Changing the colour of the Workbench background

NovaCoder · 26 January 2009, 23:16

In my quest to get a nice background picture without using up all my chip-ram I've discovered that the best thing to do is to center a lower-res image. As the image I want to use has a white edge I would like to change the workbench fill colour from the default grey to white.

I've tried VisualPrefs but that seems unable to change the colour of the workbench background (only other windows).

I'm running OS 3.9

Any ideas peoples

Amiga1992 · 26 January 2009, 23:40

Just change the palette.
Use the Palette preference program and change the BG!

NovaCoder · 27 January 2009, 00:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

Just change the palette.
Use the Palette preference program and change the BG!

Cool, I knew their had to be a easy way

So can you just change the palette for the workbench background or will it change the all window backgrounds to white?

Amiga1992 · 27 January 2009, 00:54

Depends on teh color depth of your Workbench setup.
If the background is the only hing having hat color, you can get away with it.

Option 2:
Use a 2x2 pixels black image and tile it.

Option 3:
Use WBPattern

NovaCoder · 27 January 2009, 02:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

Depends on teh color depth of your Workbench setup.
If the background is the only hing having hat color, you can get away with it.

Option 2:
Use a 2x2 pixels black image and tile it.

Option 3:
Use WBPattern

Options 2,3 are no good because I want to center an image. I did some research and found that if you stretch a low res image up to fill the screen it uses the same amount of chipram as a high res image. The only 2 options to conserve chipram is to either center a lower res image or tile a lower res image. Also, it doesn't matter what colour depth the image is, only the colour depth of WB makes a difference.

Amiga1992 · 27 January 2009, 02:29

I mean, what colour depth you have in workbench.
If you have a lot of colours, as I said, you changing the palette will probably affect only the background!

NovaCoder · 27 January 2009, 02:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

I mean, what colour depth you have in workbench.
If you have a lot of colours, as I said, you changing the palette will probably affect only the background!

I'm running at 64 colours (highGFX 1024x768) but I might be able to bump that up to 128 colors after I get BlizzKick working.

Amiga1992 · 27 January 2009, 04:18

64 colours should be fine

try it out! What are you doing, standing there, watching this screen? ;D

NovaCoder · 27 January 2009, 04:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

64 colours should be fine

try it out! What are you doing, standing there, watching this screen? ;D

Yeah I wish, no I'm stuck at work

Rebel-CD32 · 27 January 2009, 17:20

If you're going to run Workbench in AGA you really should work out a good universal fixed palette and lock it in with FullPalette, then use VisualPrefs to make all your window borders and everything look alright.

Install ImageStudio, (it's on an old CUCD or on Aminet). Save an IFF/ILBM image with your new palette.
Open ImageStudio and load the image with your Workbench's palette. Save the palette (call it Workbench64.col or something I guess), then load the 1024x768 image you want to use as your Wallpaper image.
Load a palette. Select your Workbench palette, and choose Floyd-Steinberg dithering, click OK, and save the image as an IFF/ILBM file.

You should now be able to load it in Workbench Pattern prefs. If you're using FBlit (which I highly recommend for your setup) it won't use any extra Chip RAM to display a pattern in the background or in Workbench windows.

I'm running my Workbench in 16 colours at 1024x768 with the Indivision and I've got some really nice results from just this low colour depth using this method.

Good luck!

Amiga1992 · 27 January 2009, 18:33

Yeah, that too, use FBlit, so images are loaded to Fast RAM, like icons, backgrounds, etc.

NovaCoder · 27 January 2009, 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rebel-CD32

If you're going to run Workbench in AGA you really should work out a good universal fixed palette and lock it in with FullPalette, then use VisualPrefs to make all your window borders and everything look alright.

Install ImageStudio, (it's on an old CUCD or on Aminet). Save an IFF/ILBM image with your new palette.
Open ImageStudio and load the image with your Workbench's palette. Save the palette (call it Workbench64.col or something I guess), then load the 1024x768 image you want to use as your Wallpaper image.
Load a palette. Select your Workbench palette, and choose Floyd-Steinberg dithering, click OK, and save the image as an IFF/ILBM file.

You should now be able to load it in Workbench Pattern prefs. If you're using FBlit (which I highly recommend for your setup) it won't use any extra Chip RAM to display a pattern in the background or in Workbench windows.

