Omnimaga
Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on February 05, 2013, 09:11:11 pm
-
From webinar video-type conferences (http://education.ti.com/calculators/pd/US/Online-Learning/Webinars) on Introduction to the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition Graphing Calculator by TI (the files are available here (http://education.ti.com/en/us/~/media/education/sites/US/downloads/zip/2013-2-5_associated_documents.zip)), we could get more previews of how the TI-SmartView emulator for the new color screen model looks like. At the same time, while graphing and lists were demonstrated, we could learn about a few new features and get screen captures!
-Assuming the emulator is running at the exact same speed as the real calculator, this means that the speed for graphing and display in general is pretty similar with the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus, probably between both.
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14639;image) (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14638;image)
-Graph lines colors can be changed (through 16 different colors), and like on the 83+, you can change the line type (thick, dotted, etc).
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14638;image) (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14638;image)
-The background color inside and outside graphs can be changed for graphics, with the possibility to use background images as well (although they appear pixelated it seems, unless the pre-loaded ones are just small to begin with). You can even load custom images on your calculator, but only in the Archive.
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14645;image)
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14647;image)
-GridOff can be set to GridDot or GridLine and its color can be changed.
-Border colors can be changed.
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14641;image)
-Stat plots now features 4 types of mark: The classic square, the cross, the dot, but now there is a 2x2 dot as well and of course you can change the colors. For those who use Stat plots to generate graphics in their games, 3 of them can be used at once so this can be handy. (http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcseploticondude.png)
-Fractions in the list editor shows in fraction/MathPrint mode rather than decimals (assuming MathPrint is enabled).
-You get an error? Catalog Help now shows up below error messages!
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14646;image)
-MathPrint can still be disabled! (But will there be a speed gain like on the 84+?)
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14640;image)
-The calculator cannot run Crysis.
-The yellow thing you see in the screenshot below is the new Busy/Run indicator.
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14642;image)
-Both the USB and SilverLink cables will still work with TI-Connect.
-The calculator can be charged via USB.
If some of the graph format options can be changed via TI-BASIC programs as well like we could do on the 83+, this will give many possibilities for games! I would like to thanks Adriweb for notifying me about the webinar 84 Plus C Silver Edition showcase. He also posted several images of the webinar at TI-Planet (http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=135405#p135405). Also thanks to Calc84maniac for extra screenshots posted in this news topic (http://ourl.ca/18292/337309)! :)
Also, a few days before this conference, we have learned a few extra things in recent days as well!
-First of all, the color commands can be used while drawing, as seen in this picture from TI's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/TICalculators):
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14643;image) (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=524828067557822&set=a.138538552853444.15946.129381793769120&type=1&theater)
-Also, on Cemetech (http://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=199066#199066), a TI employee posted a screen capture of the Self-test screen, indicating that the calculator runs OS 4.0 with Boot code 4.0!
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15695.0;attach=14644;image) (http://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=199066#199066)
This is a lot of info added up on what we already know. So far, we knew that the calculator had a 320x240 color LCD like the TI-Nspire CX, 21.7 KB of RAM, 3 MB of Flash, color graphing, a rechargeable battery, ASM support, TI-BASIC and speed being between the TI-83+ and TI-84+. We also knew that it was compatible with older TI-83 Plus series models, but that ASM and TI-BASIC programs would need modifications to run on the new device (although TI-BASIC programs only using Disp/Output would have been fine in general).
Hopefully more information about the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition and its OS will come out soon! (http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcseploticondude.png)
-
Nice :)
Btw, I also made screenshots live !
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=11223 contains them all, if anyone wants moar :P
Anyway, looks like a nice upgrade :D
(I really like the advanced Catalog help thing :P)
-
It seems my computer can't handle the webinar. Oh well I'll check the screenshots. It seems pretty interesting though.
-
Other cool stuff, too!
Verbose error messages:
(http://i.imgur.com/LA3sEfX.png)
Expanded graph format screen, notably you can change background, outline, and turn off asymptote checking independently of Xres:
(http://i.imgur.com/HByXEhW.png)
Seq() wizard (I saw a wizard for LinReg, also):
(http://i.imgur.com/8MbA5PX.png)
Whee, custom pixelated background image...
(http://i.imgur.com/xoxrsAI.png)
A bit of insight into background image files (named Image0 to Image9, can be stored only in Archive):
(http://i.imgur.com/OFX34S5.png)
-
Nice new information! I hope this means that it will come out SOON!
-
Yeah it was pretty much finished when I posted this news. And I added more stuff after you posted to check my edit (it also includes pics from Cemetech and Facebook, such as OS 4.0). :)
I added a link to TI-Planet as well and will add a link to the conference files as well. :)
-
The hype train is rolling! is this being marketed more than other calcs? Did the 84 series have webinars and such?!
