Second Sight Features
Jawaid Bazyar
Sequential Systems is pleased to announce that the Second Sight SVGA
card for Apple II computers is now shipping. It will take some time for
us to clear our backlog, so please be patient. However, rest assured
that cards are shipping.
Below is an updated feature list for Second Sight.
--
SecondSightŞ SVGA Board
Specifications & Features
SECOND SIGHT
A 24-bit video card for Apple II computers.
Monitors
--------
Works either with standard VGA/SVGA monitors, or with the standard IIGS RGB
("AppleColor RGB") monitor & compatibles.
Modes
-----
The following existing Apple II and IIGS video modes are emulated for display
on an SVGA monitor.
40 & 80 column text
Lores / double lores
Hires / double hires
320x200x16
640x200x4/16
The card is capable of the following SVGA video modes:
Graphics
320x200
640x200
640x400
640x480*
800x600*
1024x768*
Text
40x25
80x25
80x43*
80x50*
80x60*
132x25
132x60*
There are three basic graphics modes: indexed (palette), Hi-Color, and
True-Color.
In indexed mode, each pixel can be one of 256 colors that are specified
in a palette. Each of these 256 palette entries can be one of 16.7M
colors. (All modes)
In Hi-color mode, each pixel can be any of 32768 direct colors (no index
or palette lookup). (resolutions up to 800x600)
True-color mode is similar, but each pixel can be any of 16.7M (million)
colors. (resolutions up to 640x480)
(Note: existing software titles will not automatically use the high-
resolution modes).
(* indicates that the mode is not available when used with an AppleColor RGB
monitor.)
(Since the VGA chip is completely programmable, there are actually a
potential of millions of different text and graphics video modes - the
above list is just the most commonly used ones).
Software Support
----------------
SecondSight comes with an image viewer program that supports GIF and
8-bit TIFF images. A Photo-CD viewer will be forthcoming soon.
A programmer's library with on-disk documentation is also available, to
facilitate the development of third-party software for the card.
At the current time no QuickDraw II support is provided.
Cost
----
Pricing will be detailed in a future post; or feel free to call
Seuential *toll-free* at 800-759-4549 for prices.
Expected Third Party Software Support
-------------------------------------
Sequential Systems
discQuest(tm) and discQuest Encyclopedia(tm)
Procyon
GNO/ME (high resolution text drivers)
Todd Whitesel
Lord High Giffer (GIF image viewer)
Tim Meekins
imageQuant
Aurora Software
dungeonQuest
Digisoft Innovations
Twilight II
Common Questions and Answers
----------------------------
Q. How much video memory can the Second Sight support?
A. 1MB (megabyte). The card comes standard with 512K (IIe) or 1MB (IIGS),
enough to support up to 1024x768x256 resolution.
Q. Does the Second Sight have a "blitter" chip on it?
A. Yes and no. There is no dedicated hardware "blitter" chip, but the 20MHz
Zilog Z180 processor, in conjunction with the Oak VGA controller, can
quickly perform many blitter functions.
Q. How fast is the Second Sight blitter?
A. The Z180 can copy one byte of memory in 6 20MHz clock cycles. This works
out to around 3.3 MB/s. Using the help of the VGA controller to do
read/modify/write cycles, you can get about 5MB/s blitter action.
Q. What types of operations can the Z180 do?
A. The Z180 can scroll screen data, accept blocks of screen data from the
IIGS, clear the screen, perform and/or/xor operations on screen data, etc.
Q. What kind of developer information is available for Second Sight?
A. A System Tool set is provided, along with documentation on using it. The
tool set takes care of most common tasks programmers will do. Programmers
can upload their own Z180 code to the Second Sight card to completely
customize the card, or provide brand-new features (a sprite manager, for
example).
Q. How many colors can Second Sight display at one time?
A. VGA mode:
256 at a time (256 colors per pixel, or 8-bit pixels) from a
total of 16.7 million colors (up to 1024x768 resolution)
HighColor:
32768 direct colors (up to 800x600 resolution)
TrueColor:
16.7M direct colors (up to 640x480 resolution)
Q. Do existing applications, like Finder or AppleWorks GS, take advantage
of the higher resolutions, like 640x480 or 800x600?
