Some Module Features: ( Genlock/FrameGrabber, Roaster, Switcher )
ChromaKey on any color, Lumakey, Alpha channel, Multiple input switcher with CV, SVHS, YUV, and RGB - ALL with extensive computer control. We've also designed in various signal processing controls like chroma phase and horizontal positioning (as well as others) from software. There are of course many good ways to combine OpalVision and Amiga graphics, and add to that various keying methods, wipes and transitions for both graphics and live video and you have a very powerful video processing system.
1.3 Keyboard Shortcuts
Many keyboard shortcuts are available and can significantly reduce the amount of time and effort that goes into using the OpalPaint software effectively. Whenever possible keyboard shortcuts are equivalent to those used by the popular Deluxe Paint program.
1.4 Selection by tolerance
One of OpalPaint's main strengths is the ability to select brushes based on ranges of hue, saturation, and value (HSV). This is a very powerful tool that takes some getting used to. Fortunately there are now features built into the program to simplify tolerance selection. When entering the Extras menu an information box at the bottom right of the menu will show the current HSV values of the pixel under the drawing tool cursor. These values should be studied to get a good understanding of how to really control the paint program. To effectively use tolerances you must know the ranges that make up brush. Moving your cursor over a defined part of a picture, say a cloud, while holding the ALT key pressed, will cause the HSV numbers to show how much variation there is in the area touched by the cursor. This new feature will help make tolerance selection much easier to understand. The Palette Menu is another good place to get familiar with HSV and a great place just to learn about mixing colors and setting up ranges.
1.5 Stencils
The same range (or tolerance) selection is available for stencils and fills and makes it much easier to work on large complex 24 bit images. You can even set up multiple stencils with one of the stencils having priority for isolating specific areas of an image for painting, brush pickup, and stencilling. Of course standard Mask stencils are available for use either separately or with Color Stencils.
1.6 Gradients
We also have powerful gradient controls for fills, including separate transparency controls to specify see-through areas of the gradient fill, the ability to use HSV or RGB, and to easily setup rainbow gradients. A new feature for the gradient mode includes the ability to save and load up to 8 gradients.
1.7 Image Processing Modes
OpalVision's designer, Gary Rayner, took a large 24 bit picture, one of the pictures included with OpalPaint, grabbed a brush of most of the picture, reduced the size of the brush and then tiled the brush onto another large blank 24 bit canvas using a brush fill function. Next he applied an image processing mode to each small picture and nicely subtitled the mode name under each tiled image. This takes a lot of the guess work, experimentation, and learning curve out of using the Mode tools. There are 45 image processing modes currently included with OpalPaint, and more will be made available in the future. The 'Modes' picture can be found on the Centaur BBS. A new feature (added 10-26-92) gives the ability to have a real time preview of many of the pallette mapped modes like 'Contrast', 'Brighten' and 'Color'. The result is a slider under mouse control that gives real time numeric and full screen visual feedback of the selected Mode's effects. This means that you will be able to select the desired mode intensity without any guesswork.
1.8 Brushes and Extras
There are multiple brushes and pages, relative and absolute rub throughs, the ability to zap an entire image with a particular effect or mode, a redo function, and 24 bit thumbnails of your pictures. This is great for quickly finding the correct picture. A new brush density control allows soft edged brushes and completely controllable tranparent areas. Another new feature of the Brush selection tools includes picking up brushes easily and quickly from a solid background color using the right mouse button for brush pickup. Please contact Centaur or call our BBS for more information.
1.9 Scaling Images
Images can be scaled after being loaded simply by entering Preferences and selecting Page Format. By entering different numbers in the canvas size text gadgets and pressing enter the program will prompt you to scale the image to the new size or cancel. If you scale the image you will get the new size. If you 'cancel' the operation the program will place your picture in the upper left hand corner of the canvas and add black borders to the bottom and right to accomodate the additional pixels.
1.10 Scaled Gradients
The scaling of images can be used to good effect by simply filling a standard paint screen (640x400 or 640x512) with a gradient using the standard gradient fill tools and simply scaling the image to any size you desire.
1.11 Backgrounds, Paper types
Often neglected are the backgrounds and paper types available with the paint program. They can be used with all of the paint tools to implement wonderful looking texturing to pictures, giving 'aged' and 'worn' looking effects to your art. Backgrounds make good character generator pages and are nice for compositing pictures.
1.12 Fonts
OpalVision supports standard Amiga fonts, Compugraphic fonts, and the de-facto ColorFont standard currently used on the Amiga.
1.13 ARexx
ARexx implementation is now complete for OpalPaint and consists of 155 commands and complete control of any function available in the paint program. When using ARexx the control available for OpalPaint becomes much more powerful. With numeric input for most functions and complete I/O for integration into other third party ARexx compatible products the possibilities are endless. Contact Centaur or the the OpalVision BBS for more information.
1.14 Background Fixing
Backgrounds can now be fixed using the AMIGA-B or AMIGA-b to fix or free the background. This is very useful for testing effects on portions of an image and can be a valuable time saver.