-
I think it is, unless we all missed Nspire ones. I think this gets more attention because the TI-84 Plus series is the most popular since years ago and this new calc now has color, while still keeping a certain retro touch :)
-
it has image preview? nice! :D
-
Yeah. My only concern is how pixelated the images seemed to be. I wonder if it's due to resolution limitations or stretching small images?
Otherwise, assuming the background color can be changed to black around graphs, maybe this could become a reality one day? :P
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/0-84pcse9.png)
-
Why not Reuben? D:
Lol, jk, it's looking awesome and would be cool :P
And sorry, in 7 years...../me looked at years
-
You can change the background color around graphs, but who knows if you can do that (or even load a background image) via TI-Basic. I really hope they actually added all these features to TI-Basic as well. If they didn't for the sake of the barely existent backwards compatibility, then... well anyway, it seems the background images have at least 2x2 pixel blocks, so you wouldn't be able to show graphics like that using them. I wonder if they're keeping the Pic variables around, though...
-
Yeah it would suck if they didn't. Normally they do, since we can already change format and stuff there, even disable MathPrint from BASIC programs, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't bother adding color attributes/arguments in BASIC. However even if we can change them, I wonder if we can use the same colors anywhere (such as black as a background)? I sadly didn't notice all colors when they chose.
Regarding resolution I am still unsure if it's that low, since older screenshots seemed to show better resolution and a TI-Connect pic seemed to show larger images. It could just be that smaller images are stretched up. Otherwise, if it's pixelated, then I can just do the old style Illusiat way of rendering the logo myself <_< (if the calc isn't much slower than the 84+, it shouldn't take too long to render).
Also I hope that colors are not individual tokens for each color like on the CFX-9850G and FX-cg10/20 series, but rather numbers, else get ready for BASIC games filled with spaghetti code.
-
These casios have a token for each color? O.O
That is not very innovative >.>
-
Hmm as discussed on IRC, what if for ASM/apps we were still stuck with the top bar? O.O (since every APP on their site seems to have it)
-
-The calculator cannot run Crysis.
When will they learn :( It looks like an awesome calc to have though. Maybe I'll get one when it's out :)
-
In my case, as long as TI-BASIC is as fast then I'm fine, although some of my games would be hard to port because the calc has 3 KB less RAM. I'm thinking of example about Illusiat 12, which had ERR:MEMORY happening often in certain chapters if you had 2 save files, and Illusiat 8.
Also I hope that the LCD driver isn't too slow, otherwise there will be an huge impact in ASM. However, some people on IRC suggested before that this calc might actually be a low-end TI-Nspire in disguise and that the Z80 ASM compatibility might be just an emulator or something.
That said, with this calc coming out, we now know why the TI-Nspire CX lacks interchangeable keypads and TI-84 Plus emulation.
-
That said, with this calc coming out, we now know why the TI-Nspire CX lacks interchangeable keypads and TI-84 Plus emulation.
If the two events are related, it was a bit long in the coming, though :)
-
Indeed, although from what I remember, TI was working on the CX for at least 1 year before it was finally leaked. They could have been working on the 84 Plus C Silver Edition for over a year before it was leaked as well.
-
Hmm as discussed on IRC, what if for ASM/apps we were still stuck with the top bar? O.O (since every APP on their site seems to have it)
Well, it wouldn't be terrible since we have a lot more screen space, but I'd guess the full screen can be used in ASM much like the 68k series.
-
I would like to assume that there is a way to disable to top bar.
-
Yeah I was wondering since it could have been possible that there is some sort of layer to go through to display stuff on the screen or something, as they explained on IRC last night. I'm betting that if it's the case, though, that ASM programmers will eventually find a way to turn it OFF.
-
Did the z80 calculators have a clock before?
-
Yup, the 84+ has an RTC. I always disable it though, because when you crash, BOOM, it resets. :P
-
the 84+/SE did, and i think the 83+SE did as well.
-
Ah, ok :)
Learned something new again ^.^
-
the 84+/SE did, and i think the 83+SE did as well.
Nope. The 83+SE doesn't.
-
Yeah I think that was the main difference between both calcs besides the lack of USB port. Other than that it's similar to older TI-84+ Silver Edition models in the way that it had 128 KB of RAM pages (24 KB user), a 15 MHz processor, 1.5 MB of Flash and crystal timers.