A. No. There is no support for patching the IIGS' QuickDraw tool, which is
what would be required for current programs to automatically use the
Second Sight board's special features. Such a patch isn't impossible,
and we will work with programmers who would like to attempt it.
Q. What part did you have in the development of this card, Jawaid, and if
you worked on it, do you ever sleep?
A. I helped lay down the requirements for the card, and have been helping on
various bits of hardware and software for the card itself, and all IIGS
applications, of course. No, I never sleep. Andrew Vogan, designer of the
RamFAST, and Joe Yandrofski of Sequential, did most of the hardware design,
and I did the majority of the firmware.
Q. What kind of monitor do I need, if I want to buy a new one?
A. Any "VGA" or "SVGA" monitor will work fine. Any monitor sold for use
with an IBM PC clone (386/486) computer will work. You want a monitor
with a small dot-pitch; .39 dot pitch is not very good; .28 dot pitch
is better, and .23 dot pitch is best. Sequential Systems is selling a
very high quality Samsung 14" Multi-Sync monitor; call for details.
Q. Do I have to use two monitors with Second Sight, one for VGA graphics,
and one for regular IIGS graphics?
A. No. The Second Sight "shadows" existing IIGS video modes onto the card,
and emulates them through the VGA monitor. If you want to, you can run
two monitors off your GS, one from the built-in video, and one from the
Second Sight. There might be some interesting applications possible
with this setup. In short, all your existing IIGS applications and games
will work with Second Sight, and on a VGA monitor.
Q. How is existing software improved by the Second Sight?
A. Existing software is not generally improved automatically, except for one
thing: because the IIGS's super hires mode is simulated using a 640x400
mode in the VGA controller, there are no black lines running through
graphics or text.. pictures and text are solid on a VGA monitor.
Q. Can I use Second Sight on my Apple IIe?
A. Yes. The IIe's video modes are emulated just as they are on a IIGS. Second
Sight will allow IIe users to view quality pictures, such as GIF images,
for the first time. Die-hard AppleWorks users on IIe's will now be able
to use large paper-white monitors. This will also have applications in
large monitors for people with handicaps.
Q. I want better graphics, but I can't afford to buy the card and a new
monitor. Can I use the Second Sight on my current Apple RGB monitor?
A. Yes, although you are limited to 640x400x256 interlaced, in graphics mode,
and 80x25 in text mode.
Q. Does the Second Sight have a graphics "overlay" mode, like the Video
Overlay Card?
A. No.
Q. How will existing programs that directly access the IIGS video hardware
work with Second Sight?
A. Second Sight watches the IIGS I/O bus for writes to the IIGS video
memory, and when they occur, it copies the data onto the card. Software
on the card then updates the VGA memory periodically to correspond to
the IIGS screen information. This process is called "shadowing".
Q. What happens if I run a program that needs a high-res video mode on an
Apple RGB monitor?
A. The program will most likely return an error. The Second Sight card will
prevent any possibly damaging video modes from being sent to an Apple RGB
monitor (as long as you use the card's firmware to set the video mode).
Q. Does Second Sight have to go in a particular slot?
A. Yes. On a ROM 01 IIGS, the card must go in slot 3. On a ROM 03 IIGS, the
card may be in any of slots 1 through 6. In a IIe, the card can be in
any slot.
--
Jawaid Bazyar | Like UNIX? Like your Apple IIGS? Then ask
Procyon, Inc. | me about GNO/ME for the Apple IIgs!
baz...@netcom.com | P.O Box 620334 (Sequential: 303-666-4549)
--Apple II Forever!-- | Littleton, CO 80162-0334 (303) 781-3273
Albert Chin-A-Young
: [blurb deleted ...]
:
: A programmer's library with on-disk documentation is also available, to
: facilitate the development of third-party software for the card.
Is there documentation to speak to the card directly (i.e. bypass the
toolset provided with the card)?
: [blurb deleted ...]
:
: Jawaid Bazyar | Like UNIX? Like your Apple IIGS? Then ask
albert
Jawaid Bazyar
>Jawaid Bazyar (baz...@netcom.com) wrote:
>: [blurb deleted ...]
>:
>: A programmer's library with on-disk documentation is also available, to
>: facilitate the development of third-party software for the card.
