some questions

[fabrice_]

maybe can I have a screenshot from the old TVPaint n°4
I will check it ...

[ubik]

Fabrice,
what is your version? 29 june 2006? v1.0b?
My version is 30 may 2006...
You're a lucky man...

[fabrice_]

hello,
if you download the TVP Animation demo, you will have the lastest version (it should work with your dongle too).

[fabrice_]

and .. TVPaint 3.6 ! (not a collector, a real relic !! )

[lemec]

wouuuaaaawwww... so TVPaint was once called "Tecsoft Video Paint", eh?

That deserves to be in the wikipedia...

[evar]

So, T.V.P. = Tecsoft Video Paint and not as I had always assumed T.V.P. = Television Paint ?

[MadCow]

Or "Toaster Video Paint" ... depending of the version we are talking about...

ps : the Aura 1 about is still my favorite.

[evar]

I used it for the shortest amount of time, but I did like the Max and Min values for pressure connection of brushes

[fanany]

... I did like the Max and Min values for pressure connection of brushes

everybody did like it!
and I can't figure out why this have disappeared in the next versions...

Now , so long time later, we want more,
something like a profile curve to define the thickness of the pen stroke.

[Peter Wassink]

something like a profile curve to define the thickness of the pen stroke.

oh yeah!!!
that is definately what we want!

[ZigOtto]

as we are in "oldies but goldies" nostalgia, here an other collector,
the TVP 4.0 démo PC, I liked the blue gradient in the windows top-bars.

[bigjoe]

Hi,
These evidences are very interesting as well as these images taken from various About panels.

I recently downloaded the Mirage demo version and i found the same About panel as the one shown by Fabrice, the same development team is mentioned...
My next following question can seem stupid but where is the new develoment team ?
Aren't they able to modify the program yet ?
And they are still selling this version ???

Thanks for you replies.

Best Regards,

Joe

[A1]

it's still the same developement team (tvpaint) as far as i can tell.
The modification of the program is tvpaint 1.0, and the future versions to follow will be further modified by tvpaint, no doubt.
i'm not sure if this answers your question...
i'm not sure what your asking.
but then again i'm not sure i woke up this morning.

[Roland Dubois]

Perso, ma première version utilisait comme grabber une carte Archos 12 bit temps réel et 24 bit statique.

Les années passent décidément (et les systèmes d'exploitation régressent)... Viva Amiga

[lemec]

Hi,
My next following question can seem stupid but where is the new develoment team ?

Well, good question... I find it hard to believe that their development team will be able to do much more than make GRG scripts and plugins...

Aren't they able to modify the program yet ?
And they are still selling this version ???

Thanks for you replies.

Best Regards,

Joe

Well, in order to develop software you need a special thing called "source code" -- basically a large amount of raw text files that are typed manually in a computer language that is somewhat easy for human programmers to understand.

Many computer programs are written in a language called C, or C++, although there are many others. After that, the raw text files are processed by special programs called "compilers" and "linkers" which convert, or "translate" the text into a binary format that the computer understands -- and the end result is a .EXE or a .DLL. (compilers can also generate other types of files easily understandable to the computer, but TVPaint is an EXE and was generated in this fashion.)

Once a program is compiled into an .EXE or a .DLL, it is very hard to modify it. You can't get the wheat and eggs and milk out of a cake that's already been baked. You might be able to rearrange the candles or the icing on it, but not much more. There are a few "decompilers" out there that can decompile an EXE into assembly (known as disassemblers) but assembly is really difficult to understand and again, you can only do minor things. It's a pain in the ass to work with assembly, and in the end, it's something that a hacker would use to bypass copyright protections, although some retro programmers have done some pretty neat thngs in assembly. Assembly is not what you would use to create major additions to a program anyways, since it would be really inefficient...

On top of that, there's no guarantee that a disassembled application will work if it's been reassembled into an EXE. In any case, I don't believe that the BHS people actually HAVE any source code, since, well, Hervé would have to have sent them some, which no programmer in his right mind would (being his life's work) -- and source code is a very closely guarded secret for commercial programs, in fact, a trade secret. Coca-Cola™'s recipe is a good example of a trade secret, rather than a patent! See, a patent can only protect your invention for a maximum of 15 years, and it must be fully documented in order for people to avoid infringing on your patent. After that, anyone can copy your invention -- it becomes prior art.

A patent basically gives you a 15-year head start into being able to set up the business infrastructure for things like marketing, distribution, manufacturing, etc. It lets you set up a monopoly on your own invention -- so that anyone entering the field 15 years later will have you as a very tough competitor. But Coca-Cola™'s been around for ages and ages, and a patent would not protect them from copycats making their own colas -- so, that's why it's a trade secret, and a closely guarded one, at that.

So, getting back to the source code situation -- bottom line: BHS has no source code -- no recipe for the Coca-Cola™ and so they can't change the recipe -- can't make new flavours... The only source code out there for Mirage is the Software Developer's Kit -- which only allows you to make plugins and handy scripts -- but not re-engineer a rotating display and a layer shaker, etc.