
							   "I eat everything"

			  VideoThief, version 0.07
			  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

0. What's VideoThief?
---------------------

VideoThief is yet another utility for screen grabbing. As far as I know,
it's different from its kind in these two ways: first, it's very persistent
when it comes to the popup possibility, and second, it does support almost
every single mode your video board can handle.

1. Supported video modes
------------------------

VideoThief supports (at least it tries to):

  - standard VGA modes (both text and graphic);
  - non-standard VGA X-Modes (like 376x564x256, 752x564x16, etc);
  - non-standard VGA text modes (like 80x28, 80x30, etc);
  - VESA BIOS Extensions version 2.0 modes, including LFB modes.

Thus, all (NO exceptions!) VESA SVGA modes should be supported. But this only
applies to _VESA_ SVGAs. For example, if you have Trident 8900 and a certain
program (or game) uses that board's specific mode, then I can't guarantee
that VideoThief will work correctly. And I won't.

2. Requirements
---------------

The minimal requirements are so modest that I'm not sure whether one'll be
able to find a machine VideoThief will not run on. Namely, what is required
is 286, VGA, DOS 3.0 and 128k of free RAM. I had not seen any CGAs or EGAs
for so many years now that I can't even imagine VideoThief's behavior with
these boards.

3. Supplied programs
--------------------

3.1. VideoThief
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Filename: vthief.com
Syntax  : vthief[.com] [key [key [...]]]
Keys:
  /?, /h   display a little help
  /k<xx>   set hot key scan code to xx hex (default is 58h, F12 code)
  /r	   release program from memory
  /d<dir>  set directory for VTF files to dir
  /p	   program PIC (this gives VideoThief more possibilities to
	   hook control)
  /l	   LFB support mode

Register doesn't matter and slash is equal to minus, thus you're free to use
either "vthief.com -k29" or "vthief.com /K29" syntax, whatever you like.

VideoThief is a little TSR program. This leads us to the fact that first of
all it should be loaded. Then when you have run VideoThief you have two ways
to steal a picture from screen:

  - press a hot key, which is F12 by default;
  - run a program you'd like to explore under FreeGame and then press
    <~><tab><enter><~>; VideoThief hooks int 2Fh, ax=0FEDCh, as FreeGrab
    (native FreeGame Toolkit grabber) does.

With the introduction of /p key in version 0.07, which makes VideoThief use
the very same control hooking scheme as in FreeGame, this latter way is of
pure academic interest only. Should the default first way fail, just use
that /p key. Or maybe one just wouldn't run VideoThief without /p key.

Note: FreeGame Toolkit is a game cheating utility (very similar to Game
Wizard) I use sometimes. May be found on www.kiarchive.ru.

3.2. VTF Viewer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Filename: vtfview.com
Syntax  : vtfview[.com] <filename.vtf> [key [key [...]]]
Keys:
  /i  indirect video memory reading (for certain PCI-based machines)
  /d  set RGB-masks for direct color mode to default values

This one is a viewer for VideoThief files. While viewing, you can try
pressing the following keys:
  <g>	       gray palette (doesn't affect HiColor/TrueColor mode)
  <p>	       restore palette
  <n>	       restore all registers but palette
  <q>	       decrease logical screen width
  <w>	       increase logical screen width
  <a>	       move screen split line up
  <s>	       move screen split line down
  <z>	       move screen split line to the very bottom
  <r>	       re-read picture data
  <d>	       toggle double scan on/off
  <+>	       increase scanline scaling coefficient
	       (font height in text mode)
  <->	       decrease scanline scaling coefficient
	       (font height in text mode)
  <b>	       save to BMP
  arrow keys   scroll view window (hold shift for faster scrolling)
  <pgup/pgdn>  up/down one screen
  <esc>	       exit

3.3. VTF Viewer 386
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's just VTF Viewer with 386 instructions used. It does faster BMP saving
in Direct Color modes and has a few other minor optimizations.

4. Known problems
-----------------

  - DOS hangs up on certain PCI-machines when trying to read directly to
    video memory from file. To avoid this, either set CPU->Mem Post Write Buf
    option in your CMOS Setup to Disabled, or use /i key with VTF Viewer;

  - due to the hot key check on int 08h, some scan codes can be lost, if
    this annoys you, contact me, and I'll include a option for disabling
    this check;

  - if you get an incorrect BMP when trying to save from Direct Color VESA
    mode (it usually has its colors messed up), try using -d key with VTF
    Viewer, forcing the viewer to use default RGB-masks instead of those
    from VESA BIOS (which can be trashed, as it was with my old board);

  - if VideoThief doesn't even try writing to disk, it may mean that you're
    faced with a program which hooks all the interrupts VideoThief uses,
    and /p key may very well help in this case;

  - if there's nothing but white background in your VTF, it may mean that
    you're faced with a program which uses VBE 2.0 LFB-mode; /l key must be
    used with such a program (do NOT use this key with usual, non-LFB modes,
    VideoThief will bug in this case).

5. How to contact the author
----------------------------

Send your e-mail to shodan@chat.ru. And please note that it completely
depends on you and your feedback whether VideoThief will be continued or
not! The more the amount of mail with bug reports, ideas and all that stuff,
the more the probablity of bugfixes and updates.