Dear User,

VPIC does not need to be installed, but it (usualy) does need to be
configured for your SuperVGA card. Simply create a directory on your hard
disk called VPIC and copy all the files on the floppy to this directory. If
you have a video card that supports VESA 1.2 correctly, or a Tseng ET-4000
video card, then you are done. If not, you'll have to determine what SVGA
chip your video card uses and configure VPIC for this chip; see the PROBLEMS
and CONFIG.DOC files for further info. You can now use the WHICHVGA program
to automate this process, and it works for about 90% of the SuperVGA cards.

Print VPIC.TXT using 17 chars/inch and 8 lines/inch to get a handy one page
quick reference guide for VPIC. See VPIC.DOC revision history for what's
new. VPIC.DOC and CONFIG.DOC are already formatted to produce nice documents
when printed at the default printer settings of 10 chars/in and 6 lines/in.
VPIC comes configured for the Tseng ET-4000 SuperVGA chip, so if your video
card uses this SVGA chip, you can ignore the configuration info below.

VPIC will now work with all cards that return VESA information correctly,
and does not have to be configured; generally, if the top line in the menu
says VESA, VPIC will work OK. If the top menu line says VESA and only the
320x200 mode is listed, see CONFIG.DOC about memory managers. If your
SuperVGA card does not support VESA (older cards) or returns wrong VESA info
(most older cards using the S3 chips, etc) then VPIC must be configured for
your VGA board to utilize all the extended modes the board is capable of
doing. In addition, if your card returns wrong VESA info, you will have to
use the /v option to make VPIC ignore VESA info. A generic VESA.CFG config
file is included so you can play around with the parameters, and maybe get a
card which isn't supported directly to work; again, use 'vpic /v' to use it.
To help you configure VPIC properly, the WHICHVGA and CONFIG programs were
created.

The archived file VESADR.ZIP contains an assortment of VESA TSR (Terminate
and Stay Resident) drivers for many of the popular video card. Be sure to
read the READ.ME file contained in the archive. Use PKUNZIP to un-archive
VESADR.ZIP and the various drivers. This collection came from Compuserve.

IMPORTANT: If you have an ATI card (and possibly some others) certain modes,
such as 800x600, are disabled unless you select the right monitor in the ATI
INSTALL or SETUP program. You may have to do a custom monitor configuration
to enable these modes. The card just refuses to acknowledge these modes with
the wrong monitor selected.

The CONFIG program allows you to manually configure VPIC from a menu. Just
make sure VPIC.EXE, CVPIC.EXE, CONFIG.EXE, and all the configuration files
(.cfg extension) are in the current directory. Then run CONFIG and you will
get a menu (similar to the VPIC menu) of all the configuration files. The
menu also lists the contents of the currently highlighted file. You can move
thru the list of files using the cursor keys, or by pressing a letter key
jump to the next filename starting with that letter (or number). Just look
for a file which matches the parameters for your board, and press ENTER to
configure VPIC using that configuration file. ESCape ends the CONFIG program
without configuring VPIC. If none of the supplied files match your board,
copy the closest one to a new filename (with extension .cfg) and use a text
editor to modify it to your boards requirements. Don't use a word processor
(unless it can produce straight ASCII text) since these usually put control
codes into the document which will confuse CONFIG and CVPIC. See CONFIG.DOC
for a list of supported VGA chips and typical boards on which they are used.
The WHICHVGA program will try to identify your VGA chip, the amount of
display memory you have, and if the board supports VESA. It then asks if you
want to configure for the SVGA chip it found. It isn't foolproof, but works
most of the time.

See CONFIG.DOC for a comprehensive explanation of the configuration process
and .cfg file format. See VPIC.DOC for all the other features of VPIC.

The program FIXGIF is supplied to fix single image GIFs where the screen and
image sizes don't agree. Just do 'fixgif filename'.

The file VASE.TGA is a 640x480x24 bit Targa file which will illustrate the
difference between 256, 32K, 64K, and 24 bit (16M) color modes. Use Alt F6
to see what modes VPIC thinks you have, and Alt F7 to lock a high color
mode.

The Windows program SLIDESHW is a shareware Windows shell for VPIC. Use PKUNZIP
to unarchive, and then drag SLIDESHW.EXE into one of your group windows.
Very nice.

The WAIT program is meant for batch file use with VPIC /r, and waits a
specified number of seconds or until a key is pressed between images. For
example, a batch file which waits 10 seconds between images might be:
vpic /r file1
wait 10
vpic /r file2
etc.
Enjoy,
Bob Montgomery