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GDS - Graphics Display System Imaging Software by Tangent On-Line Systems Distribution by Phase II Electronics Inc. Copyright (c) 1990,1991 Paul Schmidt Copyright (c) 1990,1991 Tangent On-Line All rights reserved. CONTENTS Legal Notices I GDS Features And Requirements II GDS Limitations III Notes About Use IV Getting Started 1 The GDS Screen 2 Viewing Commands 3 Slide Shows 4 Arrays 5 Antialiasing 6 Dithering 7 Command Line Parameters 8 Configuration File Details 9 Common Problems And Solutions 10 Additional Customer Support 11 Introduction & Revision History GDSINFO.DOC GDS is available in 3 flavors: 1. This "Demo" (shareware distribution version). 2. The "Registered ShareWare" version for $35.00 Includes AUTOMATIC UPDATES FOR ONE YEAR. (That's right, you don't even have to call us!) (Commands found only in the registered version are marked with **) 3. The Full Blown "Commercial" version. (Still in creation stage. Most likely this will cost several hundred dollars as it will contain a full scanner package.) Distribution and support services provided by: Phase II Electronics Inc. 19 Sands Point Drive Toms River New Jersey 08755-5167 Phone (908) 286-0080, Fax (908) 349-3842 Compuserve 76667,1522 Bob Holland I. Legal Notices --------------------------------------------------------------------------- /////////////////////////////// W A R N I N G ! /////////////////////////// --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The AUTHOR and/or DISTRIBUTORS of GDS DO NOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY OR ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY LOSS OR ANY OTHER EXPENSE OR INCONVENIENCE CAUSED BY ANY BETA VERSIONS OF GDS. This includes ALL versions. NOTE: GDS103.ZIP (marked as version "1.03") which circulated unintentionally contains several known (and potentially damaging) bugs removed from later versions. If you have a version before version 1.04, ERASE IT; DO NOT USE IT. The original file containing GDS may be distributed and used freely without ANY modifications to the program and/or included documentation. Any changes to the original distribution files will be considered an infringement on the rights of the author, and may be subject to criminal and/or civil prosecution. Any attempt to disassemble and/or extract code from this product will be considered copyright infringement punishable by law. Users may not derive financial benefit from this software in any manner. They may not sell it or bundle it with any combination of products sold for profit. (This does not include shipping charges for shareware distributors). Phase II and associates hereby disclaim all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Phase II will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data/damage to hardware or any other reason, even if Phase II or an agent of Phase II has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall Phase II's liability for any damages ever exceed the price paid for the license to use the software, regardless of the form of the claim. The person or persons using the software bear all risk as to the quality and performance of the software. II. GDS FEATURES AND REQUIREMENTS 1) GRAPHICS VIEWER GDS is a graphics file viewer with a very intuitive user interface. 2) FILE FORMATS GDS reads GIF87a, GIF89a (including comments), BBM, LBM, PCX, RIX, and MAC files. It can write GIF87a, **LBM, **PCX, and **RIX files directly from the screen. Other formats may be added in future versions. If you need a read or write format supported, FAX or write to Phase II Electronics Inc. **Registered version only 3) SLIDE SHOWS GDS will queue up to 2800 images to show in a repeated sequence. GDS reads successive images ahead of time into EMS or system RAM to minimize draw time, increasing the appearance of the slide show. 4) IMAGE PROCESSING GDS can lock a screen mode, reduce and enlarge images to fit, or scale and zoom to almost any dimensions. GDS quickly converts 256-color images to 16-color images with antialiasing and dithering to ensure spatial color consistency. GDS can scale images to almost any size. It will reduce, enlarge, or correct image scaling. 5) ARRAYS GDS has an image cataloging section which reduces and labels arrays of images on the screen. It creates spatially optimized palettes, uses **two levels of dithering and **two dimensional antialiasing to reduce color distortion, and can reduce up to 2304 images onto a single 1024x768 graphics screen. If you are a system operator of a BBS, this is a great way to provide previews of many images in a single, downloadable file. **Registered version only (1 level in shareware distribution version) 6) MOUSE SUPPORT Although ALMOST everything can be done with the keyboard, a mouse is highly recommended. 7) HARDWARE SUPPORT GDS takes great pains to support video hardware, and supports most SVGA boards. A few chipsets still remain questionable, but GDS covers the majority of display hardware. GDS can also be adapted to work with OEM cards using unrecognized manufacturer markings, so if you have an unsupported card, there is a good possibility that it can function completely. GDS is capable of supporting extended 24-bit DAC circuitry which can provide 16,777,216 colors, rather than 262,144. 