VECTRIX VX SERIES GRAPHICS SYSTEM USER I S MANUAL (c
Contents
1. VX Pin Signal 6 5V 7 GROUND 8 DATA 9 DATA 1 10 DATA 2 11 DATA 3 12 DATA 4 13 l DATA 5 14 DATA 6 15 DATA 7 18 STROBE 23 BUSY OR 17 BUSY Also on the VX side of the cable run a wire between pin 16 and pin 6 5V to disable handshaking in the VX to host direction If the host computer has a BUSY signal wire it to GROUND Non Centronics Interface If your host computer does not have a Centronics compatible printer port wire the DB25P connector using the following information VX PIN Signal 6 5V 7 GROUND 8 DATA Y 9 DATA 1 19 DATA 2 11 DATA 3 12 DATA 4 13 DATA 5 14 DATA 6 15 DATA 7 nr 16 VX TO HOST ACK 17 HOST TO VX BUSY 18 HOST TO VX STROBE 19 VX TO HOST STROBE 20 HOST TO VX STROBE 21 VX TO HOST ACK 22 VX TO HOST STROBE 23 HOST TO VX BUSY If pin 29 is used wire pin 25 to 18 on the VX side of the cable If pin 21 is used wire pin 24 to 16 on the VX side of the cable tS Note any two or more of pins 16 thru 23 are used for the appropriate combination of ACK STROBE signals depending on your host computer configuration Testing the parallel interface l After connecting your host computer to the VX turn on your host computer then turn on the VX and the monitor The VX senses upon power up and RESET whether the host is using a parallel or serial interface which is why you should turn it on after the host 2 To test for ASCII commands create the following BASIC or ot2. based on signed multiply and divide factors Two signed integers are used to provide a full range of factors A negative scale factor will provide a mirror image around an axis Note that only one of the factors should be negative to specify mirror image scaling a negative number divided by a negative is positive The positive z axis is defined as going into the screen so a z scaling ratio greater than one moves an object farther away from the viewer and thus it appears smaller on the screen The Vectrix does not allow a divide by zero error If zero is given as the divide factor a value of one is used To scale an object around its own center translate it to the origin scale it and translate it back multiply factor and divide factor are word values 19 T TRANSLATION Format TX xX TY y TZ 2 Translates subsequently entered lines along the x y or z axis by the signed positive or negative x y or z distance specified The positive z axis is defined as going into the screen so positive z values move an object farther away from the viewer while negative z values move it closer X y and z are word values V VIEWPORT Format V X1 Xi Yp Yt Sets the active region of the screen for 3D drawing defined in screen coordinates as follows x left side x right side Vn bottom y top all word values Attempting to draw lines outside the viewport will result in the line being clipped to dis
3. For each pixel subsequently drawn the RC mode replaces the pixel s color value with its complement All bitplanes that have been enable for update by the B command are complemented regardless of the current drawing color as opposed to the OR and RE modes This command is useful for displaying cursors or crosshairs for example because any operation done twice results in a return to the original image RA sr Replace All mad y Similar to Replace mode except that not only are one s in the pattern register drawn but also the zero s This mode is useful for drawing one character on top of another when the background zero s need to be drawn in order to completely erase a previously drawn character OF eeoeesvave eo oe Poceeceedadcedaieve Turns the video l display i OFF re ON ene a a a a ee ee a n o one Turns the video ai splay ON _HDOFE carrfage ESCUO o o Returns tie Vectrex unit from Hardcopy Direct printout mode back into gtaphies mode Pressing the reset ie owiec an the rear of He Vectrix has 2 the Same affect co The carriage return gt immediately at the end of oe command is a ERE o l HXoseessesiseeseseeeeeeeeeeese SeES the Vectrix unit into Heradeci al mode for numeric transmissions to and from the host ASCII mode is the default at power on and reset The format of the numeric arguments of the B
4. F color count Xy Yy 21 X2 Yo Z9 Draws a polygon with count number of vertices at the specified x y or if in 3D mode x y z coordinates Vertices may be specified either in clockwise or counterclockwise order The polygon also automatically fills with the interior color you specify in the color argument The boundary is drawn in the current drawing color as set previously by the C command color count xX y and z are word values Note Unlike the P command this command is limited to 256 sets of vertices Another limitation is that the VX fill algorithm is a y scan line convex polygon fill and does not fill polygons with concave squeezed in areas on the top or bottom of the polygon 15 L LINE Format L X y Zz In 2D mode draws a line from the current drawing point to x y on the screen In 3D mode draws a line to x y z in object space x y and z are word values M MOVE Format M x y Zz The current drawing point moves to a new x y position on the screen without drawing any lines on the display thus defining a new current drawing point In 3D mode the current drawing point moves in object space coordinates X Y Z x y and z are word values lt N LOAD PATTERN REGISTER Format N pattern This command will let you get creative and design dot and dash type line patterns or textured filled polygon patterns Pattern is a number whose 16 bit binary equivalent represents the dot dash patt
5. affect the screen display The action of the G command is the same as pressing the RESET switch except that the RESET switch also determines whether the parallel or serial interface is connected from the host computer 2 Absolute vs relative KA Absolute coordinates Format KA In absolute mode coordinates x y or x y z for all subsequent commands are referenced to the origin 8 98 which is at the bottom left corner of the screen in 2D mode In 3D mode coordinates are referenced to 0 808 808 center of viewport Default mode 2 KR Relative coordinates Format KR In relative mode all subsequent x y or x y z values you enter are interpreted as relative to the current drawing point rather than the origin as in absolute mode Relative mode is preferable when defining an object for multiple display on the screen or when expressing coordinates as lengths delta x delta y and delta z rather than as absolute coordinates 3 Blank vs flash KB Blank mode video Format KB You should use blank mode when you want to avoid flash mode streaks in an image while it s being changed Since the display is updated only during retrace periods the image is not interfered with However update speed is approximately 25 as fast as it is in flash mode Default mode KF Flash mode video Formats KF In flash mode the screen is continually updated rather than only during retrace periods so update is faster However th
6. area respectively The rectangle is filled using the 8 x 8 pattern defined by the JR command Entering into terminal mode and the G command reset the rectangular fill pattern to all ones The current drawing point is not moved by the RF command Remember that unlike performing a filled polygon n relative mode width and height are equal to deltax 1 and deltay 1 respectively width and height are word values XF COMPLEX FLOOD FILL V1 8 Format XF Fills the region containing the same color as the current drawing point with the current color This command performs its drawing in replace mode Sending a control E hexadecimal 5 to the VX unit while the XF command is executing will abort the fill The pattern register is ignored during fills The edges of the screen are considered fill boundaries XB COMPLEX BOUNDARY FILL V1 8 Format XB boundary color Fills the region containing the current drawing point and bounded by boundary color with the current color This command performs its drawing in replace mode Sending a control E hexadecimal 05 to the VX unit while the XB command is executing will abort the fill The pattern register is ignored during fills The edges of the screen are considered fill boundaries boundary color is a word value er be a 3D TRANSFORMATIONS You can use the 3D transformation commands to rotate scale magnify and translate move in x y or z planes an object or set the viewport v
