Design Dynamics, publishers of the popular 3D Design package, have produced a very high resolution printer dump. Graphic designer Roger Burg has been looking at this with interest.

Design Dynamics has already produced and enhanced its Interactive 3D (a powerful 3D graphics design program reviewed in previous issues of Beebug - see Vol. 4 No. 10 & Vol. 5 No. 8). Mode-00 Dump arose from the need to represent wire frame images produced by the 3D package to a higher resolution than is possible on the screen.

The program takes a screen file and reproduces it on a dot-matrix printer, but Mode-00 Dump does not dump the screen, it creates a new and higher resolution image than the original. It uses the screen graphics output from other programs or commercial graphics packages which has been captured in a *SPOOL file. In fact, it will take spooled output from anything which uses standard graphics commands (e.g. MOVE, DRAW, PLOT); it cannot cope with screen 'dumps'.

The program processes the contents of this spooled file, to build an image which is sent to the printer with a resolution of 640 by 512 pixels, twice that of screen mode 0. It relies on the fact that the screen is addressed as a 1279 by 1023 grid, although in mode 0, it only provides 640 by 256 pixels.

Although mode 0 provides the highest resolution of which the BBC micro is normally capable, its pixels are vertical rectangles. Thus lines which are nearly horizontal appear stepped and jagged, and this reduces the impression of resolution. The effect of splitting each oblong pixel into two equal squares is dramatic, and Mode-00 Dump takes advantage of it. It displays significantly more detail than a mode 0 screen, and independently halves the height of its text to blend with the higher resolution graphics.

A simple but adequate manual is provided, together with a function key strip. The disc also contains graph drawing and an ellipse generator programs, both of which demonstrate the advantage of printing their output with Mode-00 Dump. The ellipse generator produces spirograph-like patterns and deserves attention. While this is not original, it is an absorbing toy, and produces high resolution printouts which make most attractive images in their own right.

The program has considerable potential for reproducing diagrams, graphs and charts, and presents new possibilities for computer art. It is no slower than many screen dumps, and I found the processing time quite acceptable in view of the quality of the result.

There are a few minor limitations on the graphic commands which are supported, notably in the printing of text. The results are limited by the size of file which a disc can hold, though the length of a spooled file is usually a fraction of the 10 or 20k screen which it creates.

The Mode-00 Dump is compatible with most dot-matrix printers, and runs on the B, B+ and Master. It is available in various disc formats at £12.95, or £20.00 for Interactive 3D with Mode-00 Dump.

Product: Mode-00 Dump
Supplier: Design Dynamics, 8 Meadow Way, Ampthill, Bedford MK45 2QX. Tel: (0525) 402447
Price: £12.95 (disc only)