I'm running my Workbench in 16 colours at 1024x768 with the Indivision and I've got some really nice results from just this low colour depth using this method.

Good luck!

Cheers Rebel,

Yep I noticed last night that everytime I changed the colours in VisualPrefs the palette index would jump around and I'd end up with some weird colour...very anoying. I'll have to install FullPalette as suggested, that should fix it

FBlit doesn't like HighGFX BTW, you should try your setup without it and see what happens to your available chipram.

Rebel-CD32 · 28 January 2009, 10:05

That's strange, I was using HighGFX without FBlit and constantly running out of Chip RAM, but ever since I've been running it it's been smooth sailing, plenty of Chip to spare. You can disable parts of the patch individually so it doesn't clash with other patches. If you want, I can send you a copy of my Startup-Sequence to show the list of patches I'm running on my A1200 (030/50/32MB/Indivision/Subway). I'm running 3.1 though, not 3.9, so there could be various clashes.

Also, if you'd like I can start you off with a good 16 colour palette that you can add to. The colours I've got in it are used by various Workbench applications and games, as well as any custom graphics I make for programs like SabreMSN. The palette includes the standard 8 Magic Workbench colours (used by MUI and many other applications), the standard final four Workbench colours (Red, Green, Blue, Orange) as well as a darker green, darker grey, brown and yellow. If you're going to make and lock a palette, you'll need at least those colours and add several shades of others. You could also just lock those 16 colours and leave the rest of the pens free, then just remap your image to 48 colours or whatever is remaining and Workbench should alcoate free pens to those colours.

NovaCoder · 28 January 2009, 23:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rebel-CD32

That's strange, I was using HighGFX without FBlit and constantly running out of Chip RAM, but ever since I've been running it it's been smooth sailing, plenty of Chip to spare. You can disable parts of the patch individually so it doesn't clash with other patches. If you want, I can send you a copy of my Startup-Sequence to show the list of patches I'm running on my A1200 (030/50/32MB/Indivision/Subway). I'm running 3.1 though, not 3.9, so there could be various clashes.

Also, if you'd like I can start you off with a good 16 colour palette that you can add to. The colours I've got in it are used by various Workbench applications and games, as well as any custom graphics I make for programs like SabreMSN. The palette includes the standard 8 Magic Workbench colours (used by MUI and many other applications), the standard final four Workbench colours (Red, Green, Blue, Orange) as well as a darker green, darker grey, brown and yellow. If you're going to make and lock a palette, you'll need at least those colours and add several shades of others. You could also just lock those 16 colours and leave the rest of the pens free, then just remap your image to 48 colours or whatever is remaining and Workbench should alcoate free pens to those colours.

Cool, thanks I would like to see how you've set yours up. Even if I don't use your actual setup it's all a learning experiance

Rebel-CD32 · 08 February 2009, 10:18

Hey man, sorry I took so long to get back to this thread, I forgot to bookmark it. I can't attach files here with IBrowse, so I'm just going to paste my Startup-Sequence here:

PsdLoadModule DEVS:input.device QUIET ;Added by Poseidon-Installer
; $VER: Startup-Sequence_HardDrive 40.2 (25.2.93)
; Startup-Sequence for hard drive systems

C:SetPatch QUIET

C:BBlank

C:Version >NIL:
C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
FailAt 21

C:MakeDir RAM:T RAM:Clipboards RAM:ENV RAM:ENV/Sys
C:Copy >NIL: ENVARC: RAM:ENV ALL NOREQ

Resident >NIL: C:Assign PURE
Resident >NIL: C:Execute PURE

Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:ENV

C:FBlit

C:FText

C:CardReset TICKS 50
C:CardPatch

Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T
Assign >NIL: CLIPS: RAM:Clipboards
Assign >NIL: REXX: S:
Assign >NIL: PRINTERS: DEVS:Printers
Assign >NIL: KEYMAPS: DEVS:Keymaps
Assign >NIL: LOCALE: SYS:Locale
Assign >NIL: LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD
Assign >NIL: HELP: LOCALE:Help DEFER

BindDrivers
C:Mount >NIL: DEVS:DOSDrivers/~(#?.info)

IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors
IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly
DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly
EndIF

C:List >NIL: DEVS:Monitors/~(#?.info|VGAOnly) TO T:M LFORMAT "DEVS:Monitors/%s"
Execute T:M
C:Delete >NIL: T:M
EndIF

SetEnv Language "english"
SetEnv Workbench $Workbench
SetEnv Kickstart $Kickstart
UnSet Workbench
UnSet Kickstart

C:AddDataTypes REFRESH QUIET

Run > NIL: C:TitleShadow

Run > NIL: "Workbench:Utilities/VisualPrefs"

C:IPrefs

Run > NIL: FPPrefs

Run <>NIL: C:Birdie SYS:Prefs/Birdie/Active SYS:Prefs/Birdie/Inactive ACTIVEPATTERN REDRAWBITMAPS

C:ConClip

Path >NIL: RAM: C: SYS:Utilities SYS:Rexxc SYS:System S: SYS:Prefs SYS:WBStartup SYS:Tools SYS:Tools/Commodities

IF EXISTS S:User-Startup
Execute S:User-Startup
EndIF

Resident Execute REMOVE
Resident Assign REMOVE

C:LoadWB
EndCLI >NIL:

I'm going to upload my 16 colour palette and a few packs of backdrop images, Visual Prefs and Birdie themes for OS3/Indivision users on Aminet over the coming weeks. I'll upload the first pack, which is a bunch of Anime Wallpapers in 1024x768 remapped to my 16 colour palette along with FullPalette and VisualPrefs settings.

If you ever need some quick help with something, come on IRC and we'll try to give you a hand.

NovaCoder · 08 February 2009, 23:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rebel-CD32

I'm going to upload my 16 colour palette and a few packs of backdrop images, Visual Prefs and Birdie themes for OS3/Indivision users on Aminet over the coming weeks. I'll upload the first pack, which is a bunch of Anime Wallpapers in 1024x768 remapped to my 16 colour palette along with FullPalette and VisualPrefs settings.

If you ever need some quick help with something, come on IRC and we'll try to give you a hand.

Cool cheers Rebel, I'll give that a go. Uploading some packs to Aminet would be a great idea

26 January 2009, 23:16	#1
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,400	Changing the colour of the Workbench background In my quest to get a nice background picture without using up all my chip-ram I've discovered that the best thing to do is to center a lower-res image. As the image I want to use has a white edge I would like to change the workbench fill colour from the default grey to white. I've tried VisualPrefs but that seems unable to change the colour of the workbench background (only other windows). I'm running OS 3.9 Any ideas peoples

08 February 2009, 10:18	#15
Rebel-CD32 Amiga will never die! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 43 Posts: 532	Hey man, sorry I took so long to get back to this thread, I forgot to bookmark it. I can't attach files here with IBrowse, so I'm just going to paste my Startup-Sequence here: PsdLoadModule DEVS:input.device QUIET ;Added by Poseidon-Installer ; $VER: Startup-Sequence_HardDrive 40.2 (25.2.93) ; Startup-Sequence for hard drive systems C:SetPatch QUIET C:BBlank C:Version >NIL: C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15 FailAt 21 C:MakeDir RAM:T RAM:Clipboards RAM:ENV RAM:ENV/Sys C:Copy >NIL: ENVARC: RAM:ENV ALL NOREQ Resident >NIL: C:Assign PURE Resident >NIL: C:Execute PURE Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:ENV C:FBlit C:FText C:CardReset TICKS 50 C:CardPatch Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T Assign >NIL: CLIPS: RAM:Clipboards Assign >NIL: REXX: S: Assign >NIL: PRINTERS: DEVS:Printers Assign >NIL: KEYMAPS: DEVS:Keymaps Assign >NIL: LOCALE: SYS:Locale Assign >NIL: LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD Assign >NIL: HELP: LOCALE:Help DEFER BindDrivers C:Mount >NIL: DEVS:DOSDrivers/~(#?.info) IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly EndIF C:List >NIL: DEVS:Monitors/~(#?.info\|VGAOnly) TO T:M LFORMAT "DEVS:Monitors/%s" Execute T:M C:Delete >NIL: T:M EndIF SetEnv Language "english" SetEnv Workbench $Workbench SetEnv Kickstart $Kickstart UnSet Workbench UnSet Kickstart C:AddDataTypes REFRESH QUIET Run > NIL: C:TitleShadow Run > NIL: "Workbench:Utilities/VisualPrefs" C:IPrefs Run > NIL: FPPrefs Run <>NIL: C:Birdie SYS:Prefs/Birdie/Active SYS:Prefs/Birdie/Inactive ACTIVEPATTERN REDRAWBITMAPS C:ConClip Path >NIL: RAM: C: SYS:Utilities SYS:Rexxc SYS:System S: SYS:Prefs SYS:WBStartup SYS:Tools SYS:Tools/Commodities IF EXISTS S:User-Startup Execute S:User-Startup EndIF Resident Execute REMOVE Resident Assign REMOVE C:LoadWB EndCLI >NIL: I'm going to upload my 16 colour palette and a few packs of backdrop images, Visual Prefs and Birdie themes for OS3/Indivision users on Aminet over the coming weeks. I'll upload the first pack, which is a bunch of Anime Wallpapers in 1024x768 remapped to my 16 colour palette along with FullPalette and VisualPrefs settings. If you ever need some quick help with something, come on IRC and we'll try to give you a hand. Last edited by Rebel-CD32; 08 February 2009 at 10:26.

