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- Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet
- From: joachim_worringen@mowgli.fido.de (Joachim Worringen)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
- Subject: REVIEW: Piccolo Graphics Board
- Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
- Date: 7 Jan 1994 16:40:30 GMT
- Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
- Lines: 704
- Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <2gk39u$7s0@menudo.uh.edu>
- Reply-To: joachim_worringen@mowgli.fido.de (Joachim Worringen)
- NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
- Keywords: hardware, graphics, 24-bit, Zorro II, Zorro III, commercial
-
-
- PRODUCT NAME
-
- Piccolo Graphics Board 2MB
-
-
- BRIEF DESCRIPTION
-
- A 24-bit graphics board for all Amigas equipped with Zorro II/III
- slots.
-
-
- COMPANY INFORMATION
-
- Name: Ingenieurb|ro Helfrich
- Address: Technologiezentrum Delmenhorst
- Am Wollelager 8
- D-27749 Delmenhorst
- Germany
-
- Telephone: ++49-(0)4221-120077
- FAX: ++49-(0)4221-120077
- Mailbox: ++49-(0)441-383326 V32.bis
- ++49-(0)441-9310900 ISDN
-
- Distribution in the U.S. via DKB (address unknown; can be found in
- AmigaWorld Magazine).
-
-
- LIST PRICE
-
- 1MB Board: 698,- DM
- 2MB Board: 848,- DM
-
-
- SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
-
- HARDWARE
-
- Amiga 2000, 3000, or 4000. (Theoretically, any Amiga with
- Zorro II or Zorro III slots.) Piccolo's "Autosensing"
- feature automatically uses the faster ZorroIII bus if
- available for higher performance. The board can be forced
- to run in ZorroII mode (by setting a jumper) for early
- A4000/40's with a Rev.3.0 CPU module.
-
- A CPU >= 68020 is needed to run the standard software. A
- version of the software that can be run on a 68000 CPU is
- available from the manufacturer, but limited (I did not test
- it). A CPU >=68030 with coprocessor is recommended.
-
- A hard drive is required. Installation of the system
- software and all the tools and applications consume about
- 6MB of disk space. Minimum (system software only) needs
- about 2MB.
-
- The Amiga Graphics Emulation (AGE) software consumes about
- 250KB RAM on boot. Furthermore, every screen that cannot be
- kept in the memory of the Piccolo is stored in Fast RAM. To
- work only with the Workbench Emulation, 2MB Fast RAM is the
- minimum; using the 24-bit EGS system, you'll need at least
- 4MB of Fast RAM. Double these amounts of memory and you'll
- get comfortable.
-
- No hardware incompatibilities reported until now (including
- ZorroIII in A4000/40 Rev.3.1 and Fastlane SCSI-Adapter).
-
- SOFTWARE
-
- Kickstart/Workbench 2.04 or greater is required. Works with
- all revisions above (also tested on a developers system with
- Workbench 3.1).
-
-
- COPY PROTECTION
-
- None.
-
-
- MACHINES USED FOR TESTING
-
- A2000 Rev.4.1 with 1 MB Chip RAM
- GVP Combo030/33MHz/8MB RAM with 2 SCSI-Drives connected
- Kickstart 37.175, Workbench 38.65 (Version 2.1)
-
- A3000/25, 2MB Chip RAM, 8 MB Fast RAM
- Kickstart 40.x, Workbench 40.x (Version 3.1, Developer)
-
- Several tools running (KCommodity, Toolmanager, Snap, MagicMenu,
- Cycle2Menu, MFR, and so on).
-
-
- WHAT'S IN THE PACKAGE ?
-
- I've got the 2MB version of the Piccolo, Board Revision 2.1. The
- version of the software considered in this review is the 2.0 system
- software, including Version 6.100 of the EGS system. These are the most
- current releases.
