"Borland has taken considerable advantage of Metagraphics' expertise in the creation of the BGI32 graphic capabilities", noted Michael Hyman, manager of Borland's Languages business unit. Designed for use with the Borland C/C++ 4.0 compiler, PowerPack for DOS also features Borland's new royalty-free 16- and 32-bit DOS-Extenders, and Turbo Vision 2.0 application framework. The Borland PowerPack for DOS with BGI32 provides a powerful new graphics programming tool for Borland developers:
Go 32-Bit!
Currently the vast majority of games and animated CD-ROM titles are DOS based. More specifically, the current line-up of "killer" game apps (DOOM, SimCity 2000, 7th Guest, Myst, etc.) are *all* 32-bit! If you're designing a game or multi-media program, RUN - don't walk - to 32-bit! Phar Lap notes from their 386 DOS-Extender users that 32-bit programs are typically 50% faster and 20% smaller than equivalent 16-bit versions.
Not only are 32-bit programs typically faster and smaller, but you also break the 640K memory barrier and 64K segment hassle with a simple flat-address memory model that let's you directly access up to 4 gigabytes(!). 386 DOS-Extenders also include virtual memory management enabling your programs to work with more memory than is physically available. 16-bit environments can only provide memory in 64K segments, slowing program execution and forcing you to work around segment boundaries. Plus without virtual memory, you'll still have to arm-wrestle overlays or chain modules to run in smaller memory machines.
Both Borland's new Power Pack for DOS and Watcom's 4GW offer quality 32-bit DOS-Extenders that are Royalty-Free. Phar Lap's TNT DOS-Extender is also a good product, but does require distribution licensing.
Get Ready for WinG!
Microsoft has broken a major barrier for animation and games under Windows with a new Windows blit interface called "WinG". WinG provides near DOS-performance screen blits in a standard Windows environment. Microsoft was even showing an advance copy of "WinDOOM" using WinG at the recent Computer Game Developers Conference in Santa Clara.
The market for DOS games and multi-media applications is still huge, but the Windows games and multi-media market will be a growing opportunity. Importantly, you can target your programs to work with *BOTH* environments if you follow a few basic rules:
MWINFO.ZIP - Latest MetaWINDOW product information.
MWDEMO.ZIP - MetaWINDOW graphics demo (requires VGA).
MFDEMO.ZIP - Metagraphics FontWINDOW bitmap font editor demo.
GUISRC.ZIP - C code source for Metagraphics Motif-style GUI.
DMOSRC.ZIP - C source code for the Metagraphics MetaWINDOW demo (requires GUISRC.ZIP).
ICONS.ZIP - C/C++ example of multi-color icons with transparency.
SPRITES.ZIP - C++ sprite animation sample using page flipping with "and/or" blits (requires ICONS.ZIP).
MW2PAGE.ZIP - Simple C page-flipping animation sample.
ANIMPOLY.ZIP - Sample C page-flipping animation with polygon rendering.
ANIMREGN.ZIP - Sample C sprite animation sample using offscreen buffers with region blits.
EDSYMZ.ZIP - Graphical stroked font editor for MetaWINDOW and BGI32 scaleable fonts. Shareware from Action Information Management Ltd.
BGIFNT.ZIP - BGI compatible stroked and bitmaps fonts for use with MetaWINDOW.
GL2DMO.ZIP - Event driven GUI for C++. Fast, flexible, inexpensive. Demo with sample source.
HUISMA.ZIP - NextStep-style GUI for C. Shareware from Huisma Systems.
TWSV40B.ZIP - Comprehensive shareware C GUI from TWS systems. Multi-window, event-driven, background tasks, lots of 'gadgets'. Source code available.
BLITLIST.ZIP - Tech note describing MetaWINDOW driver blit-list calling interface.
CUSTBMAP.ZIP - Tech note describing how to implement custom MW bitmaps.
MetaWINDOW-DOS ............. 4.4
MetaWINDOW-286 ............. 4.4
MetaWINDOW-386 ............. 4.4
MetACCEL ................... 4.4
MetBGI256 .................. 4.4
MetHICOLOR ................. 4.4
PCXLab ..................... 4.4
FontWINDOW/Plus ............ 4.1
Copyright © 1995 Metagraphics Software Corporation