ViewMSX v0.06                                                 (c) 2005-2008 t00b
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Introduction
------------

ViewMSX is a simple MSX graphics viewer for the Win32 environment. ViewMSX was
designed to allow for quick viewing of MSX graphics files on Windows Computers,
without having the bulky feel of some other graphics viewers. ViewMSX is not a
big application, but a small tool that's able to do just what it needs to do,
view a number of MSX graphics formats at the click of a button.

ViewMSX can be integrated into your Windows system by associating the desired
filetypes to the program, after which you can view any MSX graphics file by
simply doubleclicking the filename. You can also drag and drop files onto the
ViewMSX main window, or the executable itself if you prefer to work directly
from the windows explorer.

With ViewMSX you can quickly view a file, or browse through files in a directory
you are viewing a file in. You can also use ViewMSX to copy MSX graphics files
to the clipboard or save them as bitmaps. ViewMSX does not resample or antialias
the graphics, so you can easily use it to 'export' graphics for editing.



Installation
------------

ViewMSX is usable as a single-file executable. It does not need to be installed,
simply placing the executable in a directory will do the trick. If you want to
associate file types with ViewMSX however, you will need to make sure you do not
move the ViewMSX application to a different path. If you do wish to move the
executable at some point, be sure to re-associate the files you had previously
associated with the executable placed in the new location.



Function Overview
-----------------

After starting ViewMSX, you can begin loading files either by dropping them on
the main view window (the dark area in the middle of the window) or by using the
file menu, selecting open and doubleclicking on the file you wish to open. You
can also start ViewMSX by dropping a file directly on the executable.

Once you have started ViewMSX, and the picture was successfully displayed, you
can save it as a bitmap by selecting the corresponding option from the file menu
or by pressing the CTRL-S key combination. ViewMSX will create a new .bmp file
in the directory of the original file with the same name. You can copy the image
to the clipboard by pressing the CTRL-C key combination or by using the menu.

If the picture is for a screenmode with double horizontal resolution and is not
displayed correctly, you can select the '1:2 Aspect Ratio' option from the view
menu or press the CTRL-A key combination to correct the aspect ratio. For files
that measure 512x212 pixels, ViewMSX will do this automatically unless you have
disabled this in the Preferences dialog.

If the picture is 256x212 pixels or smaller, ViewMSX will automatically zoom the
picture by a factor 2. You can toggle the zoom option by either selecting 'Zoom'
in the view menu or by pressing CTRL-Z. ViewMSX will not zoom images that are
larger than 256x212 pixels. When browsing through a directory, you may leave the
zoom option on and ViewMSX will automatically determine if it should zoom.

If you are viewing a paletted image, you may view the palette by selecting the
'View Palette' option from the View menu or by pressing CTRL-P. To view the RGB
value of a color, simply move the cursor over the color square on the bottom of
the window. To hide the palette again, simply press CTRL-P again. It is not yet
possible to view the palette of 64-color G9B files.

If you wish to store the palette of a file, you can press CTRL-T or select the
'Store Palette' option from the edit menu. You can then later apply this palette
to a different file by pressing CTRL-R or selecting 'Restore Pallete' from the
edit menu. Both files must have the same color-count in order for this option to
work properly. It is automatically disabled for fixed-palette files.

If you are viewing a file that is in a directory with more MSX graphics files,
you can 'browse' through these files by using the Page Up and Page Down buttons.
ViewMSX will cycle through all images in the directory in the order in which the
images appear in the directory. Press Home to go to the first file, or End to go
to the last file in the directory.

If you wish to view the details of the file you are viewing, you can select the
'Image Info' option from the view menu or press CTRL-I. If you wish to close the
program, select Exit from the file menu or press [ESC] if you have enabled this
in the preferences menu. Select close from the file menu if you only wish to
close the file you are currently viewing.



Preferences
-----------

ViewMSX has a number of settings that can be adjusted in the Preferences menu.
Before you use this function, make sure you have copied or moved ViewMSX to the
directory from which you will want to run it in the future, and have executed
the program from that directory. ViewMSX will save these settings in the Windows
registry. You may want to do a registry backup in case something goes wrong.

Always center window - Check this box if you want ViewMSX to center itself on 
the screen after loading an image.

ESC key exits program - Check this box if you want to be able to close ViewMSX
by pressing the Escape key. 

Shortcuts without CTRL - Check this box if you want to be able to use shortcuts
without having to press CRTL.

Disable auto aspect ratio - Check this box if you want to disable the automatic
aspect ratio detection of ViewMSX.

Associated file types - Check each of the boxes of any file types you want to 
associate with ViewMSX.

Be sure to press the Save Preferences button after you are done configuring the
ViewMSX settings or associations.



Video Formats
-------------

Since version 0.04 ViewMSX now also has some experimental support for video
formats. The first is the famous EVA format for MSX. While still very experimen-
tal and somewhat unstable, it should be possible on most PCs to replay EVA files
in ViewMSX. You may however encounter some sound-issues, while under WINE this
new function will not work at all.

