Viaduct.guide

Viaduct - Table of Contents


  Viaduct

Viaduct is a PCWindow replacement for CBM Bridgeboards for Amiga
computers that is designed for fast RTG systems. It also comes with 
some additional tools for easier disk image creation.

   Why? 

   Requirements 
   Installation 
   Configuration 
   F.A.Q. 

   Credits & Thanks 
   Version History 
   Known Issues 

   Disclaimer 


Copyright (c) 2018-2022 Karoly Balogh <charlie@amigaspirit.hu>

http://viaduct.amigaspirit.hu

Viaduct and all associated tools are written in Free Pascal.

Why? In short, I like crazy projects which don't make any sense whatsoever. Now that we got that out of the way, here are a few more reasons a bit longer: The old PCWindow software was designed for 1988-state Amiga computers. it doesn't play nice with fast CPUs and it doesn't support RTG systems properly. It was designed to also run with older Kickstarts and it best works with those. This is where Viaduct comes in. It was designed for "modern" Amiga, OS3.1, RTG and fast CPU expansion. (See Requirements) If you have a fast, expanded classic Amiga system, there's a good chance Viaduct will work better for you than PCWindow ever did. Viaduct can also display the PC's Color output in a Workbench window, while PCWindow only supports this for Mono output only. Please note that Viaduct and doesn't support all features of PCWindow currently. Also, not all hardware combinations supported by janus.library and the CBM driver stack were tested. I wrote this software for my own needs, and to support things I found interesting. It's entirely possible that it won't fit your use case, or it doesn't support things you find important. In this case, please send a feature request or a bug report. Please also read the Known Issues section.

Requirements * 68020+ CPU, 4MB Fast RAM * a CBM Bridgeboard, like the A2286 or A2386sx * AmigaOS 3.1 or newer * an RTG card with Picasso96 or CyberGraphX drivers and at least 800x600 Workbench resolution in 256 colors for windowed mode, or a 640x480 screen in 256 colors for full screen mode * properly installed and functioning janus.library and PC Tools Recommended Configuration * a fast CPU, like a 68040, 68060 or faster

Installation Viaduct requires no special installation process. Just copy the contents of its archive where you want on your disk. Viaduct however, requires that janus.library and the original Commodore PC Tools are installed first. Without janus.library, Viaduct will not function either. Technically, the "viaduct" executable is functional standalone. If you want to run Viaduct from Workbench, you might want to use one of the bundled icons. If you're not happy with the default settings, set some of the available tooltypes or environment variables. See Configuration.

Configuration There are several tooltypes or environment variables available to configure Viaduct. The tooltypes and environment variables share the same name, but the environment variable's name is prefixed with "VIADUCT_". Tooltypes are only taken into account, when Viaduct is run from an icon. Tooltypes also take precedence over environment variables, when both are present. Setting Tooltypes is done using the "Information..." window in Workbench. Setting environent variables can be done with the following CLI command: > setenv <variablename> <value> For example: > setenv VIADUCT_VIDEO MDA Use the "copy ENV:<variablename> to ENVARC:" command, if you want to make the setting permanent. The following tooltypes and environment variables are available: VIDEO tooltype or VIADUCT_VIDEO environment variable: Setting this will force Viaduct into a certain video emulation mode. Available values: MDA, CGA OUTPUT tooltype or VIADUCT_OUTPUT environment variable: Setting this will force viaduct into a certain output configuration, either windowed or full screen. Available values: WINDOW, FULLSCREEN In full screen mode, Viaduct will try to open a screen on the same Monitor as your Workbench screen, in 640x480 mode and in 8 bit color depth. If Viaduct doesn't open on the right monitor, or in the mode you want, see the next option. FSMODEID tooltype or VIADUCT_FSMODEID environment var: You can set this to a certain desired screen Mode ID in hexadecimal format. Viaduct will check if the mode is available, and if yes, it will try to use it when going to full screen mode. Forcing anything else than an 8 bit mode might not work at all, or might result in reduced peformance. Mode IDs are unique to each system. For example, you can use the application "Scout" to find out the available Mode IDs on your system. They are listed in the ScreenModes window. Available values: any value in hexadecimal format (0x1234ABCD) BLINK tooltype or VIADUCT_BLINK environment variable: Some text mode PC apps set the Text blink settings using a BIOS call, which is not implemented on a CGA card. Regardless, Viaduct can be forced to always use 16 background colors in text mode, to better support such apps. Setting this to "OFF" will force ignoring the blink bit. This might cause artifacts in some apps which would set the blink bit correctly in the hardware, hence it is not the default. Note that Viaduct doesn't support Text Blinking at this point, so this setting only affects the the 8 additional background colors in CGA text modes. Available values: ON, OFF

Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.) Q: But... Why? A: See here . Q: Did you really develop this in Free Pascal? A: Yes. Q: You seem to have a lot of free time. A: I don't have a lot of free time, and that wasn't a question. Q: What hardware did you use to develop Viaduct? A: I used my Amiga 2000, with a Blizzard 2060, PicassoIV and an A2386sx or A2286, running AmigaOS 3.1 (original Commodore version). I also used an Intel MacBook Pro with macOS to crosscompile with Free Pascal. Q: Will you open the source code later? A: This is possible, yes. The source is already on GitHub, in a private repository. But I want to keep it private until it reaches a "functional and complete enough" state. If you want to contribute before, please contact me in e-mail. Q: I want to contribute somehow, but I cannot code. Is there a way I can help? A: Send bugreports and test hardware combinations. Also, I'm looking for a nice 4 color and MagicWB icon for this project, for the main file itself, and the folder itself. Q: Could you support other PC Bridgeboards like the Vortex GoldenGate series? A: Theroetically yes. This depends on the availability of programming material for these cards or the effort needed to reverse engineer it. I have a GoldenGate 386sx, but I made no effort in researching it yet. Q: CGA or MDA sucks, so I'm using a VGA card in my Bridgeboard setup. Can Viaduct display the VGA card's picture in a Workbench window? A: No. Viaduct can only display the picture of the built-in emulated MDA or CGA display adapter. The Bridge hardware doesn't support promoting the picture of an external ISA card directly to the Amiga side. Q: CGA colors suck. Couldn't Viaduct emulate EGA or VGA? Or at least PCjr/Tandy? A: Adding emulation of hardware anything beyond the Bridge's hardware emulation can support is probably too complex and would be far too slow on the average RTG Amiga, therefore doesn't worth the effort, sadly. Q: So, how about CGA composite mode support at least? A: Yuck... :P Q: I see Viaduct trying to autodetect the Video mode, but it doesn't work for my setup. How can I fix it? A: In the PCPrefs application, make sure either MDA or CGA emulation, or both are enabled, and the default video configuration is set properly to an enabled emulation mode. Q: I see Viaduct trying to autodetect the Video mode, but it doesn't work for my setup. How to force Viaduct into a certain configuration? A: You can set a tooltype or an environment variable for that. See Configuration. Q: How can I set Viaduct into full screen mode? A: You can switch to full screen mode and back from the Menu. You can also set a tooltype or an environment variable to set Viaduct into full screen mode on startup. See Configuration. Q: Viaduct's full screen mode doesn't open in the right mode or on the right monitor. Is there a way to force a certain mode? A: You can set a tooltype or an environment variable for that. See Configuration. Q: I use a text mode PC app, which sets the Text blink settings using a BIOS call, which is not implemented on a CGA card. How can I force Viaduct to always use 16 background colors in text mode? A: You can set a tooltype or an environment variable for that. See Configuration.

Additional Credits & Thanks Peter "Ratman" Foldesi - for test hardware support extraordinaire Zsolt "adsr" Mari - for test hardware support Marcus "Alb42" Sackrow - for his awesome work on Free Pascal Amiga version and various additional code and support Balazs "Poison" Oszvald - for Viaduct icons Viktor "dh1" Soponyai - for Viaduct icons Translations German: Danilo "BrenMcGuire" Mielniczek Hungarian: Karoly "Chain-Q" Balogh Notable mentions Thanks to the following people for reporting issues, testing beta versions, and/or suggesting new features: - Brian Carpignano - Jaime Cagigal Bordonaba

