Boot Screen and Backdrops

[rossb]

Hi,

Can anyone provide a simple how to for running up a boot screen for ClassicWB ADV SP? And also any links to pre-prep'd images that may be suitable. I like the AmigaSYS style boot screen and would like to add one to ClassicWB if it's not too tricky. Also does anyone have any links to good desktop backgrounds that work well with 64 colours in Classic WB.

Many Thanks in advance,

Ross.

[rossb]

Hi,

No replies Well I managed to work it out by looking at the AmigaSyS boot and discovering PicBoot (yes I know most people probably already know about it but it was a revelation to me!)

Anyway I found a GIF I liked and resized it in Paint shop Pro to 640 x 512 and dropped the colours to 256. And it looks very good during boot and doesn't seem to slow things down too much (I'm using BlizzKick so I have a couple of boots first time round anyway). I just used the resize feature in PSP and also reduce colours tool. So all looks good, it jumps away from the center of the screen when my overscan settings kick in during the boot-sequence but I can live with that. So far so good.

Anyway after reading a LOT of posts on here and a few other places I thought I'd try my hand at using this same image as Workbench/Scalos wallpaper.

So once again I loaded the original JPG into PSP and reduced the colours to 64 (I'm running ClassicWB ADV SP on a 68030 50 with 32Mb PAL High Res Laced - On LCD TV via SCART) and resized it to 640 x 512 but this time saved it as a PNG.

Then I went into Scalos Patterns and set is as my wallpaper, it displays but looks a bit pants (read grainy). I am guessing that this is because of the 64 colour thing? I just want to check that I am doing this right as I have seen a few posts about using specific palettes etc to optimize the image which is a bit beyond me at present. Also a few of the OP's workbench screenshots on here look like they have really clear wallpaper images and I don't think they are using RTG or anything similar.

If anyone has a quick guide on the best way to do this kind of thing it would be much appreciated, either that or tell me I am doing it right and that's just the way it is, or put me straight!

As an aside how comes my GIF using PicBoot displays in 256 colours during boot as clear as a whistle yet if I try the above with a PNG (set to 256 and same res) and set it in Scalos Pattern it looks nowhere near as good?

Also should I be tweaking anything in the scalos pattern prefs around Use GUIGfx, pen precision and Auto Dithering? I have had a play with these and they do make a difference but would like to know what they actualy mean or what they should be set to for the best display.

Sorry for the VERY long post, but in finding out how to do all this it has raised even more questions!

Thanks,

Ross.