            ******************************************************
            * VIDEL INSIDE (c)oderight 1994 Trisomic Development *
            ******************************************************

Function: extended screen resolutions, virtual screen manager
Required hardware: Atari Falcon030, monitor (?)
Spread as: Freeware
Author: Franois GALEA (Zerkman)
Current version: 1.2

English documentation:

WARNING:
   The  author  of this software cannot be taken as responsible  for  eventual 
damage  caused to the hardware.  Your using of this software  implicates  your 
approbation for this warning.

   It  is  extremely  recommended  to read  this  documentation  text  in  its 
integrality, before any using of the software.

   The Videl Inside package features the following files:
- VI.PRG       (executable file)
- VI.DAT       (ASCII file which contains the video modes)
- VI_FRA.TXT   (French documentation)
- VI_ENG.TXT   (English documentation (the file you're reading right now)

   These files can be copied and spread freely,  as long as they aren't copied 
separately. In addition, any translation or modification of the executable and 
documentation files without a written agreement from the author is prohibited.

   Now, let's explore the Videl Inside world...

1. WHAT IS VIDEL INSIDE ?
   Videl  Inside  (or VI) is an utility exclusively conceived  for  the  Atari 
Falcon030,  that  allows  you  to reach more important  resolutions  than  the 
standard Falcon ones,  on your monitor,  without any hardware modification  of 
any sort.  This way,  you'll be able to see what the Falcon's video  processor 
(called Videl) is capable of!
   VI  also  features a virtual screen manager,  that allows you to  define  a 
screen  size which is only limited by the size of your  Falcon's  memory.  The 
picture  that is displayed on the screen is only a part of the whole  picture, 
that scrolls following the mouse cursor displacements,  in order to  visualize 
the screen space in its entirety.


2. INSTALLATION:
   Copy the VI.PRG executable file and the VI.DAT data file to the AUTO folder 
of your boot disk partition.  WARNING: The executable file must be placed with 
the last files of the AUTO folder,  but programs like OUTSIDE or MiNT must  be 
placed  after it.  This will make the other resident programs not  crash  when 
installed with VI.


3. VIDEL INSIDE WORKING:
   While  under  the  GEM  Desktop,   Run  VI.PRG  from  the  AUTO  folder.  A 
configuration box appears. It is divided in three sections:
   - Selection of the monitor type;
   - Selection of the video mode;
   - Virtual screen options

 a. Selection of the monitor type
   Three choices are proposed: monochrome screen (such as the Atari SM 124/125 
monitors), RGB screen (like any color TV set or PAL/NTSC monitor), and at last 
VGA monitor (regroups all the VGA/SVGA or multiscan monitors).
   Each  monitor  type has an assigned VI video mode,  and  a  virtual  screen 
configuration,  that will allow you, if you often change monitors (like I do), 
to  have access directly to the mode which is the most adapted to  your  needs 
and your monitor.

 b. Selection of the video mode
   Six video mode definition lines can simultaneously be displayed.  Click one 
of  them if you want to select the video mode it defines.  At its  right  hand 
side,  can  you  act  on the scrolling buttons,  to have  access  to  all  the 
available defined modes.
   The selected mode is displayed in inverted video.

 c. Virtual screen options
   To enable the virtual screen option, you can click the 'Big Screen' labeled 
button, which will be displayed in reverse video. Both editable fields labeled 
'screen  size' X and Y this way become operational.  They'll allow you to  set 
the screen size you want to use. Beware not to define a too big screen size in 
comparison with the available memory: the computer may crash during the system 
initialisation.
   Note:  In order to get a better compatibility, as much physicl as software, 
the  width that you define will be rounded to the closest lower  32  multiple, 
and the height to the closest lower 16 multiple.

