APPLE II GRAPHICS & SOUND FORUM CONFERENCE LOG January 22, 1993 10:00 P.M. Topic: Inside Allison Forum Leader: W. Scott Gentry (AFL Scott) Edited by: Ted O'Hara (AFC Ted) Copyright (c) 1993 America Online, Inc. and Excellent Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved ================================================================== AFC Ted Welcome to the Apple II Graphics and Sound Forum :) AFL Scott Tonight's conference will deal with a program that I've become intimately familiar with... AFL Scott Allison. AFL Scott For starters, this weekend, I'll return the final electronic copy of the contract for Allison 2.0. AFL Scott That means that sometime soon, Allison 2.0 will be a reality. For starters, Allison 2.0 will include a couple of new features... AFL Scott First, there will be a 16 palette option. This will allow you to create pictures with up to 256 colors in them... AFL Scott Next, there will be something that was brought about by a new firmware release... AFL Scott Allison movies. Allison movies are monochrome and are created in realtime. A companion application, yet to be titled will allow you to tag sounds or dialog with your movie. Developer1 what's the FPS rate of the recording? AFL Scott Frame editing, as well as transitions will be included as well so you can splice at will. AFL Scott Capturing a movie is a snap... Since the new ROM allows monochrome digitizing at 30 frames per second, everything will be done in realtime. Developer1 nice! AFL Scott All you do is click on the button and the rest is done for you -- until you either cancel or fill up memory. Developer1 Is greyscale or color a future possibility for Allison movies? AFC DaveS That sounds great! AFL Scott Monochrome is grayscale. MonoTone You keep saying "will have", I assume that Allison is not completed yet? Developer1 yes, it does! :D Developer1 Oh sorry Scott, I though mono= B&W. AFL Scott Color is possible, too if you want to go frame by frame. Developer1 oic! AFL Scott 1.0 through 1.0.5 is done, but I've waited to start on 2.0 until I got a contract I was happy with. AFL Scott I'm happy so as soon as I get a printed copy, sign it, then return it, I'll get started. AFC DaveS Excellent! :) AFL Scott I anticipate sometime in early April. AFA Andy Great :) Developer1 quite! MonoTone What does Allison have that other paint programs don't? AFL Scott Now, for those wanting upgrades, I have no information. Those will be handled by Alltech Electronics. AFL Scott Beta testers will be given free ROM upgrades. I anticipate only about 10 beta testers, though. AFC Ted Allison is a digitizing program. It isn't a paint program. MonoTone oh...digitizing...thanks, Ted AFC DaveS So Alltech will be the distributors? AFL Scott Well, for starters, Allison isn't a paint program. It's a digitizing/image processing program for the enhanced version of the AST Vision Plus digitizer (VisionaryGS or Enhanced Vision Plus)... AFC Ted Scott...what's the current name of the board it works with? :) AFL Scott Alltech is calling the board the Enhanced AST Vision Plus, though. AFL Scott So, yet another name enters the fray..that's ok, though... AFC Ted I wonder if they can get away with that. AFL Scott There is only one program that works with the board, though, and that's Allison. AFC Ted (the "AST" part of it) AFL Scott If they can't, then that's ok, too. MonoTone So you have to have some other equipment besides Allison program to use it? AFL Scott Video Camera, VCR, Zapshot, or laser disc work fine as an input source, Joyce. MonoTone Thanks, Scott...lots of $$$ involved? AFL Scott I don't know anything about price, Joyce.. I think, however, that Alltech is shooting for under $200. AFC DaveS That sounds like a pretty good price. MonoTone For all that is required to use Allison? MonoTone Not bad! AFL Scott Yes, and it's a lot better than ComputerEyes, too. AFC Ted :) AFC DaveS How big is the playback screen for Allison Movies? MonoTone I have a friend who just bought the ZapShot...he will be happy about Allison! AFL Scott I've got a version of Allison that loads ComputerEyes raw images and the quality of the raw images from ComputerEyes cannot compare to the quality of raw images done with Allison. AFL Scott The movies are 80x50, Dave. I'm going to be providing (probably a freeware thing) NBA's and XCMD's to play movies with HyperStudio and HyperCard IIGS. MonoTone Is there a fact sheet on Allison, Scott? That I can pass on to my friend? AFL Scott Not yet, Joyce. AFL Scott The fact sheet will come out before Allison 2.0 is released and has it's features frozen. AFL Scott Those who tested Allison 1.0 know that it can change radically from initial concept to final product. MonoTone Good, I will pass the info I have gotten on to him...thanks AFL Scott So, that's it about Allison... only took 20 minutes. :) AFC DaveS Is it OK to post the info you've given so far to the Net? AFA Andy When does AllTech expect to release the package, Scott? MonoTone Scott, when you have info on Allison in text form, please send to me, so I can put [it] in our user group newsletter and pass [it] onto my friend... AFL Scott I don't know that, Andy. I know that I'm sending them a version of Allison that has only id routines for the New ROM so they can ship immediately. I'm assuming they'll offer an upgrade to 2.0 when it's ready. AFA Andy Thanks, Scott. I'm already saving my pennies. AFL Scott I'm hoping the upgrade will be inexpensive. MonoTone You keep talking about a New ROM....what is that? AFL Scott It's the heart of the board, Joyce. It contains the actual driver firmware for the board. It is accessed by Allison to control digitizing. "Firmware" is software that is written to Programmable Read Only Memory.. or PROM MonoTone Oh, I thought it was the ROM on the GS' board....I got it now...:) AFL Scott (I use PROM and ROM interchangably). AFC DaveS Is there any reason why these digitizing control routines have to be on ROM? AFC Ted Not a burning issue, Scott :) MonoTone :) AFL Scott No. No reason. That's just where they are. They also serve as a means for identifying which slot the board resides. MonoTone Have a phone call...thanks for the info. Nite AFC DaveS So Allison can dynamically search for the board whether it's enabled or not? AFC DaveS (slot enabled, that is) AFL Scott You just simply enable slot rom for a slot and search all the slots until you find the byte pattern you programmed. That's really all there is to it. AFC DaveS Thanks for the clarification :) AFL Scott I honestly don't know why others don't use this method. It's really easy and doesn't require setting the slot to "Your Card". AFC DaveS The Quickie software also does this AFL Scott ahem. :) AFA Andy If you can keep it from crashing that long :D AFC DaveS Heh :) AFL Scott 3.0 crashes a lot, eh? AFA Andy Yes, it does for me. AFC DaveS I'm glad I didn't upgrade :) AFC Ted Let's just say it likes to be shift-key booted :) AFL Scott I was led to believe it was "bullet proof" by Vitesse. :) AFA Andy Nope AFC DaveS Guess they pulled a fast one :) AFL Scott A quickie? AFC DaveS yuk yuk :) AFC Ted :) AFA Andy Ted, I can boot from the floppy and it still crashes. AFC Ted Still, I like the new features...for those times when I do scan stuff, which as it turns out, isn't often :( AFA Andy That's true Scott :(