icon.library 46.4 test versions

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Ciao Peter if you are interested in AROS, the info.datatype has been created that allows you to modify the graphic part of the native Amiga icons (Glow Icons and PNG) with the excellent ZunePaint; the OS4 icons are unfortunately not seen well

I asked the developer of ZunePaint the possibility to save in the same format, hopefully well, at the moment they can be saved in PNG

http://aros-exec.org/modules/newbb/v...orumpost110020

[PeterK]

Thanks for the info, Carlo. But I must admit that I'm not an icon designer, due to my lags of creativity, skills and my lazyness. I did never ever create a single good looking icon.

There are already two TrueColor icon editors for OS4 available which support OS4 and PNG icons, but I never really used them yet except for some compatibility tests to check my icons.

On OS 3.9 I have the icon.datatype installed, which can load OS 3.5 icons and OS4 icons, which have been converted by my lib. PNG icons are never a problem, since any png.datatype can load them. PPaint can also handle icons, even with both images.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by PeterK

There are already two TrueColor icon editors for OS4 available which support OS4 and PNG icons, but I never really used them yet except for some compatibility tests to check my icons.

Yes, I use Icon Editor OS4 to reduce the icons to be used on AfA OS, see screenshots

Even I am not a graphic artist sometimes I enjoy cutting out some images and creating icons Dual-PNG for some games but nothing more,my two children are good at the same time 3D graphics (started with DeluxPaint)

[PeterK]

Originally Posted by PeterK

I've tested with Ken's Icons v4, that are PNG TrueColor icons and they need, of course, much much longer for uncompressing and color reduction than OS 3.5 ColorIcons. ....

Maybe, I should try to switch off the color reduction of the 1. image for OS4 and PNG icons in HAM6/8 mode to get more speed.

I've just tried that with TC020 and HM020 now and it gives indeed a speed boost of 20-25 % for each image. Unfortunately, I can not do it without the color reduction for the 2. image, because that is always required by WB for icon dragging. But maybe it works 40-50 % faster with DOpus5, which has its own dragging routines. However, there are still a lot of small difficulties that have to be solved.

[PeterK]

Update to icon.library 46.4.504:

This update brings a big speed improvement for TC020, HM020 and hm020, because I've disabled the slow color reduction for OS4 and PNG icons wherever possible when Hi/TrueColor, Ham8 or HAM6 screens are used. Some modes are loading icons twice as fast from the Ram Disk now. The only slow thing is when Workbench updates icons which have been moved around. Please report any problems.

On DOpus5 it's recommended to use my "DOnoColormapping" command and enable the "custom dragging routines" for best speed. If you want to use other monitor drivers for HAM like SuperPlus, HighGFX or Xtreme, I would recommend to install my MemTrailer patch in case that FreeMem() Gurus are caused by DOpus5. http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/MemTrailer

The speed improvements for loading icons from hard-disk are, of course, not as big as from Ram Disk and 3.1.4 seems to be slower than OS 3.9 (no sorry, the "idle"-slider in WinUAE was moved to the right).

Strange silence, nobody seems to notice any speed boost.
I would be glad to get some feedback from real Amiga users concerning their experience with TrueColor and HAM modes.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Then Peter took the test with icon.library 46.4.504 but it is also the same with previous versions, for the test I used a compressed icon archive so that AfA-OS could manipulate it, find the icon archive cha05e90_icons_2012 HERE

With icon.library 020 (Damaged icon border after copying icon)

With icon.library TC020 (disappears graphic icon after copying icon)

Withicon.library 020 andicon.library TC020 (associated icon "tool" no start)

With icon_lib.exe (no problem everything works)

[PeterK]

Sorry Carlo, but I think I cannot help you much.

The 68020 version can only save in the OS 3.5 icon format, and that has no alpha channel and soft borders like the TC020 supports it.

On my system with AfA and my TC020 installed no icons are disappearing when I move them per drag&drop into RAM:. That's probably caused by your special "RemLib" solution with both libraries.

I need your tinysys.zip archive with the "bad" tool to test it here.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

On my system with AfA and my TC020 installed no icons are disappearing when I move them per drag&drop into RAM:

No ! it only happens with those icons shown, with other OS4 icons this does not happen

I need your tinysys.zip archive with the "bad" tool to test it here.

You do not need "tinysys.zip" it does so with "all" the "exe" files that do not have an icon

What AfA-OS do you use? you're sure your icon.library is working, as proof check on Dopus4 to click on an OS4 icon, if your icon.library is used you will see the perfect icons otherwise they will be colorless

[PeterK]

None of the cha05e90_icons_2012 icons ever disappeared on my AfA 4.8 with my TC020 installed and icon_lib.exe disabled. Carlo, please use KeepPlanarImages in your startup-sequence and not KillPlanarImages if you want to display these OS4 icons with your buggy AfA_OS.

If tools without an icon should always be executed then add the tooltypes "CLI" and "DONOTPROMPT" to ENVARC:Sys/def_tool.info. AfA may use a different deficon than icon.library.