 d. Other parameters
   Click on 'Options',  in order to get into the diverse options configuration 
mode. Then you'll be able to select or unselect the ones you wish to activate, 
by  clicking on the little squares that correspond to each of  them.  You  can 
exit this option mode by clicking on the 'Set' button.
   Both labeled 'Scroll threshold' X and Y editable fields are here to  define 
the distance (in pixels) between the mouse pointer and the screen edge,  under 
which  the screen shifts.  This function obviously works only if  the  virtual 
screen option is activated.
   The  'correct  threshold'  option allows you to adapt  the  virtual  screen 
vertical threshold automatically,  according to the horizontal threshold,  and 
to the size of the pixels.
   The  'configuration mode on boot' option allows  you,  when  activated,  to 
launch the boot configuration mode at any system reset, without having to hold 
the right Shift key, while booting the system.
   Another option called 'Update NEWDESK.INF' allows you,  when activated,  to 
modify the GEM Desktop configuration on initialisation,  in order to get  into 
the Desktop directly under the selected VI resolution. If this function is not 
activated, you'll have, if you want to work under the video mode you selected, 
to change the resolution with the 'Set Video' function of the Desktop, so that 
it's as close as the VI mode as possible.  (for example,  using a RGB monitor, 
if you have configured VI to 832x592 interlaced True Color, you'll have to set 
a True Color-80 columns-interlaced mode)

 e. Getting out from the configuation mode
   Once you have set all these parameters,  you can click the 'Use' button, to 
save your settings,  and exit the configuration screen.  If you click twice on 
a chosen video mode,  this will produce the same effect. You can also exit the 
program without saving the parameters, by clicking the 'Cancel' button.
   To use the selected configuration,  you must reset your computer,  VI  will 
automatically  install,  and once under the Desktop,  you'll be able  to  take 
profit from your Falcon's power.

   WARNING:  If you're using either an Atari monochrome or a VGA  monitor,  be 
very careful:  the available video modes can not be supported by your monitor. 
If you don't know if a certain mode works with it or not,  first select a mode 
which  resolution  is  greater than the one from a mode  that  you  know  your 
monitor  supports  (for  example,  the  640x480 mode  works  on  most  of  all 
monochrome monitors).
   If  the mode that you selected actually works on your monitor,  there's  no 
problem with it. You can go on selecting a greater mode than this one.
   Otherwise, if the screen display looks unstable, or if the monitor displays 
nothing,  don't insist,  you could cause damage to your monitor.  Just  reboot 
your  computer,  and  during the initialisation process,  hold down  the  left 
<Shift> key, that allows you to disable VI's installation, ans this way to get 
onto  the  GEM  Desktop,  in order to select another  video  mode  that  works 
correctly with your monitor.


4. THE NEW CONFIGURATION MODES
   The  1.1 version of Videl Inside features two new resolution  configuration 
modes: the mode using the command line, and the configuration mode on boot.

 a. using the command line:
   VI  can be executed by any program,  and this way can be configured  in  an 
automatic way. This can be useful for certain boot managers, such as Xboot, to 
fix a different VI mode for each system configuration. The command line format 
is the following:
   VI.PRG mon,w,h,col
   (comment:  the parameters can be separated either by commas  (','),  spaces 
(' '), or points ('.'). The reason for this ability is that some boot managers 
don't  send  the  entire command line to VI if some of  these  characters  are 
used.)
   - mon is the monitor type you want to configure. (1=mono, 2=RGB, 3=VGA)
   - w  and h are the screen dimensions which correspond to the mode you  want 
to select.
   - col represents its number of colours:
          col  number of colours
          0    2
          1    4
          2    16
          3    256
          4    True Color
   If none of the VI.DAT inernal modes corresponds to all of these  parameters 
at the time,  VI stops its execution by displaying an error message,  and your 
configuration is not considered.
   If  you want to enable the virtual screen option,  you must add  two  other 
parameters,  representing the width of the virtual screen for the  first,  and 
its height for the second.

 b. Configuration of VI by the boot config option
   This option is activated if you hold down the right Shift key while in  the 
Falcon's  initialisation phase.  The available video modes list  corresponding 
with your monitor then appears.  The currently activated mode is preceded by a 
tick  symbol.  The  selectable mode is displayed in inverted  video.  You  can 
select another mode by moving in the list using the vertical arrow  keys,  and 
pressing the Return key while on the wanted mode.
   You can also define a virtual resolution,  first by activating the  virtual 
screen  option,  by  pressing the 'V' key,  then by setting  the  height  with 
Shift+Vertical arrows, and the width with Shift+Horizontal arrows.