-
- The board is a full length ZorroII/III-card which fits in an A2000 or
- A3000 without problems (I've tested it). I suppose it will fit in an A4000
- as well as I've heard no other reports. I mention this because in the past
- there have been some size problems with other boards. Also, from my
- knowledge as a student of electrical engineering, the board is of good
- quality: multilayer with at least an extra layer for ground,
- precision-sockets for the relevant parts (PAL's and RTG-EPROM (actually,
- this socket is empty)), no wires or other patches, and gilded Zorro contacts.
- The RAM and the graphics chip (Cirrus Logic 5426, the same one the PicassoII
- and GVP Spectrum use) are surface mounted.
-
- The board has three outputs and one input: one standard
- SubD high density VGA outlet (for every common VGA monitor), one
- FBAS outlet and one Y/C outlet for use with video. The last two
- outlets are not active until you install the Encoder Module on the
- board (plug-in-installation). This module currently costs 178,- DM.
- The input is the passthrough of the native Amiga video signal.
-
- Software included (4 Disks):
- - Piccolo-specific system software.
- - Full EGS distribution with libraries, tools and demos.
- - PicoPainter (Painting program for EGS, with image processing
- features).
- - TV-Paint Jr. (Update to full version costs 248,- DM).
-
- Along with the board comes the documentation. Read below for
- further information on this topic.
-
-
- INSTALLATION
-
- As mentioned above, the installation of the hardware causes no
- problems and is well covered in the manual, though there are no pictures of
- this topic. But even without pictures, it shouldn't be a problem even for
- the novice user. The manual mentions possible problems when installing in
- an A2000 (2 MB of ZorroII address room is needed) or an early A4000/40
- (you'll need the revision 3.1 of the processor module to operate in ZorroIII
- mode). Finally, when operating with only 1 monitor, you must supply the
- native Amiga video signal to the Piccolo. Connect the Amiga outlet with the
- Piccolo input via a supplied cable. This cable accepts only VGA-style
- outputs on the Amiga side (like a flickerfixer in an A2000, a native A3000,
- or an A4000 with adapter plug). If you want to connect an A2000 with no
- flickerfixer, you'll need to buy the adapter (same one as with the A4000)
- separately.
-
- The installation of the software is performed via the Commodore
- Installer program (must reside in c: by tooltype default). During the
- installation, the script asks for the type of monitor which you use in order
- to adjust the software, avoiding possible damage by exceeding the frequency
- limits of your monitor. You also may choose between a 1 or 2 monitor setup
- according to your hardware setup. You can choose which additional software
- (Tools, Demos, Paint programs) you wish to install. Full installation
- requires 6 MB on your hard drive. The whole software gets installed into one
- single drawer (EGS:). I prefer this method because it is easy to see which
- software or library belongs to what. The necessary Assigns are performed
- automatically on booting. Only 2 files of the installation can be found
- outside of this EGS: drawer: the Piccolo monitor file in DEVS:monitors, and
- an EGS startup icon (project icon) in SYS:WBstartup.
-
- The process of installing the 4 disk of software is painless - if
- you install it on your SYS: drive. If you choose to install it on
- another partition, only fragments get extracted and installed. This was my
- experience when testing the board in a friend's A3000 for the benchmarks
- below. I don't know the reason for this behaviour or if this was only an
- "accident". The whole process is excellently documented in the manual,
- although the 'Help' function in the Installer program already gives enough
- information.
-
- After finishing the installation and rebooting the system, your
- Amiga is ready for a "new dimension of graphics."
-
-
- WORKBENCH EMULATION: Preface
-
- The reason why I acquired a graphics board for my Amiga 2000 was
- that I wanted a big and flicker-free display to run my newsreader, edit
- texts and source files, run TeX, and to have much space on my Workbench
- screen for all these icons, docks and windows. I seldom play games
- (RoboSports runs fine on my Piccolo!). I didn't want to have 256-color
- backgrounds (and still don't use them) and I am no artist so I don't have a
- real need for DPaint or Brilliance (which do not not benefit from any
- graphics board).
