Opening interlaced screens with AMOS
 

Hi! Try as I might, I just can't seem to make AMOS open a Hires interlaced screen (or a LowRes interlaced screen for that matter)

I open a screen like this:

Whenever I print text on this screen or load an IFF into it, the aspect ratio looks right, but it seems only one of the two fields is shown, i.e. no interlacing is taking place. Here's an example. I print the text "THIS SHOULD BE INTERLACED TEXT" right after opening the screen and it looks like this.

http://i.imgur.com/w2RCCRV.png

This is done with AMOS Professional 2.00. Anybody know if it's possible at all to open interlaced screens with AMOS? Thanks a lot in advance! The manual says it should be possible, but I don't seem to be able to get an interlaced screen open.

Is this emulated or on real hardware?

Hi, Samurai_Crow. This screengrab is from emulation, but I've run the code in AMOS on real Amiga's as well and it shows up looking exactly the same. It looks like the screen is non-interlaced and every other line is simply skipped as a result.

Here's the actual code I am using :

http://i.imgur.com/oOuM4S5.png

I have posted a link to this thread on the AmosPro bug reports and feature requests forum on UltimateAmiga.co.uk to bring it to the attention of the maintainers.

Cool, thank you! Hope I'm not doing anything wrong.

After opening the screen I double checked the screen mode with:

And I see 32772 printed, which is $8004 and is exactly the value Hires ($8000) + Laced (4) should be.

I don't think it is your fault. Maybe the second Copper list is getting corrupted.

Can I just jump in here and ask if the IFF image being loaded in is an interlaced image?

Yes, the IFF image is an interlaced image. I created it with PPaint. It also opens correctly in an interlaced screen with some picture viewers that I tried (outside of AMOS).

Hmmm, ok.

Well then, I agree with Samurai Crow, it is a bug you have stumbled onto :(

Can you be sure this isn't a setup-issue inside the AMOSPro editor to avoid flickering while the editor itself is set to non-flicker?

I know of no such antiflicker setting.

Can you please upload your "test.IFF" file and current AMOS configuration to The Zone please? (it is called "AMOSPro_Interpreter_Config" and is found in the "S" drawer where AMOSPro is located)

I ask because I just tried to recreate the bug using the code you posted above and was unable to do so. I used a hires+laced image created in Personal Paint as the test image. I tried with and without loading the image and no bug occurred.

I'll try and upload it tonight when I get home. It's actually reassuring that you weren't able to reproduce it. I couldn't imagine I was the first person ever to stumble upon this. :)

Erm, I'm feeling a bit foolish now.... :p After your hint about the config file I went to the editor config setup and set the "Editor Screen in Interlaced" setting to Yes and voila! I can open interlaced screens now, like it ain't no thang! :):):)

http://i.imgur.com/ZE6Tz5I.png

Sorry for wasting everyone's time, but you nudged me in the right direction as I would probably never have found the solution on my own. So thanks everyone for your time and your help!!!! And who knows, this thread might help someone else in the future. :)

Don't worry, it's one of those cludges that is probably related to AMOS flipping between Editor and Direct mode (and for the reason Cylon stated earlier). Also, if a game screen is large enough you can see the edges of it poking out from behind the Editor window!

Anyway, problem is now fixed :)

Not sure if I should start a new thread here on this one but i'm also getting this issue in Amos Pro on WB3.1 and setting Editor Screen to Interlaced does nothing to fix this problem. Interestingly running Amos Pro under WB1.3 the issue goes away and the screen is displayed perfectly.

Makes sense, since Cv365's "success" screen looks like it also uses the old 1.3 Topaz font.

However, I've been able to use hires+laced in AMOS Pro under 3.1 in a genlocking application. Note that genlock applications tend to use interlacing regardless of what you tell the Amiga – I seem to remember that the screen turned pixelated whenever the video source was turned off.

Does the same error occur in the old AMOS Pro 1.x version?

I assume after changing the option, you did exit and re-open AMOS Pro?

Have you tried using Close Workbench instruction just to see if Workbench was somehow interfering with AMOS?

FWIW, I tested under WB 2.04 and I don't have WB 3+

Changing the option Editor to interlaced makes the editor showup in the top half of the screen only with the bottom half of the screen showing part of the output screen, interlace not working ie the editor has every second line missing and squished to the top half of the screen if that makes sense. Saving this config as default, exiting and restarting Amos produces the exact same result.

Running the program with this option in either mode still produces an Amos output screen as shown at the top of this thread. Workbench 1.3 however shows a working interlaced screen with both frames working correctly.

Close workbench instruction doesn't seem to have any effect what so ever either running this from direct mode or before or after the screen open command.

Might give this a go in Amos 1.3 and check results this way.

I just ran the same test with Amos 1.3 but this time in WinUAE as apposed to my real machine test I did earlier with Amos Pro.

The results are exactly the same as Amos Pro on my real A600 machine.

In WB3.1 the interlaced screen issue is present and running Amos 1.3 in WB1.3 the issue goes away and a proper interlaced screen is displayed.