>Is there documentation to speak to the card directly (i.e. bypass the
>toolset provided with the card)?
You could do that, but that would be a really silly thing to do.
There are all sorts of funky timing and synchronization issues you have
to follow. Now, I've done all that hard work for you. :)
The toolset is currently in a linkable library form, and I will probably
provide source code to it.
Orion Pax
: ac...@fiu.edu (Albert Chin-A-Young) writes:
: >Is there documentation to speak to the card directly (i.e. bypass the
: >toolset provided with the card)?
: You could do that, but that would be a really silly thing to do.
: There are all sorts of funky timing and synchronization issues you have
: to follow. Now, I've done all that hard work for you. :)
That's what they said about the ensoniq and SHR graphics. You think any
of the good stuff uses TOOLs? :)
Joseph
-- <Anime Expo '95 Hospitality Staffer> <email in...@anime.expo.org for info> --
jl...@clyde.ics.uci.edu | Have you watched your Koko wa GreenWood, Yotoden,
-------------------------+ Gundam 0083, Bubble Gum Crisis/Crash!, Video Girl
II(> Creative 'Ware <)II | Ai, Tenchi Miyou, Ah! My Goddess, Maison Ikkoku,
Cal-Animage Epsilon VP | PatLabor, Ranma 1/2, and Five Star Stories today?
Jawaid Bazyar
>Jawaid Bazyar (baz...@netcom.com) wrote:
>: ac...@fiu.edu (Albert Chin-A-Young) writes:
>: >Is there documentation to speak to the card directly (i.e. bypass the
>: >toolset provided with the card)?
>: You could do that, but that would be a really silly thing to do.
>: There are all sorts of funky timing and synchronization issues you have
>: to follow. Now, I've done all that hard work for you. :)
>That's what they said about the ensoniq and SHR graphics. You think any
>of the good stuff uses TOOLs? :)
Heh. Well, this isn't a tool _per se_. I am certainly enabling you
to directly bang on the VGA registers and the like via this library
of routines.
Now, when you upload custom Z180 code into the thing, then you
might come up with your own interface routines.
FermiLevel
Albert Chin-A-Young
: jl...@ics.uci.edu (Orion Pax) writes:
: >Jawaid Bazyar (baz...@netcom.com) wrote:
: >: ac...@fiu.edu (Albert Chin-A-Young) writes:
: >: >Is there documentation to speak to the card directly (i.e. bypass the
: >: >toolset provided with the card)?
: >: You could do that, but that would be a really silly thing to do.
: >: There are all sorts of funky timing and synchronization issues you have
: >: to follow. Now, I've done all that hard work for you. :)
: >That's what they said about the ensoniq and SHR graphics. You think any
: >of the good stuff uses TOOLs? :)
: Heh. Well, this isn't a tool _per se_. I am certainly enabling you
: to directly bang on the VGA registers and the like via this library
: of routines.
A linkable library or source would be great!
: Jawaid Bazyar | Like UNIX? Like your Apple IIGS? Then ask
albert
Jawaid Bazyar
>Is there a way to operate the Apple VOC with Second Sight?
Yes. You could feed the video output of Second Sight into a VOC,
for TrueColor overlays and that sort of thing.
--
Jawaid Bazyar | Like UNIX? Like your Apple IIGS? Then ask
Paul Creager
: Yes. You could feed the video output of Second Sight into a VOC,
: for TrueColor overlays and that sort of thing.
You can?! I thought an earlier msg said no. Wow! You're talking about
using the SS output as VOC input, right? Does that mean I couldn't
overlay SVGA graphics onto a video (camcorder) image, since both would be
inputs?
Wily
Nathan Mates
Jawaid Bazyar <baz...@netcom.com> wrote:
>>Is there a way to operate the Apple VOC with Second Sight?
>Yes. You could feed the video output of Second Sight into a VOC,
>for TrueColor overlays and that sort of thing.
We discussed this on IRC last night, this isn't quite true. Jawaid
thought that the VOC got its input from the GS's RGB out port, and
thus you could connect a SS's RGB out port to the VOC. Not true; the
VOC grabs its video off the GS bus, and then pipes everything out.