8) MEMORY REQUIREMENTS AND USAGE GDS can make use lots of memory, using EMS to increase the speed of slide shows. If your machine has less than 450K of available system RAM, GDS will probably not perform as well as it can (colors choices in array generation will be severely degraded and GDS may kick you out to DOS completely). GDS makes good use of EMS 3.2 and available high DOS memory. We strongly recommend a 640K system with at least 64K of EMS. XMS is not supported as it does not provide tolerably fast memory swapping. III. GDS LIMITATIONS 1. GDS makes no attempt to read or write TIFF files. See FILE FORMATS in part II above. 2. GDS doesn't write BMP, BBM or MAC files. See FILE FORMATS in part II above. 3. GDS is not a PAINT/DRAW program. IV. NOTES ABOUT USE SYSOPS: GDS is an excellent method for cataloging your GIFs. A single 185k file can contain hundreds of images and their file names as a preview of your directory. Please inform Phase II of how you are currently using GDS and any suggestions for improvements. We encourage all users to distribute and use the demo version FREEly. If you would like the enhanced version and future updates or intend to use GDS for commercial purposes, you MUST register. 1. GETTING STARTED Start GDS by typing "GDS" followed by "ENTER." GDS can be run with or without command line options and can be started from any directory by specifying its path on the command line. It can also be run if it's in the DOS environment's PATH. GDS parses file/path specifications and runtime switches as command line parameters. Any number of paths/files may be specified to GDS. The following command line is typical: C> GDS i:\dp\*.lbm j:\GIFs myimage.gif The first path specifies all LBM files in the DP directory on drive I:. The second path specifies all readable files in the GIFS directory on drive J:. The third path specifies the single file MYIMAGE.GIF in the currently logged directory. If no path names are given, the current directory is used. If you have problems getting GDS to run, refer to the section entitled COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. If you'd like to get going with GDS as fast as possible, given its very intuitive interface, after you've read the next four paragraphs, you've probably read enough to use most of what GDS does. Start and experiment, but come back and read the rest of the documentation. GDS does so much that it's impossible to explain it all in 100 or fewer words. 2. THE GDS SCREEN After configuration, GDS presents a screen containing a display consisting of file names, extensions, and file sizes in a columnar format. The top line shows the version number, registered user's name and phone number, and copyright message. To view images in "Single" mode (see "VIEW:" below), press "ENTER" or double click the mouse on a file name. Single clicking on a file will deselect all currently selected files and select the file under the mouse cursor. In single view mode, mouse users may toggle ranges of files by holding down the shift key and clicking/dragging. In "Slide Show" or "Array" mode, use the arrow keys to move to a filename, the spacebar to select or unselect it. Mouse users can drag the mouse from one file to another to select all files in between. In the slide show mode, the mouse always acts as though the shift key is held. Pressing the ENTER key starts a view in the current view mode (single or slides) without changing the selection state of ANY of the files in the file list. Double clicking the mouse on a file will display that file alone, regardless of the current view mode. Use the ENTER key or view button (see below) to initiate slide shows. It's usually easier to set up fragmented slide shows with the keyboard than with the mouse. Several buttons and menus are displayed in the second and bottom lines of the screen. These areas are referred to as "menu areas." The "file status area," between the file display and the bottom menu area, displays detailed information about the Current File. As the file cursor is moved through the file list, GDS displays information about each file. This information includes the complete path and file name of the file, its screen resolution, number of colors, and exact file size in bytes. The right side of the file status area displays the total number of files and number of files selected, if any. Directly to the right of the file status area is the "view button" which says "ENTER views current selection" in a rectangle. This button merely tells keyboard users what to do to display an image, but allows a mouse to click on it to start a slide show. If there is more than one file selected or NO files selected, the view button starts a slide show. If only one file is selected, the view button will do a single view. For mouse users, it's easier to use the "View:" menu to change the behavior of single clicks in the file list (see above) and use the view button to start slide shows. To use the menus, hold down the ALT key and then hit the key which matches the highlighted character in the menu or button you want to change, or click on it with a mouse. If the menu or button you have selected has two or fewer functions (like the MOUSE: button), the state of the button changes. If it has more than two