New and never-before-seen QB graphics modes discovered!

[Adigun A. Polack]

Dearest all of you QB45/QB71/FB community,

Hello and welcome, and I must show you something amazingly good tonight!   !

From just recent days ago in attempting to tweak QB screen modes 2-12 in order to reveal custom new modes, I discovered something awesome for you all:

• a

512x200x2 mode

[/list]
• a 512x350x16 mode

[/list]
• .....and, modes 512x200x16, 512x480x2, and 512x480x16 (not shown).
[/list]

You can download my original special modes for QuickBASIC/QBasic right here.  And, I am *sure* looking forward to seeing some benchmarks from you on them new modes.  =b

As well, I plan to write my own original tutorial for both QBasicNews.com and QB Express on how to access these and such other custom special modes in QB as:

•

512x133 graphics mode
• 512x100 graphics mode
• 512x80 graphics mode[/list]
....and much more!!    I promise you.

Be seeing you again, and do enjoy the new modes for good ‘ol QB!!!  :cool:



SHOWING YOU SOMETHING NEWLY FASCINATING,


Adigun Azikiwe Polack
One of the Founders of “Aura Flow”
Continuing Developer of “Frantic Journey”
Current Developer of “Star Angelic Slugger”
Webmaster of the “AAP Official Projects Squad”

[barok]

when you said 512x200x16 and 512x480x16, i first thought you meant 16 bits of colours.

[Sterling Christensen]

Pretty cool, Adigun.

'A BIG Special Thanks to Dmitry Brant!!  ;*) !
'(Without him, this special graphics mode in QB would *not* have
' even been made possible!)

I remember that name, Dmitry Brant had a qb page with lots of very impressive programs. I wonder what he's up to now.

[adosorken]

I remember that name, Dmitry Brant had a qb page with lots of very impressive programs. I wonder what he's up to now.

Probably back to stealing code as he did back in the day.

[barok]

He didn't steal code!  He just... displayed other people's code on his page to share... yes!

[adosorken]

He didn't steal code!  He just... displayed other people's code on his page to share... yes!

That's what they call it these days? :lol:

[Sterling Christensen]

Probably back to stealing code as he did back in the day. :D

OIC. Wow, he sure fooled me.

[barok]

He didn't steal code!  He just... displayed other people's code on his page to share... yes!

That's what they call it these days? :lol:

yep!

[Adigun A. Polack]

To Sterling:

Yes, Dmitry Brant did have a QB webpage indeed, my man.   !  I believe it was called QTopia (which first existed in around 1999!), where it did have some real awesome projects under his belt — including as well his own original program in QB where you can really get the original CD-Rom contents and stuff!  And thank God that the site is archived really well through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, so please click here to visit that classic hacienda of Dmitry’s indeed from back in the day.

And I no less than appreciate your honesty and support about my original QB graphics modes, too!  :king:



To Barok and Adosorken:

You both are hot on the trail now ( ), as you both are turning out to be correct on your *very* latest replies just before this one here from me.  Yes, Dmitry’s site from 1999 indeed had programs from somebody else on there, including the highly-praised QB-created shmup Mono Space and Angelo Mottola’s other great game entitled Wetspot, among many things QB, too!  Remember that?  And while not all of the programs there are available for download, hey, at least many of them are!  :wtnod:=b

very[/u] first reply in this thread, you"]when you said 512x200x16 and 512x480x16, i first thought you meant 16 bits of colours.

Actually, Barok, from what I do know and remember well about the graphics mode descriptions and all, when I did say such things as 512x200x16, here is what I meant as an example:

____________________________________________________________
512x200x16

• 512 pixels horizontal
• 200 pixels vertical
• 16 displayable colors only (

not 16-bit color)[/list]
____________________________________________________________
[/list]

.....and if I were to even do a 512x480x64k graphics mode, it’d go like this:

____________________________________________________________
512x480x64k

• 512 pixels horizontal
• 480 pixels vertical
• 65,556 displayable colors (

definitely 16-bit color!  :cool: )[/list]____________________________________________________________
[/list]


See, simple.  Not as complicated as some might think it to be, really.  



And finally, to all of you:

Please take a brief peek at the custom QB graphics mode of mine called the 512x80x16 mode:



......and from what I have experienced in the compiled .EXE file that I made of it in QB, it was much, *MUCH* faster and then some on the 450mhz Pentium-III computer that I use, even on QB’s own regular drawing primitives alone!!   !  I mean, you can look at it for yourselves in the next download of this special mode right in here.

Needless to say, I was so impressed at the results!!!  d==b

As I may have already said at my very opening of this thread, I am planning on indeed doing a tutorial based on the new graphics mode you just saw (as well as my other new ones, too!).  FOR REAL.  ;*)



Thank you all so much, and do take heart in having yourselves a splendid week!!  ^_^ !




- Adigun Azikiwe Polack
One of the Founders of “Aura Flow”
Continuing Developer of “Frantic Journey”
Current Developer of “Star Angelic Slugger”
Webmaster of the “AAP Official Projects Squad”

[Spotted Cheetah]

Hey, it is not only me who tries to kill that poor screen?