With a bit of extra hardware this might be possible: connect the
SS to one of those VGA -> TV converters, and then send the TV signal
from that into the VOC as your background input. You'd lose a chunk
of the signal by going to RF (NTSC is pretty cruddy when it comes to
accurate color rendition), but that could work.
Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/ <*>
# And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the
# Kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in
# parables" Mark 4:11, NRSV
Jawaid Bazyar
>fermi...@aol.com (FermiLevel) writes:
>>Is there a way to operate the Apple VOC with Second Sight?
>Yes. You could feed the video output of Second Sight into a VOC,
>for TrueColor overlays and that sort of thing.
I've been told that my comment above was incorrect. The VOC has
an NTSC input port, not an RGB input port.
Mitchell Spector
>
>SecondSightª SVGA Board
>Specifications & Features
>
>Modes
>-----
>
>The following existing Apple II and IIGS video modes are emulated for display
>on an SVGA monitor.
>
> 40 & 80 column text
> Lores / double lores
> Hires / double hires
> 320x200x16
> 640x200x4/16
What of the 320 and 640 multipalette modes? Does the current on board
firmware support shadowing of 320x200x256, 320x200x3200 and 640x200x128+? (The
latter is rarely used, although some popular applications like System 6's
synthLAB make use of it). I'm also curious how 640 mode dithering will appear
on a VGA/SVGA screen, won't colors look less solid (horizontally) because of
the higher resolution and dot-pitch?
I'm also concerned with current (what is it now?) FPS rate and 320
mode "blocky" looking pixels when shadowed to a VGA/SVGA screen. For this
reason, can you disable the Second Sight and get the old standard video
output on an AppleColor RGB monitor? (No emulation of older graphic modes
on my 12" screen, all video singals generated from VGC on motherboard as
if the Second Sight wasn't plugged in). I just want to be sure I won't
have to pull the card out just to see text and graphics as they appear
_now_ on my system. :)
>The card is capable of the following SVGA video modes:
>
> Text
>
> 132x25
>
>(* indicates that the mode is not available when used with an AppleColor RGB
> monitor.)
I assume you forgot the asterix by the 132x25 Text mode, unless you
found some neat trick of getting that displayed on an AppleColor RGB. ;-)
>Software Support
>----------------
>SecondSight comes with an image viewer program that supports GIF and
>8-bit TIFF images. A Photo-CD viewer will be forthcoming soon.
No JPEG support? And only 8-bit TIFF conversation? I hope
HiColor (32k) and TrueColor (16M) support will be added to the
viewer in the near future.
>Common Questions and Answers
>----------------------------
>Q. How much video memory can the Second Sight support?
>A. 1MB (megabyte). The card comes standard with 512K (IIe) or 1MB (IIGS),
> enough to support up to 1024x768x256 resolution.
The GIF image of the Second Sight shows 8 ZIP-RAMs soldered in.
Does this mean there are two separate versions of the card, one with all
memory factory installed, and another with 4 empty DRAM sockets?
>Q. How many colors can Second Sight display at one time?
>A. VGA mode:
> 256 at a time (256 colors per pixel, or 8-bit pixels) from a
> total of 16.7 million colors (up to 1024x768 resolution)
> HighColor:
> 32768 direct colors (up to 800x600 resolution)
> TrueColor:
> 16.7M direct colors (up to 640x480 resolution)
For those of use sticking with our AppleColor RGB screens (until we
can afford something better :), would 1MB be required to get a 640x400x16.7M
display or will 512k handle that? And what is the maximum number of colors
that can be displayed at 320x200 and 640x200?
>Q. What kind of monitor do I need, if I want to buy a new one?
>A. Any "VGA" or "SVGA" monitor will work fine. Any monitor sold for use
> with an IBM PC clone (386/486) computer will work. You want a monitor
> with a small dot-pitch; .39 dot pitch is not very good; .28 dot pitch
> is better, and .23 dot pitch is best. Sequential Systems is selling a
> very high quality Samsung 14" Multi-Sync monitor; call for details.
This question is more directed towards users out there. I wonder,
what are good brand name monitors (make and model) that people recommend
shopping for, and which to avoid. PC SVGA monitors are available far and
wide, so most of us out there can shop for them locally (unlike Apple II
specific hardware that is near impossible to purchase without going through
out of town mail order). Hmmm, I've heard of an adapter that allows PC users
to connect Macintosh RGB screens to their IBM PCs -- would such an adapter
work with the Second Sight card?