The second Video format is VID, which is used by the SymbOS OS, both on the CPC
version and the MSX version. At this time both MODE 1 CPC videos and MSX Screen7
videos are supported. Along with VID, support was also added for SGX files, here
too for both the native CPC modes and the MSX2 modes it supports.



Known Issues
------------

This version of ViewMSX is still not final, so it may well contain bugs and/or
other problems. While this version of ViewMSX boasts new rendering functions
and a new BitBuster decompression routine, there are still a lot of small issues
I hope to resolve in a future version. Most likely the user interface will be
changed a little too, this to allow for even quicker use of the program,

The experimental EVA function new to this version, is just that; experimental.
There is a good chance this will not yet work on your computer, since there
doesn't seem to be a proper windows API which can be used to play buffered PCM
data on. Right now, ViewMSX uses the main system timer to sync the audio to the
video, which means that ViewMSX hogs a lot of time when playing EVAs.

Furthermore, there is a good chance that the timer latency is too high on your
computer, meaning the audio data will skip, or not play at all. Just give the
EVA function a try if you want, but like said, it's still quite experimental and
there's a chance it will not work properly on your system. Playing EVA movies is
not possible under WINE at this time, nor is it under Windows 95/98.

If you find any bugs or have any feature requests, you can find me on the IRC
channel #msx on the rizon network. Use your favorite IRC client and/or the link
below to access this channel.

http://searchirc.com/searchirc.php?T=chan&F=exact&N=178&I=%23msx



Awknowledgements
----------------

Special thanks to wolf_ for testing the first beta-versions of this little app
and his many feature-requests and suggestions...

Further special thanks to [D-Tail] for providing me with some EVA movies to play
around with, and for beta testing the EVA routines.

Thanks to Prodatron for providing the technical specs on the SGX and VID formats
which we'll hopefully be using in the MSX port of his great SymbOS.



Version History
---------------

19-10-2005     v0.01     Initial release of the first public version of ViewMSX
20-10-2005     v0.02     Added support for VSCREEN files and palette files
27-10-2005     v0.03     Added 'Color Count' function and large G9B file support
23-03-2006     v0.04     Added EVA, VID & SGX support, new renderer/debitbuster
31-05-2007     v0.04b    Added experimental Screen 7 HAM file support
08-07-2007     v0.05     Added 16-color VID & SGX support, supressed errors
19-07-2008     v0.06     Fixed SC2/SC4 colortable error reported by hap



Supported File Types
--------------------

ViewMSX supports a wide range of graphics, from standard BSAVE formats as used
in BASIC to some of the most popular editor formats such as Graph Saurus, AGE
and even the ancient Dynamic Publisher. One of the newer formats supported, is
Team Bomba's G9B format. This file-format can store graphics for many of the
different GFX9000 bitmap modes and conveniently compresses the bitmap data using
bitbuster. See TeamBomba's website (www.teambomba.net) for more information on
this very nice file format.

ViewMSX currently supports the following filetypes:

+----------------+-----------------------+----------+----------+
| File Type      | Description           | Paletted | Crunched |
+----------------+-----------------------+----------+----------+
| .GE5           | DD-Graph BLOAD file   | yes      | no       |
| .DAT           | DD-Graph COPY file    | optional | no       |
| .CMP           | DD-Graph .CMP file    | no       | yes      |
| .PCT           | Dyn.Publisher file    | no       | yes      |
| .STP           | Dyn.Publisher file    | no       | no       |
| .PIC           | Designer Plus file    | no       | no       |
| .SC2 .SR2      | Screen 2 BLOAD file   | no       | no       |
| .SC4 .SR4      | Screen 4 BLOAD file   | optional | no       |
| .SC5 .SR5      | Screen 5 BLOAD file   | optional | optional |
| .SC6 .SR6      | Screen 6 BLOAD file   | optional | no       |
| .SC7 .SR7      | Screen 7 BLOAD file   | optional | optional |
| .SC8 .SR8      | Screen 8 BLOAD file   | no       | optional |
| .SCA .SRA .S10 | Screen10 BLOAD file   | optional | no       |
| .SCB .SRB .S11 | Screen11 BLOAD file   | optional | no       |
| .SCC .SRC .S12 | Screen12 BLOAD file   | no       | optional |
| .GL5           | Screen 5 COPY file    | no       | no       |
| .GL6           | Screen 6 COPY file    | no       | no       |
| .GL7           | Screen 7 COPY file    | no       | no       |
| .GL8           | Screen 8 COPY file    | no       | no       |
| .GLA           | Screen10 COPY file    | no       | no       |
| .GLB           | Screen11 COPY file    | no       | no       |
| .GLC           | Screen12 COPY file    | no       | no       |
| .SGX           | SymbOS bitmap file    | no       | no       |
| .G9B           | Team Bomba G9B file   | yes      | optional |
| .SC4 .SCR .TGS | VSCREEN level file    | optional | no       |
| .HAM           | Screen 7 HAM file     | yes      | optional |
+----------------+-----------------------+----------+----------+
| .EVA .EV8      | EVA video file        | no       | no       |
| .VID           | SymbOS video file     | no       | no       |
+----------------+-----------------------+----------+----------+