I usually work for refresh rate, but during that i reached these modes too more than a half year ago. There is some topic buryed somewhere: "80 Hz refresh rate under DOS & QB" (as i can remember) created by me, look at it for some more extreme things And visit our page where there is a program called SetHi9.bas what sets up standard SCREEN 9 with 88.5 Hz of refresh rate (Or to get a C program what can set most of the 256 color unchained modes with almost any refresh rate).

The only thing that i did not knew that QB can work with the modes which has not got the usual widths or heights (Did it work)?


I think an 512*400 mode would be the best since it is fast, can be tweaked easily (and should not turn any monitor into garbage) and has almost square pixels (512*384).

[Adigun A. Polack]

To Spotted Cheetah:

Hey, so wonderful and an absolute pleasure as well to talk to you for the very first time.  

Now then, I have just recently checked out your two programs this morning: the one where you set your QB Screen 9 to 88.5 Hz, and the C program of your VGA library that presents the many custom tweaks for 256-color modes.  And man, I am telling you that you did a *really* fine job on them, to be honest on this here!  :cool:=b

I think an 512*400 mode would be the best since it is fast, can be tweaked easily (and should not turn any monitor into garbage) and has almost square pixels (512*384).

Look man, if a 512x400 custom graphics mode is simply possible to implement in QB, then by *absolutely* all means necessary, let us just see your fine piece of code and show me how it works!   !  (Hey, come to think of it, I would TRULY love to implement it into my set of custom modes, and anything like that in QB indeed is definitely appreciated!)

Speaking of custom modes, here are the following ones that I have done so far now:

________________________________________________________________
Tweaked from QB’s Screen 2:
 • 512x200x2 mode

Tweaked from QB’s Screen 8:
 • 512x200x16 mode
 • 512x200x16 psuedo-widescreen mode (technically done, but needs *proper* vertical centering!)
 • 512x133x16 mode
 • 512x100x16 mode
 • 512x80x16 mode

Tweaked from QB’s Screen 9:
• 512x350x16 mode
• 512x175x16 mode
• 512x117x16 mode
• 512x88x16 mode
• 512x70x16 mode

Tweaked from QB’s Screen 11:
• 512x480x2 mode
• 512x240x2 mode
• 512x160x2 mode
• 512x120x2 mode

Tweaked from QB’s Screen 12:
• 512x480x16 mode
• 512x240x16 mode
• 512x160x16 mode
• 512x120x16 mode
________________________________________________________________

.......and praise God that He has surely enabled me to do so and make progress on them in the first place, just to be no less than a blessing to you and this whole community, you know what I mean, man?  ;*) !  We only just begun here!

And I thank you so much for such an interesting idea of yours about me adding some refresh rates and stuff to my custom graphics modes (I’ll simply bet that the idea has apparently well been stuck in the head since your fascinating topic about QB graphics mode refresh rates in this very forum back in 2004, hasn’t it?   ).  I might want to implement it along with my modes, too!

Spotted Cheetah, it is such a great pleasure to have you at this topic, and you have a splendidly good 2005 now!!  :king:



WITH OPEN ARMS,


Adigun Azikiwe Polack
One of the Founders of “Aura Flow”
Continuing Developer of “Frantic Journey”
Current Developer of “Star Angelic Slugger”
Webmaster of the “AAP Official Projects Squad”

[Spotted Cheetah]

Thanks, i am glad too to meet somebody who finally has some interest on this subject

I checked out your codes: they are just changing the displayed width of the standard QB screens. So they actually remain the same, the screen is just being informed to stop the displaying at 512, not at 640. To achieve the higher refresh rates, all the registers need to be set back for the 512 width, and you will get 108Hz for 512*350 .

The 640*400 mode is quite simple to set up, since you only need to disable the double scanning at 640*200. If you can not find out how to do it i will give you some register sets next time when i can bring stuff here (after 2 weeks) for these mode.

As i said i know how the screen works, i just did not know (possibly because i did not try out) that QB can use these modes. In the case of that 88.5Hz SCREEN 9 i just thought that as everything remains the same except the refresh rate, QB will not notice it, and it worked.

The speed what you got is possibly because of the less pixels, and maybe because QB optimizes the multiplications here as bit shifts since 512 is a power of 2.


So there is more power in that VGA than whatever you can imagine! Let's let it breaking out!

[Adigun A. Polack]

To Spotted Cheetah again:

I couldn’t have said it any darned better myself, and so thank you!   !

I checked out your codes: they are just changing the displayed width of the standard QB screens. So they actually remain the same, the screen is just being informed to stop the displaying at 512, not at 640. To achieve the higher refresh rates, all the registers need to be set back for the 512 width, and you will get 108Hz for 512*350 .

Interestingly enough, that is mostly true (at least!).  :wtnod:  I have not exactly tested the exact Hz rates for my new modes that I was so recently trying out along with your really good QB graphics mode refresh rate code, but I am no doubt certain that on my old monitor from 1992, the modes under QB Screens 8, 9, 11, and 12 all came through and showed VERY clearly with a Hz rate of over 100 (*not* that I want people to try it on certain monitors as there is a possible risk/hazard involved that can do any harmful damage or even worse to the monitors themselves!   )!!