choices, GDS presents a menu. When using the keyboard, the default menu selection will be highlighted. Use the arrow keys to navigate the menus and press ENTER to select your option. ESC will cancel a selection from a menu. With a mouse, just click (or drag and let go) on your choice; to cancel a selection, just click (or let go) outside of the menu area. When any alphanumeric key (not associated with special CTRL or ALT commands) is pressed, GDS looks through the current list of files and moves the cursor to the first file starting with the same character as the key pressed. If GDS can't find a file that matches, it will put the cursor on the closest match it can find. GDS supports CTRL key commands allowing the user a great deal of flexibility of file control. When the CTRL key is pressed, GDS pops up a green window at the bottom of the screen showing which control keys do what. These options are as follows: ** Ctrl-C Copy File duplicates a file in another drive/path Ctrl-D Delete File deletes a file forever ** Ctrl-F New File List specifies a new path/file list ** Ctrl-H Hide file removes a file from file list Ctrl-L List Comments list comments in a GIF89A file ** Ctrl-R Rename file changes the name of file ** Ctrl-S System Status displays free space on disk ** Ctrl-T Transfer file moves a file to another drive/path ** Registered version only GDS COMMANDS Quit (or ESC) This button exits the program. AutO/LOck This button shows the state of screen mode locking. The default graphics mode (set with "RES:") is meaningless when viewing in AutO mode. Locking the screen mode forces images to be displayed in the graphics mode selected in the "RES:" menu. This is handy when reducing large images to fit in smaller screen modes, or reducing 256-color images to dithered 16-color images. Res:???x???x? This menu allows the selection of the default graphics and text modes. The default graphics mode has no effect on viewing unless the "AutO/LOck" button is in the "LOck" state. It does, however, determine the resolution of files written with the ALT-keys. View: This menu allows the user to choose between "Single" images, "Slides" (slide shows) and "Arrays." In "Single" mode, any selection of a file will deselect all other files first (unless the SHIFT key is held). In "Slides" mode, mouse clicks are never globally destructive to selections; they always add to the selected files. Double clicking the mouse always produces a single view regardless of the state of this menu. "Arrays" mode creates (and can write) arrays of multiple images. Alias: This menu allows the user to select the level of antialiasing performed for reduced images (see ANTIALIASING below). HINT: The default antialiasing (horizontal only) is almost as fast as no antialiasing at all. **High quality image reduction can take in excess of 5 times longer depending on the level of reduction. In general, considering the increase in image quality, it's always worth using horizontal antialiasing. **Registered version only AboUt: This menu displays information about GDS. It has no viewing function. SORT: This menu allows the user to select the sort order for the file display. Selecting a new sort order immediately rearranges the file display. Selecting sort orders which require the resolution or number of bits per pixel will force GDS to read this information before a sort can be done. This is time consuming, but GDS can't sort information it doesn't have. Fortunately, GDS buffers the resolution and number of bits per pixel so that it reads them only once. MOUSE: This button toggles the mouse between a bitmapped text cursor and a character cursor. Some video displays do not conform to the VGA hardware standard for text character sets and may cause GDS to display a garbled mouse cursor. If this happens, click on the "MOUSE:" button. The state of the mouse can be set in the configuration file so you don't have click the "MOUSE:" button every time you run GDS. DITHER: This menu allows the user to specify the level of dithering to be used when generating array images. No dithering means that GDS will not try to increase color consistency. Two-color dithering generates checker-board patterns which are imperceptible except in low resolution graphics modes. **Uneven dithering is more obvious than two-color dithering, but greatly enhances the general look of 16-color renditions of images which start out with many more colors. There is almost no speed difference in using dithering. The biggest delay is the delay just before the image is read where GDS generates its conversion table. There is almost no speed difference in putting up raw pixels vs. dithered pixels. In short, dithering doesn't slow GDS down perceptibly. **Registered version only FILESHOW: This menu allows the user to toggle elements (Resolution, Extension, Size, Bits) of the file display on and off. These elements can be set in the configuration file so you don't have to set it every time you run GDS. 3. VIEWING COMMANDS Single images can be viewed alone by pressing ENTER or by double clicking a file with a mouse. When viewing, you can adjust the palette manually (see F-key description below). Every time a level is changed, the entire palette is recalculated from the original to prevent eventual palette degradation. Esc