iComp confirms ownership of P96

Lizard · 22 December 2018, 22:50

22.12.2018

After making the money transfer in december 2016 and signing the software acquisition agreement on January 30th, 2017, we have bought the P96 RTG software from Tobias Abt and Alexander Kneer. A prior license agreement with Hyperion entertainment for use of P96 in OS4.1 is part of the agreement, and will of course be continued under ownership of iComp. There is no other license agreement with any other party besides this.

In the following months, we have cleaned up the source code and made small improvements to the software. Over the course of development of OS 3.1.4, further improvements have been made, which we are now offering as a download product. Please log in to your member account to also view download products in the shop.

While the authors Tobias Abt and Alexander Kneer have only given access to the API for graphics cards to paying customers after signing a non-disclosure agreement, we are now documenting the API for free for anyone in our Wiki. We'd like to support community projects like the VA2000 graphics card with this, but also take other drivers out of a legal grey zone that resulted from the previous licensing model that Abt and Kneer have chosen. By publishing the hardware manufacturer's API, we are delivering on a promise that we've made even before purchasing this software package.

Unfortunately, there is a market actor that claims to have a perpetual license for P96, without having any written proof for this claim. We were even summoned to not advertise what the agreement clearly says: iComp GmbH is the only legal source for a P96 software registration. We believe that a claim of a software product or bundle containing a "registered version" of P96 is false advertising.
The legal status of the shareware archive of P96, which has been available on Aminet for years is not changed: It stays legal to distribute this archive free of charge.

This download product is the first to use a new pricing model in our shop system: "Pay what you want". As opposed to other fields where this model is used (for example in selected restaurants), we have set a lowest price, as otherwise the administrative cost would be higher than the chosen price. We are hoping for the fairness of Amiga users to register each installation of P96. This is targeting especially the users of emulators, PCI bus boards and new FPGA graphics cards, which would be almost useless without P96.

Source

Gorf · 23 December 2018, 02:28

So make it open source - now!

Minuous · 23 December 2018, 04:07

Seems it wasn't really necessary to change the name, according to this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/8015364.stm

Amiga4000 · 23 December 2018, 04:08

Awesome news! Now that Jens has secured the rights to P96, does that mean that development will continue in the Amiga 1200 Reloaded project?

grelbfarlk · 23 December 2018, 04:41

Good news, does anyone happen to know if the new 2.2 included the unofficial P96 fixes as well?

Romanujan · 23 December 2018, 10:05

Purchased. Any idea how long one wait for a download link?
[EDIT] Silly my, there is a download link in the shop

Quote:

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Good news, does anyone happen to know if the new 2.2 included the unofficial P96 fixes as well?

Do you know who did the unofficial fixes, and what exactly was fixed?

duga · 23 December 2018, 11:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gorf

So make it open source - now!

Why would anyone buy it only to make it open source?

MartinW · 23 December 2018, 13:21

Could someone share the purchase link please? I must be going blind, I've just looked through the shop and all I see is hardware. Also checked the Wiki and I didn't see a link to any purchase page.

Happy to support the company and ongoing development by purchasing a license for my RTG.

Romanujan · 23 December 2018, 13:41

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...-software.html

But you have to be logged in.

MartinW · 23 December 2018, 13:44

Ahh, ok, thanks. I missed that you have to be logged in for the product to appear

I don’t have a login I don’t think. I’ll create one. Makes sense for download only purchases.

utri007 · 23 December 2018, 19:46

Here what is fixed.

Updates in V2.2

The fastlayers.library is obsolete. The distribution no longer includes it, and the rtg.library no longer uses it. A v45 version of layers is available in the aminet which provides similar functions, though not on the basis of a patch. Otherwise, P96 works also on top of the V40 layers.library.

rtg.library: Apparently, some line drawing modes were a bit off, especially in combination with the firstDot flag. This may still require some testing, though.

rtg.library: Blitting small bitmaps in 16-bit hi-color mode could have trashed memory.

rtg.library: Some min-terms for 15 and 16-bit hi-color when blitting chunky to hi-color modes trashed registers and hence caused rendering defects.

rtg.library: Allocating bitmaps for screens that are not yet visible, but about to become visible caused trashed screen content as soon as the screen was moved to front. This was because the bitmap already got board memory at its allocation time, which was however, overwritten by the backfill memory on a screen flip, causing random nonsense from non-initialized memory on the screen.

rtg.library: Not yet visible true- or high-color bitmaps that are about to become visible but are not yet visible get the background color from WB screen, even though they may not be even part of the WB.