1.15 OpalPaint Features to be implemented:
The only original OpalPaint software modules still in development include the Magic Wand for edge detection and Virtual Memory for the active canvas. Virtual Memory was supported in the original software release for spare pages and is nearing completion for the current active page. Virtual memory will allow for loading of images as big as 32K by 32K pixels, limited only by available hard drive space.
Currently all on-screen pages must be in ram. Another temporary limitation is that the painting area is a maximum of 640x400 (NTSC) or 640x512 (PAL) pixels as of this revision of the software. With the next major revision we should be painting in the overscan area, and eventually we will be able to paint in the scaled down full page view. As you can see, we really are trying to look at the BIG picture (and paint on it).
If your system is configured as NTSC and you desire or require a larger painting area PAL mode can be used instead of NTSC. Normal Amiga PAL resolution is 640x512 in Hi-Res mode. This is 112 more vertical lines than the standard Amiga NTSC 640x400 Hi-Res display mode. It is necessary that your monitor support the PAL format sync and video signals. Most 1084 monitors can be adjusted to display PAL properly. I currently use a Sony 1302 Multiscan monitor for OpalVision and Amiga RGB outputs, in both NTSC and PAL as well as for the 31Khz De-interlaced output of the A3000. The monitor has been a real workhorse for me and has been going strong for several years.
On an A3000 it was necessary for me to use more than one PD program (PAL and ScreenMode) to get my machine to boot OpalPaint in PAL from a stock NTSC machine without actually going and changing a jumper on the Amiga motherboard. I put PAL and Screenmode in my startup-sequence. I then simply run overscan prefs and save them. This allows OpalPaint to configure properly. A future software release will make these steps unnecessary, and there are probably methods which are much more elegant currently available.
Recently completed in house software upgrades and support for OpalPaint include Background fixing, Brush pickup from background, Gradient loads and saves, Alpha Channel Brush Density Control, Mode Previews, and ARexx. Free upgrades to the original software will be made available to registered users. Contact Centaur or our BBS for information about upgrades.
1.16 Third Party Support
Company Software Application
ADSpec Aladdin 4D* 3D-Render to OpalVision
ASDG ADPro * OpalVision Saver
Black Belt Systems ImageMaster*** ImageProcessing
PP&S 3D PRO* 3D-Render to OpalVision
Scala Scala* Multimedia-Presentation-Kiosk
* Currently implemented
** Coming soon
*** In progress
1.17 Technical Information - Upgrades - Bugs - Fixes
A picture can be worth a thousand words....please look at Figures 1 and 2 included with these instructions for additional upgrade information before reading the following text instructions.
1.18 OpalVision use with 1080 and 2002 monitors (See Figure 1)
The use of older 1080 and 2002 CBM monitors causes problems with some OpalVision boards. We tested OpalVision with a 1080 monitor and it worked fine. Some of these monitors were found later to not sync properly due to inconsistent loading of the composite sync line. Some have a voltage divider while others just have a pullup resistor to +5VDC. Once again Centaur will update your OpalVision main board under warranty to work with all types of 1080, and 2002 monitors. One solution is to modify the monitor by changing the monitor composite sync load (snipping or adding a resistor will work). The modification in figure 1 shows removing a resistor and transistor from the OpalVision Main board sync circuitry and adding a jumper. Once again, Centaur does not support end user modification to the OpalVision main board.
1.19 External Genlocks and OpalVision (See Figure 2)
Since we do not have our Genlock/FrameGrabber ready many people have asked about Genlock compatibility. Currently the only limitation is that we are using the -5VDC output pin from the OpalVision 23 pin RGB output connector to accomodate our Scan Rate Converter's 31Khz horizontal sync signal. Some Genlocks, notably Digital Creations external SuperGen, use the -5VDC from the 23 pin RGB output for power. This appears to be the only limitation we have seen concerning the use of external genlocks.
We will modify, under warranty, any OpalVision main board to allow the use of Digital Creations external SuperGen or any other Genlock that requires the -5VDC supply. The customer must pay shipping one way to send the board to Centaur, and Centaur will modify the board and send it right back. Centaur's policy related to end user modification of OpalVision boards is that any noticeable modification will void the warranty.
Since some of our customers will be unable, for one reason or another, to return the board for modification we will describe the modification here, to be attempted at the users own risk (Please see figure 2). The modification is simple, and we will answer any questions you may have if you call our 800-621-2202 hot line. The change to the OpalVision main board consists of adding a wire from one of the 36 pin edge connectors to the 23 pin RGB output connector of the OpalVision main board. The connection is between pin 31 of the edge connector to pin 21 of the OpalVision RGB output connector. The OpalVision video edge connector being referred to is the one closest to the RGB connector. The wire should be installed on the bare copper trace side, not the component side, of the main board.