Always exits view mode. Enter Exits single view mode; advances to next image in slide shows. Spacebar: When viewing a single image, pressing the spacebar exits back to the file screen unless the scale of the image is not exactly the same as the original image (Note: If image is auto scaled by setting the /E switch, the spacebar will return the scaled images to their original scale). In array generation mode, the spacebar will stop the display of any images in progress and skip directly to the next image in the list. The spacebar also toggles the selection state of the file under the file cursor. Combining the arrow keys and the spacebar allows selection of images for slide shows and arrays. Alt-W: Immediately starts writing a GIF file titled GDS###.GIF. The number used in place of "###" is either 000 or whatever number was specified with the "/W###" **command line parameter. This function will not overwrite existing files. You can use the "/N<template>" **command line parameter to change the name template for the files which are written. **Registered version only Demo version automatically saves to GDS###.GIF. **Alt-L: Exactly like Alt-W, but writes "LBM" files. **Alt-P: Exactly like Alt-W, but writes "PCX" files. **Alt-R: Exactly like Alt-W, but writes "RIX" files. **Registered version only NOTE: Alt-R uses the extension ".SC<c>", where <c> is the screen resolution indicator as prescribed by RIX Software in Irvine, California. GDS supports RIX's "UNCOMPRESSED" format only. RIX Software is not releasing ANY information about its compressed formats. If you would like to see compressed RIX file support, please ask RIX to allow developers to support it. Arrow keys: The arrow keys move the cursor when selecting files. They also adjust the position of the lower right hand corner of the image rectangle when viewing a file. Using the arrow keys alone moves the lower right corner by two pixels at a time. **Holding the shift key down while using the arrow keys moves it by 20 pixels at a time. If you manage to get the image messed up enough to start over, hit the space bar and the image will redraw at its default scale. This function is useful when used with Alt-F to fine tune the scale for image reduction. It's also very useful for correcting the size of images that are stored with an odd screen size. **Registered version only E These keys pan the viewing area in the direction indicated by the S-+-D placement of the keys on the keyboard. One keypress normally X moves the image by one dot. When the shift key is held down, the image moves by 20 dots at a time, similar to the behavior of the arrow keys as described above. **ALT-Z: Start "zoom" sequence (only with a mouse). Use ALT-Z as follows: (1) Press ALT-Z. (2) Move the mouse pointer to the upper left of the desired zoom rectangle. (3) Press and hold down a mouse button. (4) While holding down the mouse button, drag the mouse pointer to the lower right of the desired zoom rectangle. (5) Release the mouse button. The zoom function will preserve the current X to Y ratio for scaling in case you've adjusted it or used ALT-F to fit the image to the screen. If you manage to zoom to the wrong place or mess things up beyond comprehension, just hit the space bar to redraw the image at its default scale. **Registered version only Alt-F: Fit image to screen. This function ATTEMPTS to rescale an image to fit into the full screen. It is useful for scaling images down from large screen sizes. Depending on the dimensions of the image, this may not produce the desired results. If the aspect ratio of the graphics mode or image is not recognizable by GDS, the image may be distorted. If this happens, use the spacebar to redraw the image at its original scale and manually adjust the scale of the image using the arrow keys. F1/F2 Reduce/Increase palette red level. F3/F4 Reduce/Increase palette green level. F5/F6 Reduce/Increase palette blue level. F7/F8 Reduce/Increase contrast. F9/F10 Reduce/Increase brightness. ","/"." Reduce/Increase color. This function can reduce a full color image to grey scale by using "," to eliminate all color content completely. The image can further be reduced to a monochrome image by increasing the contrast to maximum (F8). This color level control compensates for the eyes' responsiveness to red, green, and blue for minimal color distortion. Shift-F1/F2 Reset red level to that of original image. Shift-F3/F4 Reset green level to that of original image. Shift-F5/F6 Reset blue level to that of original image. Shift-F7/F7 Reset contrast to that of original image. Shift-F9/F8 Reset brightness to that of original image. Shift-","/"." Reset color to that of original image. 