7. color the reverse of what s displayed on the screen black prints as white and white as black Can be used in order not to print large areas of black background on the paper HP Hardcopy Print Prints a 125 color representation of the screen image using dithering color dot mixing approximating screen colors to their closest print color combinations HR Hardcopy Reverse Same as the HP command except that it prints the screen background color as the reverse of what s displayed on the screen black prints as white and white as black Can be used in order not to print large areas of black background on the paper 29 VIDEO COMMANDS KI INTERLACED VIDEO Format KI vfp vs vbp hfp hs hbp The KI command draws two interlaced fields of video per frame like a TV set The parameters are vertical front porch vfp vertical sync vs vertical back porch vbp horizontal front porch hfp horizontal sync hs and horizontal back porch hbp Horizontal scan rate HSR in kHz 1250 42 hfp hs hbp Vertical rate in Hz 1900 HSR 248 vfp vs vbp Horizontal values are in units of 889 nsec Vertical values are in number of scan lines Default values are KI 26 16 5 5 5 which produces an interlaced image with a horizontal scan rate of 22 kHz and a vertical rate of 84 Hz all parameters are byte values Default mode KN NON INTERLACED VIDEO Format KN vfp vs vbp hfp hs hbp The KN command draw
8. entry points WF WAIT FRAMES Format WF count The WF command causes the video display to pause for count video frames See the KI and KN commands for video timing calculations count is a word value This command is useful for creating timed effects sab TUTORIAL In general Vectrix is designed to be driven by a host computer system However the simple ASCII commands understood by Vectrix allow short display lists to be typed into the machine directly by the user Doing some displays by hand is the best way to gain familiarity with Vectrix commands For these simple exercises you should program your host computer to transmit characters typed on the keyboard of your host computer to the Vectrix unit over the serial or parallel port This can often be done with just an operating system command As an alternative a stand alone ASCII terminal can be used with a cable having pins 2 and 3 crossed and using the serial interface With power on press the Reset switch on the back Vectrix is now ready for a command Vectrix determines whether you are using ASCII or hexadecimal format from the COLOR and ERASE commands so one of these should always be first in a new command sequence Note that it is often advisable to initialize all the mode commands at the software level or by using the reset switch even if the default modes OR 2 D ABSOLUTE BLANK INTERLACED are the ones desired in case a previous command sequence may have
9. shown in this manual in lower case ASCII or Hex You can express numeric arguments in either ASCII decimal or hexadecimal hex formats The VX automatically expects ASCII arguments when you first turn the unit on Whenever you send a B C E or Q command the VX will interpret arguments in all future commands as being in the same format used ASCII or hex until the next B C E or Q command Whenever you press RESET or send a G command the VX resets back to ASCII format whereas the HX command automatically places the Vectrix in hexadecimal mode i Word Values Based on the number of digits required each command uses either word or byte values for the number We ll tell you which is required for each command We define word values as decimal ASCII numbers from Y to 65535 for counts and from 32767 to 32767 for coordinates OK to use the sign the sign is not necessary of course but don t put in a comma to separate thousands If you re using hex numbers you should send them as two byte 16 bit signed integers ranging from 0040 to FFFF or 80481 to 7FFF with low byte LSB first high byte MSB second using two s complement notation for negative numbers When word values are returned to the host computer for instance by the Read Pixel and RAM commands they are returned in the current transmission format ASCII or hexadecimal If in ASCII mode word values are returned as a fixed length string of fiv
10. the JD unlike other commands Also if you use the entire 8 x 8 cell you many want to change the intercharacter spacing using the JS command to prevent character overlap JR Set Rectangular Fill Pattern V1 8 Format JR LOW LOWD LOW Defines the 8 x 8 pattern cell used by the Rectangular Fill command in drawing similar to the JD command which defines the 8 x 8 character cells Unlike the JD command row 1 is the bottom of the pattern and the low order bit is the left border of the pattern The pattern repeats from the lower left corner in the x and y direction as the rectangle is drawn Entering into terminal mode and the G command reset the rectangular fill pattern to all ones mg JN DISPLAY NORMAL CHARACTER SET Format JN Cancels effect of JD command changes all redefined ASCII characters back to the default character set of 95 ASCII characters The default character set is also activated when you first turn on the VX or whenever you use a G command or press the RESET switch JM ADJUST MAGNIFICATION Format JM factor Adjusts the magnification factor size of subsequently displayed characters as follows Factor Pixels Our WHE N Q IE W o gt 16 880 x 144 Default value 1 JS ADJUST CHHARACTER SPACING Format JS spacing spacing spacing For subsequently displayed characters adjusts character spacing in pixels horizontally vertically and between lines spacing arguments are word values
11. the screen to black On the VX128 E7 clears the screen to white on the VX384 E511 clears the screen to white The Erase command performs in flash mode when the bitplane mask register is all ones If the bitplane mask register is not all ones erase is performed in the current mode flash or blank Erasing performs significantly faster in flash mode Q DEFINE COLOR LOOKUP TABLE VX384 only Format Q rows count ry 91 by Io 9 Dar This command works with the VX384 only You can use this command to redefine any entries in the color lookup table which is a table that defines RGB color saturation values for each of the 512 colors This allows you to create your own unique palette of 512 colors for example a gray scale Starting with rows and continuing for count rows each row corresponding to a color number in the table can have 255 different values of saturation no color 255 full Saturation of red green and blue which is over 16 million possible colors While the eye cannot distinguish all of these colors they are very useful for creating subtle shading effects row and count are word values r g and b are byte values 2995 The default color lookup table what you get when you turn on the unit gives you a set of 512 colors distributed through the range of hues and saturations lower 3 bits increasing red middle 3 bits increasing green upper 3 bits increasing blue Location 511 contains 255 25
12. zeros However unlike the RE command all bitplanes that have been enabled for update by the B command are replaced irrespective of the current drawing color This command is useful for drawing one character over another when the background zeroes of the character description need to be drawn in order to completely erase the previously drawn character LA CHARACTERS The VX comes with a normal default set of standard alphanumeric text characters that you can freely intermix with graphic images You can insert characters at any screen location and control the size magnificaiton spacing and angle of the characters with the JM JS and JA commands respectively Or you can define your own character set with the JD command All arguments in the J commands are byte values except those of the JS command JA ADJUST ANGLE Format JA angle angle Adjusts the slant angle angle and rotation angle angle for all subsequently displayed characters This command has two parameters 1 Slant angle defined as follows g Upright 1 Slanting forward 45 degrees 2 Slanting backward 45 degrees 2 Rotation angle to 7 of the character Rotation starts at the conventional upright vertical position and procedes counterclockwise in steps of 45 degrees Example JA 1 would create upright characters slanting forward in other words italics The VX draws characters starting with the upper left hand corner of the o
