China DOS Union

This is my first time posting my self-written program online. I hope everyone will support and critique it!
Download LOGOBAR
Introduction & Principle:
Currently, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me still occupy many users' computers due to their excellent compatibility and ease of operation. When we start the computer, we will all see a LOGO with a scrolling color bar - "Blue Sky and White Clouds", which has become the symbol of Windows 9x. Many articles reveal that "Blue Sky and White Clouds" is actually a file LOGO.SYS located in the root directory of the C drive. This is actually a 320X400X256 color BMP file, which can be produced with simple "Paint". But BMP is static. How does Windows LOGO make it move? This involves knowledge of the color palette.
Almost all current graphics cards support true color, but a point in true color requires at least 24 bits of space to store. A basic 640*480 screen requires 640X480X3 = 921600 bytes, which is too wasteful for some programs with strict space requirements. Therefore, almost all graphics cards support the palette index color mode, such as the VGA13H mode - this display mode has a resolution of 320X200 and can display 262144 colors (2^18), but because it uses a 256-item palette, it can only display 256 colors among the 262144 colors at the same time. Although some color numbers are sacrificed, the space occupied by each point is reduced to 8 bits, that is, one byte, which records the position number of this color in the palette. The program can find the corresponding RGB value by looking up the table and display it accurately. Conversely, we can even change the RGB value recorded in the palette to change the color of some points on the screen without having to redraw the points. The Windows 9x series of Microsoft uses a similar method in the startup LOGO: the resolution is 320X400, and only 256 colors are displayed on the same screen at the same time, and each color corresponds to an RGB color in the palette. When the operating system starts, the program controls the RGB components of the last 20 items of the palette to change cyclically according to a certain rule, and the points using these 20 items of color on the screen have corresponding animation effects - arranging the positions of those color points reasonably can produce interesting animations. Now there are tools like XrX Add Bar Utility, Animate Bar that can add an animation bar effect at the bottom of an ordinary BMP file. If you have more creativity, they can't do it - they can only add at the bottom of the image, and the source image must be a 320X400 256-color BMP file - the function is too limited.
This is the reason for the production of this program. This program can do more effects you want. Just try it if you don't believe it. However, since the machine I used to write the program is too old (P75) and can only run DOS, this program is controlled by command line parameters. I believe this won't be difficult for you!
Software Name:
LOGOBAR Yi Laoshi's LOGO.SYS Animation Bar Making Tool
Copyright Notice:
This program is free software and still needs improvement. You can use it, and you can copy it to friends. If you think it brings you fun, please email the author (yihuawie@163.com) to share. If you have any commercial purpose, please also notify the author.
Author:
431700 Yihuawei, Experimental Junior Middle School, Tianmen City, Hubei Province
Email: yihuawei@163.com
Homepage: http://yisir.9126.com
Version:
V1.0 beta, compiled on June 25, 2004 during teaching support in Maoyang Town, Tianmen City, Hubei Province.
Usage:
LOGOBAR Source Image
Source Image is an image file you have designed. The format can be BMP, PCX, LBM, TGA, BTW. It is best to be the Windows standard BMP format. The size of the image can be 320X400, and the number of colors is 256. It can also be other values, and the program can automatically convert it to 320X400X256.
Options:
/TO=LOGO File Save the image with the animation bar as a LOGO file. The default value is LOGO.SYS. You can use the option "/TO=C:\LOGO.SYS" to install directly.
/PO=BOTTON|TOP|LEFT|RIGHT|MASKn Position to add the animation bar. The default value is: BOTTON
BOTTON Add the animation bar at the bottom of the image, similar to the way Windows 9x comes with
TOP Add the animation bar at the top of the image
LEFT Add the animation bar at the left side of the image
RIGHT Add the animation bar at the right side of the image
MASKn Draw the animation bar in the specified mask area in the image according to the specified rule (see "Advanced Options")
/BC=n Number of colors used in the animation bar. The default value is 20
/C1=Color 1 Start color of the gradient color, represented in hexadecimal as RGB. The default value is 00FF00 (green)
/C2=Color 2 End color of the gradient color, represented in hexadecimal as RGB. The default value is 000000 (black)
/NP No preview /MT- Use another animation method of Microsoft (not recommended)