Fixed testing of occluded layers for PIP functions, adapted to the new V45 layers interface.

test for native bitmaps: the rtg.library now uses consistently TypeOfMem() to test whether a bitmap can be accessed by the native chipset or requires CPU emulation.

Added a new internal hook, EnableSoftSprite(boardinfo,formatflags,modeinfo) which allows a more flexible switching of softsprites than the simple SoftSpriteFlags available before. Especially the Cirrus GD534 has strange rules when the hardware cursor is available and when not.

Some combinations of mask and line mode did not honor the FRST_DOT flag of the graphics rastport correctly. Fixed.

JAM2 in HICOLOR mode rendered incorrect results when drawing lines.

Some blit combinations with patterns did not honor the minterm combinations correctly, especially combinations of JAM1/JAM2 and INVERSVID were problematic.

Cirrus GD5434 (PiccoloSD64 and others):
double line mode was broken (there is probably still a similar bug in the GD542x)
softsprite enabling is now more flexible
avoids color artifacts at the right border in true-color autoscroll modes
Due to a forgotten flag in the driver initialization, the pointer hot-spot was off if the BIGSPRITE option was used and the mode used line doubling.

Cirrus GD542x (GVP Spectrum and Picasso II):
removed artifacts on true-color screens with autoscroll enabled.
there is potentially still a bug in the double-line scan modes.

Develoment files both for application developers and card developers are now available. While the previous development files were based on the GD432x chip and the PicassoII board, both chip and card do not demonstrate the full feature set of P96 ideally. Instead, the GD5434 and PiccolloSD64 chip and card are now included. The GD5434 supports double-line scan modes, and requires a complicated-mode dependent soft-sprite switching that is only supported by the latest version of the rtg.library.

Previous versions of P96Mode and the emulation.library required a private link library, namely the xls.lib. As this library is no longer available, the missing functions have been re-implemented.

The P96 monitor driver became a lot shorter now.

The install tool FindCVPPC caused hits on some systems. The tool was rewritten to avoid them now.

Note that you can bypass the Amiga blitter now and use the CPU for blitting, thus allowing bitmaps in FAST MEM. This requires setting the following variable:

ENVARC:Picasso96/DisableAmigaBlitter

Source http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/P96

There you can found Software Developer archive and Hardware manufacturer archive.

I didn't get download link, but there is a download option under puchases. Thought there is a limit, you can download it only three times. Wich is not something what could be waited in year 2018.

Pyromania · 23 December 2018, 21:31

Congrats iComp.

Magic · 23 December 2018, 22:04

I just purchased it how do I download it? I am logged in and don't see any download link.

Romanujan · 23 December 2018, 22:25

Go to Account -> Order history. IComp should really make the purchase process more user friendly.

Magic · 23 December 2018, 22:57

Thank you! That was it.

grelbfarlk · 24 December 2018, 04:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by duga

Why would anyone buy it only to make it open source?

Not speaking for IComp, but perhaps they wanted some legal assurances for embracing and extending and eventually releasing new products based on it. That doesn't necessarily preclude them from releasing the source but still charging for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romanujan

Do you know who did the unofficial fixes, and what exactly was fixed?

No I'm not sure what all they included or where they came from, I think some was from Amithlon, some from OpenPCI project.

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/Picasso96.htm

This was included at some point:
http://aminet.net/package/driver/video/RTG403994p

There are a couple other fixes I can think of for P96 that I don't know whether are in 2.2 or not but appear to be in 2.1e. Also bugs in 2.1e but that's what makes it unofficial, right? RIGHT?

Romanujan · 24 December 2018, 08:16

Looks like different changes, but I can be mistaken. I think it might be better to ask on the IComp support forum.

BTW, till recently I had problems with certain applications (Thromulus, TotalCalc, HippoPlayer S3M playback) causing severe system slowdown. Only my UAE configuration suffered, same OS installation run on original A1200 (without RTG) was fine. I was never able to find what was the reason - but P96 v2.2 seems to have fixed it

Hewitson · 24 December 2018, 13:14

More closed source shit... For anyone who actually cared about the Amiga the first step would have been to put the code on github.

