Thing Desktop 1.27 background image format ?

[AtariAmiga]

Hi all,

I'm wondering all the nice screenshots on the net that show Ting Desktop with wallpapers. I tried various image-formats like jpg, bmp and so on.
So what format do I have to use and wha't the maximum nuber of colors?
There are some patterns inside the Thing archive. But these look pretty simple. They're in GEM/Image format (img).
Is there an Atari, Linux or Windows tool which can format common images into that format?

System is the AranyM liveCD with Terra-Desk installed to HD and Thing Desktop on top of that.

Thanks in advance

AtariAmiga

[Dal]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

First thing, why are you running Thing on top of Teradesk? They are both replacement desktops so running one on top of the other doesn't really make sense to me. I'd recommend you look at your xaaes.cnf file (c:\Mint\[version]\XAAES\xaaes.cnf) and look at the desktop section at the bottom of the file. You may want to configure this so that Thing or Teradesk is the only desktop you use.

Anyway, that aside, the format for the desktop background is IMG - I only use 256 colour IMGs on my machines but someone else may be able to give a definitive answer on what colour depths are supported.

As for converting images into IMG format, please read through this thread

[joska]

Anyway, that aside, the format for the desktop background is IMG - I only use 256 colour IMGs on my machines but someone else may be able to give a definitive answer on what colour depths are supported.

1, 4 and 8 bit images are supported.

I use ImageCopy to resize and convert images to the correct format.

Btw the current XaAES development version can display background images in all colour-depths, independent of the desktop. But the procedure to set the background image is still a bit primitive.

[AtariAmiga]

@ Dal

> First thing, why are you running Thing on top of Teradesk? They are both replacement desktops so running one on top of the other doesn't really make sense to me. I'd recommend you look at your
> xaaes.cnf file (c:\Mint\[version]\XAAES\xaaes.cnf) and look at the desktop section at the bottom of the file. You may want to configure this so that Thing or Teradesk is the only desktop you use.

How do you know what my next Question would have been? Thanks for this tip!
I've had an 1040 ST with that monochrom monitor. I think that's the reason why I dont know about wallpaper stuff.
As far as I read, Thing Desktop is one of the most modern Atari desktops. Is that true for today?


@ joska

> 1, 4 and 8 bit images are supported.
> I use ImageCopy to resize and convert images to the correct format.
> Btw the current XaAES development version can display background images in all colour-depths, independent of the desktop. But the procedure to set the background image is still a bit primitive.

Thanks for reply too.
I'll try it with ImageCopy first.

Where can I find the current devel version of XaAES? Do you mean these:

http://www.fairlite.demon.co.uk/FreeMiN ... /freemint/

[Dal]

Thing is still being developed - or rather development has resumed after a hiatus in order to optimise for the FireBee. So from this perspective, Thing is probably the way to go. However, it's a question of personal taste at the end of the day.

XAAES is included in the FreeMint package. Generally for updating, you just need to backup your existing mint.ini and xaaes.cnf before copying the new /mint directory over the top of your existing one. Then re-instate your mint.ini and xaaes.cnf to get your configuration back. With new distros, be sure to check for updates to any drivers you use (the xid/xif files under /mint/[version]). It's worth keeping any old xid/xif files just in case a newer one causes some behaviour you're not expecting

[wongck]

Jinnee and Thing will display background up to 256 colours in the IMG format.
I used IMAGECOPY to convert from JPG to IMG-X for the 256 colours.
There may be some limitation on the IMG (during conversion or display pallate ? ) as the colours comes out incorrect sometimes.

The 2 best method of displaying background in the desktop today are: MyAES or XaAES (v1,18 build).
They do JPG directly and up to 32 bits colour. However, you need MINT for this.
(Apparently MyAES runs in Single TOS as well.... but I have not tried it).

[joska]

I used IMAGECOPY to convert from JPG to IMG-X for the 256 colours.
There may be some limitation on the IMG (during conversion or display pallate ? ) as the colours comes out incorrect sometimes.

Yes, this can be tricky. It's important to choose the correct remapping/palette-options in Imagecopy to make sure it remaps the colour to match the system palette when you convert the image to IMG. But the Imagecopy remapping/dithering settings are not very intuitive.

The 2 best method of displaying background in the desktop today are: MyAES or XaAES (v1,18 build).
They do JPG directly and up to 32 bits colour.

MyAES can read JPG, but not XaAES. XaAES needs a pre-converted bitmap in the exact same format and size as the screen. In fact, currently XaAES only saves a copy of the screen memory to file and use that raw. This means that in order to make a nice background, you have to display the desired wallpaper in fullscreen-mode (which programs like zView and Imagecopy can do) and then press a magic key-combo which grabs the screen and use it as a background image.

The background images you see in the Firebee-videos I've uploaded (http://www.youtube.com/user/wunderarnebjarne) are 16 bit images displayed by XaAES. I installed them by loading the image in zView, viewing it in fullscreen (F10) and then press Control+Alt+Shift+. Not very intuitive, but it works.

[wongck]

Ah... yes. Thanks Joska for clarifying the wallpaper for XaAES. Indeed that's the method for getting the wallpaper into XaAES. Despite of the steps, it does look like you start off with a JPG and nothing else. It's far better then having an application to do the conversion and having to tweak the settings for a good wallpaper (and for me that's was terrible as I can't get the colours correct... ).

It would be nice if we don't have to use those key combos, but it does mean that the image viewer needs to understand the format and where to put the file. May be if Helmut writes a photo viewer with a right click properties > Save as wallpaper, that would be nice.

[joska]

Ah... yes. Thanks Joska for clarifying the wallpaper for XaAES. Indeed that's the method for getting the wallpaper into XaAES. Despite of the steps, it does look like you start off with a JPG and nothing else.

You can start with absolutely anything. At any point you can press Control+Alt+: and use the current screen (regardless of what it shows, as long as it's in the same size and colour-depth as the desktop) as wallpaper.

It would be nice if we don't have to use those key combos, but it does mean that the image viewer needs to understand the format and where to put the file. May be if Helmut writes a photo viewer with a right click properties > Save as wallpaper, that would be nice.

A simple solution would be to add this to zView. zView is open source and can already make a fullscreen framebuffer - add a menu-option to save this to disk instead of displaying it and you got what you need.

[wongck]

A simple solution would be to add this to zView. zView is open source and can already make a fullscreen framebuffer - add a menu-option to save this to disk instead of displaying it and you got what you need.

That's another good idea. May be a hint to Mikro.

[AtariAmiga]

Hi again and thanks to all thread-participants!

wongck's solution using Imagecopy did it. The Program doesn't run on my AranyM setup but it works unter XSteem.
I've used the "convert" option generating IMG's in 8 bit (256 colors). These worked perfect with Thing_127.

Greetings

AtariAmiga