13. 0 300 300 200 E7 4 400 300 300 200 400 100 500 200 N 1 Exercise 4 Rotating Translating and Scaling a Square It is sometimes convenient to use the powerful 3 D commands of the Vectrix in what is essentially a 2 D mode This example introduces the rotate translate and scale commands by using them to rotate a flat square This is done by operating in a 3 dimensional coordinate space but on a selected plane in the Z direction Note that it is not desirable to operate on the plane where Z 4 In the Vectrix 3 D system the viewer s eye is considered to be a position 8 08 0 Points with coordinates less than or equal to zero are thus behind the viewer and are clipped 230 The best constant Z coordinate is 248 This sets the object so that the perspective division performed in the 3 D transformations minimally scales the X and Y axis The following set of commands place Vectrix into 3 D mode and draw a square rotated 45 degrees around the Z axis Remember that the Z axis comes out of the screen towards the viewer rotating around that axis turns the object Positive rotation around the Z axis turns the object clockwise negative rotation turns it counterclockwise VX128 VX384 K3 K3 SET 3 D MODE EY EY ERASE SCREEN TO BLACK C7 c511 SET COLOR TO WHITE V96 575 0 479 SET SQUARE VIEWPORT I INITIALIZE TRANSFORMATION MATRIX RZ459 ROTATE AROUND Z AXIS P4 50 50 240 50 50 240 50 580 240 50 50 240 I INITIALIZE TRA
14. 00 CONNECT FRONT amp BACK M 25 25 50 L 25 25 100 CONNECT FRONT amp BACK A computer program generating these instructions to the Vectrix could change the value of the rotation amount in the RY instruction a small amount each time and then regenerate the sequence of drawing commands starting at I The effect on the Vectrix screen would be of a rotating cube To eliminate the flashing effects the color lookup table can be used In blank mode the cube can be written into bitplanes selected by the bitplane mask register but with all active entries in the color lookup table set to zero while the previous frame of the cube s motion is being displayed out of other bitplanes Remember you are currently in 3 D mode If you desire to return to 2 D mode after you are finished with this exercise use the command K2 SET 2 D MODE TERMINAL COMMANDS l Attach the Vectrix unit to the terminal I O port on your host computer When making up the cable please note that if the host is using XON XOFF protocol instead of hardware handshaking RTS CTS remember to strap pin 5 to pin 6 on the Vectrix side of the serial cable Attach the keyboard monitor and printer to the unit 2 Power up the Vectrix unit The unit will come up in graphics mode with full duplex The logo will appear on the monitor screen as usual In graphics mode only the Vectrix escape command sequences see list are recognized as input from the keyboard If no keyboard is a
15. 5 255 and each decrement in red green or blue is by an amount of 32 Location which should therefore have 31 31 31 is loaded with 0 8 9 instead The lookup table is linear and not gamma corrected This command performs in blank mode 96 sets of RGB entries can be loaded in one vertical blanking interval 256 sets in three intervals and all 512 in six vertical intervals See the KI and KN command for video timing calculations RQ RETURN COLOR LOOKUP TABLE VX384 ONLY V1 7 Format RQ rows count This command works with the VX384 only This command transmits to the host computer the RGB values of the color lookup table beginning with rows and continuing for count rows R G and B are byte values and are returned in the current transmission format hexadecimal or ASCII This command currently performs in flash mode If in ASCII mode the values are returned as a fixed length string of three ASCII digits 988 through 255 with leading zeros and followed by a carriage return no linefeed OR OR MODE Format OR The OR RC RE and RA commands give you four ways to combine colors When you re in OR mode all subsequently entered lines or dots will or mix with the old colors residing in the effected pixels You can determine the exact new color number by looking at the binary equivalents of the color numbers for the pixel in question The resulting binary number is the number you get when you or each bit of the t
16. All pixel commands and RAM are performed from left to right on the screen from the current drawing point which remains unchanged except where specified otherwise Wraparound is performed automatically to the next descending y scan line when reacning the right edge of the screen RP READ PIXELS Format RP count This command allows you to read the values of specific pixels into the host computer for processing Starting at the current drawing point it reads the color numbers of count pixels and sends them to the host computer count is a word value This command runs slower than the Read Graphics RAM RR command below but is easier to use Images transfer across significantly faster when performed in flash mode KF Specifying a count of zero moves the current drawing point to the upper left corner and reads the entire screen image 322 568 pixels RR READ GRAPHICS RAM Format RR bitplane count This command is similar to Read Pixels except that it reads in 16 bit words from graphics RAM which makes it operate faster than the RP command making this a good command for fast memory dump Starting at the beginning of the 16 pixel word in which the current drawing point is located the RR command reads count 16 pixel words from the graphics RAM of bitplane 1 9 and sends the word values to the host computer The low order bit of each word appears left most on the screen count is a word value bitplane is a b
17. C E and Q commands also sets the mode or the unit
18. Horizontal spacing can be positive or negative negative spacing would cause subsequently displayed characters to be displayed from right to left on the screen Vertical spacing causes subsequently displayed characters to be offset vertically Negative vertical spacing causes subsequently entered characters to move up like this i ly e Positive vertical spacing causes subsequently displayed characters to move down like this H e ll 1 o Line spacing also positive or negative defines the number of pixels the new line moves up or down after a carriage return Default values for horizontal vertical and line spacing are 7 and 12 respectively When entering the 80 x 24 terminal mode the spacings are set to 8 29 This command comes in handy if you have defined characters different in size than the default set JD command or have changed the slant or rotation angles of characters JA command S DISPLAY CHARACTER STRING Format character string lt cr gt This command allows you to write text or labels on your images Characters do not need to start on byte boundaries It displays the character string any set of ASCII characters at the current drawing point with the upper left hand corner of the first character at the current drawing point Non ASCII characters embedded in the character string will be displayed as Spaces To tell the VX when the character string is finished transmit a carriage return l
19. NSFORMATION MATRIX TX158 TRANSLATE OBJECT TO RIGHT P4 50 50 240 50 50 240 585 50 240 59 50 249 I INITIALIZE TRANSFORMATION MATRIX SX1 2 SHRINK OBJECT IN HALF sY1 2 P4 50 50 240 50 50 240 50 50 240 50 50 2408 Exercise 5 A 3 D Cube The following program puts a 3 dimensional cube on the screen with a perspective view The first command puts Vectrix into 3 D mode and sets the viewport It is good practive to use the I command before all new transformaion sequences K3 MODE TO 3 D V 96 575 0 479 SET A SQUARE VIEWPORT I IDENTITY MATRIX ES CLEAR TO BLACK The following commands set the 3 D transformation The sides of the cube are 50 units long and the center of the cube will be at 8 0 75 In 3 D the transformation matrix is always established before drawing Transformations are not like simple arithmetic operations their order is extremely important The following set of transformations move the cube to the origin rotate it around the X axis and move it back out on the Z axis 39 RY 300 ROTATE AROUND Y AXIS 30 DEGREES TZ 75 MOVE CUBE AWAY FROM VIEWER with the transformation matrix established the cube can be drawn VX128 VX384 c4 C448 SET COLOR TO BLUE P4 25 25 50 25 25 580 25 25 50 25 25 50 A P4 25 25 100 25 25 100 25 25 100 25 25 100 M 25 25 58 L 25 25 100 CONNECT FRONT amp BACK M 25 25 50 o L 25 25 100 CONNECT FRONT amp BACK M 25 25 50 4 L 25 25 1