-
- The so-called Workbench emulation (in the manual, they don't use this
- term, but 'AGE' for 'Amiga Graphics Emulation') is based on patches of
- functions in the concerned system libraries (intuition, graphics, layers,
- etc.) via SetFunction(). This is a legal method to install custom functions
- on top of the regular system functions. By this method, only programs which
- do not access the resources of the Amiga directly can be run on a Piccolo
- display. This includes the vast majority of even older programs (no games or
- demos, of course) and nearly 100% of the programs which only run only under
- Kickstart version 2.04 and above.
-
- Another way to let even older or "badly behaved" programs run on the
- display of a graphics board is to permanently copy the contents of the
- bitmaps in Chip RAM to the memory of the graphics board. As you can
- imagine, this method is very CPU-intensive and quite slow, depending
- on your CPU performance. The advantages of letting such a program
- run on an graphics board display then on a native Amiga display are
- marginal. The Piccolo does not use this method but passes the
- native Amiga video signal through when switching to a screen which is not
- displayed on the Piccolo itself (like DPaint, Brilliance or games).
-
-
- WORKBENCH EMULATION: Starting the Emulation
-
- Let's go back to the point where you have successfully installed the
- software and rebooted your system. All you have to do to let the Piccolo
- 'control the whole' is to start the ScreenMode program from your Prefs
- drawer, select a Piccolo screenmode of your choice (only the ones which your
- monitor is able to display can be selected) and leave the program via 'Use'
- or, better, 'Save'. And voila: your new Workbench screen is ready for work.
- By the way, the same method is true for the PicassoII and GVP Spectrum, but
- not for the Retina, which uses another method (I don't know it).
-
- This emulation needs some RAM, of course. I compared the amount of
- free RAM after booting without the Piccolo software installed (just move the
- Piccolo monitor file out of DEVS:monitors) and a standard PAL display
- (640x512, 8 colors) versus the amount of free RAM after booting with Piccolo
- software installed and running an equivalent screenmode (Piccolo VGA
- 640x512, 8 colors). These are the results: the Piccolo system has about
- 150KB *more* free Chip RAM and about 390KB *less* free Fast RAM.
-
- It might be interesting to know that it is also no problem to define
- 'Autoscroll' screens on the Piccolo. They behave just like the standard
- Intuition autoscroll screens; i.e. they scroll smoothly in real time.
-
-
- WORKBENCH EMULATION: Working with the Piccolo Workbench
-
- The Piccolo Workbench (silly notion) looks just like the original
- Workbench. All gadgets, windows, menus are exactly the same in form and
- function. Screen dragging, though, is not possible. I don't miss it at all
- because switching the Screens is all I need and is much faster. The
- mouse pointer behaves like the original one: you can edit it via the
- 'Pointer' program, and it changes its shape also if a program (like
- TurboText) wants it to. No difference.
-
- The number of colors you can use on your Workbench depends on the
- Version of your Workbench. With all 2.x versions, the maximum number of
- colors is 16, and with version 3.x you can use a maximum of 256 colors. And
- you can really use these colors as the Workbench does nearly keep the same
- speed as with 8 colors. The scrolling in the shell gets even faster!
- Multiview on a 256-color Workbench is great when you display pictures - no
- false colors any more (if the picture has fewer than 256 colours and you don't
- use a 256-color background).
-
- From now on, every program which lets you choose its screenmode from
- the systems Display Database runs fine in any desired resolution which the
- Piccolo provides. Examples for this type of programs are FinalWriter, Term,
- DirOpus and many, many more.
-
- A second category of programs, which are 'well-behaved' (only use
- system functions) but do not yet offer the selection of the desired
- screenmode can be convinced to use the performance of the Piccolo with a
- so-called 'Screen Promoter'. A variety of this kind of program may be found
- as PD/Shareware. But with the Piccolo comes another one called
- 'PicoRetarget'. It runs as a commodity. Every time a program wants to open
- a screen, PicoRetarget pops up a requester asking you if you want to
- redirect this screen onto the Piccolo, with 4 choices: 'Ever', 'This time',
- 'Never', 'Ever ask', 'Not this time'. According to your choice, you can
- select the new screenmode for this program. PicoRetarget stores your
- decision in an editable database: if you've chosen 'Ever', you'll never
- again will be asked about the screen of this program (similarly with the
- other possible choices). This way you can run e.g. PageStream 2.x on a nice
- 1024x768 screen. Running DPaint, you would have chosen 'Never', and DPaint
- would start on a native Amiga screen which you can access via the standard
- methods for screen cycling.