>Q. How is existing software improved by the Second Sight?
>A. Existing software is not generally improved automatically, except for one
> thing: because the IIGS's super hires mode is simulated using a 640x400
> mode in the VGA controller, there are no black lines running through
> graphics or text.. pictures and text are solid on a VGA monitor.
Will scanlines disappear when using a Second Sight with the standard
AppleColor RGB screen? (A bit of a conflicting question though, since I also
asked above whether you could disable SS video signals going to a GS RGB.
Losing the scanlines is nice, but chunky pixels and a reduced frame-rate
might not be). I think using a Second Sight with the old AppleColor RGB
makes about as much sense as using the card on an Apple IIe; it'll work,
but your limiting the potential/power of the card. Probably the reason you
don't see much focus on the Apple RGB or IIe when it comes to Q&A on the
card. :)
>Q. What happens if I run a program that needs a high-res video mode on an
> Apple RGB monitor?
>A. The program will most likely return an error. The Second Sight card will
> prevent any possibly damaging video modes from being sent to an Apple RGB
> monitor (as long as you use the card's firmware to set the video mode).
What would happen if a programmer (either stupid or evil) overrides
the firmware and forces higher resolution modes than the AppleColor RGB can
handle? Will it blow up in our face? :) I guess this would only be a problem
if a virus were written, but in a community this small, I doubt we'd have to
worry about it.
> Jawaid Bazyar | Like UNIX? Like your Apple IIGS? Then ask
> Procyon, Inc. | me about GNO/ME for the Apple IIgs!
> baz...@netcom.com | P.O Box 620334 (Sequential: 303-666-4549)
> --Apple II Forever!-- | Littleton, CO 80162-0334 (303) 781-3273
Mitchell Spector
m_s...@vega.concordia.ca / spe...@vax2.concordia.ca
Jawaid Bazyar
> What of the 320 and 640 multipalette modes?
No problem. 16 palettes x 16 colors each = 256 colors. :)
>Does the current on board
>firmware support shadowing of 320x200x256, 320x200x3200 and 640x200x128+?
Yes, no, yes. No 3200 because there's no way you could sync up the
SS's VBL to the Apple's.
>(The
>latter is rarely used, although some popular applications like System 6's
>synthLAB make use of it). I'm also curious how 640 mode dithering will appear
>on a VGA/SVGA screen, won't colors look less solid (horizontally) because of
>the higher resolution and dot-pitch?
Correct. In general it doesn't look too bad.
> I'm also concerned with current (what is it now?) FPS rate and 320
>mode "blocky" looking pixels when shadowed to a VGA/SVGA screen.
Oh hell, they're not _that_ blocky :)
As to the FPS rate, the board can do 15 full-screen updates per second.
However, it rarely has to do a full-screen update, since the card
knows which of either screen regions have been modified and only
updates what it needs to. In general use you can't tell there's
a Z180 in the video loop.
Some intensive programs (like Demos, Rastan perhaps) will act a bit
sluggish. Arkanoid, for example, plays great.
>For this
>reason, can you disable the Second Sight and get the old standard video
>output on an AppleColor RGB monitor? (No emulation of older graphic modes
>on my 12" screen, all video singals generated from VGC on motherboard as
>if the Second Sight wasn't plugged in). I just want to be sure I won't
>have to pull the card out just to see text and graphics as they appear
>_now_ on my system. :)
Switch-box. :)
>>The card is capable of the following SVGA video modes:
>>
>> Text
>>
>> 132x25
>>
>>(* indicates that the mode is not available when used with an AppleColor RGB
>> monitor.)
> I assume you forgot the asterix by the 132x25 Text mode, unless you
>found some neat trick of getting that displayed on an AppleColor RGB. ;-)
No, I did _not_ forget the asterisk. The AppleColor RGB monitor is capable
of readable 132 column text - which means that 1024x400 graphics modes
are possible too.
> No JPEG support? And only 8-bit TIFF conversation? I hope
>HiColor (32k) and TrueColor (16M) support will be added to the
>viewer in the near future.
Yep, just haven't had time. JPEG needs to be done right. :)
>Does this mean there are two separate versions of the card, one with all
>memory factory installed, and another with 4 empty DRAM sockets?
