Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett
From: ivans@zeta.org.au (Ivan Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: CyberGraphics, version 40.47
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
Date: 11 May 1995 15:32:36 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
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Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3otamk$7en@kernighan.cs.umass.edu>
Reply-To: ivans@zeta.org.au (Ivan Smith)
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Keywords: graphics, 24-bit, emulation, shareware
Originator: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu
PRODUCT NAME
CyberGraphics, version 40.47 (registered version)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Cybergraphics is software drivers/emulation software, including
Workbench emulation, for 3rd party graphics boards that use the Cirrus
Logic family of chips.
It allows retargetable graphics (RTG) type extensions to the
Workbench environment and is very similar in operation to the standard
AmigaDOS way of doing things.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Thomas Sontowski and Frank Mariak
Address: Thomas Sontowski
Bensberger Marktweg 15
51069 Koeln
GERMANY
Frank Mariak
Klosterstr.7
44135 Dortmund
GERMANY
E-mail: marvin@sun.ph-cip.uni-koeln.de
fmariak@chaosengine.ping.de
LIST PRICE
The shareware registration fee is $35.00 (US) or DM50.00.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
A supported third-party graphics board: EGS Spectrum, OPAL,
Retina Z3, Domino, Merlin, PicassoII, PiccoloSD64, and the
forthcoming CyberVision64.
RAM as recommended by the graphics board manufacturer.
A hard disk is not necessarily needed. It will run from
floppies. Space needed for Libraries is about 96K.
68020 or higher CPU recommeded.
SOFTWARE
AmigaDOS 2.x recommended. AmigaDOS 3.x preferred.
COPY PROTECTION
A registered Monitor file is required for full functions.
Hard drive installable. Installer by Robert Reiswig.
Copy protection is just right - the unregistered version lets you
see the functions of the software in limited view modes, and the
only annoyance is the lack of 24-bit display modes. Everything else
is functional.
All 24-bit modes are enabled when you receive your key/Monitorfile,
which is registered only to you and cannot be transferred.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 3000/040/40, 2MB Chip RAM, 12MB Fast RAM
NEC 3D MultiSync Monitor and Phillips CM8833 Monitor
GVP SPECTRUM24 24-bit graphics board
Kickstart 40.68 (3.1) Workbench 40.42 (3.1)
880K internal floppy, 1.76MB external floppy
Seagate 240MB (x2) SCSI hard drives
TEXEL (Plextor) DM5024 Double Spin SCSI-2 CD-ROM (external)
Play Inc. (Digital Creations) PAL DCTV
Software: Mpeg_play, ImageFX2.0, ADPRO, DPaint5.0, Personal
Paint6.1, Real3D 2.49Demo, Image Engineer 1.1, Flick1.4,
Professional Page4.0, PageStream3.0d, Cyberview2.0 and CyberWindow.
INSTALLATION
Installation is by the Standard Commodore Installer Program (written
by Robert Reiswig).
Installation is straightforward and was accomplished by installing
the Shareware version 40.46, ftp-ing to retrieve the 40.47 registered
version, and then updating the libraries and drivers, again using the
Commodore Installer program. The Installer was intelligent enough to check
hardware and software already installed, and it politely asked before
removing or moving anything.
You are asked for your particular graphics card and the bandwidth of
your monitor.
24-bit modes are enabled by copying over the file in DEVS:Monitors
with your personalized monitor file.
Installation was a joy and very straightforward.
BACKGROUND
The Cybergraphics software system has been around on AMINET for
quite a while beginning with version 40.40. I downloaded all the versions to
40.46 before having a "shell accident" one day. I copied ENV: to ENVARC: by
accident without a backup.
I thought nothing of it considering the way ENVARC: is copied to
ENV: at startup and I hadn't done anything except open a shell after a cold
boot.
When I re-booted I had no EGS system on my SPECTRUM card. The Visiona
software was refusing to mount the drivers to initialize the card, and I was
losing my temper after 3 re-install attempts with the EGS software.