-
- Every program that will not work on a Piccolo screen will use the
- standard Amiga chipset. The Amiga signal gets passed through directly to the
- monitor. This is also true if you play a game and boot from disk.
-
-
- WORKBENCH EMULATION: Compatibility
-
- I've left out some words about compatibility above. I can't say much
- more than this:
-
- - Programs which let you choose the screenmode run perfectly.
-
- - Most 2.x-compatible programs without screenmode requester run well
- when redirected via 'PicoRetarget'. Examples: TurboText (has some
- minor problems with the window size, not the fault of the Piccolo),
- PageStream, ArtExpression, ShowDVI, GPFax, FontDesigner (also
- known as TypeSmith), old CygnusEd versions, ADPro. I don't own all
- these programs but know this from other users.
-
- - Programs known to cause problems:
-
- - ARQ (Animated Requesters) crashes after a while. Reason
- unknown.
-
- - KCommodity and the Mouseblanker from Commodore can't blank
- the pointer - but Diropus and Qmouse can because they use
- the correct function 'SetPointer'. Author of KCommodity is
- informed.
-
- - MandelMania crashes because of writing directly into the
- bitmap. The Author is informed. Mand2000 runs perfectly.
-
- - With installed SPY system-monitoring software, the EGS
- screen blanker 'Nightshift' displays only a black display.
- This is not the fault of the EGS software.
-
- - Powersnap 2.1 did not work. New Version 2.2 is announced
- and promises to be 'better-behaved' and work with the
- Piccolo and GVP Spectrum
-
- - See the problem with 'MagicMenu' and 'MainActor' under
- 'BUGS', below.
-
- - Probably some more I don't know of.
-
-
- WORKBENCH EMULATION: Performance
-
- This is the magic word when it comes to comparing graphics boards.
- I have done some benchmarks with the program 'HasUndIgel', which is part of
- the PicassoII distribution. It performs only pure Intuition functions and
- should reflect in some way the performance of each board in the different
- resolutions and depths (which means numbers of colors).
-
- Some more information: the Piccolo, the PicassoII and the GVP
- Spectrum all use the same chip (Cirrus Logic GD5426). The hardware of the
- Piccolo is *very* similar to the one of the GVP Spectrum, and they both use
- EGS - they should achieve similar performance. The software and the bus
- interface of the PicassoII are totally different - here you can see, what
- you can achieve only by programming (or not). OK, let's see the facts.
- (Higher numbers mean better performance.)
