I've been messing with Sixel a bit more on my test box. It's mainly been used as a display of graphics or viewed in a gallery. I've seen one instance of it being used as a background image to a login screen. I'm looking to build an entire theme around it with some usable pieces that aren't just screens but screen elements mixed with text content or graphics (ANSI/ASCII).

I've mainly been testing it with Magiterm and SyncTerm.


|19|00:|15.|16 |03S|02m|10o|15oth |08- |15DESPAiR BBS
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|19|15.|00:|16 |10despair.araknet.xyz:|03<|15private|03>

... A PC a day keeps the Apple away!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: DESPAiR BBS // sys:Smooth // Covina, CA (10:103/11.1)

I've been messing with Sixel a bit more on my test box. It's mainly
been used as a display of graphics or viewed in a gallery. I've seen
one instance of it being used as a background image to a login screen. I'm looking to build an entire theme around it with some usable pieces that aren't just screens but screen elements mixed with text content or graphics (ANSI/ASCII).

I've mainly been testing it with Magiterm and SyncTerm.

Nice - I didn't know Magitern had SIX support. Some folks have been doing cool sh*t w/ SIX;

Dura-Europos, focusing on retro hardware (all on 9600 baud!!)

Constructive Chaos, a Sync bbs - does all the normal SIX gallery stuff, but
has some neat code that allows users to pull graphics from like... the NASA photos that get posted on fsxnet daily; users can select what they wanna see and get it on the fly in SIX format

I like yer clean SIX galleries - they just look good.. I like how you displayed
actual ANSi in SIX format, I think... just feels right.

I had ideas to create a retro-magazine viewer, but got caught up when you try to write two SIX files side-by-side... you get this anti-aliasing effect, and the colors don't look right on the second photo. Basically, once you scan the monitor, you can't scan it from the top to bottom on the other side of the screen - the terminal software doesn't handle it well.

What are other things we can do? I like the idea of a user being able to do something BBS software doesn't easily do - like in the file areas, a user might
view a PDF right there in Mystic's file search...

I think fenix (ConChaos) is on to something w/ converting ZIPs / JPGs on the fly... somewhere in here theres some cool ish that can be done. If you haven't seen some these, they are good:

https://github.com/saitoha/FFmpeg-SIXEL (video thru SIX???) https://github.com/saitoha/libsixel (several SIX tools; convert, resize, etc) https://github.com/jerch/node-sixel (Node w/ SIX... I mean if we have Java, a lot could be done with SIX being the display mechanism.)

I was originally pumped about the FFMPEG/SIXEL thing; I thought I'd display SIX
videos... I got animated GIFs working a while ago, and that is cool. MeaTLoTioN is doing animations a different way, but I think it uses a lot more CPU - he sends several SIXs in succession to the user @ QW.

Last - what are these other formats I've been hearing about. Syncterm support SIXEL and another format that I can't recall right now...



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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS >> 20ForBeers.com:1337 (10:103/17)

On 10 Jul 2023, paulie420 was ranting the following...

Last - what are these other formats I've been hearing about. Syncterm support SIXEL and another format that I can't recall right now...

It also supports RIP and Skypix (mainly on the Amiga).


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... Light year: 1/3 less calories than your regular year

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: DESPAiR BBS // sys:Smooth // Covina, CA (10:103/11.1)

Last - what are these other formats I've been hearing about. Syncterm support SIXEL and another format that I can't recall right now...

It also supports RIP and Skypix (mainly on the Amiga).

Yea, Skypix... I haven't SEEN anyone toying with this much; I'd like to see what they are about - especially on an Amiga board.

Know of any that use it?



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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS >> 20ForBeers.com:1337 (10:103/17)

On 12 Jul 2023, paulie420 was ranting the following...

Yea, Skypix... I haven't SEEN anyone toying with this much; I'd like to see what they are about - especially on an Amiga board.

I think Reign of Fire is running some Skypix graphics.


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|19|15.|00:|16 |10despair.araknet.xyz:|03<|15private|03>

... Read messages, not taglines

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: DESPAiR BBS // sys:Smooth // Covina, CA (10:103/11.1)

I've been messing with Sixel a bit more on my test box. It's mainly
been used as a display of graphics or viewed in a gallery. I've seen
one instance of it being used as a background image to a login screen.

