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Author Topic: ASTC viewer?  (Read 20476 times)

Rudolph

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ASTC viewer?
« on: February 09, 2019, 10:24:03 AM »

With the BT81x supporting ASTC, is there any simple viewer for ASTC images available to inspect images before using them?
And by simple I mean with at least a zoom function and the ability to check the palette.

Speaking of ASTC, your "BRT_AN_033_BT81X_Series_Programming_Guide.pdf" does state chapter 4.12 "BITMAP_SOURCE" that "only bitmap data of ASTC specific format can be rendered directly from flash".
But in the chapter 5.72 "CMD_SETBITMAP" which kind of replaced "BITMAP_SOURCE" with the FT81x, this limitation is not mentioned. On the contrary it suggests that there is no such limitation.

And speaking of the external FLASH, going thru the documentation it is totally unclear what this binary blob in the first block of the flash is used for and how it is created, there is no explanation of it at all.
It does not even mention that this is the first block.

Chapter 5.81 "CMD_FLASHFAST"
Error Code 0xE004: "device/blob mismatch – was correct blob loaded?"

This is the only line in both the Programming Guide and the Datasheet that mentions this "blob".

Does "CMD_FLASHERASE" create this "blob"?
Or does it avoid erasing the "blob"?
If "CMD_FLASHERASE" clears out the whole FLASH including the "blob" and the "blob" has to be in place in order
to set the flash in FLASH_STATE_FAST for rendering of images from FLASH - where is the information on how to setup such a "blob" correctly?

And if we are supposed to depend on the EVE Asset Builder for this, fine, but then please put some more effort into it and update it every couple weeks untill it is ready for a 1.0 release.
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BRT Community

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Re: ASTC viewer?
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2019, 11:31:34 AM »

Hi Rudolph,

Thanks for your feedback. We'll discuss these points with our development team and get back to you on these.

Best Regards, BRT Community
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Kaetemi

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Re: ASTC viewer?
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2019, 05:38:42 PM »

You can get a preview of your images using EVE Screen Editor. Load the converted asset using Raw type, and set up and draw the bitmap as you would on hardware. It has a zoom function. :)

The blob in the flash contains a series of opcodes that control the SPI master when operating in fast reading mode. It also has some verification checksum in it, iirc. It does not seem to be documented, however. The unified blob should work with a large range of flash.
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Rudolph

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Re: ASTC viewer?
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2019, 07:24:36 PM »

Thanks for the tip!

It is a bit of work to set it up, especially since the screen editor keeps forgetting where it got the last picture from.
But it allows for a nice side-by-side comparision of the same image using different levels of compression.
So in a way, this is even better than a viewer.


And regarding the blob, I am asking because
a) one might want to use the flash functions of the BT81x and write to the flash directly
b) I wonder what happens if I change the 64MBit flash that comes pre-installed with a module to a bigger one
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Kaetemi

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Re: ASTC viewer?
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2019, 01:23:31 PM »

If the flash is blank, the coprocessor can attach it, but will not be able to enter fast mode. You'll be able to read and write to it through the coprocessor, but it will be limited to single channel mode, and will not work from the graphics pipeline. You may need to consult the datasheet of your flash to double check whether the basic commands follow the same de facto standard.

Once you write the firmware blob onto the flash, switching to fast mode should just work. If the unified blob doesn't work, you may want to check with support if they can provide one specific for your model.
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Rudolph

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Re: ASTC viewer?
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2019, 06:10:52 PM »

Well, yes, I know that I can not use the FLASH without the blob.
This is why I qouted CMD_FLASHFAST and came here to ask about it.  ;)
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