20. PFEED FORWARD SPACE CARRIAGE RETURN HOME CURSOR ESCAPE COMMAND SEQUENCES ASCII ESC CNTL N ESC CNTL O ESC CNTL Q ESC CNTL R ESC CNTL S ESC CNTL T ESC CNTL U ESC CNTL V ESC CNTL W ESC CNTL X ESC CNTL Y ESC CNTL Z ESC ESC ESC CNTL NONE ESC HOME NONE ESC SPACE 43 FUNCTION Set terminal mode to 49 rows of 96 characters Default condition Set terminal mode to 24 rows of 88 characters Position cursor at row 1 49 column 1 96 R AND C are one byte hexadecimal values offset by a value of 31 Enter terminal mode Enter graphics mode default condition Toggle cursor on off Set half duplex mode Print screen 8 colors Print 8 colors reversed Print screen dithered Print dithered reversed Video off Clear erase screen Transmits one escape character to host computer End of page clear End of line clear Home cursor Set full duplex mode default condition Video on NEW COMMANDS IN VERSION 1 85 OF VECTRIX SOFTWARE RE width height Performs a fast fill of a rectangular area which begins at the current drawing point and extends horizontally by width and vertically by height width and height are word values and may be positive or negative RVecorocrrrrrnssrrnsrnrcrrsnr Returns Version number of software by erasing the screen and displaying VG1 85 etc Beate Ne nnteneinseuateentoseeseseenes lace with eoapienene mode
21. RAM encoded V1 8 Format WNR bitplane count word word T RNR bitplane count Similar to Read RAM and Write RAM except run length encoded Only words of lt 000 gt and lt FFFF gt are encoded with the repetition count 1 to 65 535 following the lt gt or lt FFFF gt as the next word Specifying a count of zero moves the current drawing point to the upper left corner and reads or writes the entire bitplane 28 168 words Transmission back to the host computer by the RNR command is terminated by two words of zero lt B000 gt lt 000 gt Images transfer across significantly faster when WNR and RNR are performed in flash mode KF count and word are word values bitplane is a byte value 332 RNP WNP Read Write Pixel Values encoded V1 8 Format WNP count color color seie RNP count Similar to Read Pixel and Write Pixel except run length encoded Each pixel color is encoded in a word value as follows the low order nine bits remain the color value with the high order seven bits the pixel repetition count 1 to 127 Therefore the encoded word value is 512 COUNT COLOR Specifying a count of zero moves the current drawing point to the upper left corner and reads or writes the entire screen image 322 568 pixels Transmission back to the host computer by the RNP command is terminated by one word of zero lt 0000 gt Images transfer across significantly faster when WNP and RNP are performed in flash m
22. SCII or hex until the next B C E or Q command Whenever you press RESET or send a G command the VX resets back to ASCII format whereas the HX command automatically places the Vectrix in hexadecimal mode siis GRAPHICS PRIMITIVES The VX lets you create just about any conceivable image with various combinations of graphics primitives basic geometric forms dots lines arcs and polygons The VX will draw the image in the color you have specified in the Color command white is the default color when you first turn the unit on using a pattern you have specified in the Define Pattern N command or the default pattern solid line A ARC OR CIRCLE Format A radius angle angle Draws an arc with a center at the current drawing point and radius radius as specified in pixels The arc starts at the start angle angle and sweeps through the arc angle angle_ Both angles are in tenths of a degree so you would for example enter 98 degrees as 900 Angles is referenced to the x axis the horizontal For both angles positive values go counterclockwise and negative values go clockwise The current drawing point remains at the center of the arc after the arc command is executed radius angles an angle are word values Note to draw a circle use angle 3600 D DOT Format Dx y Zz Draws a dot at screen location x y or if in 3D mode at X Y Z X y and z are word values F FILLED POLYGON Format
23. VECTRIX VX SERIES GRAPHICS SYSTEM USER S MANUAL c Vectrix Corporation 1983 July 1983 Vectrix Corporation 1416 Boston Road Greensboro NC 27407 888 334 8181 or 919 294 6649 VECTRIX VX SERIES GRAPHICS SYSTEM USER S MANUAL TABLE OF CONTENTS ES PAGE GLOSSARY 33 E A da 1 THE VX SERIES rocas ao a AAA A id INSTALLATION 200000 a E a e ARI A a aL INTERFACING TO THE HOST COMPUTER cooooooon nnonornonnnnnrca on ron racodl GETTING STARTED oooooooooonnoroorornoonsnroo oso ery eee ee ea COMMANDS Command IO Tk CS e ESA A AS TE RS ae NE A eR ews da MOOES A o amp ate feral wide wt Ruck wrens dl G GO Waits Ga eG ULA AS aterm Wee Sik ore eters ee See KA Absolute COOTCINaECES idea o al KR Relative COOKOINa CES sida rolas iiau wee Se a es KB Blank mode VIGEO lt esda esus a Wee a ita ade KF Flash m de VId66 ai A A Aa L K2 2D COTA COS ao K3 SD COOTATNALOS ne rada OD HX Hexadecimal Mode saver aia dass LA Graphics DEIMPECEIVO Si EA w bo DA AA eo A Arc or EII A Ree wee A ico D DG Ee so EA A AE DAS Sees awa F Filled DOLYGOR yw EAS ae L A tera ta Sle Sa OS Sita ae abate Oe Stat ae ace ee M N P PAC Sei eae Sie A Ow SS o bore Saree LO LOad Pattern LEG 1S Cer 5 sce isso ala oO POL TOM a Ga by A SP eee eee ele wars LO RE Rectangular fill how So ss ed a a al XF Complex flood 111 5 ceca bw be arse y AAA ere wale XB Complex boundary Tlllusece sisas sado 3D PransLorma C1 ONS 6 EI AS EA E EA ar L
24. acing easy the VX is designed to look like a printer So interfacing to your host computer involves simply fabricating a cable that connects to the host computer s parallel or serial printer port i PARALLEL INTERFACE r First you ll need a male DB25P connector This plugs into the HOST connector on the back of the VX with a ribbon cable running from it to your host computer To avoid potential timing problems which could result in loss of data make sure the cable is less than four feet long and all wires are the same length CENTRONICS INTERFACE There are a variety of parallel interfaces If your host computer has the most common parallel interface the Centronics here s how to wire it up if not go to the Non Centronics Interface instructions below You should wire the DB25P connector in one of two ways 1 If your host computer has a bidirectional parallel port VX Pin Signal 6 5V 7 GROUND 8 DATA 9 DATA 1 19 DATA 2 11 DATA 3 12 DATA 4 13 DATA 5 14 DATA 6 15 DATA 7 18 HOST TO VX STROBE 17 HOST TO VX BUSY OR 23 HOST TO VX BUSY 19 VX TO HOST STROBE 16 VX TO HOST ACK Note If the host computer has both a BUSY signal and ACK you may wire BUSY to GROUND or ACK to 5V Pin 17 is programmed as e a BUSY signal with its complement on pin 23 If your host requires an ACK the ACK must come from the trailing edge BUSY 2 If your host computer does NOT have a bidirectional parallel port
25. changed any of the modes Exercise l1 Displaying Color As a first exercise on the VX384 erase the screen to the 3 primary colors VX128 VX384 El E7 BRIGHTEST RED COLOR E2 E56 BRIGHTEST GREEN COLOR E4 E448 BRIGHTEST BLUE COLOR Note that black on the Vectrix is the absence of color all 3 RGB guns off while white is the combination of all colors Look at black and white VX128 VX384 EG E BLACK E7 E511 WHITE All other colors are made by adding various proportions of red green and blue Three important ones are VX128 VX384 E3 E63 YELLOW RED GREEN E5 E455 MAGENTA RED BLUE E6 E504 CYAN GREEN BLUE 36S Exercise 2 The Drawing Commands The drawing commands on the Vectrix place dots lines and other figures on the screen The following set of commands will draw a line VX128 VX384 E4 E448 ERASE SCREEN TO BLUE cl C7 SET COLOR TO RED L346 24G L346 240 DRAW LINE TO CENTER OF SCREEN The dot command is one on the simplest D356 248 DRAW A SINGLE DOT The move command moves the current drawing point without drawing anything M490 209 MOVE DOWN THE SCREEN WITHOUT DRAWING L209 209 DRAW A SOLID HORIZONTAL LINE The center of the screen is generally thought of as X 336 Y 24 The following set of commands moves the drawing point to the center of the screen and draws a circle around it M336 24G MOVE TO CENTER OF SCREEN A190 8 3609 DRAW A CIRCLE ARC OF RADIUS 1048 The polygon command wi