I think I saw it somewhere on some board exactly for that purpose. Background picture with some nature (like a wallpaper) and then regular ansi/ascii overlay
with input boxes for login and password.

But I was not impressed. I was taken by surprise that these two can be mixed but devil is in the detail and detail is design.

I find Ansi/ascii consistent and mixing it with pixels requires some extra attention from the designer, otherwise it will look like sick man's windows 1.0

But please share some screen shots or hints where and how to access it live. Happy to provide constructive feedback.

I'm looking to build an entire theme around it with some usable pieces that aren't just screens but screen elements mixed with text content or graphics (ANSI/ASCII).

Cool, as wrote above, happy to see the progress, definitively something rare in
the BBS world, but there may be also a reason for all that.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS >> 20ForBeers.com:1337 (10:103/17)

On Thu 13-Jul-2023 3:36a, Hollowone said to Smooth:

I find Ansi/ascii consistent and mixing it with pixels requires some extra attention from the designer, otherwise it will look like sick man's
windows 1.0

This is one of the reasons that I have not incorporated sixel into aBSiNTHE. I find its current use to be overwhelmingly gimmicky. I have no desire to turn my
board into a bootleg Netscape. aBSiNTHE is devoted to sick textmode design. It's the future as could have been present in the past.

That being said, I have spoken with Smooth and he has some great ideas and plans to create something unique with his approach. While it is not the direction that I will go with aBSiNTHE, I know that if anyone can pull it off, it's Smooth.

c5>> caaNACHRONiST c8+o c2aBSiNTHE BBSc6
--- CNet/5
* Origin: aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (10:101/20)

Yea, Skypix... I haven't SEEN anyone toying with this much; I'd like see what they are about - especially on an Amiga board.

I think Reign of Fire is running some Skypix graphics.

Thanks much; I'm gonna spin over there and see what I can see.



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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS >> 20ForBeers.com:1337 (10:103/17)

On Wed 12-Jul-2023 5:06p, Paulie420 said to Smooth:

Last - what are these other formats I've been hearing about.

Syncterm

support SIXEL and another format that I can't recall right now...

It also supports RIP and Skypix (mainly on the Amiga).

Yea, Skypix... I haven't SEEN anyone toying with this much; I'd like to
see what they are about - especially on an Amiga board.

Know of any that use it?

pAULIE42o
.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS >> 20ForBeers.com:1337 (10:103/17)

Reign of Fire has Skypix, although the reason you have not seen it heavily used
anywhere is that there is zero good software to actually create skypix stuff. RoF has done a good job, and I am frankly shocked at the quality though it is not as good as his ANSI. I have tried to use the amiga software to create skypix graphics, but it's so broken that it's nearly unusable. You can give it a shot, I think he has SkyDraw in the downloads section. Address to the BBS is in my sig.

_ _
/_\ _ __ (_)__ _ __ _ .: Oderus Urungus :.
/ _ \| ' \| / _` / _` |.: Planet Scumdogia :.
/_/ \_\_|_|_|_\__, \__,_|.: Reign of Fire BBS :.
|___/ .:call.rofbbs.com:6800:.


z0c4.z0cFz0c4--------------------------------------------------------.z0

z0c4|z0c9 "There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." z0c4|z0
z0c4`--------------------------------------------------------'z0

--- CNet/5
* Origin: aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (10:101/20)

Re: Re: Sixel graphics...
By: Anachronist to Hollowone on Thu Jul 13 2023 05:11 pm

I find Ansi/ascii consistent and mixing it with pixels requires some
extra attention from the designer, otherwise it will look like sick
man's windows 1.0

This is one of the reasons that I have not incorporated sixel into aBSiNTHE. I find its current use to be overwhelmingly gimmicky.

I think the gimmickiness is because its usage so far has largely been limited to showing one or two graphic images as a quick look-what-my-board-can-do flex,
so it's not living up to its true potential utilization.