4. SLIDE SHOWS GDS has two separate methods of generating slide shows. The first is to select a range of files from within the normal GDS user interface and set the "View:" menu to "Slides". When GDS is in set this way, normal viewing of images results in a slideshow (except for mouse double clicks; see VIEWING COMMANDS). **The following is only available in the Registered version. The second method is to specify the "/S" option on the command line. GDS will bypass the normal user interface and immediately start a slide show using any files specified on the command line. The "/O" option is normally ON (1), which sorts the file list when the "/S" option is specified. Specifying "/S0" on the command line will prevent GDS from sorting the file list. The "/Z" option specifies the delay in 100ths of seconds between slides. Two seconds, for example, would be specified using "/Z200". If "/Z" is not specified, GDS will wait for at least 5 seconds between each slide. The "/E" option is used to tell GDS to fit all images onto the screen during slide shows. This is useful when you have limited video capability and, at the same time, need to do a slideshow with many files which are much larger than the maximum resolution you can display. It is often necessary to give a slideshow on a very specific set of files which may be inconvenient to enter on the command line. The "@<FILE>" option is used to tell GDS to read a list of filenames from <FILE>. Using the "@<FILE>" option can save you a lot of time and allow you to customize your slideshows to your heart's content. An example of a typical planned slideshow is as follows: C> gds /s @filelist /o The first option ("/s") tells GDS to do an automatic slide show. The second option ("@filelist") tells GDS to read the file FILELIST for a list of files to show. The third option prevents GDS from sorting the file list. 5. ARRAYS OF REDUCED IMAGES GDS allows the creation of arrays of multiple reduced images. Select the files you wish to see (or select none to see all), then choose "ARRAYS" from the "View:" menu. In the array window, you may toggle borders and labels on and off, and increase or decrease the number of images. (Setting the borders and labels off results in slightly larger images.) Hit return or click on the option to draw the array. (See the ALT-key section for writing the array to a file and the F-key section for altering the colors/densities.) 6. ANTIALIASING Antialiasing is a term used to describe the color correction applied to pixel hues in order to maintain the overall appearance of an image. Most often, antialiasing means adjusting the colors along partially covered pixel when drawing a line on a bitmapped screen. GDS uses antialiasing only when reducing an image. It doesn't smooth out transitions between enlarged pixels. GDS uses a **very high performance antialiasing technique which scans colors from many original image pixels and combines them to form a single destination pixel. This technique represents the original image extremely accurately but uses far fewer dots to do it. An interesting side effect of antialiasing is that it tends to reduce the size of the resulting GIF file by about 9.6% for each dimension of antialiasing applied. **Registered version only. Demo version has only 1 level of antialiasing. 6. DITHERING GDS normally mixes colors together when appropriate to increase the apparent color resolution. A good example of this is if an image has a section which fades evenly from one color (like red) to another color (like blue). The result in the middle is purple. When images are reduced and combined on the same screen, the demand for colors is high. High resolution GIF images contain 256 colors per picture. Mixing 80 pictures together would require 20480 colors to represent the pictures without any hardware color distortion When GDS doesn't have a color available (like purple from the example above), it looks for two colors which, when displayed, closely together appear to have the color of the original pixels. This results in an almost imperceptible change from the original color in 256-color modes. Normally, two-color "even" dithering is enough (especially with 256-color images). But when forcing 256-color images into 16-color screen formats, a 1:3 dithering scheme works better. This scheme uses three pixels of one color and one dot of another color if the resulting color is significantly closer than anything else found. **This mode produces significantly better reduced palette images than two by two dithering. Opposite of the effect antialiasing has, dithering increases GIF file size by about 9.6% for each level of dithering applied. **Registered version only Demo version has only 1 level of dithering. 7. COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS All command line parameters may be prefaced with a forward slash ("/") or a dash ("-"). Command line parameters are processed in the order they are received. Basically, they act like most other command line schemes. Available command line options are as follows: /B<n> Sets mode of mouse cursor. When is set to 0, GDS will display a highlighted character as a text mouse cursor. When set to 1, GDS will attempt to remap characters in the EGA/VGA character set to implement a graphics cursor in text mode. The default setting is determined at runtime, and depends on your hardware. If your cursor doesn't look right, try changing the /B option in your GDSUSER.CFG. /C<n> Specifies the number of bits to use for the individual color bars in each color register entry. GDS defaults to 6 bits (or 18-bit color), writing directly to the VGA hardware (unless running with an EGA). IF YOU HAVE ANY COLOR PROBLEMS, try using "/C0", which forces GDS to use the video BIOS to set the palette. Some SVGA boards have 8-bit DACs, which make it possible to use the full 24 bits of color resolution which