Yep.
> For those of use sticking with our AppleColor RGB screens (until we
>can afford something better :), would 1MB be required to get a 640x400x16.7M
>display or will 512k handle that? And what is the maximum number of colors
>that can be displayed at 320x200 and 640x200?
A IIgs requires 1MB VRAM, as mentioned above. You can display 16.7M
colors at any resolution less than 640x480.
>Hmmm, I've heard of an adapter that allows PC users
>to connect Macintosh RGB screens to their IBM PCs -- would such an adapter
>work with the Second Sight card?
Ought to. VGA is VGA.
> Will scanlines disappear when using a Second Sight with the standard
>AppleColor RGB screen?
Unfortunately no. The VGA controller can't do both scanline-doubling
and interlace at the same time for some strange reason.
>Losing the scanlines is nice, but chunky pixels and a reduced frame-rate
>might not be).
As I said, pixels aren't _that_ chunky on a VGA monitor.
> I think using a Second Sight with the old AppleColor RGB
>makes about as much sense as using the card on an Apple IIe; it'll work,
>but your limiting the potential/power of the card. Probably the reason you
>don't see much focus on the Apple RGB or IIe when it comes to Q&A on the
>card. :)
Well, it _is_ a VGA card after all. :-)
> What would happen if a programmer (either stupid or evil) overrides
>the firmware and forces higher resolution modes than the AppleColor RGB can
>handle? Will it blow up in our face? :) I guess this would only be a problem
>if a virus were written, but in a community this small, I doubt we'd have to
>worry about it.
The AppleColor RGB seems to be a quality-designed monitor. I have
fed it some pretty nasty video signals and in a couple cases it shut
itself off, but cycling power after letting it sit for a few seconds
it came back to life. Some VGA monitors will blow their circuit boards
if you feed them video signals they don't like (I've done this before).
Multisyncs obviously don't have this problem. :)
--
Todd P. Whitesel
> I've been told that my comment above was incorrect. The VOC has
>an NTSC input port, not an RGB input port.
The VOC has four ports:
- NTSC IN
- NTSC OUT
- RGB OUT
- AVEB (Apple Video Expansion Bus)
The VOC has a complete IIgs video system on board, which follows the bank $E0
and (in slots with M2B0) $E1 video buffers in real time (they use three ten
dollar FIFO chips and other custom logic to do this). This video system is
delayed as necessary to synchronize with the incoming signal on the NTSC IN
port, if enabled and a valid sync pattern is detected on that port. The two
images are combined using the key and non-key color mixing levels, and the
combined image is output to both the RGB OUT port and (after encoding it)
to the NTSC OUT port (this is also what the IIgs motherboard does BTW).
The AVEB port has access to many signals from various stages of input, mixer,
and output circuits. Apple expected the AVEB to be used for frame grabbers
by third parties, but that idea floundered just like the ZipGS expansion
connector, and for the same reasons (a small slice of an already small
market -- too small to make a realistic profit).
Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ ugcs.caltech.edu
Bruce Randall Baker
Will this second sight card work with an old color composite
monitor on my trusty //e?
So to use this I must vacate one of my precious seven slots on
my //e? I wish I could figure out how to consolidate my slots
now. I've got a speed enhancing card that I have not even been
able to use because I put the mouse in.
One problem with the turbo ASB enhancement to the SSC is that it
effectively takes up a second slot on my //e. I wonder if anyone
has found a workaround for that problem.
Thanks in advance for your advice. This may be a way to get RGB
on my //e without having to add the RGB roms to my Ramworks III
card. I've never had RGB on my //e, thinking it would not look
too much better. But my monitor wobbles in hot weather, I prob.
need to replace it soon anyway.
Bruce
Dave Ciotti
built in the disk controllers are built in plus other stuff. They can
be had dirt cheap used.
Binary.Bear on GEnie
Orion Pax
: > I've been told that my comment above was incorrect. The VOC has
: >an NTSC input port, not an RGB input port.
: The VOC has four ports:
: - NTSC IN
: - NTSC OUT
: - RGB OUT
: - AVEB (Apple Video Expansion Bus)
Any possibility of working the SS a bit to feed into the AVEB to do RGB in?