[comp.sys.atari.st] Omni-res

to_stdnet@stag.UUCP (12/28/88)

From: dynasoft!john@stag.UUCP (John Stanley)

[tpg@linus.UUCP (Terry P. Gleason) writes...]

> Does anyone have any info on Omni-res?

  Er..  um...  Yeah..  I know a bit about it.  What info do you need?

> It is S/W product (~$20) that
> you put in the AUTO file and supposedly it allows you to run lo & med
> res programs on a monochrome system, and also monochrome programs on a
> color monitor.  It's been out for a while but I have seen no reviews
> or actual user comments on it.

  You appear to know quite a bit already...  :)

> Does it really work,

  Yes...  On programs that follow the 'rules' about only altering colors
or 'real' video modes via the bios or gemdos function calls.  Writing
directly to the hardware is a no-no..!

> on ALL programs,

  No...  Any fancy color tricks or -real-brief- flicker/animation effects
sometimes don't show up on the screen because they're there too short a
time for Omnires to map them over to the CRT in the 'real' video mode.
Also smooth animation effects often show up as jerky movements because the
virtual screen is mapped to the real screen several times a second.  (They
could have done better if -ALL- (101%) of screen i/o were done via legal
means, but too many programs cheat and write directly to the screen.)

> any performance degradation?

  Yes...  It varies from almost none to quite a bit depending on which of
8 different configurations you use on boot-up.  There are 8 different
convertor routines.  The more complete the mapping, the slower the
display.

  Any other questions?

--
PS:  Please note that my Reply-To address gets munged by the gateway
I'm currently using for news access so you can't just <r>eply to this
article and have your message get to me.  Please use the address below.

---
John Stanley (dynasoft!john@stag.UUCP)
Software Consultant / Dynasoft Systems