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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekig!tekig5!wayneck
From: wayneck@tekig5.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Colorburst - Mostly hype!
Keywords: Not to happy about buying Colorburst
Message-ID: <2254@tekig5.TEK.COM>
Date: 17 Dec 87 02:17:57 GMT
References: <2246@tekig5.TEK.COM> <36598@sun.uucp>
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 57

In article <36598@sun.uucp>, cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes:
> In article <2246@tekig5.TEK.COM> (Wayne Knapp) writes:
> >     Well I saw Colorburst on the shelf Saturday and bought a copy.  That
> >afternoon I played around with it.  Now I feel that all the talk about
> >Colorburst is mostly hype.  I'll try to be polite, but the kindness thing
> >I can say about it is that it is a ripoff.  If the program had only cost $10
> >to $15 dollars I would have been pleased, but at $35 to $40 dollars I feel
> >that some people are trying to make a fast buck.
> 
> Wayne goes on to describe the deficiencies of ColorBurst which have been 
> deleted for brevity. His primary complaint is that all of the colors
> other than the original 512 flicker, this is due to the ST's inability 
> to display more than 512 colors without relying on aliasing effects of 
> the CRT. Look at the schematic, it has a 9 bit DAC, that's 512 colors 
> period. 
> 
> I can really sympathize with Wayne's complaints but I have to wonder about
> the underlying reasons one would buy something like ColorBurst in the first
> place. ...  (What followed was a good list of things to watch out for.)

I'm afraid that I wasn't clear in my first posting.  My complaints with
ColorBurst aren't due to the limits of the ST hardware but are due to the
program it's self.  If feel the ST 520 is an excellent machine for the money.
Actually the Amiga 500 is also becoming a fine buy.  But this machines do
have some limits.

ColorBurst is limited by the machine it is limited by it's self.  The program
could have been great on the ST but I think it may have been just released too
soon.  The reason why the colors outside of the 512 flicked is due to the
fact that the program was switching between the two color shades too slow.
ColorBurst doesn't use any kind of dithering for new colors, but inside changes
the shade every 60th of second.  The two shades blend together and sometimes
will give a reasonable inbetween shade.  Only ColorBurst seemed to be either
missing vertical blanks for color swithing or was using two shades that were
two far apart in intensity, hense the flickering.  I know it is possible to
do what ColorBurst claims as I wrote (long before ColorBurst) a simple program 
that allows some of the same effects.

The problem I have with the program is that is doesn't seem to be a reasonalbe
working program.  If it had done what it claimed, (which the ST can do) then
I would have been happy.  Instead the program is either buggy or just too hard
to use both leading to the same problem.  But one thing Chuck is sure right 
about, I should have looked before leaping.

                                 Wayne Knapp

P.S.  Actully the reason I bought the program was that I'm porting some Amiga
amination programs to the ST.  I been trying to decide what display modes to 
support.  That is beside the basic modes.  ColorBurst sounded great, but I was 
disapointed in what I found.  The ColorBurst idea is great, if only the program
was better.  Oh well.   So far I plan to do the following:

          640 X 400 monochrome  (Not at first - not too pretty either)
          640 X 200 4 color     (Very limited but better than monochrome)
          320 X 200 16 color    (Reasonalbe for simple cartoon style amination)
          Spectrum mode         (allows some shading and a great paint program)
          ----------------------