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26 January 2009, 23:40	#2
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Just change the palette. Use the Palette preference program and change the BG!

27 January 2009, 00:54	#4
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Depends on teh color depth of your Workbench setup. If the background is the only hing having hat color, you can get away with it. Option 2: Use a 2x2 pixels black image and tile it. Option 3: Use WBPattern

27 January 2009, 02:29	#6
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	I mean, what colour depth you have in workbench. If you have a lot of colours, as I said, you changing the palette will probably affect only the background!

27 January 2009, 04:18	#8
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	64 colours should be fine try it out! What are you doing, standing there, watching this screen? ;D

27 January 2009, 17:20	#10
Rebel-CD32 Amiga will never die! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 43 Posts: 532	If you're going to run Workbench in AGA you really should work out a good universal fixed palette and lock it in with FullPalette, then use VisualPrefs to make all your window borders and everything look alright. Install ImageStudio, (it's on an old CUCD or on Aminet). Save an IFF/ILBM image with your new palette. Open ImageStudio and load the image with your Workbench's palette. Save the palette (call it Workbench64.col or something I guess), then load the 1024x768 image you want to use as your Wallpaper image. Load a palette. Select your Workbench palette, and choose Floyd-Steinberg dithering, click OK, and save the image as an IFF/ILBM file. You should now be able to load it in Workbench Pattern prefs. If you're using FBlit (which I highly recommend for your setup) it won't use any extra Chip RAM to display a pattern in the background or in Workbench windows. I'm running my Workbench in 16 colours at 1024x768 with the Indivision and I've got some really nice results from just this low colour depth using this method. Good luck!

27 January 2009, 18:33	#11
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Yeah, that too, use FBlit, so images are loaded to Fast RAM, like icons, backgrounds, etc.

28 January 2009, 10:05	#13
Rebel-CD32 Amiga will never die! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 43 Posts: 532	That's strange, I was using HighGFX without FBlit and constantly running out of Chip RAM, but ever since I've been running it it's been smooth sailing, plenty of Chip to spare. You can disable parts of the patch individually so it doesn't clash with other patches. If you want, I can send you a copy of my Startup-Sequence to show the list of patches I'm running on my A1200 (030/50/32MB/Indivision/Subway). I'm running 3.1 though, not 3.9, so there could be various clashes. Also, if you'd like I can start you off with a good 16 colour palette that you can add to. The colours I've got in it are used by various Workbench applications and games, as well as any custom graphics I make for programs like SabreMSN. The palette includes the standard 8 Magic Workbench colours (used by MUI and many other applications), the standard final four Workbench colours (Red, Green, Blue, Orange) as well as a darker green, darker grey, brown and yellow. If you're going to make and lock a palette, you'll need at least those colours and add several shades of others. You could also just lock those 16 colours and leave the rest of the pens free, then just remap your image to 48 colours or whatever is remaining and Workbench should alcoate free pens to those colours.

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