Viaduct
=======
A PCWindow replacement for CBM Bridgeboards for Amiga computers.
Why?
----
In short, I like crazy projects which don't make any sense whatsoever.
Now that we got that out of the way, here are a few more reasons
a bit longer:
The old PCWindow software was designed for 1988-state Amiga computers.
it doesn't play nice with fast CPUs and it doesn't support RTG systems
properly. It was designed to also run with older Kickstarts and it best
works with those. This is where Viaduct comes in, which was designed
for "modern" Amiga, OS3.1, RTG and fast CPU expansion. If you have a
fast, expanded classic Amiga system, there's a good chance Viaduct
will work better for you than PCWindow ever did. Viaduct can also
display the PC's Color output in a Workbench window, while PCWindow
only supports this for Mono output only.
Please note that this is an early version of Viaduct and doesn't support
all features of PCWindow currently. Also, not all hardware combinations
supported by janus.library and the CBM driver stack was tested.
I wrote this software for my own needs, and to support things I found
interesting. It's entirely possible that it won't fit your use case, or
it doesn't support things you find important. In this case, please send
a feature request or a bug report. Please also read the "Known Issues"
section below.
Requirements
------------
* a fast 68k CPU, like a 68040, 68060 or faster
* an RTG card with Picasso96 or CyberGraphX drivers and at least
800x600 Workbench resolution in 256 colors for windowed mode,
or a 640x480 screen in 256 colors for full screen mode
* 16 free pens on the Workbench screen, if ran in windowed mode
* a CBM Bridgeboard, like the A2286 or A2386sx
* AmigaOS 3.1 or newer
* properly installed and functioning janus.library and PC Tools
Copyright & Contact
-------------------
Copyright (c) 2018 Karoly Balogh <charlie amigaspirit.hu>
http://viaduct.amigaspirit.hu
Disclaimer
----------
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN
AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT
OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
This software is written with best intentions, and in the hope that it
will be useful, but it is based on information obtained with reverse
engineering of computer systems and hardware otherwise unsupported and
end of life for decades. In other words, if this software sets your
Amiga or PC Board on fire, I'm not responsible. Use at your own risk.
Known Issues
------------
- Blinking is not supported in the various text modes.
- The rendering engine supports a lot of options to improve usability,
speed and rendering quality, but currenty the default settings are
hardwired. There should be a settings GUI to change these options.
- The code was not tested on an AGA screen and will probably break. I
have no functioning AGA system with a PC card at this point, and no
Windows system to try with WinUAE.
- Running on an ECS screen is not supported at all (ECS doesn't have
enough colors in high res).
- Viaduct relies on a *FAST* hardware BltTemplate() implementation in
the video driver, and will probably be very slow if it's missing.
(Some RTG cards are known not to implement this.)
- The keyboard emulation is still not complete.
- Probably there is more. But I prefer to release early and often,
rather than try to polish it forever and never get it out there...
Future Plans
------------
- Fix other aspects of CGA and MDA emulation as far as the bridge
hardware and performance allows.
- Resizeable/scrollable main window
- Settings GUI (possibly with MUI 3.8)
- Clipboard support
- GUI localization
- Support tooltypes from the icon, in addition to ENV variables
to set video mode and other settings
- Performance improvements and bugfixes
FAQ
---
Q: But... Why?
A: See above.
Q: Did you really develop this in Free Pascal?
A: Yes.
Q: You seem to have a lot of free time.
A: I don't have a lot of free time, and that wasn't a question.
Q: What hardware did you use to develop Viaduct?
A: I used my Amiga 2000, with a Blizzard 2060, PicassoIV and an A2386sx
or A2286, running AmigaOS 3.1 (original Commodore version). I also
used a MacBook with OS X to crosscompile with Free Pascal.
Q: Will you open the source code later?
A: This is possible, yes. The source is already on GitHub, in a private
repository. But I want to keep it private until it reaches a
"functional and complete enough" state. If you want to contribute
before, please contact me in e-mail.
Q: I want to contribute somehow, but I cannot code. Is there a way I
can help?
A: Send bugreports and test hardware combinations. Also, I'm looking
for a nice 4 color and MagicWB icon for this project, for the main
file itself, and the folder itself.
Q: Could you support other PC Bridgeboards like the Vortex GoldenGate
series?
A: Theroetically yes. This depends on the availability of programming
material for these cards or the effort needed to reverse engineer
it. I have a GoldenGate 386sx, but I made no effort in researching
it yet.
Q: CGA or MDA sucks, so I'm using a VGA card in my Bridgeboard setup.
Can Viaduct display the VGA card's picture in a Workbench window?
A: No. Viaduct can only display the picture of the built-in emulated
MDA or CGA display adapter. The Bridge hardware doesn't support
promoting the picture of an external ISA card directly to the
Amiga side.
Q: CGA colors suck. Couldn't Viaduct emulate EGA or VGA? Or at least
PCjr/Tandy?
A: Adding emulation of hardware anything beyond the Bridge's hardware
emulation can support is probably too complex and would be far too
slow on the average RTG Amiga, therefore doesn't worth the effort,
sadly.