I've been toying with sixel a lot here, as Paulie pointed out earlier (thanks Paulie!) ). I use Imagemagick to do on-the-fly conversions of any image file available in my file area, so the user can preview an image before downloading it. Remember those GIFs Galore CD-ROMs? :) Those work wonders with it. I also use it in my weather app to download live radar maps from the National Weather Service, convert them, and show them to the user. It's been a really fun project to tinker with over the past year, making these different things work together.

That being said, I have spoken with Smooth and he has some great ideas and plans to create something unique with his approach. While it is not the direction that I will go with aBSiNTHE, I know that if anyone can pull it off, it's Smooth.

This indeed sounds cool. Looking forward to seeing the end result!

|01<|09co|03d|11e|15Ÿ|11e|03n|09ix|01>|07|08

...Help fight continental drift.
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
* Origin: -=[conchaos.synchro.net | ConstructiveChaos BBS]=- (10:103/28)

Reign of Fire has Skypix, although the reason you have not seen it
heavily used anywhere is that there is zero good software to actually create skypix stuff. RoF has done a good job, and I am frankly shocked
at the quality though it is not as good as his ANSI. I have tried to use the amiga software to create skypix graphics, but it's so broken that
it's nearly unusable. You can give it a shot, I think he has SkyDraw in the downloads section. Address to the BBS is in my sig.

Thanks; I've made a user account and await reply - what software supports Skypix, do you know? I have AmigaOS if needed.



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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS >> 20ForBeers.com:1337 (10:103/17)

On Fri 14-Jul-2023 12:32p , Codefenix said to aNACHRONiST:

I think the gimmickiness is because its usage so far has largely been limited to showing one or two graphic images as a quick look-what-my-board-can-do flex, so it's not living up to its true
potential utilization.

That's true. Most of what I've seen are just galleries.

(thanks Paulie!) ). I use Imagemagick to do on-the-fly conversions of any image file available in my file area, so the user can preview an image before downloading it. Remember those GIFs Galore CD-ROMs? :) Those work wonders with it. I also use it in my weather app to download live radar maps from the National Weather Service, convert them, and show them to the

That is cool! Good work man, I'll have to pop in and check that out. I'm still not a fan of sixel on bbses, but I like the way that you're using it.

aNACHRONiST +o aBSiNTHE BBS

--- CNet/5
* Origin: aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (10:101/20)

On 14 Jul 2023, Oderus was ranting the following...

Reign of Fire has Skypix, although the reason you have not seen it
heavily used anywhere is that there is zero good software to actually create skypix stuff. RoF has done a good job, and I am frankly shocked
at the quality though it is not as good as his ANSI. I have tried to use the amiga software to create skypix graphics, but it's so broken that
it's nearly unusable. You can give it a shot, I think he has SkyDraw in the downloads section. Address to the BBS is in my sig.

The other issue is the lack of any good Skypix artists. There are several of us that have done RIP art in the past but not many of us willing to do it in the current day. It's mainly because of the lack of modern tools to draw with. That's why many of us prefer drawing ANSI, ASCII, and PETSCII.


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|19|15.|00:|16 |10despair.araknet.xyz:|03<|15private|03>

... Back up my hard drive? I can't find the reverse switch!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: DESPAiR BBS // sys:Smooth // Covina, CA (10:103/11.1)

What is a good target width/height for the images before converting to Sixel, and not have any issues when displaying on a 80x25 terminal?

|20 |12n|00ola|12g|00eek |16

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: splatter.haus:666 - the last bbs on the left (10:101/666)

Re: Re: Sixel graphics...
By: nolageek to Codefenix on Thu Aug 10 2023 07:06 pm

What is a good target width/height for the images before converting to Sixel, and not have any issues when displaying on a 80x25 terminal?

I actually don't worry about image dimensions prior to sixel conversion. I find
that if I use the -resize option in ImageMagick convert, it takes a source image of any size and scales it down nicely for SyncTerm.
As for the dimensions for the sixel output, a max width of 640 and max height of 370 do the trick for me.

Something like:

convert source_image.jpg -resize 640x370 target_image.sixel

|01<|09co|03d|11e|15Ÿ|11e|03n|09ix|01>|07


...Some men are discovered; others are found out.
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
* Origin: -=[conchaos.synchro.net | ConstructiveChaos BBS]=- (10:103/28)