Gorf · 24 December 2018, 13:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by duga

Why would anyone buy it only to make it open source?

To boost development or to show, they care about users/customers.
iComp is all about retro-hardware, so it would make sense to provide open source drivers.

Or just because it's Christmas!

kolla · 24 December 2018, 15:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hewitson

More closed source shit... For anyone who actually cared about the Amiga the first step would have been to put the code on github.

But, but.... Amiga code is much too ... advanced, and... complicated... for ordinary programmers to understand. You need special skills, (and preferably be German).

22 December 2018, 22:50	#1
Lizard Registered User Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Netherlands Posts: 20	iComp confirms ownership of P96 22.12.2018 After making the money transfer in december 2016 and signing the software acquisition agreement on January 30th, 2017, we have bought the P96 RTG software from Tobias Abt and Alexander Kneer. A prior license agreement with Hyperion entertainment for use of P96 in OS4.1 is part of the agreement, and will of course be continued under ownership of iComp. There is no other license agreement with any other party besides this. In the following months, we have cleaned up the source code and made small improvements to the software. Over the course of development of OS 3.1.4, further improvements have been made, which we are now offering as a download product. Please log in to your member account to also view download products in the shop. While the authors Tobias Abt and Alexander Kneer have only given access to the API for graphics cards to paying customers after signing a non-disclosure agreement, we are now documenting the API for free for anyone in our Wiki. We'd like to support community projects like the VA2000 graphics card with this, but also take other drivers out of a legal grey zone that resulted from the previous licensing model that Abt and Kneer have chosen. By publishing the hardware manufacturer's API, we are delivering on a promise that we've made even before purchasing this software package. Unfortunately, there is a market actor that claims to have a perpetual license for P96, without having any written proof for this claim. We were even summoned to not advertise what the agreement clearly says: iComp GmbH is the only legal source for a P96 software registration. We believe that a claim of a software product or bundle containing a "registered version" of P96 is false advertising. The legal status of the shareware archive of P96, which has been available on Aminet for years is not changed: It stays legal to distribute this archive free of charge. This download product is the first to use a new pricing model in our shop system: "Pay what you want". As opposed to other fields where this model is used (for example in selected restaurants), we have set a lowest price, as otherwise the administrative cost would be higher than the chosen price. We are hoping for the fairness of Amiga users to register each installation of P96. This is targeting especially the users of emulators, PCI bus boards and new FPGA graphics cards, which would be almost useless without P96. Source

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23 December 2018, 02:28	#2
Gorf Registered User Join Date: May 2017 Location: Munich/Bavaria Posts: 2,294	So make it open source - now!

23 December 2018, 04:07	#3
Minuous Coder/webmaster/gamer Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Canberra/Australia Posts: 2,630	Seems it wasn't really necessary to change the name, according to this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/8015364.stm

23 December 2018, 04:08	#4
Amiga4000 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: The Ford Galaxy Posts: 214	Awesome news! Now that Jens has secured the rights to P96, does that mean that development will continue in the Amiga 1200 Reloaded project?

23 December 2018, 04:41	#5
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,902	Good news, does anyone happen to know if the new 2.2 included the unofficial P96 fixes as well?

23 December 2018, 13:21	#8
MartinW Registered User Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Minehead / UK Posts: 608	Could someone share the purchase link please? I must be going blind, I've just looked through the shop and all I see is hardware. Also checked the Wiki and I didn't see a link to any purchase page. Happy to support the company and ongoing development by purchasing a license for my RTG.

23 December 2018, 13:41	#9
Romanujan Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Szczecin/Poland Posts: 424	https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...-software.html But you have to be logged in.

23 December 2018, 13:44	#10
MartinW Registered User Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Minehead / UK Posts: 608	Ahh, ok, thanks. I missed that you have to be logged in for the product to appear I don’t have a login I don’t think. I’ll create one. Makes sense for download only purchases.

