MysticView  to  easily scale and update its window contents in
real-time.

Source codes are included. Note: MysticView is neither tested with nor
designed for 24bit datatypes.


requirements
------------

- OS 3.0 (v39)
- render.library v16.0
- 68020 CPU (minimum suggested: 68030/50)
- about 2MB of free FastRAM, depending on your pictures.


history
-------

0.67
	- major rework and clean-up

0.66
	- The color allocation strategy has been improved.

0.65
	- I couldn't quickly get rid of some heavy bugs I've
	  introduced with v0.64. So I decided to continue work
	  with v0.62 and render.library v12.0.
	  Asynchronous loading is no longer implemented. 
	  This version seems to work pretty stable.

0.64
	- asynchronous loading implemented.

0.63
	- About is asynchronous now.
	- improved color allocation strategy.
	- MysticView crashed on 2-color-displays. Fixed.

0.62
	- better allocation strategy for critical colors on
	  displays with few sharable pens.
	- Filerequester implemented.
        - A percentual render progress display and several messages
	  are displayed in the window's title bar.
        - The picture's width is now layouted pixelwise, no longer in
	  multiples of 16 pixels.
	- Various enhancements and bugfixes

0.60
        - Faster display.
        - Several bugs fixed.
        - Fixed display problems (window borders and flicker...).
        - Pooled memory management implemented.
	- Window is SIMPLE_REFRESH now.
        - Requires less memory.
        - Nicer logo.
        - Menu implemented for "About" requester and "Quit". Other
	  menu functions are not yet implemented.

0.53
	- faster window refresh.
	- Requires less memory

0.52	
	- now takes care of aspect ratios.
	  This applies to both the image and the screen mode.
	- nicer logo

0.51
	- MysticView lost memory. Fixed.
	- Sped-up window refresh after resizing.
	- uses PRECISION_IMAGE instead of PRECISION_EXACT.

0.50
	- initial version