ICE (Interlaced Character Editor)

[Synthpopalooza]

Update:

 

These are the latest versions of ICE editor, which were originally written in 2011 and won 4th place in the ABBUC Software Contest.

 

The concept:  Multicolor modes which are done by flickering two character sets and, in some cases, color registers.

 

I have redone these for compatibility with the new SOPHIA 2 graphics card, as follows:

 

* support for 16 level lumas in normal ANTIC modes

* support for independent text color in ANTIC 2 modes

 

These have been attached below.  Find also in this thread the betas for the following:

 

ICEGTILO:  GTIA low res Antic 5 modes

ICEIRG20:  GTIA modes using Graphics 1/2 as a base.

 

Also attached:  A word document instruction manual.

 

iceirg2.atr

icegtia2.atr

icecin2.atr

 

INTERLACE CHARACTER EDITOR.doc

 

---

(Original post from 2011)

 

Just a quick screenshot from my latest project, entitled ICE. It is a font editor which will edit fonts in interlace mode.

 

Not near finished yet, the first step will be to get this program to be able to display, edit, and save a font in the APAC (2x8x256 9/11) interlace mode.

 

Next will be HIP, CHIP, Super 10, and Super IRG.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Synthpopalooza
Updated with current versions

[Rybags]

I wish people would stop calling these software modes "Interlace"... they aren't.

[popmilo]

I wish people would stop calling these software modes "Interlace"... they aren't.

What would be proper name for them ?

I'm coding something that mixes two different screens with different colors and resolutions, and I wouldn't want someone to think its the same achievement as your 480i

 

@Synthpopalooza: Looks interesting, if you need beta testers we are here

[Rybags]

That's the thing... every time someone announces some product or mode, I think "Wow, someone's expanding on what I've done".

 

But, if anything, we should call GTIA mode mixing "Interleaved".

 

For stuff that just does register changes per frame to give more colours, neither term is really applicable there.

[SeaGtGruff]

That's the thing... every time someone announces some product or mode, I think "Wow, someone's expanding on what I've done".

 

But, if anything, we should call GTIA mode mixing "Interleaved".

 

For stuff that just does register changes per frame to give more colours, neither term is really applicable there.

I feel your pain. Unfortunately, "interlaced" and "interleaved" are both used in reference to mixing two video fields together into a single frame by alternating the lines of one field with the lines of the other field, so both terms could be said to be synonymous with each other when used in reference to a video display. (On the other hand, they can have different meanings from each other when used in other contexts.)

 

I do think either term could be applicable in this case, because you are mixing two different GRAPHICS modes together, and either term could refer to two things being mixed together by alternating between them. But since these two terms already have a particular usage in reference to video displays, it would be less confusing to use some other term-- such as "interwoven," "intermixed," "intermingled," and "interspersed." Personally, I'm going to cast my vote for "intermingled."

 

Michael

[Shawn Jefferson]

Maybe we can call it "flickerlace" ?

[Synthpopalooza]

Maybe we can call it "flickerlace" ?

 

Maybe "interfaced" is better.

 

I didn't mean to imply that these modes are "interlace" in the same manner as that most excellent 480i project (which I think is superb bythe way) ...

 

In fact, all of these modes involve, at their most basic, a character set flip, and are derived from the Super IRG mode, though some also involve flipping of the GTIA mode, and in some cases COLBK to ensure proper display. Otherwise, no color register changes are done at all.

[+MrFish]

Maybe we can call it "flickerlace" ?

 

Maybe "interfaced" is better.

 

I didn't mean to imply that these modes are "interlace" in the same manner as that most excellent 480i project (which I think is superb bythe way) ...

 

In fact, all of these modes involve, at their most basic, a character set flip, and are derived from the Super IRG mode, though some also involve flipping of the GTIA mode, and in some cases COLBK to ensure proper display. Otherwise, no color register changes are done at all.

