User avatar
Crispy
Sunhillow

Posted Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:54 pm

to the AmigaLove community.

HollyLights!

A little toy that will garnish your Workbench with festive holiday decorations.

Note that this is for WB 1.3 only.

HollyLights.lha
(19.78 KiB)
Last edited by Crispy on Tue Dec 21, 2021 11:40 am, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:10 am

Thank you, Chris! I love it! :boing: <3

For the curious or those without 1.3 handy, this is what it looks like:


User avatar
ArtstateDigital
Wales, United Kingdom

Posted Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:42 am

Now that's true 𝑨𝑴𝑰𝑮𝑨 Christmas spirit! <3

User avatar
stevelord

Posted Thu Dec 16, 2021 7:07 pm

Crispy wrote:
Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:54 pm
to the AmigaLove community.

HollyLights!

A little toy that will garnish your Workbench with festive holiday decorations.

Note that this is for WB 1.3 only. A WB 2.0+ version is in the works, and should be available by the weekend.


HollyLights.lha
I love it! What was it written in/compiled with, and would you be willing to share the source?

User avatar
Crispy
Sunhillow

Posted Thu Dec 16, 2021 8:49 pm

stevelord wrote:
Thu Dec 16, 2021 7:07 pm
I love it! What was it written in/compiled with, and would you be willing to share the source?
It's written in C, and compiles with Lattice C 5.04.

The code was written quick and dirty over the course of a few days. It's not commented, and not really structured, so it may be hard to follow. I'm happy to share it; I'll send you a PM.

User avatar
Kevin Brice
Seattle, WA
YouTube

Posted Fri Dec 17, 2021 6:00 am

This is so cool! How do the color palettes work?

User avatar
Crispy
Sunhillow

Posted Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:34 am

Kevin Brice wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 6:00 am
This is so cool! How do the color palettes work?
Well, since this is written for 1.3, I know that there are only two cases to consider. The Workbench is either in 4 colors or in 8 colors. A 16 color Workbench is out of the question because it just crashes the machine, and a 2 color Workbench is unlikely (fingers crossed).

When my program starts up, it queries the OS for the current number of bitplanes used for the Workbench screen. From there, I create my own software structure for drawing into the Workbench screen, and add the needed number of bitplanes to bring it up to 16 colors.

The palette is then mapped so that colors 8 through 15 are used for the holly and the red and green lights. If the Workbench is set to 4 colors, then I adjust my code to also draw the orange and blue lights using colors 4 though 7 of the palette.

A little magic with copper lists sets the display hardware to operate in 16 colors, and to use my extra bitplanes. All of this happens behind Workbench's back, and so it thinks it's still a 4 (or 8) color Workbench. This is the kind of stuff that makes me really love the Amiga.

User avatar
Crispy
Sunhillow

Posted Tue Dec 21, 2021 11:56 am

I'm sorry to say that HollyLights for Workbench 2.0+ didn't pan out. It's likely that most users have their Workbench adorned with replacement icons, and when HollyLights changes the palette to the colors it needs, then it makes those replacement icons look terrible. Even MagicWB, which looks great in 8 colors, uses the entire palette when the Workbench is switched to 16 colors, and consequently all the icons are ruined when HollyLights changes the palette.

I do have a working program, but it really only looks right when the Workbench is using vanilla 4 color icons, so I doubt that most Amiga users would want it. If anyone does happen to want it, then please let me know.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Aug 25, 2022 10:22 am

Crispy in fact did create HollyLights for 2.0+ but never released it. He was too worried folks wouldn't have a vanilla Workbench and that this would cause more grief than happiness. So, he kept it for himself.

This is what it looked like, however.

hollyLightsWB31.jpg

Here's a short 45-second video of it in action which Chris recorded and shared with me last year.


I'm only realizing just this second that he'd copied my red Amiga pointer design for his own machine.
<3

User avatar
austin90

Posted Mon Aug 29, 2022 10:42 pm

Darn I wish I had one now





Return to “Software”