TerminalMatrix 2.4.0

TerminalPixelMatrixLibrary

An 8-bit video interface emulator. Hope to make it good enough to replace the GUI code in our Altair BASIC emulator, A-BASIC-Language. Place the control on a Windows Forms-window and get events for what the user is typing, or call the Input function to prompt the user. Nuget:

Install-Package TerminalMatrix

Basic functionality

For adding text to the terminal matrix, use the WriteLine method. To prompt the user, use the Input method.

Limit text area

When the text area is unlimited, the text terminal displays 25 lines of text. This amount can be limited using the SetTextRenderLimit method. 0 means that text is allowed everywhere, a larger value leaves empty space on the upper part of the screen, and the largest value (23) only allows two lines of text on the bottom of the screen.

Bitmap images

To produce a bitmap image, create a picture (preferably a 16 or 32 color GIF file) using the palette described in the ah-c64-palette.act Photoshop file (or the extended 32 color file). The color palette is also described in the source code, here. Remember that pixels usually are more high then wide, and that the interface emulator only can display 640 * 200 pixels at one time. The default resolution is 320 * 200 rectangular pixels.*

To display an image, load it as a byte array using the LoadPictureFromGif function and draw it using the SetPixels function. Call UpdateBitmap to force the pixel buffer to be displayed.

var gif = terminalMatrixControl1.LoadPictureFromGif(@"..\..\..\..\testgif.gif");
terminalMatrixControl1.SetPixels(0, 0, gif);
terminalMatrixControl1.UpdateBitmap();

The image is a screenshot of the AdventureGameExample projet, a text adventure game dummy.

Limitations

Clean exit

For a clean exit, you must call the Quit method in the FormClosed event handler.

private void Form1_FormClosed(object sender, FormClosedEventArgs e)
{
    terminalMatrixControl1.Quit();
}

Layer limitations

Background layer can be activated using the UseBackground24Bit property. This will add a background to the console. It will always be on (in 24 bit) or off. The background pixels are stored in the Background24Bit array. Background24Bit is a two dimensional int array, but only three bits are used (R, G and B).

The foreground (accessed using GetPixel and SetPixel) is always treated as 24 bit. However, the ControlOverlayPainter delegate will support transparency if the Use32BitForeground property is set. Default is false, meaning that opacity is ignored.

In short, the control can have one or two bitmap layers, the top layer can be exposed as 32 bit for better overlaying.