-
-
- | Piccolo | PicassoII |NTSC-Hires-Lace
- 800x600 - 8 Colours | A 3000/25 | A3000/25 | A2000/030/33
- | ZorroII | ZorroIII | ZorroII | ECS-Chipset
- ------------------------+-----------+------------+-----------+--------------
- Plot Points | 44900 | 70038 | 61896 | 129413
- Draw Lines | 3393 | 11193 | 2423 | 5881
- Paint Boxes | 1972 | 9048 | 2155 | 1864
- Scroll vertical | 2471 | 3023 | 661 | 171
- Scroll horizontal | 127 | 257 | 128 | 185
- Draw Circles | 230 | 472 | 419 | 1278
- Draw Text (w\o Scroll) | 6258 | 7488 | 5543 | 6141
- Draw Frames | 1686 | 5081 | 2302 | 2705
- Open/close Windows | 45 | 63 | 42 | 59
- Change Windowsize | 109 | Crash(*) | 97 | 222
- Move Windows | 405 | 564 | 441 | 552
-
-
- | Piccolo | PicassoII |NTSC-Hires-Lace
- 800x600 - 256 Colours |A2000/030/33 A3000/25 | A3000/25 | A4000/040/25
- |ZorroII(**)| ZorroIII | ZorroII | AGA-Chipset
- ------------------------+-----------+------------+-----------+--------------
- Plot Points | 107630 | 68724 | 67095 | 161250
- Draw Lines | 20636 | 17150 | 1516 | 2803
- Paint Boxes | 14831 | 14048 | 1106 | 863
- Scroll vertical | 1410 | 1368 | 214 | 128
- Scroll horizontal | 1025 | 1065 | 94 | 72
- Draw Circles | 787 | 459 | 487 | 1097
- Draw Text (w\o Scroll) | 9892 | 9540 | 3319 | 3686
- Draw Frames | 8769 | 6778 | 736 | 1297
- Open/close Windows | 13 | 12 | 15 | 39
- Change Windowsize | 53 | 24 | 72 | 80
- Move Windows | 217 | 224 | 240 | 226
-
- (*) This crash really is mysterious - hard to find a reason for it. The
- A3000 was a developer's system. Maybe this could be a reason.
-
- (**) The reason why I ran this test on my own machine and not on the A3000
- is simply that I forgot to do so. Sorry for this. But the increase of
- performance against the ZorroIII test is remarkable! I run a GVP Combo-030
- board at 33MHz.
-
-
- I know that I could have done many, many more tests. But I don't have
- easy access to all combinations of Amiga and graphics board, and to drive
- around, configure systems, install and uninstall software is a lot of work,
- I can tell you. I think, that you'll get the idea with these tables, too. I
- have access to the Retina, but it does not offer screenmodes and so the
- 'HasUndIgel' benchmark does not run on it. In general, people say that it is
- noticeable slower than the boards above.
-
- The most remarkable result from the benchmarks is the excellent
- performance of the Piccolo board in the 'Scroll Vertical' test. Scrolling
- vertically is important when it comes to scrolling through a text in an
- editor or word processor or for the output in a shell. This is where the
- Piccolo really excels. The reason for the PicassoII's being quite slow in
- this test is that the PicassoII supports draggable screens (this is what I
- was told by Markus Moenig, who has contacts to the developers of the
- PicassoII). Decide for yourself which feature is more important to you. The
- 'Draw lines' test shows very good performance, too. But see for yourself -
- greater values always mean more speed.
-
- Let me add some subjective votings based on my personal experiences.
- I run my Workbench in a resolution of 928 x 680 in 8 colors. I could not
- imagine Workbench operations to be any faster - especially when comparing
- them with a Macintosh IIci which is dog slow even in a lower resolution. The
- scrolling in a CON: window (I am a frequent Csh user) is wonderful (look at
- the corresponding values for 'Scroll Vertical' in the table above). The
- switching of screens is fast enough for the monitor not to resync - you only
- see a black display for the fraction of a second. I think it's a little bit
- faster than on the Picasso - but this is not really serious.
-
- The performance boost with ZorroIII is impressive only when it comes
- to transfers of huge amounts of data - like when playing an animation or in
- the 'Paint Boxes' test above. Don't expect *too much* of ZorroIII when it
- comes to everyday window operations. But if you have a ZorroIII system,
- don't go without it (my opinion). On the other hand, I was surprised when
- comparing the performance of the Piccolo in my accelerated A2000 and in an
- A3000 in ZorroIII mode (see above).
-
- OK, here for completeness are some possible resolutions and colors:
-
- Maximum: 1280x1024 256 colors 90Hz interlaced
- (1600x1280 is also possible, but not really recommended -
- it's too flickery and nearly unreadable even on a 17"
- display.)
-
- Other: 1152x 900 256 colors 60Hz
- 1024x 768 256 colors 72Hz
- 800x 600 64K colors 80Hz
-
- These are only some typical resolutions. You can freely program
- (nearly) any resolution which does not exceed the limitations of the
- hardware. The maximum in 24-bit color is 800x600 at 90Hz (interlaced).