 

How about "Syntherlaced"? hehe

[Synthpopalooza]

A little preview:

 

I don't have disk access yet (can't save or load), but the program will fully edit an APAC font, and I have the pallette select function as well. It's in TurboBASIC, I'd appreciate it if anyone can download and beta-test this for me, see if you find any errors. Also, the font files need to reside on "H:" or you can change the location at PROC CHARINIT (@line 11000). Also some sample screenshots are included, including a shot of the pallette select in mode Super 10 (45 colors).

ice.zip

[Synthpopalooza]

Another beta release.

 

You can now save and load fonts, and it edits in 6 modes: Super 9, Super 10, Super 11, HIP, CHIP and APAC. Some bugs have been fixed, not all menu options work yet, nor do the CHIP/HIP character grids display correctly yet (still 2x8 instead of 4x8 interleaved).

 

When this is finished, it should edit in 19 total software modes, including Super IRG and variations on CIN.

 

ice.zip

[Synthpopalooza]

I accidentally included the wrong file on the last post ... this is the correct one, sorry.

ice.zip

[popmilo]

I accidentally included the wrong file on the last post ... this is the correct one, sorry.

If I understood you correctly this is Turbo basic file ?

How do I load it ?

[Synthpopalooza]

I accidentally included the wrong file on the last post ... this is the correct one, sorry.

If I understood you correctly this is Turbo basic file ?

How do I load it ?

 

You will need the TurboBasic disk ... Once booted, you load the .tur just like a BASIC program. Make sure you turn off BASIC when booting TurboBasic.

turbo.zip

Edited September 29, 2009 by Synthpopalooza

[Synthpopalooza]

Again, wrong file ...

 

Try this:

 

turbo.zip

 

I've found one bug that is very persistent ... it seems that when editing with a color with a value greater than 127 (on the pallette of 256 .. not counting color 155, I made a special exception for that one) the display grids (both the inverse and the normal grid) show the wrong color, while the actual correct color gets shown on the actual character being edited, in the character set display. This error is in the code which plots each pixel as you are editing the character, and as the character is being loaded into the grid. You will also notice that when the cursor moves over the space with the wrong colored pixel, it leaves a trail of the correct color.

Edited September 29, 2009 by Synthpopalooza

[Synthpopalooza]

New version of ICE editor.

 

I've now added a copy feature which will allow you to copy characters to and from your editing grid very easily. Should make editing character sets a snap now!

 

Next to add: Ability to capture colors to your drawing pallete from the character being edited ... ability to have a 64 color drawing pallette, 16 displayable in the pallette grid at one time, and ability to cycle through these.

 

Then come all the familiar functions (scroll char, mirror) ...

 

Also attached is a documentation on all the software text modes I plan to support in ICE editor ... about 16 of these in total!

ice-editor.zip

software text modes.txt

[Synthpopalooza]

Hello everyone ...

 

Thought I'd go ahead and put out the latest betas for two new ICE font editors that I have been working on. These (like the previous releases on ABBUC) are font editors which use Super IRG style graphics modes.

 

 

 

ICE GTIA Low-res

 

This one is for doing Antic 5 based GTIA modes ... that is, 40x12 characters, 160x96 pixel resolution. You get less colors than with the normal ICE GTIA modes, but with the ability to use these in Antic 5. Up to 176 colors can be displayed at 160x96 or 40x12 character resolution.

 

 

 

ICE IRG 20

 

These are graphics modes using GTIA in combination with Antic 6/7 (or Graphics 1 and 2) ... you get a 20 column screen display, and anywhere from 30 to 100 colors onscreen spread across 9 different color palettes. The character layout is identical to Antic 4 or Super IRG mode (4x4 character grid with anywhere from 7 to 16 colors per character cell)

 

Full load and save functionality is available with these demos. ICE IRG 20 is limited, in that not all the color palettes are accessible via the typing grid ... pressing control tab or shift tab will shift through these palettes on the editing grid though.

 

I will work up some BASIC demos of these modes soon.

 

For best results, use an NTSC Atari to minimize flicker. Or if you're one of the lucky ones (like Stephen) you can use a monitor with the ability to blend frames. In emulation, use Altirra > 2.0 or Atari++ > 1.3 with frame blending on. veThese modes will not display properly on earlier versions of these emulators.