Advanced Options:
/PO=MASKn Draw the animation bar in the specified mask area in the image. It is agreed that the color of the pixel at the top-left corner (0,0) of the image is the mask color. All areas filled with this color in the image form the mask area. In the mask area, there are 7 ways to draw the color bar animation according to the value of n.
n=1 Draw vertical color bars from left to right, and the animation effect is that the color bars move to the right
n=2 Draw horizontal color bars from top to bottom, and the animation effect is that the color bars move down
n=3 Draw //-shaped color bars from top-left to bottom-right, and the animation effect is that the color bars move to the bottom-right
n=4 Draw \\-shaped color bars from top-right to bottom-left, and the animation effect is that the color bars move to the bottom-left
n=5 Draw radiation colors from the center to the surroundings, and the animation effect is like a windmill rotating clockwise
n=6 Draw concentric ellipses from the center to the surroundings, and the animation effect is that the ellipses become larger from small
n=7 Draw concentric rectangles from the center to the surroundings, and the animation effect is that the rectangles become larger from small
If you use "-" before n, the movement direction of the animation will be opposite to the above.
Example: represents carriage return
LOGOBAR mylogo.bmp Add color bars at the bottom of mylogo.bmp, preview, and save as LOGO.SYS
LOGOBAR mylogo.bmp /TO=C:\LOGO.SYS Install after adding color bars.
LOGOBAR cat.bmp /PO=MASK7, Make a rectangular gradual enlargement animation effect in the mask area in the figure cai.bmp.
For more examples, run DEMO.BAT
Download LOGOBAR

[ Last edited by TurboY on 2006-11-29 at 09:42 PM ]

Support it, thank you

Tried the demo. It's pretty good!
But hope to expand the functions.
Such as: XP-like boot progress bar.
Animated bars of any position and any shape..

Hope to see more perfect works come out.

PS: We are fellow villagers from Hubei!

The following is the statement quoted from Master Ru Ru at 11:57:16 AM on July 3, 2004:
I tried the demo. It's pretty good!
But I hope to expand the functions.
For example: XP-like boot progress bar.
    Animated bars in any position and any shape..

I hope to see more perfect works come out.

PS: We are fellow villagers from Hubei oh.

Hello fellow villager! Thank you for your support!
In fact, this program can make animated bars in any position and any shape. You can take a look at the /PO=MASKn parameter. Let me tell you the method:
In "Paint" (Photoshop, PaintShop), use a certain color to draw (fill) the place where you want to make the animated bar, and then use the same color to draw a dot (mask color mark) in the upper left corner of the picture (you can draw it after zooming in). In this way, LOGOBAR will know that the places with this color are where the animated bar should be drawn. In the latter several effects of the DEMO, this function is demonstrated. You can compare it with the original picture DEMO.BMP to see.
I actually have many ideas and am also conceiving better solutions, but it is not easy to implement in the command line mode. But now I have basically some clues, and the new version in the future will add the GUI mode.

Teacher Yi, you've worked hard! I'm also a teacher, an older one.

Ask a question: Can the screen in Gates' head (IO.SYS) be changed?

I really hate old Gates!

The LOGO in IO.SYS in Windows 98 is self-contained, and it's not easy to modify it (I haven't studied it yet ). However, Wengier has removed it and made DOS 7.10. Maybe replacing the IO.SYS of Windows 98 with that of DOS 7.10 and adding a LOGO.SYS would work. Perhaps asking Wengier, he might have a way.

I did change the LOGO built into the system files of Win98, but I think it's not only complicated but also really meaningless. Since this is the DOS world and the DOS forum, it's better to use the purer MS-DOS 7.10. There is no LOGO in its IO.SYS anymore. If you want to customize the LOGO, it's better to modify LOGO.SYS, which is simple and convenient.

When running logobar, it prompts "load error: no DPMI - GET csdpmi*b.zip". What's the matter?

The following is a quote from walu on 2004-7-5 上午 09:24:53:
When running logobar, it prompts "load error: no DPMI - GET csdpmi*b.zip"
What's going on?

Yes, this program is written with DJGPP and requires DPMI support. When running under Windows, there will be no prompt, but when running under DOS, it must be able to find Cwsdpmi.exe in the %PATH%. I'll upload it now, you can put it in the same directory, but it's best to put it in %PATH% because many other programs may use it. Oh right, Cwsdpmi.exe is in Wengier's DOS7.1 super boot disk.
Click here to download CWSDPMI.EXE
I've added CWSDPMI.EXE to LOGOBAR.ZIP now, you can download it again.

This is indeed a great software! Actually, the boot logo originally belongs to DOS. In the past, I couldn't find a software to modify the boot logo in pure DOS online, but only those like XrX Bar under Windows, which is quite a pity. In fact, DOS can be used conveniently in both new and old computers. Now there is finally a software to modify the boot logo in pure DOS, and it has more powerful functions. It's very good and worthy of recommendation (of course, as you said, it would be more practical to operate in GUI mode under DOS)! I will add it to the "New DOS Era" website.

By the way, does this program have source code? Do you have any plans to develop other DOS software recently?

Of course, the source code is available, but it can't be released now because the program functions are not perfect yet, and I can modify it better by myself -- Don't get me wrong, my code style is very good. After I improve the functions according to the feedback from friends, I can share it .
　　Recently, I haven't written anything else. I'm busy with work, and I also think I should write some practical and stable programs, not flashy things.

I like powerful and compact programs! Up!
Have a chance to communicate more ^_^

Everyone, take a look at this boot screen, how is it?

The logo upstairs is nice, but it looks too flat. When designing the logo, the image size should be set to 640 x 480, and after design, the image should be adjusted to 320 x 400. Such a logo would be better.

Good stuff, I'll try it first.