Setting screen resolution

[mcgeezer]

I'll apologise up front as I know this probably isn't the right place for the topic.

I want to on the startup-sequence to be able to set a different screen resolution, I would image there is a CLI command to do this but I haven't got a clue what it would be.

Would any of my coding comrades know what it is?

Geezer

[roondar]

AFAIK there is not a command per-se, but you can use the preferences system to set a resolution. These will then get set either on boot or on loading workbench (dependent on which workbench version sets preferences).

I can't recall exactly what is called to get the preferences loaded in though.

[ross]

Hi Graeme, what would you do?
With a proper system-configuration file (usually in DEVS: ) you can change something, but not much..

For you convenience a cut/paste from <intuition/preferences.h>:

/* Note:  Starting with V36, and continuing with each new version of
 * Intuition, an increasing number of fields of struct Preferences
 * are ignored by SetPrefs().  (Some fields are obeyed only at the
 * initial SetPrefs(), which comes from the devs:system-configuration
 * file).  Elements are generally superseded as new hardware or software
 * features demand more information than fits in struct Preferences.
 * Parts of struct Preferences must be ignored so that applications
 * calling GetPrefs(), modifying some other part of struct Preferences,
 * then calling SetPrefs(), don't end up truncating the extended
 * data.
 *
 * Consult the autodocs for SetPrefs() for further information as
 * to which fields are not always respected.
 */

struct Preferences
{
    /* the default font height */
    BYTE FontHeight;			/* height for system default font  */

    /* constant describing what's hooked up to the port */
    UBYTE PrinterPort;			/* printer port connection	   */

    /* the baud rate of the port */
    UWORD BaudRate;			/* baud rate for the serial port   */

    /* various timing rates */
    struct timeval KeyRptSpeed;		/* repeat speed for keyboard	   */
    struct timeval KeyRptDelay;		/* Delay before keys repeat	   */
    struct timeval DoubleClick;		/* Interval allowed between clicks */

    /* Intuition Pointer data */
    UWORD PointerMatrix[POINTERSIZE];	/* Definition of pointer sprite    */
    BYTE XOffset;			/* X-Offset for active 'bit'	   */
    BYTE YOffset;			/* Y-Offset for active 'bit'	   */
    UWORD color17;			/***********************************/
    UWORD color18;			/* Colours for sprite pointer	   */
    UWORD color19;			/***********************************/
    UWORD PointerTicks;			/* Sensitivity of the pointer	   */

    /* Workbench Screen colors */
    UWORD color0;			/***********************************/
    UWORD color1;			/*  Standard default colours	   */
    UWORD color2;			/*   Used in the Workbench	   */
    UWORD color3;			/***********************************/

    /* positioning data for the Intuition View */
    BYTE ViewXOffset;			/* Offset for top lefthand corner  */
    BYTE ViewYOffset;			/* X and Y dimensions		   */
    WORD ViewInitX, ViewInitY;		/* View initial offset values	   */

    BOOL EnableCLI;			/* CLI availability switch */

    /* printer configurations */
    UWORD PrinterType;			/* printer type		   */
    UBYTE PrinterFilename[FILENAME_SIZE];/* file for printer	   */

    /* print format and quality configurations */
    UWORD PrintPitch;			/* print pitch			   */
    UWORD PrintQuality;			/* print quality		   */
    UWORD PrintSpacing;			/* number of lines per inch	   */
    UWORD PrintLeftMargin;		/* left margin in characters	   */
    UWORD PrintRightMargin;		/* right margin in characters	   */
    UWORD PrintImage;			/* positive or negative		   */
    UWORD PrintAspect;			/* horizontal or vertical	   */
    UWORD PrintShade;			/* b&w, half-tone, or color	   */
    WORD PrintThreshold;		/* darkness ctrl for b/w dumps	   */

    /* print paper descriptors */
    UWORD PaperSize;			/* paper size			   */
    UWORD PaperLength;			/* paper length in number of lines */
    UWORD PaperType;			/* continuous or single sheet	   */

    /* Serial device settings: These are six nibble-fields in three bytes */
    /* (these look a little strange so the defaults will map out to zero) */
    UBYTE   SerRWBits;	 /* upper nibble = (8-number of read bits)	*/
			 /* lower nibble = (8-number of write bits)	*/
    UBYTE   SerStopBuf;  /* upper nibble = (number of stop bits - 1)	*/
			 /* lower nibble = (table value for BufSize)	*/
    UBYTE   SerParShk;	 /* upper nibble = (value for Parity setting)	*/
			 /* lower nibble = (value for Handshake mode)	*/
    UBYTE   LaceWB;	 /* if workbench is to be interlaced		*/

    UBYTE   Pad[ 12 ];
    UBYTE   PrtDevName[DEVNAME_SIZE];	/* device used by printer.device
					 * (omit the ".device")
					 */
    UBYTE   DefaultPrtUnit;	/* default unit opened by printer.device */
    UBYTE   DefaultSerUnit;	/* default serial unit */

    BYTE    RowSizeChange;	/* affect NormalDisplayRows/Columns	*/
    BYTE    ColumnSizeChange;

    UWORD    PrintFlags;	/* user preference flags */
    UWORD    PrintMaxWidth;	/* max width of printed picture in 10ths/in */
    UWORD    PrintMaxHeight;	/* max height of printed picture in 10ths/in */
    UBYTE    PrintDensity;	/* print density */
    UBYTE    PrintXOffset;	/* offset of printed picture in 10ths/inch */

    UWORD    wb_Width;		/* override default workbench width  */
    UWORD    wb_Height;		/* override default workbench height */
    UBYTE    wb_Depth;		/* override default workbench depth  */

    UBYTE    ext_size;		/* extension information -- do not touch! */
			    /* extension size in blocks of 64 bytes */
};

[mcgeezer]

Thanks gents..

I was able to set these with the preferences (I don't know Workbench very well)... but the super hires kinda squashes things up quite a bit.

I'll stick with the hires for my debugging purposes... it was worth a shot.

Graeme

[MartinW]

Maybe too late now but it might help. Basically if you go into "Prefs" and then the Screen Mode tool you can setup whatever screen mode you want and then save it, giving it a name. Then, from the CLI you can recall that mode. So I used to have a mode called "Gaming_Interlaced" and I would call this:

Screenmode SYS:Prefs/Presets/ScreenModes/Gaming_Interlaced.preset USE

I would assign that to an icon in Amidock so I imagine from the CLI you would want to pipe it to NIL or something?