Version History 1.5 (2022.05.24) - Instead of environment variables, it's now possible to use Tooltypes in the icons. Tooltypes have the same name, but without the "VIADUCT_", prefix, and function identically. If both are set, icon Tooltypes have preference over environment variables. Icon ToolTypes are ignored when Viaduct is started from the Shell. - Viaduct is now localized. English, German (Deutsch), and Hungarian (Magyar) locales are bundled by default. Feel free to send more, I'll be happy to include them. - The documentation is now in AmigaGuide format. - Mostly finished at the 10. Amiga Treffen Ost in Halle (Saale), and released a few days later 1.4 (2021.03.27) - This is a bugfix release with no new features. - Fixed distorted looking menus on some systems, caused by freeing VisualInfo too early. - Fixed menu visuals to be NewLook menus. This issue was hidden by MagicMenu, which I use on my own test hardware. MagicMenu always forces menus to be NewLook menus. - Fixed an enforced hit when entering fullscreen mode. - Fixed an enforcer hit on startup, caused by a Free Pascal compiler bug, by rebuilding with a newer compiler where this has been fixed. - Added VIADUCT_FSMODEID environment variable. This can be set to any mode ID available on the system to force Viaduct's full screen mode to appear on a specific monitor in multi-monitor systems, or in any screen mode. See the new FAQ item which details its use. - Thanks to Brian Carpignano for reporting these issues and then testing the fixes. - Added new alternate icons by Viktor "dh1" Soponyai 1.3 (2018.12.27) - Implemented support for unofficial CGA 16 color "graphics" modes 80x100 and 160x100, which are technically text mode hacks - Implemented some more menu options. Some upcoming features appear disabled for now. - Implemented cursor blinking speed setting via the menu - Implemented integrated "PC Reset" feature, available via the menu or using the RAmiga-R hotkey combination - Implemented switching between Full Screen mode and Windowed mode via the menu, or using the RAmiga-F hotkey combination - Fixed "Blinking Text Enable" bit polarity when reading the CGA Mode Control register. Note that blinking text itself is still not supported, but the upper 8 background colors are masked away when the bit is enabled. - Added VIADUCT_BLINK environment variable. If set to "OFF", this forces 16 background colors in all CGA text modes, making Viaduct ignore the blink settings in the hardware, by disabling the masking of the upper 8 backgrounds colors. Since some PC apps use a BIOS call to set the blink bit and this BIOS call is not implemented on the CGA, they might end up using wrong colors on a CGA, thus, also in Viaduct. If you use such apps a lot, you might want to use this setting. 1.2 (2018.11.26) - Implemented Full Screen support (hardwired to 640x480 for now) - Implemented 40x25 Text Mode support - Implemented underline support in Mono Text Mode - Implemented video signal off detection, as "blanked" mode - Implemented a simplistic menu, with About... box and Quit, including a Quit-shortcut from Keyboard (Right Amiga - Q) - Implemented Num Lock and Scroll Lock key support - Various fixes in Keyboard support - Fixed some very hacky code while setting the Window title, which failed on some systems - Fixed MDA mode to properly release pens on exit - Fixed a bug where all of the Intuition requesters opened by Viaduct were closed immediately without waiting for interaction. - Added new icons (MagicWB and standard) by Balazs "Poison" Oszvald 1.1 (2018.07.03) - Implemented initial 80x25 Mono Text Mode and MDA emulation support - Automatic detection of the right emulation mode on start, based on the Bridgeboard's configuration file. - Added VIADUCT_VIDEO environment variable, to force a specific display mode and ignore the config (See the FAQ above.) - Now displays the current video mode in the window titlebar - Implemented delta rendering for 320x200 4 color mode, speeds up refresh where the application (usually games) only update small parts of the screen. - Fixed trashed display of the first frame when Viaduct was started while the PC was in 320x200 4 color mode. - Fixed silly a bug, where the cursor drawing could cause a deadlock depending on the CRTC register contents 1.0 (2018.05.27) - First version.

Known Issues - Blinking is not supported in the various text modes. - The rendering engine supports a lot of options to improve usability, speed and rendering quality, but currenty the default settings are hardwired. There should be a settings GUI to change these options. - The code was not tested on an AGA screen and will probably break. I have no functioning AGA system with a PC card at this point, and no Windows system to try with WinUAE. - Running on an ECS screen is not supported at all (ECS doesn't have enough colors in high res). - Viaduct relies on a *FAST* hardware BltTemplate() implementation in the video driver, and will probably be very slow if it's missing. (Some RTG cards are known not to implement this.) - The keyboard emulation is still not complete. - Probably there is more. But I prefer to release early and often, rather than try to polish it forever and never get it out there... Future Plans - Support other aspects of CGA and MDA emulation as far as the bridge hardware and performance allows. - Resizeable/scrollable main window - Settings GUI (possibly with MUI 3.8) - Clipboard support - Performance improvements and bugfixes

Disclaimer THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. This software is written with best intentions, and in the hope that it will be useful, but it is based on information obtained with reverse engineering of computer systems and hardware otherwise unsupported and end of life for decades. In other words, if this software sets your Amiga or PC Board on fire, I'm not responsible. Use at your own risk.