MINIPAINT 1.2

Post by **Jeff-20** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:08 pm

Opps, silly me. I just hastily tried to drag and drop it into VICE. This is even more embarrassing as I hate emulation.

I'll try it on real hardware tonight.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:38 am

In defense of VICE: the load address of $10F1 couldn't give any hint, that the files serve double use - being loaded to their intended address by MINIGRAFIK, and MINIPAINT; or loaded to $1201 as "BASIC" programs. I.e. even if there were an automatic check of load addresses to switch between ',8' (relative load), and ',8,1' (absolute load) it would most probably choose the wrong action.

(One could rightfully ask, whether loading a file with ',8,1', and then RUNning it does make any sense, anyway. If I intend to RUN a file, then I'm better off with loading it ',8' at all times.)

At their begin the files contain a BASIC line with '2008 SYS 8584'. This SYS starts the built-in display routine at the end of the file. This way, you really wouldn't need to run one of the aforementioned programs, and still are able to display the image. This is a feature you don't get with many other image file formats.

I'd like to add, that without VICE, I wouldn't have had any incentive to develop MINIGRAFIK, and MINIPAINT. Until I got Mega-Cart, my setup only consisted of a VIC-20 with 3K RAM expander.

Of course VICE is not the be and end of all. IMO, after version 1.16 VICE started with creeping featurism, and bug insertions and removements which really didn't deserve new version numbers. Heck, even 'Edge of Disgrace' runs fine with no apparent glitches on x64 v1.16!

Michael

TBCVIC · Post by **TBCVIC** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:16 am

I just tried this Minipaint program and I think it's great. I noticed though that when I was painting in multicolor it would revert to singlecolor and lose the character color after using the preview feature. I used the version from 2009-06-25.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:19 am

Yep, that's one of the small issues going to be fixed in v1.0.

Greetings,

Michael

saehn · Post by **saehn** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:37 pm

Mike, I just got finished with the screenshot for RQ3 using your MiniPaint, thanks much! I have some feedback, some of which you've already addressed:

The space bar should be the key to toggle between preview and edit modes. This is a standard convention in C64 paint programs, and is much more convenient. Allows the artist to changes modes without looking at the keyboard.
After return to edit mode, MP should remember and restore (1) the user's last x/y cursor coordinates, (2) the last selected pixel mode (hi-res/multi), and (3) the last selected color #1. It's a pain to have set these every time switching between modes.
The help screen should have "run/stop: exit help" or "x: exit help" or whatever next to "space: next page".
The user should be able to press the back arrow to select color #0. It's easier than having to move the left hand and look down at the keyboard to find key 0. Remember that graphicians are placing hundreds of pixels, we want it to be as easy as possible!
The F1/F3 draw mode isn't quite perfect... in F1 (draw) mode, MP should function exactly as it does now. In F3 (dot) mode, MP should put down a pixel and then not move the cursor. The F1/draw mode is handy sometimes, but for the most part graphicians just want to put down one pixel at a time and not have to fight an automatic cursor. MP can't predict where I want to put a pixel next, so I should be able to just handle the cursor positioning myself. This too is an established standard with keyboard-based C64 paint programs.
The load and save functions are perfect. The only additional feature I can imagine would be a directory viewer.

I was very happy to work with it, and look forward to doing so again in the future.

Mermaid · Post by **Mermaid** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:52 pm

Saehn: I think he's already been fixing a lot of that stuff after someone bombarded him with feedback in PMs.. :) Colours should be 1-4 etc., no more randomly wandering cursor and a more logical key to switch between fullscreen view and zoom.

saehn · Post by **saehn** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:27 pm

Cool. I liked Picasso too, but one thing that's great about MiniPaint is that it's NTSC/PAL. And I like the hi-res/multi feature.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:36 am

And Mini-Paint has a programming interface, which I suppose means you can load an already drawn image and dynamically add dots and lines on top of it? Perhaps not so much use for splash screens and demos, but I can think of other places where it would be great.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 3:41 am

carlsson wrote:... you can load an already drawn image and dynamically add dots and lines on top of it ...

This is how VICtoria Gold produces the map display

, even though at that time MINIPAINT didn't exist yet, but the picture format had already been defined by MINIGRAFIK.

Greetings,

Michael

darkatx · Post by **darkatx** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:31 am

What an incredible graphic tool

Awesome Job Mike!

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 10:53 am

So MINIPAINT 1.1 came back from the "usability lab"

, giving me some food for thought again:

- the directory display pops up inadvertently after cursor left, or up, when the user (or VICE) keeps his hand on the SHIFT key, and presses 4 to set a pixel in auxiliary colour. For this reason, the directory is now displayed through the key combo C=-4.

- I had also some "fun" with the CHRIN routine *not* setting the C flag, when data transfer wouldn't work as intended

. This caused MINIPAINT to "hang" in the directory display, when either no disc was inserted, or the drive was not present at all, or switched off. Fixed.

The top post has been updated for the new 1.2 release.

Greetings,

Michael

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 2:53 pm

It occured to me it could be a nice thing to print the pictures created in MINIPAINT, in colour, from a hardcopy program being part of the batch suite.

Of course, with MINIPAINT running within VICE, one always can take a screenshot, and print that from the host PC. But that method would of course not be available on a real VIC-20, and also wouldn't necessarily take the non-square pixels into account.

One possible candidate would be the Okimate 20. I did some research, but I couldn't find the manual, or at least a description of the printer commands on the 'net. I'd appreciate any input on that, if anyone has still a working Oki 20 around, or if this is just a pipe dream of mine.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:48 pm

BUMP.

By sheer luck I found a small (~1K) hardcopy program for the Okimate 20, which runs on a C64. Incidentally, it accepts Koala picture files.

Together with MG KOALA EXPORT one could in principle convert the picture, transfer it to a C64, and print from there. But that's not an optimal solution, as another computer is still involved, and the conversion process is not able to preserve all colours.

I do not own an Oki 20 myself. Before I start to reverse engineer the hardcopy program to extract the parts specific to the Oki 20, and then produce the MG version, I'd rather want to gauge the interest first:

Are there Denial fellows, which do happen to own an Oki 20, and would like to test the ported hardcopy program?

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:51 pm

Hey! I finally sat down and tried MINIPAINT (in VICE). Here's the results of my 1 hour of use - drawn totally in MINIPAINT pixel by pixel:

It was lots of fun! What a great tool for the VIC-20!

I suggested a couple of things:

- Koala Pad support (which would also mean paddle etch-a-sketch type drawing as the Koala outputs its co-ordinates to the VIC like paddle input signals).
- a dot on the mini hi-res display in the corner to reflect where your cursor is.
- fill and line functions (if even possible).

But even as it stands it's a great paint program.

Wilson · Post by **Wilson** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 9:23 pm

Cool picture! Makes me really want to get some work done on Castle Rex.

Here's a pretty awful picture I made right before MINIPAINT 1.1 came out (also pixel-by-pixel):

- Koala Pad support (which would also mean paddle etch-a-sketch type drawing as the Koala outputs its co-ordinates to the VIC like paddle input signals).
- a dot on the mini hi-res display in the corner to reflect where your cursor is.
- fill and line functions (if even possible).

The first and second features would be nice for the laborious pixel by pixel work we did, but I think MINIPAINT is more for finishing converts made in the user's favorite drawing program.