I already had the Cybergraphics 40.46 system installed and stored on
my SYS: partition. So in a fit of rage, I deleted everything to do with EGS
and simply copied the SPECTRUM monitor driver into DEVS:Monitors and
re-booted. Suddenly I had new modes in my STANDARD screen mode requesters.
I was back up and running in 800x600x256 in next to no time.
GETTING IT TWEEKED
This version allows some environment variables to be set. There is
one for Hi-Res pointers, one for CPU blitting, one for hiding 15-bit modes,
and one for re-direction of the alert screens.
A utility is provided similar to the Display Adjust program supplied
with the Visiona software for the Spectrum card.
If you are in doubt as to what versions you are running, there is
also a program called "Cyberver" that will show all revisions of the
libraries installed.
Once I had registered and received my Personal Monitor File (by
Email), I set about configuring the software to drive my monitor properly.
Fortunately, if you pick the correct upper frequency for your monitor during
the installation procedure, you will have very little to do here.
Most modes worked straight up with my NEC 3D, and there are some
modes that were just not possible under EGS -- namely, 1600x1200x256. There
is a "test" button in the monitor configuration that places a familiar test
pattern for that mode on your monitor,. The software is intelligent enough
to warn you if the mode exceeds your monitor frequency range.
Obtaining a 800x600 24-bit mode was a little tricky, but no concern
when I realized what everything did in the configuration screen.
It is certainly much easier than the EGS Display Adjust software.
My only gripe is that there is even less in the AmigaGuide documentation
than there is in the GVP manual about the technical details of what your
adjustments do.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Cybergraphics works the same as any other Monitor Driver you have in
your DEVS:Monitors drawer. There is nothing in your Workbench start-up
drawer and no patching of anything that is noticeable: unlike the EGS
software, which spends a lot of its time on boot, copying and moving things,
slowing the boot down.
Graphics memory on your graphics board (if present) is used in the
same manner as it always was. In my case I always have 1.89M of Chip RAM
available, just as I did under EGS.
Any program which presents you with a standard screen mode requester
can more often than not use the CyberGraphics Modes.
What this means in reality is that without mode promotion, I suddenly
have seen Personal Paint, Deluxe Paint and ProPage/PageStream in 256 colours
for the first time on my machine.
Most of these programs are stable under the emulation. DPaint can
crash sometimes with brush operations, and you may have to refresh the screen
manually because the software seems not to do it.
Brilliance will NOT use CyberGraphics modes because of the way it
uses the native CHIP RAM. Programs which hit the graphics chips hard like
Vista Pro and Scenery Animator have to be used in normal PAL or NTSC Amiga
modes. They WILL crash your machine if run with CyberGraphics active.
My only disappointment with the colour modes of DPaint/PPaint is
that animation is of course not possible on the Cyber modes. Fortunately,
DPaint5.0 is able use high colour buffers in ECS native modes, so there is
really no excuse for not pumping out 256 colour animations.
The Workbench is the biggest surprise though! Using the standard
Workbench screen mode Prefs program it is possible to use a 8, 15, 16 or
24-bit Workbench! Programs like Multiview still show everything in 256
colours, but that is more an Intuition limit than the emulation software.
Planned additions to CyberGraphics are the extensions to Intuition to allow
higher colour modes. This, I believe, is the RTG extension to Workbench that
Commodore of old should have given us with AmigaDOS 3.1.
SPEED vs EGS
Overall, all software works with CyberGraphics. ImageFX, ADPRO,
Photogenics and Real3D have drivers provided which drive your board
directly. Particularly spectacular is the ImageFX render module.
Intuition functions such as opening, closing and moving windows are
several times faster than the EGS emulation. Windows snap open, even in 256
colours. They open as fast in 256 colours under Cybergraphics as they did in
8 colours under the EGS system.
Blit operations seem to be faster, even when using the graphic boards
on board blitter.
[MODERATOR'S NOTE: Keep in mind that the reviewer's machine has
a 40 MHz 68040 CPU. Your results may be different with a slower
machine. - Dan]
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation comes in the form of AmigaGuide (TM) manuals. I found
it a little light on the technical side, particularly the section dealing
with the setting up of the monitor modes.