 

In the works: ICE CIN 20 (for Graphics 1 mixed with GTIA modes, up to 50 colors across 12 color palettes) and ICE Graphics 1 (a double mixed Graphics 1 with 4 colors per char cell, and 15 colors across 16 color palettes)

icegtialow.atr

iceirg20.atr

Edited February 8, 2014 by Synthpopalooza

[Synthpopalooza]

Just noticed the .atr's I posted are missing a crucial font file.

 

Try these instead. Sorry ...

 

The programs to run on these will be ICEGTILO.TUR and ICEIRG20.TUR respectively.

 

 

icegtialow.atr

iceirg20.atr

[Synthpopalooza]

I have gone through and done an update to the ICE instruction manual, and made these changes:

 

* Addition of instructions for the new ICE GTIA LO-RES and ICE IRG 20 editors

* Fixing typos (oops)

* Added in the Palette Grab function (can't believe I forgot to mention it)

* Changed the ICE format documentation to reflect the new GTIA LO and ICE IRG 20 modes

 

In addition, I have put in an extensive documentation of the Graphics 1 and Graphics 12 modes with the GTIA set to mode 9, 10, or 11. There seems to be little or no documentation on these modes, so hopefully this will serve as a very useful reference for those working in these modes. They may also serve as an aid to understanding how some of the ICE graphics modes work, as a number of these require the usage of Graphics 1 or 12 with GTIA settings.

 

Still two more editors to write: Graphics 1 modes (there will be two of these) and CIN 20 modes (where you blend normal Graphics 1 with a GTIA mode ... three of these). Also, gotta figure out how to work in PCIN+ and Super PCIN+ into the ICE CIN editor (PCIN mode but with 708-712 palette changes).

 

 

 

Here it is ... enjoy.

ice doc.zip

[explorer]

Do ICE programs have an official website to download them?

Where can you download the latest version 1.1?

 

The usual would be to edit the first message of this thread and attach them there.

[Synthpopalooza]

Not as yet ... I will attach the latest versions to the first message of this thread soon tho ...

[Synthpopalooza]

Latest versions have been attached to the first post ...

[Ecernosoft]

On 9/8/2009 at 1:50 AM, Rybags said:

That's the thing... every time someone announces some product or mode, I think "Wow, someone's expanding on what I've done".

 

But, if anything, we should call GTIA mode mixing "Interleaved".

 

For stuff that just does register changes per frame to give more colours, neither term is really applicable there.

Personally, I think interlaced sounds better, but Interleaved could work.

 

Interlaced = Interleaved. (Or I think so)

 

Non interlaced         Interlaced (Just pretend the spaces wern't there)

____                       ====

____                       ====

____                       ====

____                       ====

[ivop]

Rybags is right. This has nothing to do with interlacing where you have 312 and half(!) scanlines per frame (PAL).

 

The Atari outputs progressive scan. Fiddling with chroma or luma every frame makes it a flicker mode, every other scanline makes it interleaved, or a combination of them both.

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by ivop

[Synthpopalooza]

Yep, this is hardly "Interlace" as such (I just thought ICE was a cool name, lol) ... although there are some usages of this technique where the mixing happens on scanlines instead of full frame ... i.e. the remix of The Wall ... that Tetris clone I remixed that uses the low-res CIN mode to blend GTIA 11 across Antic 4 by scrolling a scanline interrupt.

 

Admittedly a lot of this looks better if you are using a modern LCD TV with the frame blending on.  And especially if you have the new Sophia 2 card that enables 16 level lumas in Antic modes, or the independent Antic 2 text color.  Blending colors in steps of 16 helps alot with the flicker problem.

[ivop]

2 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

I just thought ICE was a cool name, lol

Cool names are always a good reason

 

I see this thread started in 2009. Perhaps there weren't that many people complaining about the "wrong" naming at that time

 

There is the 480i mode that Rybags invented that does indeed trick Antic to produce an interlaced signal. I'm not sure about the details, but basically at the end of the 312 lines (PAL) Antic is disabled/enabled/disabled/enabled to generate half a scanline.

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by ivop