26. creen is 336 240 Version number If a version number is indicated after a command this indicates the revision of the PROMs in which the command was implemented To determine what version of the PROMs are installed in a particular Vectrix unit use the RV command ll MODES The VX operates in three basic modes You can choose absolute or relative coordinates blank or flash drawing 2D or 3D and ASCII or hexadecimal transmission There are also several modes dealing with color combination see Color Manipulations section and video interlace format l Go Warmstart Formats G The G command executes a warmstart initialization of the Vectrx unit resetting the internal operating modes to a known state The G command 1 sets to ASCII format 2 sets to absolute coordinates 3 sets to 2D coordinates 4 sets to OR mode 5 resets the viewport to full screen 6 sets the 3 D transformation matrix to identity 7 resets the character set to the default set 8 sets the pattern register to a solid line 9 reinitializes to the default color lookup table 18 resets character magnification angle and spacing 11 resets the current drawing point to 8 8 8 12 resets the bitplane mask register to all ones 13 initializes the 8088 stack register 14 resets image pan to zero 15 resets the rectangular fill pattern to all ones Except for possibly changing the color lookup table the G command does not
27. e ASCII digits S898G through 65535 with leading zeros and followed by a Carriage return no linefeed Byte values We define byte values as decimal ASCII unsigned numbers from to 255 or hex numbers from Y to FF When byte values are returned to the host computer for instance by the RQ command they are returned in the current transmission format ASCII or hexadecimal If in ASCII mode byte values are returned as a fixed length string of three ASCII digits through 255 with leading zeros and followed by a carriage return no linefeed Delimiters When you enter a command in ASCII mode you must use one or more delimiters between numeric arguments Valid delimiters are commas Spaces or carriage returns with or without linefeeds In hex mode delimiters are not required and in fact are not allowed Note if 19 you are using INPUT mode in BASIC commas are not allowed in an input line for string data in BASIC You can concatenate commands put more than one on the same line up to the line length of the operating system or language you are using Spaces commas carriage returns and other valid delimiters may be used to separate commands however these delimiters are all optional Screen layout The VX screen is laid out as a rectangle with 672 pixels horizontally and 488 pixels vertically 0 9 is the lower left corner and 671 479 is the upper right corner of the screen The center of the s
28. e screen may flash short horizontal streaks as it changes the image 4 2D vs 3D K2 2D coordinates Format K2 In 2D mode coordinates are positive integers referenced to the origin 8 which is at the lower left hand corner of the screen Clipping is not performed in 2D mode so lines that extend beyond the screen boundaries will wraparound into subsequent bitplanes Default mode Coordinates in 2D mode can range from to 671 in the x axis and to 479 in the y axis K3 3D coordinates Format K3 In 3D mode you specify x y and z coordinates for Dot Line Hras Move Polygon and Filled Polygon commands Coordinates are referenced to the object space origin 0 0 0 which is the center of the viewport rather than the lower left corner screen origin 0 8 as in 2D The z coordinate represents the apparent distance of the object from the observer in 3D vanishing perspective In 3D mode points outside the viewport are clipped made invisible Coordinates in 3D mode can range from 32767 to 32767 You can freely mix objects drawn in 2D and 3D modes 5 ASCII vs Hexadecimal HX Hexadecimal Mode V1 5 Format HX When powered on the Vectrix defaults to ASCII transmission format accepting numeric arguments as ASCII strings separated by various delimiters Whenever you send a B C E or Q command the VX will interpret arguments in all future commands as being in the same format used in these four commands A
29. ents the third bitplane enabled for update 1 and all others not enabled 2 So you would transmit a B 8 command binary 1408 8 You can create animation effects on the VX384 by storing several images each in different planes using the B command and Switching between them using the color lookup table Q command You can also use a bitplane to store text that can be displayed on the screen independently of graphics images as is done in terminal mode C COLOR Format C color This command sets the current drawing color This command changes the color of all subsequently drawn graphics objects and characters On the VX128 color numbers can range form to 7 on the VX384 from to 511 color is a word value on both dla Commonly used color numbers are Color VX128 VX384 Color VX128 VX384 Black 0 Blue 4 448 Red l 7 Magenta 5 455 Green 2 56 Cyan 6 504 Yellow 3 63 White 7 i 511 The VX determines if transmissions are in ASCII or hex mode from the format of the color argument in the B C E and Q commands l E ERASE Format E color Erases the screen setting background screen color to color see C command and current drawing point to 0 0 or 0 0 0 color is a word value The VX determines if transmissions are in ASCII or hex mode from the format of the color argument in the B C E and Q commands If the default color lookup table is in effect see Q command EO clears
30. erform the perspective transformation as the very final step in the transformation process before beginning to draw The perspective transformation is performed by scaling the x and y axes each by the ratio D S where D is the distance along the z axis from the eye point to the desired display screen and S is the size of the display screen If the ratio of D S is small the perspective will be similar to an image viewed through a wide angle lens If the ratio of D S is large the perspective will be similar to an image viewed through a telephoto lens These commands are only active when you have selected 3D mode K3 command ige I INITIALIZE Format I Initializes the image transformation matrix cancels previous rotation scaling and translation commands This command is also automatically performed when you first turn on the VX when you press the RESET switch or transmit a G command R ROTATION Format RX angle RY angle RZ angle Rotates subsequently entered lines by signed angle in tenths of a degree in x y or z planes around the object space origin 6 0 0 To rotate an object around its own center translate it to the origin rotate it and translate it back angle is a word value S SCALING Format SX multiply factor divide factor SY multiply factor divide factor SZ multiply factor divide factor Scales subsequently entered lines in x y and z axes with reference to the object space origin 0 098 080
31. ern 1 dot on dot off This command may be used when drawing lines arcs polygons and filled polygons pattern is a word value You design the pattern in three steps l Draw the pattern you want on paper as a series of 16 cells each on or off 2 Write down the binary equivalent 3 Convert this binary number into its decimal ASCII or hex equivalent and enter it into the command as the pattern The default pattern value is 65 535 ASCII or FFFF hex corresponding to all binary 1 s a solid line You can use this number to reset the pattern to a solid line Another good number to know is 21845 5555H hex which creates a pattern of dots P POLYGON Format P count x Y1 21 X2 Yq 22 Draws a polygon with vertices at x y or if in 3D mode at x y z and automatically closes the polygon so you don t have to enter the beginning coordinates again Vertices may be specified either in clockwise or counterclockwise order count X y and z are word values 16 RF RECTANGULAR FILL V1 3 Format RF width height This is a fast way to draw a filled rectangle four times faster than the F command Starting at the current drawing point a filled rectangle is drawn If width and height are positive then the current drawing point is the lower left corner of the rectangular area filled However width and or height may be negative in which case the current drawing point is the right and or upper corner of the
32. he equipment to avoid static charge buildup 4 Turn on all three units A VECTRIX logo should appear on the VXM monitor with the following colors Letter VX128 VX384 V white white E magenta violet magenta C red red T yellow yellow R green orange I cyan light blue green X blue blue Background should be black Troubleshooting If colors are different check your RGB cable connections If no picture check your AC power connections for the VX and VXM The VX front panel light and fan come on when the unit is on and VXM makes static discharge noises when it first comes on If this doesn t happen turn off both units and check for blown or missing fuses If fuses are alright check the contrast and brightness controls on the rear of the Vectrix monitor If picture is rolling or horizontal bars appear check your sync cable connections If they re alright try adjusting the horizontal and vertical hold controls on the rear of the Vectrix monitor If it still doesn t work do NOT open the VX It has dangerous voltages and nothing you can adjust Contact Vectrix Customer Service for assistance INTERFACING TO THE HOST COMPUTER You can connect the VX to your host computer with either an RS 232C serial or 8 bit parallel interface A parallel interface is preferable because it allows for a transfer rate higher than the maximum 19 208 baud with the serial interface which means faster image creation To make interf