GDS is capable of. When a display adapter is using an 8-bit DAC, GDS (defaulting to "/C6") will display images about four times dimmer than they should be. This can be remedied by using either "/C0" or "/C8" (works only if DAC hardware is pseudo- VGA compatible). GDS supports any VGA register compatible DAC chips with any number of bits per color bar from 1-8. Do odd numbered DACs exist? I suppose the TARGA style DACs are 15-bit, but I'm not sure if these do 15- or 16-bit colors. /D<n> Sets the default dithering level. When working with many colors, it is best to use dithering level 1 to preserve general color appearance. If working with 16-color images, GDS can be set to dither level 2, which gives 256-color images more quality when they are forced into a 16-color mode. The default dither level is 1. /E<n> Sets image/screen fit mode (0=normal, 1=fit to screen) /H or /? Display help screen with these switches listed /R<n> Set default resolution "LOck/AutO" mode (0=AutO, 1=LOck) /V<n> Set mode of file directory (0=vertical, 1=horizontal listing) /<NAME> Forces GDS to assume it has the named video card. Normally, this is not necessary or advisable. USE THIS OPTION WITH CARE. There is no telling what could happen if you force a graphics card which conflicts with the hardware you actually have. The following video cards are currently defined: /EGA Standard EGA or 100% compatible /VGA Standard VGA or 100% compatible /AHEAD Ahead Systems Chipset (type A) /AHEADB Ahead Systems Chipset (type B) /ATI ATI VGA Wonder /CHIPS Chips and Technologies Chipsets /EVEREX Everex Systems /GENOA Genoa 6000 series /OAK Oak Technologies /ORCHID Orchid Technologies /PARA Paradise Systems /TRIDNT ATI Prism Elite (Trident Chipsets) /TSENG Tseng Laboratories Chipset /TSENG4 Tseng Laboratories Chipset (4000 series) /VESA Standard VESA BIOS Interface /VID7 Video Seven VRAM or FASTWRITE VGA /ZYMOS Zymos HiRes 512K VGA NOTE: If you have any problems with the video modes listed in GDS.CFG, or find discrepancies, please FAX or write me a note. GDS wants to support most cards. /512 Forces support for 512K VGA. If your video card has 512K of display RAM and you are unable to get GDS to support modes requiring 512K, try using the "/512" command line switch. If using this option is successful, you may wish to place this switch in GDS.CFG. The default setting of this switch is 0 (off), and if /<NAME> is not specified, this switch is set by GDS when it tries to automatically detect what type of video adapter is present. /!<n> **Enable/disable beep after display of image (0-1) /A<n> **Set default antialiasing level (0-2) level 2 registered only /F#### **Set default file display options /G<mode> **Set default graphics display mode /I<n> **Set early interlaced fill mode /K<n> **Set automatic GIF89a comment display flag /L<n> **Set default labels on/off switch /M<n> ****Set maximum number of colors in generated palette NOT CURRENTLY SUPPORTED on any version of GDS. /N<temp> **Set template for filename generation /O<n> **Set sort flag for automatic slide shows (1=sort) /S<n> **Slideshow mode (no user interface, just slides) /T<mode> **Set default text display mode /W<n> **Set automatic array stream write after first Alt-W /Z<n> **set delay in between slides in slide shows @<FILE> **Reads a list of image files from <FILE>. **Registered version only 8. CONFIGURATION FILE DETAILS Unless you know what you are doing and are familiar with GDS, please stay away from the configuration file. GDS.CFG is set up to define all video modes for all display cards. GDS.CFG will be read from the current directory first, and then from the execution path. If GDS.CFG is not found in either location, the program will object. Any semicolon found in the input stream is interpreted as a comment. The semicolon and anything after it on the same line is ignored. Disable lines in the configuration file by placing a semicolon in front of them. Primarily, tabs, spaces, and blank lines are ignored. There are two types of configuration lines. The first defines a video mode, and the second specifies automatic command line options. The format of the video modes is as follows: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J ;optional comment A) Name of the video card B) Horizontal screen resolution (number of columns) C) Vertical screen resolution (number of lines) D) Number of bits per pixel (or 0 for text mode) E) AX register on INT 21h call to set video mode (see I) F) BX register on INT 21h call to set video mode (see I) G) CX register on INT 21h call to set video mode (see I) H) DX register on INT 21h call to set video mode (see I) I) This option has one of three meanings: 1) 0 if video mode is a standard graphics mode 2) 1 if video mode is directly programmed (VGA register compatible cards only! 3) The base address of the screen if the video mode is a text mode (indicated by 0 bits per pixel). J) Dot Mode (0=normal, 1=ATI 16-color chunky) **To specify automatic command line options, add a line to GDS.CFG similar to the following example: **AUTO, /m64 /t132x44 ;limit palette to 64 colors, set text to 132x44 **This example will behave as if you typed "/m64 /t132x44" on the command line. All automatic command line parameters will be processed AFTER the actual command line parameters. **Registered version only There are examples of each of these two types of command lines in the included GDS.CFG file. There are also comments in the file which should offer more information. 9. COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS The following PROBLEM and SOLUTION pairs are included to help you figure out what's wrong with your setup or GDS. Each entry came from support for people who had initial problems with GDS. PROBLEM: After GDS starts, it keeps doing something with the disk drive which makes me paranoid! I don't like it and I want it to stop! SOLUTION: This inquisitive behavior is perfectly normal for GDS. Don't worry, it's not a virus deleting your files! GDS reads the number of bits per pixel and screen resolution for every file in the file list whenever you haven't done anything interesting for a few seconds. It will read a few listings and then pause for a couple of seconds and repeat this pattern until it has read every file. It does this so you don't have to wait for a long time if you want to sort by something which needs to be read from every file (like number of bits per pixel or screen resolution). If you do anything with the user interface or hit any keys, GDS will stop reading these files instantly, and wait for a while before it starts up again. PROBLEM: Some pictures go totally nuts and draw lines all over the screen. With some pictures, the screen skews horizontally and looks like the monitor isn't doing its job. SOLUTION: Look at the resolution of the file, it may exceed the resolution of your display. First set the resolution to the max that your system can handle, then set the "AutO" button to the "LOck" state, and then try viewing the image again. For a permanent fix, remove the unsupported video modes in "GDS.CFG" by inserting a semicolon (";") at the beginning of the line describing the video mode. It's a good idea to go through each mode in the "RES:" menu, write down which modes do not work with your system, and then edit the GDS.CFG to omit all of the modes which do not work. PROBLEM: The file cursor flashes on and off very fast on some files and GDS will not display them. GDS displays the horizontal resolution of the file at the bottom of the screen as "-1". SOLUTION: GDS does this because GDS believes there is an error in the file. If you don't believe there's an error in the header of the file, try displaying the file with another viewer. FAX or write me a note if you find a file that GDS will not display, but other viewers will. PROBLEM: GDS won't run, and gives me an error that says it doesn't know what kind of video card I have. SOLUTION: If you're sure you have a video card which is compatible with the listings in GDS.CFG, then use the "/<NAME>" option to tell GDS what card to use. You may also have to use the "/512" option if you have 512K of video RAM. If you don't know what kind of video card you have, then you probably have one which is incompatible with GDS. If you'd like to see the card supported, send me the technical reference information with a brief cover letter. If you really know what you're doing, you can add modes to an existing board in GDS.CFG. PROBLEM: GDS displays the top part of 256-color images fine, but the bottom part is either black, white, or garbled. SOLUTIONS: A) Try locking each extended screen mode in the "Res:" menu and displaying files with it. See which ones screw up. B) Check to see if there is enough RAM on your video card to use the display mode you're trying to go into. If not, you can disable the offending mode using a semicolon (";") in GDS.CFG. C) Look in GDS.CFG to see if the screen modes which screw up are actually supported by your video card, and not by a different video card. You may have to experiment with the GDS configuration file to get a reliable list of modes to use. PROBLEM: Some pictures I have are squished to the left or top of the screen when I view them with GDS. SOLUTION: Depending on the graphics mode that the image was stored in and the different graphics modes GDS supports for your video board, the aspect ratio of images can be way off. GDS will not modify the dimensions of a picture unless the picture is TOO BIG to fit on the largest mode available (in which case, GDS will scale the image down to fit into the largest screen mode). These squished images were probably written from a screen size which has a much greater horizontal aspect ratio than the display mode you're viewing it with. Most of the time, you can simply hit ALT-F to fit the image into the screen. Sometimes, however, people store the images squished into normal screen sizes. When Alt-F doesn't work, try using the arrow keys (in registered versions, the SHIFT key makes the arrows more powerful). To actually FIX these images, just manipulate the image until it fits nicely into the screen and write the image to a new file using ALT-W. PROBLEM: I see garbage on the text screen around the mouse pointer whenever I move the mouse around. It is very annoying, I hate it, it's ugly, make it go away. SOLUTION: You must have a VGA which isn't supported by the graphic/text mouse pointer. You can click the "MOUSE:" button on the file menu to get rid of the problem temporarily, or change "GDS.CFG" and add the line "auto, /B0". This will force