Silent Development: 8-bit

Showing posts with label 8-bit. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

Image To ZX Spec 2.0.2 Maintenance Release

Release Overview:

This maintenance release fixes video frame dropping (thanks to David at arbitraryfiles.com for finding it) and corrects source code copyrights.
UPDATE 4/1/2019: Recent 2.0.2 builds did not have the build version correctly displayed in the UI - this has been fixed but otherwise functionality remains identical.

What is Image to ZX Spectrum?

Image to ZX Spec(trum) is a utility to convert image and video files to a REAL ZX Spectrum as a slideshow/video, to a Spectrum compatible file format for games development (SCREEN$ "scr" format) or create retro art posters or gifs (images of any size - memory limited - can have a Spectrum effect applied to them).

For more info and examples have a look at previous release posts or the early version tutorial

Source:

https://github.com/KodeMunkie/imagetozxspec

Downloads (nb all builds are x64 - 64 Bit CPUs only):

Windows:
imagetozxspec-windows-2.0.2.zip (sha1: 576B30757F9653A13EEAAB0181F352F608F43594)
MacOS:
imagetozxspec-macos-2.0.2.zip (sha1: 07F75548ECF9F58100965E4C0B68BDE0FE59D9AD)
Linux:
imagetozxspec-linux-2.0.2.zip (sha1: ABD008A50800A4F08C03C64AC270F3B9BA5F560D)

Changelog for 2.0.2:

Fixed related bugs to do with output image naming and missing output images
Updated copyright
Minor code clean up

Monday, April 17, 2017

Image To ZX Spec 2.0.1 Release & Source Code

What's new?
As mentioned in my last post this project is in maintenance stage for me (or as little work as I can get away with) so I can concentrate on other things. However... it's having a rebirth as a new project on Github! I'm a bit tentative about Github as previously I had exclusive distribution of the source via my blog but now it's easy for anybody to fork and improve. This is a double edge sword as others' improvements can be pushed back up stream and the project won't die - still it's letting go of my pride and joy!

What still needs work for the source release?
Over the next few weeks I hope to document the architecture and build instructions that I've simply not yet had the time to do - these will follow on a fixed blogger page and the project readme markdown respectively. There are areas that I'm not happy with (as with any project) that are downright ugly but the processing pipeline is sound and has had many refinements. Hopefully others will help improve the bad areas!

So what else has changed?
This release sees UI improvements for niggling issues like the image being too large and going off screen and a fix for serious bug in SCR export. It also has improvements to Gigascreen rendering on a real Spectrum.

Source:

https://github.com/KodeMunkie/imagetozxspec

Downloads (nb all builds are x64 - 64 Bit CPUs only):

Windows:
imagetozxspec-windows-2.0.1.zip (sha1: 9be463c17e4a26231e45a39250bceba9)
MacOS:
imagetozxspec-macos-2.0.1.zip (sha1: 4e5e213755c9bd4258ef6aee13330adf)
Linux:
imagetozxspec-linux-2.0.1.zip (sha1: 748b7cc8bd726f001d89761587de0625)

Changelog for 2.0.1:

Fixed bug with main window extending off screen
Fixed image labelling bug
Fixed bug adding last frames of video to a new video if conversion manually stopped
Fixed bug with multi image popup preview's image being too large when unscaled
Fixed bug in SCR converter that would fail to output some images/second Gigascreen image
Added 2 new Gigascreen export attribute orders
Added pre-processing slider reset to defaults button
Removed some redundant dither processing
Removed test framework from production build
Cleaned up some code

Sunday, August 04, 2013

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.4 Released

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.4 has now been released.

For a full description read more here

Changes (since 1.3.4):

Version 1.3.4

Updated for Java 7.
Added VLC compatible video importing option.
Added simultaneous video decode/spectrum encode.
Added new prefer detail setting improving output.
Added new Sierra error diffusion option.
Added automatic preference saving.
Added dynamic memory allocation (grabs as much free as possible).
Added conversion cancel button (finally!)
Removed some redundant localisation code.
English text and licenses changes.

Downloads:

Image to ZX Spec 1.3.4 Standalone (direct download, just unzip and double click jar file to start).
Try Image to ZX Spec 1.3.4 online.
Image to ZX Spec 1.3.4 source code

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.3_02 Released

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.3_02 has now been released.

For a full description read more here

Changes (since 1.3.3_01):

Version 1.3.3_02

Fixed an image resize bug which was forcing output to 256x192.
Fixed preview image flicker and preview image input-output synchronisation.
Removed two video queue bottlenecks (improves video conversion speed).
Removed all video pre-buffering (real time loading and conversion replaces it).
Removed non-internationalised video buffering message.