33. her high level language program on the host computer and RUN it 19 LPRINT E511 280 END This should remove the VECTRIX logo from the VXM color monitor screen and create a white screen 3 To test for hex commands create the following BASIC program and RUN it 19 LPRINT E CHRS 0 CHRS 0 28 LPRINT C CHRS 255 CHRS 1 34 LPRINT L CHRS 159 CHRS 2 CHR 223 CHRS 1 This should erase the screen to black and draw a white line from the lower left to the upper right corner If it doesn t work l Check all your connections and make sure you turned on the VX unit after turning on the host computer l 2 Make sure the cable from your computer is plugged into the HOST connector on the VX 3 Check for extra carriage returns being sent by your host computer s operating system These may cause unpredictable results To avoid this problem make sure the line length of your command lines doesn t exceed the specified limit ususally 80 characters 4 Some operating systems may use the BUSY signal in which case this signal must be held INACTIVE on the host computer parallel interface 5 If ASCII commands work but not hex make sure the high order bit eighth bit DATA 7 line is implemented from your host computer s parallel port Also check your operating system specifications to see if hexadecimal zeros or control characters are being captured ba 6 Call Vectrix Customer Service SERIAL INTERFACE The ser
34. ial interface is easier to implement with the VX since it uses the universal RS 232C interface The VX will look like a serial device such as a terminal to your host computer Setting baud rate Before connecting the cable set the VX baud rate to matchi your host computer s serial data transmission rate using the BAUD RATE rotary Switch on the back of the VX Here are the switch positions Switch Position Baud Rate 19209 96088 4800 2408 1209 608 309 NOU Pu NnF Connecting the serial cable Here are the host computer and VX connector pin numbers you need to know to construct or use a cable VX Host Host Signal 1 1 1 Chassis ground 2 3 2 Data to host 3 2 3 Data from host 4 5 4 Clear to send CTS 5 4 5 Request to send RTS 7 7 7 Ground Optional see next section If not used wire pin 5 to pin 6 on the Vectrix side of the cable Host computer communication protocols The VX supports both RTS CTS Request To Send Clear To Send and X ON X OFF protocols With RTS CTS the host computer should check the RTS line before transmitting each character to prevent overrun If the host computer uses X ON X OFF protocol instead wire pin 5 to pin 6 on the VX side of the cable The VX will then send a Control S to the host computer whenever the buffer is half full and a Control 0 when the buffer is empty The serial buffer is 256 characters long Your host computer should be set to 8 data bits no parity and 1 o
35. iewing window on the screen No knowledge of matrix algebra is required these calculations are done automatically by the VX In 3D mode the drawing coordinates sent to the Vectrix do not represent screen coordinates but object space coordinates These can range from 32 767 to 32 767 along all three dimensions The Vectrix automatically transforms the three dimensional images into two dimensional screen coordinates using 3D vanishing perspective and clipping within the active viewport The Vectrix provides several commands that cause the object coordinates of subsequent commands to be transformed in various ways The three major transformations provided are rotation translation and scaling In 3D mode the eye position is always at object location 0 0 0 which is mapped to the center of the viewport The Vectrix automatically performs clipping as follows 1 All points with z coordinates lt are clipped as being behind the eye position near plane clipping No far plane clipping is performed along the z axis lines are allowed to extend to infinity 2 The screen is clipped against the viewing pyramid which is defined by the four planes x Z X Z Y Z y Z There are two techniques for creating a square aspect ratio 1 by using a square viewport or 2 by using a scale factor as the final step before perspective scaling see the Viewport command Perspective views on the Vectrix require that the user p
36. ine feed optional To cause an actual carriage return on the screen send two Carriage returns line feeds optional The current drawing point is moved to the upper left hand corner of the next position into which a character would be drawn which is on the current character line if the string is terminated by one carriage return and on the next character line if terminated by two carriage returns HARDCOPY PRINTING The VXP color printer allows you to get color hardcopy printouts of what s on your screen You can also command the VXP to print out directly from the host computer HD Hardcopy Direct Connects the host computer directly to the VXP color printer This lets you use the printer for listings and other jobs without having to disconnect the printer from the VX a To reconnect the host computer to the VX press the RESET switch located behind the VX HDOFF lt cr gt Hardcopy Direct Off V1 5 Turns off hardcopy direct mode This command must be terminated by a carriage return HF Hardcopy Form Feed Does a form feed on the VXP printer advances one page to allow you to tear off the printout HNP Hardcopy Non dithered Print V1 7 Prints an eight color representation of the screen image matching screen colors to their closest print color counterparts except for cyan which prints as orange HNR Hardcopy Non dithered Reverse V1 7 Same as the HNP command except that it prints the screen background
37. l may cause interference to radio communications It has been testec and found to comply with the limits for a Class A computing device pursuant to Subpart J of Part 15 of FCC Rules which are designed to provide reasonable protection against such interference when operated in a commercial environment Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause interference in which case the user at his own expense will be required to take whatever measures may be required to correct the interference GLOSSARY OF TERMS Current drawing point Imagine an invisible cursor located wherever the last command stopped drawing Pixel Short for picture element meaning an individual dot on the screen The VX has 672 pixels horizontally and 489 vertically RGB Red green blue referring to the use of three separate color signals for finer color differentiation than is possible Kin the standard NTSC TV system Viewport The area of the display screen you choose for displaying images For 3D mode only THE VX SERIES Congratulations You are the owner of the world s first low cost advanced color computer graphics display system the Vectrix VX Graphics Processor The VX comes in two models The VX128 and VX384 The VX128 can generate 8 colors while the VX384 has an extra board that can generate 512 simultaneous colors from a palette of 16 8 million INSTALLATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The VX graphics processor requires tw
38. o external devices l A RGB red green blue color monitor with 22 kHz horizontal scan rate interlaced video long persistence phosphor and either separate or combined sync The VX128 requires a TTL level monitor the VX384 requires an analog monitor We recommend the Vectrix VXM monitor a RGB monitor specially modified for VX requirements including combined TTL analog capability 2 A host computer The VX is designed to interface to just about any micro mini or mainframe host computer over either the parallel or serial port As an option a color printer is useful for producing hard copies of screen images you create We recommend the Vectrix VXP a low cost color printer that can produce hardcopy of screen images with 125 dithered colors INSTALLING THE VX Here s the procedure for installing your VX system which includes the VX Graphics Processor VXM Monitor and optionally VXP Printer l Connect the five video cables supplied with the VXM monitor as follows VX Unit VXM RED RED GREEN GREEN BLUE BLUE H SYNC H SYNC V SYNC V SYNC COMBINED SYNC UNUSED BY VXM NOTE The Vectrix monitor may be placed on top of the Vectrix Graphics Processor 224 2 Connect the VXP Printer to the printer connector on the rear of the VX unit using the cable supplied with the printer 3 Plug in the VX VXM and VXP power cords to 128 volts AC CAUTION use 3 prong grounded outlets Also be careful to keep rugs away from t