5. HOW TO DEFINE YOUR OWN VIDEO MODES
   Videl Inside's video modes are intirely reconfigurable.  They are stored in 
the  VI.DAT  data  file.  You can create your own video  modes:  VI  has  been 
especially designed to make that possible.  You must meanwhile know the  Videl 
chip quite well.
   The VI.DAT file structure is the following:  each video mode is composed of 
a 35 maximum character ASCII line,  that will appear in the configuration box. 
In the following line, there are some numeric parameters, separated by commas, 
written  either in decimals (default),  or in hexadecimals (they are  in  that 
case preceded by the '$' prefix). Here's the list of these parameters:
   - Monitor type to which the mode corresponds (1:monochome, 2:RGB, 3:VGA)
   - Horizontal and vertical size of the screen
   - Number of bitplanes of the picture (2^nb= number of displayable colours)
   - Video  mode  (Xbios format),  that is initialised,  before  the  VI  mode 
     installation. Il must correspond to the closest Xbios mode to the VI mode 
     (at the ST-compatibility,  number of colours,  80/40 columns, interlacing 
     (RGB),  and double-line mode (VGA) levels).  Note:  the PAL and  overscan 
     flags (#5 and #6 bits) must systematically be set to zero.
   - The Videl vectors follow:
     HHT,HBB,HBE,HDB,HDE,HSS,VFT,VBB,VBE,VDB,VDE,VSS,Vwrap,Vmode,VCO.
     $FF8282,$FF8284,$FF8286,$FF8288,$FF828A,$FF828C,
     $FF82A2,$FF82A4,$FF82A6,$FF82A8,$FF82AA,$FF82AC,
     $FF8210,$FF82C2,$FF82C0.
     All these vectors must be read or written in the word format (2 bytes).

   You  can  add  remark lines in VI.DAT.  They must be preceded  by  the  ';' 
prefix.  You  cannot insert remark lines between the two lines that  define  a 
video mode.

6. NOTE FOR PROGRAMMERS
   VI  installs  in  the Cookie-Jar a cookie which  identifier  is  TDVI.  The 
following  long-word  contains in its high weight byte the version  number  in 
decimals,  multiplied  with  10.  (for example,  the 1.1 version is  coded  by 
$11000000. The 1.0 version was coded by $02000000, which was a forgetting, but 
this  kind  of update problems should not happen again.) The  three  following 
bytes have no utility for the moment,  but this is possible they'll be used in 
a future version.


     That's all, about how to use Videl Inside...

                               ----------------

   Videl  Inside  is a production from the Trisomic  Development  group.  This 
group has the particularity that it only develops applications, utilities, and 
miscellaneous software, for the Falcon030. Its members are now Alriad, Kor, Melkor, Pozzi, SoniX, Soyuz and 
Zerkman.

   You can contact us at the following address:

Franois GALEA (Zerkman)
19, rue du Moulinet
78610 Le Perray-en-Yvelines
- FRANCE -
e-mail: afranch@gamay-gw.iut.univ-lehavre.fr (Pozzi)
        e5172@iut-orsay.fr (Zerkman)
        e5254@iut-orsay.fr (Kor)

   You can send to us a floppy disk with your own video modes,  the ones  that 
will  be  selected (if we haven't discovered them before !) will  allow  their 
authors to be mentioned in the future VI versions...
   At this address you'll be able to get the latest version of VI,  if you add 
a stamped reply envelope to your sending.



   That's all folks, I wish you a good enjoyment with Videl Inside, and I hope 
you  could understand this documentation in spite of my poor English level  (I 
learned it at school, so forgive me...)

                                                          Zerkman, April 1995.
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