** 2 page review / 1344 words **
NVDI 5
NVDI has established itself as a firm favourite with Atarians. NVDI 5 is the first new release since 1996 so what's new? Mark Wherry reports...
Background
NVDI (New Virtual Device Interface) is a replacement for the Atari GDOS (Graphic Device Operating System) system extension which added extra graphical abilities to TOS. NVDI replaces part of TOS known as the VDI, hence the name, which handles visual output to devices including the screen and printer.
NVDI was hand-coded in assembler so it ran much faster than the code it replaced making any system running NVDI feel faster and more responsive - screen redraws in particular were vastly accelerated.
Atari continued to develop GDOS and temporarily stole the limelight with the release of SpeedoGDOS which offered built-in vector font support but it wasn't long before Sven and Wilfried Behne, the NVDI developers, rose to the challenge and released NVDI 3 which not only supported Speedo fonts but added TrueType support for good measure.
NVDI 4 consolidated with improved font handling, much better colour output support, a fast parallel port driver for MagiC and the FontName utility. FontName enables fonts to be previewed and install/removed on-the-fly without rebooting. Support for the UNICODE font format, which enables up to 65,000 characters to be stored within one font file, was also added.
NVDI 4 was sold as NVDI for Atari, NVDI-MagiC PC, NVDI-MagiCMac along with an optional PostScript font module and optional extra drivers to support graphic cards such as the ET-4000.
NVDI 5 for the price of 1?
NVDI 5 has done away with the separate versions leaving the installation utility to determine which components to install - hurrah!
Features
Restructuring aside, NVDI has lots of new tricks up its sleeve. Background printing has been available to Mac and Windows users for years and thanks to NVDI 5 we've on even terms again. There's also a new Printer Monitor utility which supports spooling and requires MagiC 5 or later.
** VDI_BUG.GIF here **
** Caption **
Due to a VDI bug since TOS 1.0 lines in graphic programs could become disjointed after scrolling. NVDI 5 now features precise line drawing routines Screengrab courtesy of ATOS magazine.
** /caption **
** TT_TEXT.GIF here **
** Caption **
The display of many TrueType fonts has been optimised. Take a close look at this Arial font and you should be able to see the text on the right looks cleaner Screengrab courtesy of ATOS magazine.
** /caption **
As we've already mentioned support for PostScript type 1 fonts has been integrated which is of particular benefit to MagiCMac and MagiC PC users who already use this format "on the other side" and these fonts are now available within the MagiC environment too.
MagiCMac users will be especially pleased NVDI 5 supports the MacOS QuickDraw acceleration routines, giving a major speed increase, particularly for systems running graphics accelerators. This is especially significant as QuickDraw itself has been accelerated in the latest 8.5 release of the MacOS.
Programmers get over 50 new VDI calls which offer better solutions for colour management and dithering. German documentation and programmer's examples are provided. Programs such as Papillion and Papyrus already take advantage of this in the latest releases.
NVDI 5 supports most modern printers, refer to the boxout for more details. I was delighted to find the 1440 dpi output and micro-weaving abilities of my Epson printer were supported.
** boxout **
Supported Printers
** titchy font **
Apple Laserwriter Select 360, QuickDraw output.
Atari Laser (no background printing)
Canon BJ 10, 300
Canon BJC 50, 70, 80, 200, 210, 240, 250, 600, 610, 620, 800, 820, 4000, 4100, 4200, 4300, 4550, 4650, 5500, 7000.
Epson FX, LQ, Stylus 820, Stylus Color, Stylus Color 200, 400, 500, 600, 800, II, IIs, Pro, Pro XL, 1500, 1520.
GCC Elite 1212
HP Deskjet 500, 510, 520, 540, 550 - Color - 560, 600, 660, 670, 680, 690, 820, 850, 870, 1100, 1200.
HP Laserjet I, II, IID/P/Si, III/D/P/Si, 4/4M, 4L/4ML, 4P/4MP, 4Si, 4V/4MV, 5L, 5P/5MP, 5Si/5SiMx, 6L, 6P/MP.
Lexmark Optra RT+, Optra S 1250
Nec P6, P7
** /boxout **
Conclusion
Many of the changes in this release are "behind the scenes" and whether you need NVDI 5 is a tough question. If you don't already own a copy of NVDI and you want to use and output vector fonts, especially to a colour printer, NVDI is a must have purchase which offers excellent value for money.
The integrated release means crossgrades and optional modules are a thing of the past which should appeal to anyone who has recently switched platforms.
For other existing users the upgrade price makes the decision less clear cut but if you're using an application which can take advantage of the new features or you want to take full advantage of your colour printer there's reason enough.
At this point I usually moan about the manual but the NVDI manual is fine from a users point of view. However, as usual, there is no English programming documentation covering the new calls which makes it hard to support them!
NVDI is a comprehensive package but, licensing permitting, integral support for Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), which is widely used on the net and other systems, would be top of my wishlist.
The bottom line is NVDI 5 is a great product which keeps our platform in the game and as more products take advantage of NVDI 5 features it will become increasingly indispensable.
** product boxout **
NVDI 5
Publisher: 2B
UK Distribution: System Solutions
Tel: +44 (0)181 693 3355
Fax: +44 (0)181 693 6936
Email: info-software@system_solutions.co.uk
URL: www.system.solutions.co.uk/cafe/
Cost: œ59.95 new, œ29.95 upgrade, plus œ3.95 UK P&P
Requires: 4Mb hard disk space, 400Kb free memory (plus font cache), 5Kb to 300Mb for colour printing, depending on printer, resolution, colour depth, etc.
Pros:
All-in-one release, excellent printer support
Cons:
Not a cheap upgrade
95%
** /boxout **
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** NVDI 5 2nd Opinion **
Why should you buy NVDI 5?
It seems NVDI is about as fast as it could possibly get, it already supports GEM bitmap, Windows and Mac TrueType, Speedo Bitstream, and (optionally), PostScript fonts so what more could you want? Noah Silva reports...
For starters, many more printers have appeared, and with NVDI 5, you get the drivers to use them.
If you use MagiC on a Mac or PC, NVDI 5 is much faster than NVDI 4 because the Mac version can use QuickDraw Drivers, and the PC version has native 80x86 code. Best of all one version takes care of Mac, Atari, PC, and graphics cards - the relevant drivers are installed by the setup program if you are on a Mac or PC. If you're using an Atari, you are presented with a dialog to choose which graphic card, if any, you have.
** NVDIPRNT.GIF here **
** caption **
NVDI 5 has a new Print dialog with lots of new options which can be displayed as a Control Panel, or directly from applications supporting NVDI 5. Under MagiCMac, if you have elected to use the Mac OS printer drivers, the Mac OS Print dialog appears instead
** /caption **
NVDI 5 has added 50, yes, FIFTY new VDI functions for developers to use along with some pre-compiled and Pure C source code examples - it's about time.
There are also a number of other minor improvements, NVDI 5 includes several new utilities including SHOWME, which is a small but efficient IMG viewer. NVDI 5 no longer lists every single font as it goes through them all at boot time - which for people like me with several hundred fonts installed is a little nicer.
** PRNT_MON.GIF here **
** caption **
NVDI 5 can now print in the background and there's a new Print Monitor utility, it's not what I'd call fancy, but it is functional
** /caption **
** boxout **
Pros:
Better print setup dialog, many new printer drivers, one version for everything, background printing, 50 new VDI functions, new utilities, plus...
MagiCMac: Much faster display (x10!) and ability to use Mac printer drivers.
MagiC PC: Faster, native 80x86 code.
Cons:
Expensive
** /boxout **