39. oS TC oS Soo oo ede Sk aw Ole wee we AA BE Oe eee ROTACION EA he eae wy sre ae aS ee a ew erate eee Bia LING eid ds acre ea a aa wr SR cw ee eed TEASER aw Saar ey alae We wi aes a eee a Ww 6 5 Gites nee W oO eco O wih eae ates ee SHnNWH Color Manipulations lui ai A AA AAA Ad B C E Q RQ OR RC RE RA Bitplane write MASK AAA o L CO LOL ad A wo a aL PTAS oi ecdw ars eo ek eee a ie Dare ee Define color lookup EAD Le oes ose sed casaca ans eae ce Return color lookup Tables aaa 25 ORs MO EA ad Bree aleve wanes Wate Brae wre eS Replace Complement mode exclusive OR 222222 24 REPLACE MOde 624 ss sue A da ee Replace All MOS 6 6 wie 6 sid o aS ee 6 sts wise a ad A Seo nies Bees Se Sal ib esha ena ek O O 5 JA JD JR JM JN JS AGTUSE ANTLSAAIAAEA 6 Wee eae Bowes S a Se O Design CHARACTED enmaai is eats ZO Set Rectangular Fill Patterns inn src ass 20 adjust Magni ficatlONs sie sw 6 elk Sees ee es Wwe ee ere wwe cw 27 Display Normal Character StOteocccornnnarnnrrrrrnrnnnrooon Z Adjust SpPacidd anar crasas ee sad Display character SECO de ia Hardcopy Printinge sekere AS ASA AAA ee ees Video Pixel HD Hardcopy DULCE A a da HDOFF Hardcopy Direct DEL is Se ee ow eens eee ee 29 HF HNP HNR HP HR Hardeopy Formf ed aw eas sobs ara Ae Haracopy Non dithered Priltasii cios iaa Hardcopy Non qaithered RevelSO c e sssssrsssrason s 27 Hardcopy PELE ca ia Wales Is we ere dhe Be a
40. ode KF count and color are word values Sua MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS K128 EMULATE VX128 MODE VX384 ONLY Format K128 ASCII 128 ONLY Allows the VX384 to emulate the functionality of the VX128 Erases the screen resets the color lookup table to match the color numbers of the VX128 and re displays the Vectrix logo This mode can be exited by resetting the Vectrix or using the G command RV RETURN VERSION NUMBER COMMAND V1 4 Format RV Displays the version number of the PROMs installed in the Vectrix unit Useful in determining which Vectrix commands are supported in the installed PROM set U UPLOAD AND EXECUTE USER CODE Format U count program bytes The VX Graphics Processor contains two state of the art microprocessors the Intel 8888 and the NEC PD7220 GDC The U command gives you access to the assembly language command sets of these chips The U command uploads from the host computer to the Vectrix 80888 RAM and executes count program bytes of a compiled assembly language program at location 100H Specifying a count of zero without loading any program bytes causes the previously loaded program to be executed again count is a word value program bytes are bytes This command allows you to write your own specialized functions The subroutines used in the VX are available in the jump table in the front of the PROMS Refer to the Vectrix Advanced Programming manual which is available separately for PROM
41. play only its visible segments if any Default full screen V 671 g 479 These are the maximum legal values for the viewport Setting it to larger values causes lines exceeding the screen area wrapping around into successive bitplanes The viewport is operative only in 3D mode Setting a viewport in 2D mode will not result in clipping There are two techniques for creating a square aspect ratio 1 by using a square viewport such as V 96 575 08 479 or 2 by using a scale factor of 488 divided by 672 as the final step before perspective scaling SX 480 672 2 9 COLOR MANIPULATIONS The color manipulation commands allow you to precisely control the color of images and background as well as achieve a variety of animation and color combination effects The VX divides its memory up into bitplanes Each bitplane stores 670 x 488 bits pixels on the screen On the VX128 there are bitplanes allowing for 8 colors on the screen simultaneously 2 5 on the VX384 there are 9 bitplanes allowing for 512 colors simultaneously B BITPLANE WRITE MASK Format B bitplane mask register The B command enables which bitplanes may be written to The B command lets you perform animation and other effects It does this by defining which bitplanes are enabled for update based on the binary equivalent VX128 3 bit VX384 9 bit of the value of mask register bitplane mask register is a word value For example binary 100 repres
42. r 2 stop bits aTa Testing the serial interface You can test the serial interface the same way as described above Testing the Parallel Interface If that doesn t work try switching the wires to pins 2 and 3 and pins 4 and 5 on the host side of the cable GETTING STARTED PROGRAMMING The VX looks like a printer to your host computer so the easiest way to send it a command is to simply create a BASIC or any other high level language program with a print statement For example in BASIC run this program 19 LPRINT EQ zero not the letter o and upper case letter E That should erase the Vectrix logo from the screen and set the screen color to black And this 18 LPRINT C511 20 LPRINT D 258 350 generates a white dot at screen position 258 350 Or if you want something easier to use try this 18 DIM AS 88 20 INPUT AS 30 LPRINT AS 49 GOTO 28 Just type a command without quote marks after the mark generated on each line by your computer You can put more than one command on the same line but if your BASIC automatically sends a carriage return for example after 80 characters make sure you keep line length less than 88 characters Here are a few suggested things to try EY Erases the screen to black L 300 2308 Draws a line to location 300 300 COMMAND FORMATS VX commands consist of two parts one or more letters must be upper case followed by numeric arguments
43. ren OO Hardcopy REVETS6 iia AAA ORC OER a COM a AC Sain a eh ee AE ESSE a ee wea KI KN OF ON PAN and RP RR WP WR RNR WNR RNP WNP Interlaced Vides os di dives A A A ew OU Non 1nter laced Videos cercas aia a eae OU TUBO video ORF oso yb ters wie Bud a aca Turns vid ON ew eee hee oe wee ee Ose el ae Ole wees OO PAN video Mage ou oe seses Oa ae eee ese SW eee Oth ae we eee Ram Comand ASA RESO eS SO wee Ewe eee 2 R6aG Pixels coria a Mees oS ARS Read graphics RAMs 6 4 visa a oie alee A a eae Write PixelS ecese AU ERA AAA AA wee AAA DD Write Graphics RAM dea iaa la o ata as a Read Graphics RAM encoded esoo cad a O Write Graphics RAM encoded oooooooooooo oo o ree eee Read Pixel Values CenCoded 0x2 Ss ee asas Write Pixel Values encoded ooooooooooooooooooooo3d4 Miscellaneous COMM ANG Sd EI AAA E AA AAA O K128 Emulate VXL2ZS MOdeO iii e A A A SO RV REtCurn Version NUMDEE iria O U Upload and execute user codes ciscionsarsss isa en oD WF Wait LIME rat SAO TUCOELAL a aa Sb bbe aie Soe eee ee ee we ew awe Terminal Command aw Noes See Sa wees ccc cccrccvercccccccccccce cdl Terminal CHharacteristics lt 28 conri ca O NE A Control COCOS oras a a AS 2 si Escape Command SequencCeS ooooooooooooooo A E E Warning This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manua
44. riginal rotation character The default value for both slant and rotation is Note You may want to adjust the horizontal and vertical spacing for various angles and rotations using the JS command The JA command has no effect on user defined characters created with the JD command JD DESIGN CHARACTER Format JD character row rOW5 row The default normal VX character set uses a 7 X 8 matrix and is implemented in hardware PROM The JD command allows you to design your own character set using an 8 X 8 cell To define the character 25 1 Using graph paper draw the character in 8 x 8 character cell Row 1 is the top of the pattern and the high order bit is the left border of the pattern 2 Write down the binary numbers for the eight rows of the matrix on 1 off 3 Convert each binary number to its decimal or hex equivalent row values and specify the character name any valid ASCII character Example Let s define a special box character which we ll call Binary ASCII HEX 1111 1009 248 F8 1999 1009 136 88 1900 1009 136 y 88 1988 1000 136 88 1888 1009 136 88 1000 1000 136 88 1111 1000 248 F8 vana FOGA g The corresponding command in ASCII format would be JD 248 136 136 136 136 136 248 We used the in this example to designate the box character You can redefine any of the 95 ASCII characters in the same way Note In this command a space is NOT allowed after