23 December 2018, 19:46	#11
utri007 mä vaan Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Finland Posts: 1,653	Here what is fixed. Updates in V2.2 The fastlayers.library is obsolete. The distribution no longer includes it, and the rtg.library no longer uses it. A v45 version of layers is available in the aminet which provides similar functions, though not on the basis of a patch. Otherwise, P96 works also on top of the V40 layers.library. rtg.library: Apparently, some line drawing modes were a bit off, especially in combination with the firstDot flag. This may still require some testing, though. rtg.library: Blitting small bitmaps in 16-bit hi-color mode could have trashed memory. rtg.library: Some min-terms for 15 and 16-bit hi-color when blitting chunky to hi-color modes trashed registers and hence caused rendering defects. rtg.library: Allocating bitmaps for screens that are not yet visible, but about to become visible caused trashed screen content as soon as the screen was moved to front. This was because the bitmap already got board memory at its allocation time, which was however, overwritten by the backfill memory on a screen flip, causing random nonsense from non-initialized memory on the screen. rtg.library: Not yet visible true- or high-color bitmaps that are about to become visible but are not yet visible get the background color from WB screen, even though they may not be even part of the WB. Fixed testing of occluded layers for PIP functions, adapted to the new V45 layers interface. test for native bitmaps: the rtg.library now uses consistently TypeOfMem() to test whether a bitmap can be accessed by the native chipset or requires CPU emulation. Added a new internal hook, EnableSoftSprite(boardinfo,formatflags,modeinfo) which allows a more flexible switching of softsprites than the simple SoftSpriteFlags available before. Especially the Cirrus GD534 has strange rules when the hardware cursor is available and when not. Some combinations of mask and line mode did not honor the FRST_DOT flag of the graphics rastport correctly. Fixed. JAM2 in HICOLOR mode rendered incorrect results when drawing lines. Some blit combinations with patterns did not honor the minterm combinations correctly, especially combinations of JAM1/JAM2 and INVERSVID were problematic. Cirrus GD5434 (PiccoloSD64 and others): double line mode was broken (there is probably still a similar bug in the GD542x) softsprite enabling is now more flexible avoids color artifacts at the right border in true-color autoscroll modes Due to a forgotten flag in the driver initialization, the pointer hot-spot was off if the BIGSPRITE option was used and the mode used line doubling. Cirrus GD542x (GVP Spectrum and Picasso II): removed artifacts on true-color screens with autoscroll enabled. there is potentially still a bug in the double-line scan modes. Develoment files both for application developers and card developers are now available. While the previous development files were based on the GD432x chip and the PicassoII board, both chip and card do not demonstrate the full feature set of P96 ideally. Instead, the GD5434 and PiccolloSD64 chip and card are now included. The GD5434 supports double-line scan modes, and requires a complicated-mode dependent soft-sprite switching that is only supported by the latest version of the rtg.library. Previous versions of P96Mode and the emulation.library required a private link library, namely the xls.lib. As this library is no longer available, the missing functions have been re-implemented. The P96 monitor driver became a lot shorter now. The install tool FindCVPPC caused hits on some systems. The tool was rewritten to avoid them now. Note that you can bypass the Amiga blitter now and use the CPU for blitting, thus allowing bitmaps in FAST MEM. This requires setting the following variable: ENVARC:Picasso96/DisableAmigaBlitter Source http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/P96 There you can found Software Developer archive and Hardware manufacturer archive. I didn't get download link, but there is a download option under puchases. Thought there is a limit, you can download it only three times. Wich is not something what could be waited in year 2018.

23 December 2018, 21:31	#12
Pyromania Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 3,375	Congrats iComp.

23 December 2018, 22:04	#13
Magic Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: USA Posts: 359	I just purchased it how do I download it? I am logged in and don't see any download link.

23 December 2018, 22:25	#14
Romanujan Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Szczecin/Poland Posts: 424	Go to Account -> Order history. IComp should really make the purchase process more user friendly.

23 December 2018, 22:57	#15
Magic Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: USA Posts: 359	Thank you! That was it.

24 December 2018, 08:16	#17
Romanujan Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Szczecin/Poland Posts: 424	Looks like different changes, but I can be mistaken. I think it might be better to ask on the IComp support forum. BTW, till recently I had problems with certain applications (Thromulus, TotalCalc, HippoPlayer S3M playback) causing severe system slowdown. Only my UAE configuration suffered, same OS installation run on original A1200 (without RTG) was fine. I was never able to find what was the reason - but P96 v2.2 seems to have fixed it

24 December 2018, 13:14	#18
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,772	More closed source shit... For anyone who actually cared about the Amiga the first step would have been to put the code on github.

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