- These values are identical for the GVP Spectrum and PicassoII as they use
- the same chip.
-
- EGS
-
- Due to the lack of Truecolor support by Intuition, the German firm
- 'VIONA Development' has developed the EGS system. EGS stands for 'Enhanced
- Graphics System', meaning a retargetable truecolor window system. Every
- graphics board that has an EGS driver available can run any EGS application
- in any resolution and number of colors (up to 16 million). The Piccolo
- comes with an EGS driver and the complete EGS system libraries (current
- Version 6.100).
-
- As I am no artist and so no frequent user of EGS applications (which
- all deal with pictures), I am no EGS expert and will not write a complete
- review about EGS. This might be someone else's task. Just let me say: EGS
- works quite well, but still lacks some "real" applications. In the near
- future, ImageFX will be ported to EGS, and rumours say that ADPro also will
- run under EGS (not only output). Anyway, all major graphics applications
- can use EGS for their output directly or via conversion.
-
- The performance of EGS is amazingly high if you think of the huge
- amounts of data that are to be moved. But it requires a lot of memory - and
- I mean *a lot*. I will make no further comment on this. If you need 24-bit,
- you'll need EGS until another solution is released from Commodore (if ever).
-
- One program of the EGS system is very important even to the
- non-EGS-user like me: the 'Tweaker'. With this tool, you can edit existing
- screenmodes and logical monitors or create new ones. This way, you can
- adjust the Piccolo to your monitor optimally. Editing is quite easy, as you
- see the effects of your manipulations on the gadgets in real time. The
- manual says that you can't destroy your monitor with this program because of
- several protective measures in the program. So far, I can't prove them
- wrong. This program is documented very well (with technical background) in
- the 'Installation' manual. With the help of the 'Tweaker' I have defined my
- favourite screenmode (928x680) and adjusted all other modes to the optimum -
- no monitor adjusting necessary any more although my monitor is not digitally
- controlled. Great! But you'll need some time to adjust *all* of the modes.
-
- Ah, and another "important" EGS tool for every user: NightShift.
- This is a screen blanker not only for the EGS screens, but also for
- Intuition. And it's really great because it uses the full colors EGS
- provides - that's truecolor! Included with NightShift are 11 blanker
- modules, all of good quality. My favourite is 'Scooter': you fly through
- space, following (and flying through) a curved line of frames - the speed in
- combination with the colors and lots of frames and stars is really
- impressive. Most of the modules can be customized by a number of parameters.
-
- Also included are two Paint programs, PicoPainter and TVpaint Jr..
- PicoPainter has many functions that are similar to ADPro which are realized
- via a convolve operator, a color processor and brush and text functions with
- many parameters and options. The program is very easy to use as it makes
- full use of the EGS menus, requesters etc. I like it better than TVPaint
- which has its own custom user interface. Working with PicoPainter is fun,
- as you have all requesters open you want, modify some values here and there,
- stamp transparent Text and so on - and see the result immediately in
- Truecolor! PicoPainter is more powerful than TVPaint Jr., but I can't say
- if it suits 'professional' demands. It supports all important file formats,
- like JPEG, IFF, Targa, rgb5 and rgb8, YUV, QRT and PPM. Anyway, its useful
- and included.
-
- For "real" Image processing, wait for the upcoming new versions of
- ImageFX (which will definitely run under EGS) and ADPro (which is said that
- it will run under EGS, too).
-
- VIDEO
-
- The Piccolo has a some features that distinguish it from other
- boards. First thing are the Y/C and FBAS outputs directly on board
- (activated with the plug-in module). Second thing is the 'feature
- connector' known from most VGA boards in MS-DOS PC's. All relevant video
- signals can be accessed at this connector. The manufacturer of the Piccolo,
- the Ing.B|ro Helfrich, also has developed the 'VideoCruncher'. It is a
- 24-bit real time digitizer which has a JPEG coprocessor on board to digitize
- sequences on hard disk (and play them back). It utilizes the 'feature
- connector' mentioned above to display a 24-bit real time overlay PIP
- ('Picture in Picture') on the standard Piccolo display (inside of a movable
- window). This is very interesting for video editing and multimedia
- applications. The VideoCruncher features the same Autosensing bus interface
- as the Piccolo. I could not verify these dates since I took them out of a
- flyer I received from the manufacturer.
