MAX Graphics
About Max Graphics:
MAX Graphics is the alternative to the proprietary
graphics formats and RIP
graphics at the same time that will work with ANY BBS OR BBS DOOR that
supports RIP graphics through the use of external screen files. There are also four
mailing lists available that you may subscribe to.
Get
More Info On Max Graphics And The Mailing Lists
What is MAXterm:
MAXterm is already an extremely small and compact program that can be
stripped down to occupy aprox. 350K of drive space and will run on as small
as a 386 with only 2 megs of RAM. MAXterm can be run as an external
protocol from about any other terminal program that can be used throughout
your BBS and your Doors. When MAXterm is not in use, all graphics and
sound resources are compressed. Finaly MAXterm and MAX Graphics is
simply faster and has a whole more.
Get MAXterm And Other Max Graphics Files
Max-Menu (FS) BBS Software:
Max-Menu (FS) is the first BBS package to fully support the MAX Graphics
interface in both local and remote operation! Max-Menu (FS) came to life
due to an overwhelming number of requests.
Get more info on Max-Menu (FS)
The Future Of Max Grapphics:
The following is not iron clad and is merely a
message posted in the Max
Graphics mailing list by Larry Athey (the Author)... but I've always known
Larry to follow through on what he says... or will go through hell trying.. ;)
Okay, I'm getting a lot of e-mail asking about this, so here's what the plan
is, in case others are wondering. Due to sugestions for other features to be
added to MAX that aren't feasibly possible with the current GUI, there is a
completely new GUI in the works at this time that will accomodate all of the
features people have been asking me for. Here is a partial list of these new
features...
1. The MAX v2.10 stuff will be released "as-is" with a note in the docs that
explain that the next version will be like night and day by comparison.
2. Dependency on the RIP capabilities of a BBS are going bye-bye. Everything
in the next version will work equally as a RIP, ANSI, ASCII or AVATAR screen
file replacement. The only RIP command that will be recognized is the query
command to detect remote RIP capabilities which will still cause MAXterm to
kick back a fake RIP capability result.
3. The GUI will still be 256 colors (sorry, but I don't want to exclude any
users with older video cards), however, it will run in both 640x480 pixels
as well as 800x600 pixels. If a user is only set to 640x480 and you plot an
element outside of 640x480, their terminal will test the system at 800x600
and switch if their video card is capable. If the test fails, the user will
simply be instructed to upgrade their video card if they intend to call your
BBS using MAXterm.
4. The GUI will support BMP, PCX, GIF, JPG, and MIF with automatic dithering
and palette averaging. This has been made possible by changing the programs
to protected mode (otherwise known as DPMI). A virtual video buffer needs to
be created in RAM to do this because it takes 480K for an 800x600x256 image,
and with the other parts of the video RAM that are currently used in MAXterm
there isn't enough video RAM left for this image dithering/averaging buffer.
DPMI is the only way to do it because even the free conventional memory left
when MAXterm is running isn't enough to handle this. GIF89a support may also
be included, it's too early to say for sure about that right now.
5. The actual design of the DOS GUI is being modeled after the similarities
between the OS/2 and Windows GUI's. This makes it possible to port things to
OS/2 and Windows, and still have the exact same functionality in all three
platforms.
6. The actual plotting of elements on the screen will no longer be relative
to the actual screen 0/0 coordinates. Rather, when you plot an element, you
will be plotting it at a coordinate that is relative to the 0/0 coordinate
of the current window. This is being changed to accomodate the cross intended
cross platform capabilities. Don't worry, a screen file convertor will also
be included in the new version, you won't have to re-create all your screens.
7. I should have mentioned this earlier...Everything will be DLL based which
allows a person to write BBS/Door programs with local SVGA support without
the need for the FastGraph graphics kit. Unfortunately, the DOS DLL will be
compatible with BP7 only, TP7 cannot do DPMI. Delphi and Sybil will be used
for the Windows and OS/2 DLL's. TPU files will still be available for those
who wish to use TP7 and the FastGraph or FastGraph/Light graphics kits.
8. Sprite Animation capabilities and a whole slew of new commands to allow
you to do all kinds of animation of images/icons. Since I'm not writing the
animation routines, I can't give any further details at this time.
That's about all I can remember off the top of my head at this time...
Larry L. Athey / USA MAX Graphics HQ-BBS / (308)762-2239 Up To 33600 BPS
http://members.ricochet.net/~maxgfx
/ telnet://maxgfx.dyn.ml.org
ftp://maxgfx.dyn.ml.org / mailto:maxgfx@ricochet.net
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