the mouse to be a character, rather than an arrow in text mode. Many SVGA boards in extended text modes don't adhere to the same character set mapping scheme used by standard VGA 80x25 text mode. VIDEO7 cards and GENOA cards seem to use compatible character set mapping and work without glitching in extended text modes, while many other SVGA cards display garbage around the cursor. PROBLEM: I can display images, but the colors are messed up, and seem to be multicolored. Colors are just messed up in general. SOLUTION: The number of bits in your palette DAC is probably wrong. GDS defaults to "/C6" for 18-bit DACs (6 bits per color bar). Try using the /C0 option to force GDS to use the video BIOS. If you are an experienced user and know you have a video board with a 24-bit DAC chip in it, try the /C8 option (that gives you 24-bit color resolution). PROBLEM: Images are about four times dimmer than they should be. SOLUTION: You may be lucky enough to have 24-bit DAC hardware! Try using "/C8" on the command line (or in the configuration file). If that doesn't work, then the DAC is probably not VGA register compatible, and you'll have to use "/C0" to force GDS to use the BIOS. PROBLEM: The colors that GDS is picking for arrays are not very close, sometimes erratic, and get worse after the first array image. Sometimes GDS kicks me out to DOS during an array generation or when I try to write a file. SOLUTION: You don't have enough RAM. On machines with less than 450K free, GDS may have trouble shuffling all of its memory around. Much effort has gone into making the requirements of GDS as limited as possible, but graphics processing takes a lot of memory. You may find the amount of free memory you have by using the DOS "CHKDSK" program. If CHKDSK reports less than 450K available at the dos prompt, GDS probably does not have enough work space. If you can provide at least 64K of EMS, run GDS with at least 64K free, and it will make an amazing difference! 10. ADDITIONAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT If you have problems which you are unable to solve after reading through the "Common Problems and Solutions" section above, you may obtain additional support by calling Phase II Electronics at (908)286-0080. Please read the complete documentation. Approximately 80% of the customer support calls we get are simple misunderstandings which would be more quickly resolved by reading this manual completely. Besides, GDS probably does more than you think it does, and the only way to discover all of these wonderful features is to read this document. CAPABILITIES OF DIFFERENT GDS VERSIONS: ====================================== Shareware Distribution Version ----------------------------------------------------------- Reads GIF87a, GIF89a, BBM, LBM, PCX, RIX, MAC Writes GIF87a File delete function Single View, Slide Show, Multiple Image Tiling ALT-F Fit to screen function in single view mode Image scaling (x/y separate) to almost any size up to 15-bit optimized palette generation for array images Pan feature using E, S, D, and X keys in single view Single path specification Indexes up to 2800 files at once Supports video modes up to 640x480 Medium quality antialiasing (horizontal only) Reads GDS.CFG $35.00 Registered User Version (you should get this) ---------------------------------------------------- Reads GIF87a, GIF89a, BBM, LBM, PCX, RIX, MAC Writes GIF87a, LBM, PCX, RIX Handles multiple path specifications, up to 2800 files at once Allows user to instantly specify new path/file lists Supports SVGA high res graphics modes above 640x480 Instant Copy/Hide/Rename/Delete/Move file functions Allows user to toggle labels and borders in array generation Provides unattended array generation for batches of images (SYSOPS!) "+"/"-" instantly increases/decreases image size in single view ALT-Z zoom function in single view mode lets you home in Enhanced single view image scaling (Shifted arrows move fast!) Enhanced pan feature (Shifted E, S, D, and X keys move fast!) High quality antialiasing available (professional quality) 1:3 dithering available (great for 16-color image conversion) Many valuable command line options to customize the GDS environment Reads GDS.CFG & GDSUSER.CFG, to separate your customizations Reads lists of path/file specifications from a file (@FILENAME); great for slideshows and automated array generation FUTURE WATCH GDS Professional What do you want? How much should it cost? Do you want: More file formats? Which? Batch language for multiple processes? Palette locking/translation? Image content palette searches? Extremely high quality photomontages? Shell to DOS and/or paint programs? Scanner support? 15/16/24-bit for Targa and others? There is a big question as to when and how a "high end" version could happen. I have tools to create piles of useful stuff, including 24-bit scanner support and a plethora of esoteric image processing functions. Targa file support is in the wings, but I'm not satisfied with it yet. As it stands, it still won't display one of my files. it's a 3674x1588x24 scan that's over seventeen megabytes long. PLEASE LET US KNOW! Phase II Electronics Inc. 19 Sands Point Drive Toms River New Jersey 08755-5167 Phone (908) 286-0080, Fax (908) 349-3842 Compuserve 76667,1522 Bob Holland