-
-
- DOCUMENTATION
-
- The Piccolo comes with 5 well printed, clearly written manuals:
-
- Piccolo Installation (140 pages)
- EGS System (160 pages)
- Dia (45 pages)
- PicoPainter (75 pages)
- TVpaint Junior (75 pages)
-
- and some minor Update informations on disk.
-
- This refers to the German version. All manuals are written in German
- language. I have no information about the English documentation.
-
- All the manuals are bound in a way that you can not leave them open
- on the table - this is a disadvantage. Spiral binding would have solved this
- problem.
-
- The manual I know the best is the Installation manual. It covers all
- aspects of installing hardware and software on all the different systems,
- editing and creating screenmodes, and possible problems. It has plenty of
- screenshots and gives not only all the information I need but also a lot
- of background information I want. Rating: near to excellent. An Index is
- missing. This manual is of very high value for experts and beginners as
- well. It clearly states which sections you have to read and which ones are
- only for background information.
-
- The user manual for the EGS system gives a sufficient explanation of
- the particularities, the supplied preference editors and tools. Some little
- demos and the games (Tetris and Boulderdash) are undocumented - they don't
- really need documentation. It is suitable for beginners; the expert is not
- really in need of so much information on the EGS system.
-
- The tiny manual for the graphics display program 'Dia' explains the
- ARexx commands in brief words (a reference and some examples). The usage
- via the Workbench is very simple, and the ARexx programmers will have no
- problems with the supplied information, though it is not suited for the
- absolute beginner - nor is ARexx. It's funny that the name of the ARexx
- port is not 'DIA' or something like this, but 'rainbow'.
-
- The remaining too manuals are for 'PicoPainter' and 'TVPaint Jr.'.
- As I do not really use these programs, I can not say much about their
- quality. This would be a job for an artist. However, let's say at least
- something about the contents. The PicoPainter manual describes every
- function of the program but has no tutorials. You can do a lot of things
- with the program but will have to find out for yourself. This manual is
- sufficient. The TVpaint manual goes the other way: it illustrates every
- function with a small tutorial, but is missing a real reference. It's harder
- to find information on a certain function. But both manuals are sufficient
- to work with the programs. The TVpaint manual is better for beginners than
- the manual for the PicoPainter (which is the more powerful program, by the
- way).
-
-
- LIKES AND DISLIKES
-
- The Workbench emulation is very stable and fast, even in 256
- colors. This is one of the most important points, I think!
-
- Creating new screenmodes is very useful. You can adjust any
- screenmode to take full advantage of your monitor, even if it has no digital
- control.
-
- The EGS system consumes a lot of RAM. Don't expect to do some real
- work under EGS with less than 6 MB *free* FAST RAM. This should be
- improved. On the other hand, the board in general and especially EGS are
- pleasingly fast.
-
- The manufacturer should be addressable via email. Currently, they
- have no plans in this direction. I will try to convince them.
-
- The warranty could be longer (let's say, 2 years).
-
-
- COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
-
- I could compare it with the popular PicassoII board. If you own an
- A2000 and have no plans to step up to an A4000, the PicassoII gives
- comparable performance (see benchmarks) for a little bit less money. If you
- want ZorroIII, I would not consider buying a ZorroII-only board.
-
- The advantage of the Piccolo against the PicassoII and even the GVP
- Spectrum is obvious when it comes to video. The Piccolo has videonorm
- connectors on board, and via the feature connector you can combine it with
- additional hardware.
-
- Actually, the software support for the PicassoII and Retina is
- slightly better than for the Piccolo. But I think that in the near future,
- more and more applications will support EGS now that GVP's marketing power
- stands behind it.