45. s one complete field of video per frame Horizontal scan rate same formula as KI command Vertical rate in Hz 10900 HSR 488 vfp vs vbp Horizontal and vertical values are in the same units as the KI command OF TURN VIDEO OFF V1 4 Format OF Turns the video display of the Vectrix display off without affecting the contents of the screen image ON TURN VIDEO ON V1 4 Formats ON Turns the video display of the Vectrix display back on without affecting the contents of the screen image PAN PAN VIDEO IMAGE V1 7 Format PAN xpan ypan Pans the video image of the Vectrix so that location xpan ypan 34 of the image appears at the lower left corner of the screen xpan and ypan are word values Xpan and ypan default to zero upon power on and reset The maximum value for xpan is 671 and for ypan is 479 Values outside of this range are rejected This command operates for interlaced images only Xpan truncates to word boundaries if not an exact multiple of sixteen Ypan truncates to an even number if not an exact multiple of two E PIXEL AND RAM COMMANDS When word values are returned to the host computer by the Read Pixel and Read RAM commands they are returned in the current transmission format ASCII or hexadecimal If in ASCII mode word values are returned as a fixed length string of five ASCII digits B0000 through 65535 with leading zeros and followed by a carriage return no linefeed
46. th 4 vertices can be used to draw a square around this circle P4 236 140 436 148 436 340 236 348 The filled polygon command is similar to the polygon command but fills the inside of the polygon with a color Note that the Fill command has one additional argument the internal color than the Polygon command The outline of the filled area is in the current drawing color red and filled with the internal color specified in the command white VX128 F7 4 236 140 436 140 436 348 236 340 VX384 F511 4 236 140 436 140 436 340 236 340 37 Exercise 3 Line Textures and Fill Patterns Line patterns can be drawn by use of the pattern register inside the Vectrix The N command sets the contents of this register VX128 VX384 ES EY ERASE SCREEN TO BLACK cl C7 DRAWING COLOR TO RED M MOVE TO LOWER LEFT CORNER N1 DOTTED CINE aaa de e L0 109 DRAW LINE N257 DOTTED LINE 000 sites L100 100 DRAW LINE A N255 1 2 DASHED LINE lt L190 DRAW LINE N58596 DASHDOT PATTERN L0 9 DRAW LINE N 1 SET PATTERN BACK TO SOLID LINE Patterns look best in pure horizontal or pure vertical lines The pattern register is also used during filling The following set of commands fills a polygon with a pattern and then resets the pattern back to solid line 3 VX128 N13107 C7 F1 4 290 200 200 300 300 300 300 200 F1 4 400 300 300 200 400 100 500 200 N 1 VX384 N13197 C511 F7 4 200 200 200 300 30
47. ttached to the Vectrix the terminal commands can still be used by transmitting them from the host computer eo 4 3 Change to terminal mode and half duplex if desired by using the escape command sequences on the keyboard itself or by transmitting them from the host For instance to enter terminal mode press the ESC key on the keyboard release the ESC key then press the TERM key 4 When using the CONTROL or SHIFT keys however the CONTROL or SHIFT key is held down while pressing the desired key It is recommended that the SHIFT LOCK key not be used Use the CAPS LOCK to lock the keyboard into upper case mode 5 At this time you should be in communication with your host computer which will accept normal input from the Vectrix unit acting as a terminal The Vectrix uses the ESCAPE character as a lead in for its terminal command sequences so it is necessary to press the key twice in succession in order to transmit one ESCAPE character to the host 6 The first time the terminal mode is entered the character plane is erased to zero and the cursor is positioned at home On the VX128 plane 2 green is used as the character plane On the VX384 plane 9 is used leaving the first eight planes colors 8 255 intact When entering terminal mode on the VX384 slots 255 are saved and then loaded with black while slots 256 511 are loaded with green When re entering graphics mode slots 255 are restored to their previous val
48. ues then slots 255 511 also are loaded with the values of slots 255 so the terminal plane is invisible 7 Character magnification is set to one The rectangular fill pattern used for the cursor is set to all ones When entering the 86 x 24 terminal mode the character spacings are set to 8 20 96 x 48 terminal mode uses spacings of 7 0 12 2475 Terminal Characteristics The terminal has 49 rows of 96 characters per row or 24 rows of 808 characters Arrow functions backspace linefeed upfeed and forward space which are CONTROL H J K and L respectively permit movement of the cursor within the boundaries of the screen The Vectrix unit does not perform cursor wraparound An attempt to write characters past the screen limits has the following results l On the top edge or left side the cursor remains in the last visible position No further action is taken 2 On the right side an automatic carriage A ee is issued and the remaining characters are displayed on the next line 3 On the bottom edge the screen is scrolled as of V rsion 1 7 and the characters are displayed on the new bottom line CATS DECIMAL g8 DECIMAL 27 14 27 15 27 16 R 31 C 31 27 17 27 18 27 19 27 29 27 21 27 22 27 23 27 24 27 25 27 26 27 27 27 28 27 29 27 38 27 31 27 32 CONTROL CODES ASCII CNTL CNTL CNTL CNTL CNTL CNTL CNTL LEOAGAZ FUNCTION BACKSPACE TAB LINEFEED U
49. wo numbers if either bit is a 1 the resulting bit is a 1 if both bits are the result is 8 The resulting binary number is the new color number This is the default mode Example VX384 let s look at mixing pure red color number 7 and pure green color number 56 The bitplanes would look like this Es Blue Green Red Red 008 000 111 Green 000 111 000 Result 000 111 111 Yellow 63 RC REPLACE COMPLEMENT MODE exclusive OR V1 4 Format RC For each pixel subsequently drawn the RC mode replaces the pixel s binary value or 1 with its complement if it s 0 it becomes 1 and vice versa All bitplanes that have been enabled for update by the B command are complemented irrespective of the current drawing color Therefore in order to perform an exclusive OR of background zero to a particular color set the bitplane mask register to the desired color This command is useful for displaying cursors or crosshairs for example because any operation done twice results in a return to the original image RE REPLACE MODE Format RE In the replace mode when writing over an existing image the new color simply replaces the old one without mixing This mode is slower than OR mode because all enabled bitplanes must be written in order to replace the color RA REPLACE ALL MODE V1 4 Format RA Similar to replace mode except that not only are the ones in the pattern register drawn but also the
50. yte value Images transfer across significantly faster when performed in flash mode KF Specifying a count of zero moves the current drawing point to the upper left corner and reads the entire bitplane 248 168 words 392 WP WRITE PIXELS Format WP count color colors Starting at the current drawing point the WP command writes from the host computer count pixels with colors as specified by color number count and color are word values This command allows you to transmit images as a series of pixel values It is slower than the Write Graphics RAM WR command below but easier to use Images transfer across significantly faster when performed in flash mode KF Specifying a count of zero moves the current drawing point to the upper left corner and writes the entire screen image 322 568 pixels WR WRITE GRAPHICS RAM Format WR bitplane count word word Starting at the beginning of the 16 pixel word in which the current drawing point is located this command writes from the host computer count 16 pixel words to graphics RAM of bitplane 1 9 The low order bit of each word appears left most on the screen count and word are word values bitplane is a byte value Images transfer across significantly faster when performed in flash mode KF Specifying a count of zero moves the current drawing point to the upper left corner and writes the entire bitplane 28 169 words RNR WNR_ Read Write Graphics
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