Introducing VFLI for VIC-20: 208x256 pixels in 16 colours!

Modding and Technical Issues

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Mike
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Post by Mike »

Eslapion,

yes, your variant of the mod should work as well. You could also leave U13 socketed; with the 74HCT138 it is possible to make a wired-OR in inverse logic for /RAM2 and /RAM3 with Schottky-diodes instead.
eslapion wrote:How much memory would you get by moving the screen memory to $0400, basic start to $0601 along with 24k of external expansion? (using max.prg)
You get 31231 bytes free under these conditions.
Right now, it is impossible for me to complete the VFLI mod as I can't find any source for a 5V 16k x 4bit SRAM chip.
As of today, in ebay.com I found 2 BINs for Hitachi HM6788P-35 and Intel P51C98-45: (link). I've checked the datasheets, both their pinouts match that of the CY7C164 I used.
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eslapion
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Post by eslapion »

Mike wrote:As of today, in ebay.com I found 2 BINs for Hitachi HM6788P-35 and Intel P51C98-45: (link). I've checked the datasheets, both their pinouts match that of the CY7C164 I used.
Thanks for the info.

I susally look for new chips first but I should have noted the fab date on your CY7C164 (25th week of '95).
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

eslapion wrote:I usually look for new chips first ...
That's what I also did before: for example, Pyramid Semiconductor offers the P4C188 16K x 4 SRAM in current production, which also has a matching pinout, and I even did a price enquiry. The price quote I got though, together with the minimum purchase quantity put that route out of the question for me. So I ended up with a BIN of the CY7C164 at ebay.
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eslapion
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Post by eslapion »

Mike wrote:
eslapion wrote:I usually look for new chips first ...
That's what I also did before: for example, Pyramid Semiconductor offers the P4C188 16K x 4 SRAM in current production, which also has a matching pinout, and I even did a price enquiry. The price quote I got though, together with the minimum purchase quantity put that route out of the question for me. So I ended up with a BIN of the CY7C164 at ebay.
I always try to ask for a few "free samples" usually expected to be used on "mass produced future products"... :wink:
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

Again, the converter for VFLI images got another update.

This time, I introduced gamma-correction. The older versions of the converter suffered from colour imbalance with lowly-saturated colours and dark regions were 'lighted up' inadvertently, with too many stray dither pixels over black background.

So, here's the new version of vfli.zip (... link obsolete, see post below).

I have also included vfli_quant.exe. It expects a *.ppm file with exactly 208x256 pixels with the name 'input.ppm', reduced from an image with 4:3 format (tick off 'Preserve aspect ratio' and choose 'Resample > Bell filter' in IrfanView). Running the converter takes roughly 3 minutes on a fast PC and results in two files, 'result.fli' and 'result.ppm', the latter which shows a preview already on the PC.

Note: the VIC-20 requires the VFLI mod as described at the beginning of this thread to be able to display the images! The display routine is located in BLK1, therefore an +8K RAM expansion is also necessary to run the viewer program. PAL only.

@eslapion: Any news?
Last edited by Mike on Sun Aug 31, 2014 1:30 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Kweepa
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Post by Kweepa »

Very nice!
What would that look like without the gamma correction?
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

[deleted]
Last edited by Mike on Sat Jul 28, 2012 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Mike »

Today, I converted another set of images. These should be well known to most Vista users, they're the 'Sample Images' in the 'Pictures' folder (download):

Here are four of them as a preview:

Image Image

Image Image

For those, who still haven't modded their VIC-20, a pure software solution allows to pan the images left-right in a window of roughly one-third horizontal width. I also included the previews above together with the other images as *.png's in the archive, 15 in total.

Most of them converted exceptionally well, only 'Garden' has extremely saturated red colours, which sadly bleeded out in the conversion.

The display routine has been updated to exit more cleanly, and now optionally loads SJLOAD to BLK5.

Cheers,

Michael
Last edited by Mike on Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
matsondawson
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Post by matsondawson »

All the images are dead in this thread, any possibility of a refresh?
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

matsondawson wrote:All the images are dead in this thread, any possibility of a refresh?
I've put the images and download links up again.

Greetings,

Michael

Edit: A meta-discussion about this mod is currently running here.
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darkatx
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Post by darkatx »

I'm definitely got my mind on doing this...oh yeah - I REALLY WANT TO TRY THIS!
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

Can you confirm that this display window fits neatly in your monitor without cropping the corners?

Code: Select all

POKE36864,2
POKE36865,20
POKE36866,24
POKE36867,52
I can then provide you with a display routine and converter for a VFLI mode with 192x208 pixels on NTSC (non-interlaced), on short notice.

As interlaced resolution, 168x384i is possible. This will however have to wait until beginning of next year as my NTSC VIC-20 is away at ~600 km distance. :)


(Incidentally, this is my 1729th post ...)
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darkatx
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Post by darkatx »

Looks like its a bust...

Image

I was a bit concerned seeing as I am in NTSC land and all but I figured if I can get one whipped up - I could always tackle the software side later. And thanks again for the earlier help with the line drawing routine - been done for months now just been a bit slow to tackle the rotation matrix tables and etc...lack free time with a new job and all :roll:
Last edited by darkatx on Sat Dec 22, 2012 11:18 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

darkatx wrote:Looks like its a bust ...
There not much one could do about the number of columns, the leftmost one would have to go. The remainder could be shifted up 3/4 of a row to keep all rows, resulting in:

Code: Select all

POKE36864,4
POKE36865,17
POKE36866,23
POKE36867,52
for 184x208 pixels. Does this look better?
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darkatx
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Post by darkatx »

here it is - looks good :)

Image
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