Position the board with the edge connectors downward and the 23 pin RGB output connector facing to the left. Looking at the two edge connectors at the bottom of the board you will notice that there is a notch between the two bottom edge connectors. Count three 'fingers' to the left of the notch and notice that the third 'finger' from the notch extends a short distance to a fairly large solder pad. One end of the wire is soldered at this point. The other end of the wire is then routed directly up and to the left to the pins coming through the circuit board from the 23 pin RGB connector. The wire goes the third pin down from the top on the row of 11 pins (see figure 2). This is pin 21 of the RGB output connector. Once again, Centaur policy about end users performing the modification is that it will void their warranty.
As a general rule external genlocks which use external power or do not use the -5VDC supply from the 23 pin RGB output connector should work well. This applies to Neriki, Omnigen, VidTech Scanlock, and the RocTek (my results were not very good with the RocTek, but I'm not sure why and did not have time to check it out very throughly). Of course you can always hack a -5VDC supply for the external SuperGen.
1.20 OpalVision and '040 Boards:
Software compatability with 68040 hardware appears to be fairly good. OpalVision has been tested with the Progressive A3000 25Mhz board, the A3000 Mercury 28Mhz and 35Mhz boards with maximum ram on board, the A2000 Zeus 28Mhz board, again with maximum ram on board. All performed without a hitch. Unfortunately the original Progressive 040 28Mhz 32Mb board has a problem which Progressive tracked down to a capacitor in the reset circuit of the board which requires increasing to 10uf from 4.7uf to allow the 040 memory to configure. If the 040 memory is disabled with jumpers the OpalVision and 040 will usually work, but with 32 bit memory enabled the A2000 will probably not even boot if an OpalVision is installed. Please call Mike at Progressive if you have encountered this problem. The kind people at Progressive would prefer that you sent the board to them for the modification, so please give them a call if you intend to get an OpalVision and have the original PP&S 28Mhz 32Mb 040 card for the A2000.
1.21 OpalVision and the Amiga 4000
OpalVision requires new software to work on the A4000. This software is available on our BBS and will be shipping with the next OpalVision production run. The main A4000 considerations include the A4000 video slot position and the adaptor bracket (or lack thereof) for 'standard' CBM form factor video cards. This bracket is not currently available and unfortunately is not the same as the bracket shipped from CBM with later A3000's. Commodore did not ship a video card bracket with the original A3000 for several months after the original A3000 shipments and appears to be following that practice with the A4000. I (and others) have left messages and spoken with CBM's Customer Satisfaction VP Jim Reeder (at 215-431-9100) and so far have received no satisfaction. We are evaluating manufacturing our own adaptor bracket depending on CBM's responsiveness. The A4000 video slot is located directly next to the motherboard instead of the slot furthest from the motherboard as in the A3000. This requires the addition of some kind of insulator on the bottom of the OpalVision board to protect against any possible shorting to the A4000 motherboard. This might be a plastic insulator, rubber 'feet', spacers, etc. For now, just take these factors into consideration and we will have a permanent solution in place as soon as possible.
The OpalVision development team is working daily with the A4000 and we expect substantial performance improvements and capabilities down the road.
1.22 OpalVision Timing Adjustment (See Figure 1)
An area where a few people are having trouble with the OpalVision main board is the one time initial timing adjustment made at the end of the software installation or at any time thereafter by using the Alignment_Adjust program located in the OpalUtils drawer. This drawer can be found in the OpalVision drawer. All of the boards are adjusted at the manufacturing facility but occasionally need further adjustment. The adjustment hole is located directly beside pin 11 of the main board 23 pin RGB output connector. When adjusting the board in an A2000 there is generally plenty of room to do the adjustment. In an A3000 it may be help to leave the computer cover off when adjusting the board so it is easier to see the adjustment screw. We are trying to locate an inexpensive tool (called a trimmer potentiometer adjustment tool, tweaker, or trimpot tool for short) which can be included with each board shipped. This tool can be obtained from any good electronics parts store or as a substitute you can use a small (very small) standard flat blade or jewelers screwdriver. Follow the instructions when running the Alignment_Adjust program and be sure to approximately center the trimmer adjustment in the middle of the 'good' range of adjustment. The trimmer potentiometers (small variable resistors) have approximately 15 complete turns of adjustment, and usually the display will be stable for about 6 to 10 of those turns. Determine the number of turns during which the display is stable and adjust for half of that amount from either point at which the display just becomes stable.
1.23 Missing Red Signal (See Figure 1)
We have seen an unexpected number of failures due the the premature demise of the driver transistor for the Red output of the OpalVision Board. This problem has been tracked down to a manufacturing process control defect. When replacing the transistor the problem has NOT resurfaced to our knowledge on any boards that have been repaired. We have added protection circuitry to the RGB output drivers that will allow a complete continuous short circuit on the output RGB pins with no damage to the output drivers. Manufacturing processes now include tighter conrols and we are adding pre-testing and qualification of bare circuit boards with final assembly powered burn-in to improve reliability and quality.
In conclusion, we are looking at all of the latest and best video technology, and have
some more surprises in store for everybody...till next time.