-
- The 'Merlin' board promises similar features like the Piccolo, but
- it is known to have serious bugs in software and hardware (doesn't run on an
- A4000 in ZorroIII or together with the Fastlane SCSI adapter).
-
-
- BUGS
-
- See "mysterious crash" in the benchmark table. We couldn't find a
- reason for this one, and no other program operating in this mode had
- problems.
-
- The Piccolo shows problems when you work with 'MainActor': if you
- select to play an animation on a screen and not in a window, MainActor (and
- often the system as well) crashes. This is because MainActor tries to open
- a view (which is legal). The bug occurs no matter which screenmode (Piccolo
- mode or native Amiga mode) you choose. This problem does not show up with
- the PicassoII and Retina. There are no problems if you play your animations
- in windows only. Markus Moenig, the author of MainActor, is willing to add
- EGS support as soon as he will get a board from either Helfrich (Piccolo) or
- GVP (Spectrum).
-
- Not really a bug, but it should be noted: EGS has problems with
- 'MagicMenu' (or vice versa). You have to deactivate MagicMenu to work
- properly with EGS. The system does not crash, but MagicMenu intercepts the
- 'right mouse button pressed' event and displays a menu on the Intuition
- screen which was the last active one (usually the Workbench). Perhaps the
- author of MagicMenu can fix this by adjusting the priority of his input
- handler; I will inform him.
-
- No more bugs found which can be directly attributed to the Piccolo
- system. Read 'Compatibility' above and remember, that all of the current
- 'Workbench emulations' are kind of hacks until Commodore releases the
- necessary standard retargetable graphics (RTG) system. Actually, the
- Piccolo seems to be a very good hack and is prepared to run under RTG. But
- still then, old and 'bad-behaved' programs will cause the Piccolo (and any
- other graphics board) to crash.
-
-
- VENDOR SUPPORT
-
- You can phone the manufacturer all day, but they prefer that you call
- them during Hotline hours: Tuesday and Thursday between 4 and 6 pm. I had
- no real technical problems with the board but only wanted to get information
- about the promised update (which arrived on 23rd of December). Sometimes,
- you'll have to ask for the right person to get the desired information - but
- this person isn't always present during Hotline hours (his name is Mr.
- Ringelberg - ask for him, and he can give you the answer you want). If you
- get the right person, the support is good.
-
- The manufacturer has two support mailboxes in Germany; one of them
- belongs to Activa Int. (Scala). They are told to provide updates and
- developer information. I could not yet verify the quality of these BBS's
- because I had to be registered and have not called since then. Currently
- they cannot be reached via email - this would be the easiest way for many of
- us! You can only call the boxes and leave a mail message there.
-
-
- WARRANTY
-
- 6 months full warranty here in Germany.
-
-
- CONCLUSIONS
-
- I am very confident in this product. It runs all the software I
- need and is very fast. I gives me a totally new feeling with my Amiga: no
- flickering any more, high resolutions, truecolor and high scrolling speed.
-
- I don't want to give a rating since there's no common rating system
- in c.s.a.reviews. But I can fully recommend it, especially to ZorroIII users
- with interest in Intuition applications, Truecolor applications (read: EGS)
- and video. Hardware and software are of high quality.
-
- The number of applications for EGS is still small, but with the
- power of GVP behind it, I think more will come (ADPro will be a
- breakthrough). Anyway, it's already useful as it is.
-
- Thanks to Markus Moenig and Klaus Melchior for their help with the
- benchmarks.
-
- I can be reached at
-
- Joachim_Worringen@mowgli.fido.de
-
- Feel free to send me your own experiences or opinions concerning this review.
- I'll be happy to answer your questions.
-
- I am in no way connected to the Ing.Buero. Helfrich or any concerned
- manufacturer.
-
-
- COPYRIGHT NOTICE
-
- Copyright 1994 Joachim Worringen. All rights reserved.
-
- This review is freely distributable by electronic means. Printed
- distribution needs permission of the author.
-
- ---
-
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