Q: So, how about CGA composite mode support at least?
A: Yuck... :P
Q: I see Viaduct trying to autodetect the Video mode, but it doesn't
work for my setup. How can I fix it?
A: In the PCPrefs application, make sure either MDA or CGA emulation,
or both are enabled, and the default video configuration is set
properly to an enabled emulation mode.
Q: I see Viaduct trying to autodetect the Video mode, but it doesn't
work for my setup. How to force Viaduct into a certain configuration?
A: Create an environment variable called "VIADUCT_VIDEO", which should
contain "CGA" or "MDA", without the quotations. For example the CLI
command:
> setenv VIADUCT_VIDEO MDA
before starting Viaduct will force it into MDA emulation mode.
Copy ENV:VIADUCT_VIDEO to ENVARC: if you want to make this setting
permanent.
Q: How can I set Viaduct into full screen mode?
A: Create an environment variable called "VIADUCT_OUTPUT", which should
contain "WINDOW" or "FULLSCREEN", without the quotations. For example
the CLI command:
> setenv VIADUCT_OUTPUT FULLSCREEN
before starting Viaduct will force it into full screen mode. Viaduct
will try to open a screen on the same Monitor as your Workbench screen
in 640x480 mode and in 8 bit color depth. This is hardwired and cannot
be changed at the moment.
Copy ENV:VIADUCT_OUTPUT to ENVARC: if you want to make this setting
permanent.
Q: I use a text mode PC app, which sets the Text blink settings using a
BIOS call, which is not implemented on a CGA card. How can I force
Viaduct to always use 16 background colors in text mode?
A: Create an environment variable called "VIADUCT_BLINK", which should
contain "ON" or "OFF", without the quotations. For example the CLI
command:
> setenv VIADUCT_BLINK OFF
before starting Viaduct will force ignoring the blink bit. This might
cause artifacts in some apps which would set the blink bit correctly
in the hardware, hence it is not the default. Note that Viaduct doesn't
support Text Blinking at this point, so this setting only affects the
the 8 additional background colors in CGA text modes.
Copy ENV:VIADUCT_BLINK to ENVARC: if you want to make this setting
permanent.
Thanks & Additional Credits
---------------------------
Peter "Ratman" Foldesi
- for test hardware support extraordinaire
Zsolt "adsr" Mari
- for test hardware support
Marcus "Alb42" Sackrow
- for his awesome work on Free Pascal Amiga version and various
additional units
Balazs "Poison" Oszvald
- for Viaduct icons
Version history
---------------
1.3 (2018.12.27)
- Implemented support for unofficial CGA 16 color "graphics" modes
80x100 and 160x100, which are technically text mode hacks
- Implemented some more menu options. Some upcoming features appear
disabled for now.
- Implemented cursor blinking speed setting via the menu
- Implemented integrated "PC Reset" feature, available via the menu
or using the RAmiga-R hotkey combination
- Implemented switching between Full Screen mode and Windowed mode
via the menu, or using the RAmiga-F hotkey combination
- Fixed "Blinking Text Enable" bit polarity when reading the CGA
Mode Control register. Note that blinking text itself is still not
supported, but the upper 8 background colors are masked away when
the bit is enabled.
- Added VIADUCT_BLINK environment variable. If set to "OFF", this
forces 16 background colors in all CGA text modes, making Viaduct
ignore the blink settings in the hardware, by disabling the
masking of the upper 8 backgrounds colors. Since some PC apps use
a BIOS call to set the blink bit and this BIOS call is not
implemented on the CGA, they might end up using wrong colors on
a CGA, thus, also in Viaduct. If you use such apps a lot, you
might want to use this setting.
1.2 (2018.11.26)
- Implemented Full Screen support (hardwired to 640x480 for now)
- Implemented 40x25 Text Mode support
- Implemented underline support in Mono Text Mode
- Implemented video signal off detection, as "blanked" mode
- Implemented a simplistic menu, with About... box and Quit,
including a Quit-shortcut from Keyboard (Right Amiga - Q)
- Implemented Num Lock and Scroll Lock key support
- Various fixes in Keyboard support
- Fixed some very hacky code while setting the Window title, which
failed on some systems
- Fixed MDA mode to properly release pens on exit
- Fixed a bug where all of the Intuition requesters opened by Viaduct
were closed immediately without waiting for interaction.
- Added new icons (MagicWB and standard) by Balazs "Poison" Oszvald
1.1 (2018.07.03)
- Implemented initial 80x25 Mono Text Mode and MDA emulation support
- Automatic detection of the right emulation mode on start, based on
the Bridgeboard's configuration file.
- Added VIADUCT_VIDEO environment variable, to force a specific display
mode and ignore the config (See the FAQ above.)
- Now displays the current video mode in the window titlebar
- Implemented delta rendering for 320x200 4 color mode, speeds up
refresh where the application (usually games) only update small
parts of the screen.
- Fixed trashed display of the first frame when Viaduct was started
while the PC was in 320x200 4 color mode.
- Fixed silly a bug, where the cursor drawing could cause a deadlock
depending on the CRTC register contents
1.0 (2018.05.27)
- First version.
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