19990316: SVGIF number of colors from ROUTE PP BATCH invocation (cont.)

>From: Anthony James Wimmers <address@hidden>
>Organization: UVa
>Keywords: 199903151804.LAA13281 SVGIF

Tony,

>Tom, we're getting closer...

Good.

re: GIF (tm) is 8-bit
>Right. The images in the mcidas window are 8-bit too, correct?

Right.

re: examples of blockiness
>Maybe that wasn't the best way to get the point across. This time I've
>included two gifs in this message that show the identical scene. I'll get
>to it in a minute...

OK.

re: perhaps the problem is in the browser you are using
>I checked it on a number of browsers before writing, and there's no
>difference in the image they present. Also, the "blocky" images appear
>just as blocky in an image editor.

OK.

re: the blocky images are created by ROUTE PP BATCH invocations
>True!

Thought so.

re: adding '-i 128' flag to mcenv invocation in batch.k
>I did that. It didn't make a difference,

It should have.  I just looked at the code and can't see why it would _not_
make a difference.

>*BUT* I also set "-imagecolors 128" in 
>my own .mcidasrc file. Now when I save gifs from my account, they look just 
>right.

Specifying '-imageColors 128' in your .mcidasrc file should be the same
as setting the '-i 128' flag to mcenv.

>I made an image in that account, called "cleaner.gif". Its counterpart,
>"blocky.gif" was made from a PP BATCH _after_ I added '-i 128' to 'mcenv' in 
>batch.k. To see the difference between the two images, focus on the purple 
>patches and on the colorbar at the bottom.
>
>Apparently, changing 'mcenv' did not fix the PP BATCH image. This is what that
>line on batch.k now says:
>
>MCPATH=$MCPATH PATH=$PATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH mcenv -f 3@480x640 
> -i 128 -f 1@700x872 -i 128 $command
>
>Did I need to write it in two places, to apply to both -f 3@480x640 and the
>big window (-f 1@700x872)? Maybe that is causing problems?

No.  One '-i 128' flag sequence is all that is needed.  This tells the session
to use 128 colors for images for all frames.

>I'm at a loss to explain why changing the imagecolors on my account worked
>fine, but the same change didn't work on the PP BATCH.

Me too.  I would like you to try a test:

o add a 'UCU PEEK 600' invocation to the '$command' that your PP BATCH
  invocation  is running.  This is the User Common (UC) location that should
  be set by the '-i' flag to mcenv.  It should be 128.  If it is 48, it
  means that the 'i 128' flag to mcenv didn't do what it was supposed to
  do (48 image colors is the default).  If the '-i 128' isn't working, you
  could do a 'UCU POKE 600 128' as the fist thing in your BATCH file to
  force use of 128 image colors.

>Thanks,
>Tony Wimmers
>University of Virginia

>From address@hidden  Tue Mar 16 08:38:50 1999
>Just in case the attachments don't come through, I've also posted them at

>http://windfall.evsc.virginia.edu/~ajw7g/blocky.gif
>and 
>http://windfall.evsc.virginia.edu/~ajw7g/cleaner.gif

OK, they look the same as your attachments to the original message.

Tom

>From address@hidden  Tue Mar 16 13:26:13 1999
>Jenny pointed out to me that I had edited the wrong file. The "real" batch.k 
>file is in /home/ldma/util/. After I fixed that, then the images worked out 
>fine, and much to my liking.

That's a relief!

>Did you ever see a difference between the two images I sent you?

Yes.  You could see that the number of colors being used in "blocky.gif"
was a lot less than in "cleaner.gif".  This "contouring effect" is to
be expected as you decrease the number of colors used for image displays.

>Thanks again,

I'm glad to hear that things are working as you want.

>Tony

Tom