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Fed up looking at distorted TrueColor modes on your Falcon? Al Goold reckons Videlity is the answer...

Videlity is a new resolution enhancer for the Falcon programmed by the guys at Black Scorpion Software (BSS), who also brought Falcon owners Apex Media.
** SCORPBLB.GIF here **
At the time of writing Videlity is nearing its commercial release and, like other BSS software, will be distributed by Titan Designs. This is a preview of the latest beta version and having seen the changes since early versions and knowing the amount of testing which has gone into this product I am confident the release version will prove to be a very stable product.

Videlity enables greatly increased desktop resolutions. It includes built in support for external hardware so if you already have a Screenblaster or the external Blow Up hardware, Videlity takes advantage of these offering even higher resolutions. You do not need either product - Videlity works well without them.

Although Videlity was developed for use alongside Nemesis it's not essential and still does a reasonable job. However when used together with Nemesis it really comes into its own. Videlity was primarily developed to allow access to the quarter pixel true colour resolutions made available by Nemesis which are not currently supported by other packages of this nature.

On my system a standard SVGA monitor connected without Screenblaster or Blow Up, equipped with Nemesis running at 24MHz, the following resolutions were achieved:

** Bulleted list **
928x704 in 2 colours
896x672 in 16 colours
800x608 in 256 colours
720x544 in Falcon TrueColor

In all these modes the screen display is completely stable with no interference or distortion whatsoever. Dave Murphy of Black Scorpion Software has achieved a stable 736x560 Falcon TrueColor resolution.

Installation

Copy VIDELITY.PRG to your AUTO folder and make sure it runs after NVDI (if installed). Disable all other screen enhancement software and reboot.

Configuration
I have to admit this confused me intially. To get started double-click on the VID_CONF.PRG which brings up the configuration dialog screen.

** VIDELITY.GIF **
The main configuration screen

At this point can I recommend you have two manuals to hand - the Videlity manual and your monitor manual. If you don't have the manual or specification stick with the default settings or you could cause permanent damage to your monitor!
In an attempt to prevent idle tinkering causing monitor damage Videlity does include a built-in monitor protect feature. This button can be overrriden so technically competent users can determining the effective range of the monitor in use without the monitor user manual. Naturally enough neither Black Scorpion Software, Titan designs, myself nor Atari Computing accept responsibility for any damage caused if you choose to override this safety feature.

Initially I was struggling to understand "horizontal synch rates", "left and right blanks" and so on - but happily help is at hand...

Standard Configurations
Videlity comes with a number of pre-configured resolutions which should work with most monitors. From these your should be able to build up a custom library of resolutions to suit your monitor.

Once you have achieved a stable test picture with the X-Res (horizontal) controls you simply need to click on the 4:3 button and videlity configures the Y-Res (vertical) controls to give you a correctly proportioned screen display.  You can then adjust the various controls a little at a time to achieve the optimum display.

It certainly takes time to learn how to do this, but once it has been set up properly you can forget all about it unless you're a confirmed tinkerer.

** CONFIG.GIF **
Standard pre-configured resolutions

Summary
Before Videlity I ran my Falcon at 800x608 resolution in either 16 or 256 colours using Screenblaster II. I have previously achieved similar results using Blow Up Hard II. Videlity offers the same or better resolutions with the big advantage I can get 720x544 resolution in TrueColor. The difference this makes running applications such as CAB or any other graphics intensive program has to be seen to be believed - no more waiting for JPEGs to remap!
Although Videlity is commercial it's not expensive and in my opinion is a "must have" for all Falcon owners. If you have a Falcon do two things: Get a Nemesis fitted, then buy a copy of Videlity!

** Product box **
Product name: Videlity
Publisher: Titan Designs
Contact: +44 (0)121-693-6669
RRP: £14.95
Requires: Atari or C-Lab Falcon, ideally with Nemesis but not essential
Pros: Greatly enhanced TrueColor display, inexpensive
Cons: Initial configuration a bit tedious.
Rating: 90%
** End of boxout **