Please don't expect me to start calling "RemLIb" where it makes no sense from a technical point of view. Nice, if that trick works for you, but that's more like an accident, good luck, not a serious solution and results are unpredictable.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

After careful tests solved the enigma, the problem also occurs on AfA_WB1.4:

Problem icon "Tool"= Guilty exe.datatype (shame because it is very useful, I have to try other versions if there are)

Missing icons "problem"= Guilty ASyncWB

Now deleted exe.datatype and ASyncWB everything works perfectly with AfA-OS + icon.library TC020

[PeterK]

No, AsyncWB and exe.datatype 40.2 are always installed on my system and they are not guilty. It's more likely that they are just not working correctly under your special "RemLib" solution with icon.library and icon_lib.exe running partially at the same time, but we have to blame the user for that problem and not these innocent tools.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Yes, it is definitely the mixture that is "explosive" I will experience something else, important that now everything works well for me, I'm just sorry for "exe.datatype" very helpful.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Peter, I'll make you smile now
On an AfA-OS system if you delete "ASyncWB" from WBStartup after that you can no longer delete anything "from the Workbench" ,tested on multiple systems, there is an explanation for this

[Michael]

Real life test from HDD

OS 3.1.4 CGX 16bit, Sys3X:Prefs (98 Gicons)
TC020(503) : DO5 - 3.10s; WB - 1.48s
TC020(504) : DO5 - 3.06s; WB - 1.44s

With MemTrailer we loose a lot, and get 4.38s in DO5


OS 3.1.4 PAL LACED HAM6/8, Sys3X:Prefs (98 Gicons)
hm020(504) : WB - 2.72s
HM020(504) : WB - 3.80s
HAM6 is significantly faster and noticeably less memory hungry
NTSC LACED is the fastest mode (-10%), DBLSCAN and other higher res/scan modes are slower (up to +50% slower)


OS 3.1.4 CGX 16bit, Sys41:Prefs (38 OS4 icons)
TC020(503) : DO5 - 5.32s; WB - 3.22s
TC020(504) : DO5 - 4.68s; WB - 2.06s (Very noticeable speed up!)

[PeterK]

Originally Posted by Michael

Real life test from HDD

OS 3.1.4 CGX 16bit, Sys3X:Prefs (98 Gicons)
TC020(503) : DO5 - 3.10s; WB - 1.48s
TC020(504) : DO5 - 3.06s; WB - 1.44s

With MemTrailer we loose a lot, and get 4.38s in DO5

The speed improvement with 504 can only be achieved with OS4 and PNG icons, nothing else, because Gicons, NewIcons and planar icons never had a color reduction, which could be disabled or delayed.

MemTrailer was only meant for other monitor drivers (eg. SuperPlus) under DOpus5, in case that DOpus5 causes FreeMem() Gurus, which does not happen with CGX as Retrofan said. But I can hardly believe that MemTrailer causes a noticeable slow down. What was the trailer size?

OS 3.1.4 PAL LACED HAM6/8, Sys3X:Prefs (98 Gicons)
hm020(504) : WB - 2.72s
HM020(504) : WB - 3.80s
HAM6 is significantly faster and noticeably less memory hungry
NTSC LACED is the fastest mode (-10%), DBLSCAN and other higher res/scan modes are slower (up to +50% slower)

Ok, that looks good, Thanks a lot for the info. With P96 instead of CGX you could also use SuperPlus, which is faster than PAL. Even the monitor driver Film24 with 1280x600 is still faster than PAL at least on WinUAE. But you'll need P96.

OS 3.1.4 CGX 16bit, Sys41:Prefs (38 OS4 icons)
TC020(503) : DO5 - 5.32s; WB - 3.22s
TC020(504) : DO5 - 4.68s; WB - 2.06s (Very noticeable speed up!)

Nice! Did you also enable DOnoColormapping and "use custom drag routines" for best speed? I know, you don't like DOnoColormapping, but just try it out, if not done yet. Otherwise only one image is accelerated.

Anyway, thanks for the interesting feedback, Michael

[PeterK]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Peter, I'll make you smile now

Oh yes, I think so ...

On an AfA-OS system if you delete "ASyncWB" from WBStartup after that you can no longer delete anything "from the Workbench" ,tested on multiple systems, there is an explanation for this

I tried that once with my library and another time with icon_lib.exe, and I still can delete icons out of drawers. Where are you trying to delete icons? From the Workbench screen, like left out icons, or from any drawer?

It's probably just another strange side-effect of using two icon.libraries with AfA_OS.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Peter, I have not tested only with my AfA, but also with AfA WB1.4 e Standard AfA-OS 4.8 and stardard OS3.9.
You have to delete from the Workbench no from File Manager (make sure that ASyncWB has been deleted), see video (certainly solvable but it is very strange)

[Michael]

Originally Posted by PeterK

But I can hardly believe that MemTrailer causes a noticeable slow down. What was the trailer size?

64

Originally Posted by PeterK

With P96 instead of CGX you could also use SuperPlus, which is faster than PAL. Even the monitor driver Film24 with 1280x600 is still faster than PAL at least on WinUAE. But you'll need P96.

On real hardware hi graphics modes take too much chip bandwidth and slow down the system, only audio is improved to 56KHz in DBLSCAN modes.
NTSC is definitely one of the lightest modes with less pixels to update per refresh.

[PeterK]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

also with AfA WB1.4 e Standard AfA-OS 4.8.
You have to delete from the Workbench no from File Manager (make sure that ASyncWB has been deleted), see video (certainly solvable but it is very strange)

I've AfA 4.8 too, AsyncWB removed, and can still create new drawers and delete them again from Workbench. Check the attribs of your def_drawer.info for a missing D flag. Maybe only the icons are remaining, but the files/drawers get deleted.

[PeterK]

Originally Posted by Michael

On real hardware hi graphics modes take too much chip bandwidth and slow down the system, only audio is improved to 56KHz in DBLSCAN modes.
NTSC is definitely one of the lightest modes with less pixels to update per refresh.

I can not check that without real hardware, but with NTSC the screen is sooo small. On my old A2000 I was using Euro36 with 724x512@57Hz as the best compromise for ECS (15 years ago).