The 640*400 mode is quite simple to set up, since you only need to disable the double scanning at 640*200. If you can not find out how to do it i will give you some register sets next time when i can bring stuff here (after 2 weeks) for these mode.

As i said i know how the screen works, i just did not know (possibly because i did not try out) that QB can use these modes. In the case of that 88.5Hz SCREEN 9 i just thought that as everything remains the same except the refresh rate, QB will not notice it, and it worked.

Amazing!    On how a 640x400 mode can be achieved, I did not even know about that at all (nor did I even think of knowing how to do it, too!).  Tell you what, both your register sets and a clear description of how to do the 640x400 mode are *most* welcome here, Spotted Cheetah, and I will wait for you to do so now.  ^_^ !

And thank God that you sure know how to access that new mode in QB, too.

The speed what you got is possibly because of the less pixels, and maybe because QB optimizes the multiplications here as bit shifts since 512 is a power of 2.

ABSOLUTELY 100% TRUE.  d==b  Know why, my man?  Because, as I noticed myself over the past couple to several days ago while I was testing my new graphics modes in QB, I discovered for myself that as the viewable vertical pixels got smaller and smaller, there was indeed more and more speed increase creeping in and pushing on forward (even to the possible point of speeds actually exceeding Screen 13 itself!!  :rotfl: ! )!  I have noticed this while I was running the modes in their QB-compiled .EXE file-format form, and it really impressed the living heck out of me, you know what I mean?  In terms of the optimizations here — multiplications and all — it is like QuickBASIC/QBasic simply saying, “Alright, we can do this, so let’s just get it done and that’s that!  :neo:”, and believe me, it is being done right already and then some.  Period, end of the conversation.  ;*) !

So there is more power in that VGA than whatever you can imagine! Let's let it breaking out!

A BIG AMEN to that!!!  :king: !!  That is all I can say, my man.

Catch you again now, and once again, thank you!  




- Adigun Azikiwe Polack
One of the Founders of “Aura Flow”
Continuing Developer of “Frantic Journey”
Current Developer of “Star Angelic Slugger”
Webmaster of the “AAP Official Projects Squad”

[Spotted Cheetah]

During downloading a few things i write down what i know now (i do not have my tons of notes here what i made to make clear all of the VGA ports' exact work, as i said when i will get back here after 2 weeks).

So firstly altering all the registers containing the width of the screen is far easier than doing the same for the height. At the width there are 6 registers + a memory page width, all of them contain different values plus some damn overflow bits what always need to be remembered. That was why i could make that working automatically in that C program.

The case of height is much more complex. For a start there is an entire register just to hold the overflow values (for example 350 not fits on one byte...), and some of that group can be write protected what must be disabled first to alter them. When i created that 88.5 Hz mode 9 i spent the most time with setting back the retrace registers pixel py pixel and tested if i messed up with those overflows. But it is possible to be done, although it needs much more work to do it properly.

The case of double scanning is quite simple to this: as i can there is just one register what holds this for the height (You altered that to get the 80 pixel tall mode). In the case of width i still did not find out where is the double scanning bit for mode 7, but i think it is somewhere at setting the 256 colors (because of the technique of the VGA 256 color modes ALWAYS have double scanning enabled for their width. So if you set 256*400 in the C program, the screen will get almost the same register set as for 512*400, 16 colors except that a few bits were switched to make it 256 color).


At the side of monitors every recent CRT SVGA should deal easily with these modes as they ask much less from the hardware than for example an 1024 * 768 mode. Of course old screens may fail. That was why i included the VGA compatible mode set in that C program: if it is enabled (Refresh rate is 0), then the mode what it sets will be always VGA compatible (So it will work nicely on any screen capable to display SCREEN 13). But now if it is possible it is good to make these things healthier to the eyes.



Who is that Dmitry Brant ? I tried to search for him, but all what i could find is loads of 404s. But from those short descriptions he really seem to know QB and programming deeply (I found a short chunk of a lost web page from 1999 where it was written that he has a JPG viewer in QB...).

[Adigun A. Polack]

To Spotted Cheetah:

Well, what I do know about Dmitry Brant myself is that he is an *excellent* QB and VB (Visual Basic) programmer, his best work I believe being his own custom Mode-X routines for QB itself — including an ABSOLUTELY so unusual 320x25x256 graphics mode work in what he calls the “Ludicrous Mode”, too — which absolutely was one of the big-time inspirations for me to work on my original graphics modes in the first place.  

The last I remember apparently about his site appearances, his latest site was dmitrybrant.com (his personal page), but now it ends up with either a 404 or 403 Forbidden error.    But man, his QTopia webpage will surely both be and remain a finely good QB website treasure for you and I and this whole community as well to remember if not even cherish forever!  Enough said.  

Thanks once more now, Spotted Cheetah, and see you later.  ^_^ !




- Adigun Azikiwe Polack
One of the Founders of “Aura Flow”
Continuing Developer of “Frantic Journey”
Current Developer of “Star Angelic Slugger”
Webmaster of the “AAP Official Projects Squad”