Apart from that, it's reasonable and easy to read. It comes in the
original German and an English translation. The English version is readable
by both beginners and old hands.
LIKES
I like the more system friendly way Cybergraphics works. It seems
more "natural" and doesn't stress your RAM out by loading a totally
different desktop system, as the EGS system does.
The faster blitting is good and the extensions to the bitplane depth
of Workbench should be fantastic when it's completed. (Imagine 15-bit
animations playing on the WB in a window.)
Retargetting is kept to a minimum, and that's a good thing.
All of my terminal programs and just about everything I own can run
on a Cybergraphics screen with increased colour depth. Term4.3a looks amazing
in 16 colours (VGA) and updates speedily with a 28.8K connection throwing
characters down the line.
You get your draggable/scrollable screens back when using the
graphics card, which most emulation software eliminates. I have had to learn
to pull screens down again after all this time.
The Hi-Res pointers are their correct colours and size, unlike EGS
where my hand pointer looked as if it has been amputated and roasted.
I also am very grateful that it has made my system more stable.
There are absolutely zero crashes from re-targetting. (The EGS ESP program
is, well... $%&@^%!) I like the fact that I am confident that I can
continue working and not crash in the middle of anything and lose it as I
used to do.
DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS
There are only three things I don't like about this product and they
are:
(1) When using a dual monitor setup (My DCTV is on the other
monitor), there is a constant flashing of what looks like corrupted
Chip RAM patterns on an inactive Amiga screen. Switching to and from
Cybergraphics modes and ECS modes fixes it sometimes, but it is
mostly there all the time.
(2) With Mpeg_play, to play Mpeg in 24-bit you cannot use the
EGS24 option any longer. The way to do it is to use the Village24
option (The villintuisip.library is installed by Cybergraphics for
you). The big problem is that although it is surely showing in
24-bit, all the chroma is reversed. The luma (black & white) is
correct but all colour is reversed totally. 180 degrees out of phase?
I don't like seeing my Mpegs in reverse colours, although it has
given me some ideas about colours :)
I have Emailed the authors about this. I hope it's the library and
not the CyberGraphics software itself. Perhaps on the next compile
of Mpeg_play, TapAvi and Flick, we'll see a specific "Cyber" option.
(3) In 24-bit modes you see 3 pointers due to "a hardware
limitation".
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
The only other system I can compare Cybergraphics with is the
Visiona EGS 6.2 and 7.1 versions. Overall the Cybergraphics system has it on
the Visiona system. There is no "kludging" the system as EGS does, much less
software configuration than EGS, and it just seems less alien to the Amiga
way of doing things.
BUGS
The only bug I noticed is documented by the authors and that is
sometimes if you have a Cybergraphics screen in front of a "native" screen
you see two pointers periodically. They are fixing this. The reverse
coloured mpegs could be the library not the Cybergraphics system itself, so I
don't consider it a bug in that sense.
Games will crash if you start them under the emulation. Frank Mariac
has uploaded a little 1K utility called "Cyberswitch" that is used in a
script file. It resets the Amigas video modes, temporarily disabling the the
Cyber modes.
There seems to be a small bug in the ADPRO saver which causes an
emulation error (8000003).
VENDOR SUPPORT
Vendor support is excellent if you have Internet access. By snail
mail would be labourious.
Robert Rieswig and I have spoken frequently on IRC #Amiga channel
about CyberGraphics. He was instrumental in helping with installation and
registration.
All Email to any of the three authors is answered within 24 hours.
WARRANTY
There is no warranty expressed or implied.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall I would rate this product as 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is many
times more usable for an EGS owner and should be just what the operating
system ordered when the few remaining bugs are sorted out and we all have
CyberVision64 boards.
It is an excellent replacement for the EGS system, and I feel my
board is more a "part" of my machine now.
Operation is silky smooth and everything has stablized.
I am *very* satisfied. The best $35 spent this year!
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright 1995 Ivan Smith.
---
Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
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