Downloads:

Image to ZX Spec 1.3.3 Standalone (direct download, just unzip and double click jar file to start).
Try Image to ZX Spec 1.3.3 online.
Image to ZX Spec 1.3.3 source code (note GPL 2.0 licenced).

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.3 Released

Version 1.3.3_01 of Image To ZX Spec is now freely available!
Image to ZX Spec is written in Java and will work on Windows, Linux (tested on Ubuntu) or any Java 6 capable operating system.

Full colour conversion

Image To ZX Spec is an image and video converter that can produce "Spectrumized" retro art images of any size and convert real work to use on the ZX Spectrum, an emulator as a slideshow or video. This is useful to create music videos, posters, mock screenshots, to name a few - you do not even need a Spectrum to use this program!

Features:

Convert most avi formats/divx video to anim gifs or virtual tapes (for use in an emulator or on a real Spectum)!
Convert any image to a format a real Spectrum can display.
Convert any image to a full (original) size image with a retro Spectrum effect.
Multi core high speed conversion - configurable!
Fully automatic conversion, you just choose how you want to apply the effects.
Pre processing (brightness colour etc.) options.
Multiple dither (colour correction) options - 15 in total, that's excluding image to text and no dither options!
Multiple previews of all the dither options.
Many colour modes, such as monochrome, full 15 colour and the exotic "Gigascreen" colour mode (102 colours on a ZX Spectrum!)
Localised GUI - German, Greek, Italian, Polish and Spanish

Text conversion

Changes (since 1.3.1):

Version 1.3.3_01

Added internationalisation support.
Added new languages - German, Greek, Italian, Polish and Spanish.

Version 1.3.3

Added random single frame video preview.
Added improved video format support.
More monochrome dither fixes.
More UI changes.
Added serpentine error diffusion option.
Added error diffusion constraining option.
Improved error diffusion accuracy.

Version 1.3.2

Added Character Conversion (image to text).
Fixed long standing monochrome dithering bug (loss of detail).
UI changes for new options and usability changes.
Source code contains initial ground work for Muffin web proxy.

Gigascreen (102 colour) conversion

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.1 Released

Version 1.3.1 of Image To ZX Spec (more details) has now been released and is freely available.
Image to ZX Spec is written in Java and will work on Windows, Linux (tested on Ubuntu) or any Java 6 capable operating system.

Version 1.3.1
- Added Anim Gif export feature.
- Updated licence/about information.

Downloads:

Image to ZX Spec 1.3.1 Standalone (direct download, just unzip and double click jar file to start).
Try Image to ZX Spec 1.3.1 online.
Image to ZX Spec 1.3.1 Source code and Javadoc (note GPL 2.0 licenced).
Tutorial and demo videos

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Image to ZX Spec 1.3.0_01 Released

Update: Version 1.3.1 is now available.

Version 1.3.0_01 of Image To ZX Spec (more details) has now been released and is freely available.
Image to ZX Spec is written in Java and will work on Windows, Linux (tested on Ubuntu) or any Java 6 capable operating system.

Changes:

Version 1.3.0_01
- Added support for drag and drop on Ubuntu.
- Minor Ubuntu window size issue fixed.
- Fixed bad line numbering in Simple BASIC Loader.

Downloads:

Image to ZX Spec 1.3.0_01 Standalone (direct download, just unzip and double click jar file to start).
Try Image to ZX Spec 1.3.0_01 online.
Image to ZX Spec 1.3.0_01 Source code and Javadoc (note GPL 2.0 licenced).
Tutorial and demo videos

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.0 Released

Update: Version 1.3.1 is now available here.

Version 1.3.0(_01) of this application has now been released and is freely available.

Image To ZX Spec 1.3.0 is a multi core capable image and video converter that can produce vintage computer art images (jpeg/png) of any size and can even convert work to a real ZX Spectrum (or an emulator) as a slideshow or video. This is useful to create retro 8bit music videos, posters, tshirts, mock screenshots etc etc - you do not even need a Spectrum to use this program!

New for 1.3.0 - With the exception of the first Ubuntu (15 colour) screenshot above (the tool works on Windows and Ubuntu), the other screenshots illustrate the new GigaScreen 102 colour palette option. For more images and information on Image To ZX Spec's full capabilities read here. GigaScreen images are viewable on any Spectrum with a suitable GigaScreen viewer program. The large palette is a product of flashing two specially prepared images in sequence and due to persistence of vision extra colours can be seen. The real colours are displayed in Image To ZX Spec's preview and saved in other image file formats (png/jpeg) capable of being shown on a PC.