-
The TI-83+SE is the beta edition of the TI-84+ series. Hardware-wise, the TI-83+SE is a major change compared to the original TI-83+, for it switches to a very different, ASIC-centric design; the TI-84+(SE)'s only major change is the addition of the USB port. (The three crystal timers all use the same single quartz crystal as the primary clock source; the TI-84+(SE) real-time clock uses the same crystal, too, so adding an RTC is a simple matter of adding a 32-bit seconds counter and a 15-bit subcounter.)
-
Oh I didn't know the clock used Crystal timers. I was sure it was an extra thing added to the calc.
-
Oh I didn't know the clock used Crystal timers. I was sure it was an extra thing added to the calc.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. It uses the same frequency reference, a single generic 32768 Hz crystal, but is an entirely separate circuit from the three timers. It would have been silly for TI to build a calculator with four identical crystals. Well, at least my calculator only has one physical crystal in it. (If you open up your calculator or watch, the crystal can be found in a metal cylinder less than 0.5 cm in diameter and less than 2 cm long, with two wires coming out of it.) Almost all quartz-crystal-based clocks, both "analog" and digital, use a 32768 Hz crystal as their time reference. The power of 2 makes it easy to make a counter that increments or pulses once a second.
-
I was responding to another post and was surprised that the clock made use of the crystal timers because I thought I read before that it was just a clock or something not necessarily dependent on crystal timers. Keep in mind I don't know anything about the 83+/84+ hardware, though, let alone clock hardwares.
Not that the 84+ clock is any useful anyway, though. First, it only appears at a few places, and secondly everytime a RAM clear occurs you have to setup the clock again.
UPDATE: Those who attended the conference can now download it again! They got an e-mail with a link to it and the required software to play it. I might check again later to see if I didn't miss any important info.
-
Update: I re-checked the Webinar again and we can see the first 3 colors that can be used as outer-background for graphing. It seems they are not the same as the rest, so I wouldn't be surprised if Black wasn't an option.
-
I also just checked the webinar again and I found something very telling, which managed to pop up only because the guy happened to have an Image file selected when he switched to Windows Explorer:
(http://i.imgur.com/7meUEDW.png)
We can tell a couple of things from this screenshot:
1) 8CA is the file format (and isn't associated with TI-Connect yet, lol lazy developers)
2) Filesize is around 22000 bytes, which means it's likely 133x83 pixels in 16-bit color (which is would be 22078 bytes of raw data). The guy misquoted the graph screen resolution as 133x83 earlier in the presentation, but I think he was accidentally quoting the background image size instead. 133x83 is half of the actual graph screen resolution of 265x165, rounded up, which makes sense because the background image pixels look doubled.
-
That is sad IMHO if the images can't be more than 133x83, yet are this large. On the PRIZM you had 56-60 KB large images that were 384x216 and 16 bits colors.
If this is the case, then this pretty much end all BASIC coders hopes to use images for game graphics. :(
-
meh, there are still ascii graphics and maybe we'll get a axe version for it for more awesomeness :D
-
That is sad IMHO if the images can't be more than 133x83, yet are this large. On the PRIZM you had 56-60 KB large images that were 384x216 and 16 bits colors.
If this is the case, then this pretty much end all BASIC coders hopes to use images for game graphics. :(
Well, if they're streaming the background image directly from archive like I think they are (they can't even be sent to RAM), any sort of compression would make graph screen operations incredibly slow, and we don't want that. And since they're in archive, I don't think there's much reason you shouldn't use them (too bad there are only 10 slots available though).
-
Well I was more refering to how high res images might not be possible, and that we might have to forget title screens like I posted above.
On the other hand, if we can still StorePic what we're drawing on the graph screen using the 16 colors, then that might possibly be a good alternative. On the PRIZM we can make 8-color images that way (although it's hard to draw anything compared to a 83+) and those images are much smaller in size.
-
Well I was more refering to how high res images might not be possible, and that we might have to forget title screens like I posted above.
On the other hand, if we can still StorePic what we're drawing on the graph screen using the 16 colors, then that might possibly be a good alternative. On the PRIZM we can make 8-color images that way (although it's hard to draw anything compared to a 83+) and those images are much smaller in size.
I can't make any firm conclusions for that, but I feel fairly certain that Pic files will be 4-bit (15 colors and 1 transparent/white), which at 4x the resolution of Image files would come out to about the same size of 22KB (and obviously must be stored in archive as well).
-
320x240 = 76800 pixels. Variables can be sent directly to the archive (thus, you can upload files larger than available RAM), but variables in the archive cannot exceed about 65500 bytes in contiguous size.
We need to get right on making Z80 a Z80 GIF decoder.
-
Calc84maniac on the PRIZM I saw pic files of about 1.8 KB in size. It depended of what was on the screen. Maybe it used RLE compression, though.
So basically a standard image of what I posted earlier would instead look like this: