Club Amiga de Montreal

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM / CAM_CD_1.iso / files / 137.lha / Perim / Peri.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1986-11-20 | 20.2 KB | 444 lines

/***************************************************************\ ** ** ** Name :- Peri v1.000-BETA ** ** ** ** Author :- Gregory A. Kendall, Brendallson Software ** ** ** ** Date :- 25 April 1988 ** ** ** ** Updates :- 25-Apr-88 Creation and Debug ** ** ** \***************************************************************/ Peri v1.000-Beta Manual by Gregory A. Kendall Program written by Gregory A. Kendall 25 April 1988 Table Of Contents :---------------------------------------------- I. Introduction A. About this program and Tracer3d B. ShareWare and Brendallson II. Getting Started A. The Peri Environment B. BackUp Disks III. Peri Options A. The LOAD Option ( -l ) B. The SAVE Option ( -s ) C. The PEBF Option ( -e ) D. The RELOAD Option ( -r ) E. The QUIET Option ( -q ) F. Constant G. AutoExtrusion H. The X-Axis and Y-Axis I. The Z-Axis J. Advice IV. Operation A. Running Peri B. Setting the Origin C. Entering Points D. Quitting Peri E. The PEBF file F. The VScape Geometry File and Polygons V. Updates and Brendallson A. What's in store for v1.+++ B. Disclaimer C. Afterword /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ I. Introduction:------------------------------------------------- A. About Peri and Tracer3d Let me start off by welcoming you to the world of Peri. This program is a VideoScape3D ( Aegis Development ) Geometry File Utility. While you wait for the next version of VScape3D, here is a program that allows you to load an IFF image, trace the outline of a pre-existing object, and create the POINTS section of a VScape object geometry file. This saves you from having to type in a long series of numbers that describe the X, Y, and Z coordinates of each point. Peri v1.000-BETA is based loosely on Tracer3D by Jim Wamsley and Bob Castro. It was written at the request of Bob Castro who was a member of AUGA ( Athens Georgia Amiga Users Group ). This BETA version of Peri does the same job as the last version of Tracer3D and a bit more. I am sure you will agree that this is a much better way to go about setting up VScape3d object files than hand typing them. The BETA version does not contain the routines for completing the geometry file by editing polygons. The full release version of this program will include those routines; however, that version of Peri will not be ShareWare. Please read over the Updates section of this manual for more information on the full release version of Peri. I strongly suggest reading this manual from cover to cover. It contains much insight into the workings of Peri and the hows and whys of its operation. B. ShareWare and Brendallson This BETA version of Peri is the Great Experiment on the part of myself and Brendallson Software. I release this version as SHAREWARE for the purpose of test-marketing this product. If response is too low, the project will be scrubbed and I will not release the full-release version at all. The ShareWare cost of Peri is $15 dollars. Please send all ShareWare contributions to the following address: Gregory A. Kendall ATN/ Brendallson Software 522 Neese Road Woodstock, Ga. 30188 All checks should be made payable to Gregory A. Kendall. If you happen to live in Athens (Georgia), you can reach me on the LifeSupport BBS for AUGA (HANDLE: Percy). As I said, if response is not high enough, this program will be scrubbed by Brendallson Software and myself. II. Getting Started :-------------------------------------------- A. The Peri Environment After De-Arcing this program, you should have the following files: Peri : the program itself Peri.Doc : this doc file environment : batch file for Peri environment Peri.info : icon for Peri Tardis : a DPaint IFF file First, we must talk about the Peri Environment. The first thing you need to do is to format a blank disk. You can also install the disk and set it up with all of the files needed for a workbench disk if you want this to be a boot disk. Then move all of the files listed above onto the RAM: disk. From here it is easy: Just EXECUTE the "environment" batch file. This batch will set up the disk in DF0: with the proper directories and such that define the Peri Environment. Make sure that the disk in DF0: is the one that you want to set up!!!! Also, note here that the batch file will copy the various Peri files to the correct places on that disk. When the "environment" batch file is done, you are ready to start with you Peri project. If you set Peri up on a workbench disk, then you will want to reboot the system with that disk at this time. B. BackUp Disks At this time after you have set up the Peri Environment, it would be a good idea to back up the Peri disk. This is to provide a good way to recover from a disk crash. If you don't want to tie up a disk just for a Peri backup, then I suggest at least keeping the Peri.Arc file intact. III. Peri Options :---------------------------------------------- A. The LOAD Option ( -l ) The load option is where you enter the name of the IFF picture file that you want to work from. This parameter MUST include the full path name of the file intended. You can also specify this option on the command line by using the -l option flag. The format is -lFILENAME on the command line and Peri inserts FILENAME in the Load field. B. The SAVE Option ( -s ) The save option is where you enter the name of the VScape Geometry file you wish to create. Again, this must be a full path name of the file you wish to create. Also, you can specify this option on the command line by using the -s option. The format is -sFILENAME and Peri inserts FILENAME in the Save field. C. The PEBF Option ( -e ) The PEBF option gives you the chance to set the name of the PEBF file that Peri will use for your project. This option is only available on the command line with the command -eFILENAME. That format must be used. If you don't specify the name of the PEBF for that project, Peri uses the default "Data/Peri.EBF". This option is only made available for completeness. If is recommended that you just use the default on this as the program gives help if the default is used. For more information on the help Peri gives to the default file name refer to the RELOAD section of this chapter. Also, for more information on what a PEBF file is, please refer to the PEBF File section of the Operation chapter. D. The RELOAD Option ( -r ) This option gives you the power to quit Peri ( for say, lunch or bad weather ) and come back to where you left off. The format of this command is -rFILENAME where FILENAME is the name of an existing PEBF file. You need to use the full path name as always. As an added feature, if you used the default PEBF name (discussed in the last section), you can either give the full path name or use -r. ( yes, that is dash "r" period ). By specifying -r. Peri knows that you want to reload the PEBF file with the default PEBF name. Please refer to the PEBF Option section and the PEBF File section for more information. This option is only available on the command line, not in the Peri Options Menu. E. The QUIET Option ( -q ) By specifying QUIET option, you tell Peri that you don't want to look at the two title screens that fade in and out at the beginning of the program. When this option is specified, Peri begins by displaying the Options Menu. F. Constant This option lets you re-define the scale of the picture. If you want your VScape picture to be say twice as big as the picture actually is on the screen, then specify a 2 in the Constant slot. I regret that Peri does not yet support a Constant scaling which would allow you to make the picture smaller. That feature will be made available in the full release version. G. AutoExtrusion Peri will automatically extrude a traced object into the third dimension. An example of this type of work is a flat paper logo. The logo can either be scanned into the Amiga with Digi-View, or it can be traced "live" by pointing a video camera at the artwork and using the Genlock to superimpose the picture of the Peri loaded picture. For every point selected on the logo with the left mouse button, a second point will be created behind the first in the third dimension. When you are done, you automatically have depth for half the work. The default is +5. This is good for an object that rests on the Z-Axis at 0. If you don't wish Peri to automatically extrude the points, just select "x" for the AutoExtrusion value. H. The X & Y Axis These two options allow you to pre-set the origin that Peri will work around. If you happen to know this value off-hand, then you can enter these values in before the program starts to enter points. If both of these values are left at the default 0 then you will be able to set the origin using the mouse. I. The Z-Axis This option allows you to change the Z-Axis coordinate of the points you are entering. If you change this, be sure to set the AutoExtrusion coordinate are affected by your new resting position. J. Advice I would like to point out now that for 90% ( as stated by Bob Castro ) of the projects you will do with Peri, the default settings in the Options menu will suffice. The most changed options will be the LOAD and SAVE options. Other than this I recommend using the defaults. They are there for you change when you need to, but are set so as to provide the best service for now. IV. Operation :-------------------------------------------------- A. Running Peri To run Peri just type in Peri from CLI or click on the Peri icon from WorkBench. I know that this type of advice is pretty silly since you are probably using the Amiga for professional purposes. However, this is included for those who might just have purchased an Amiga and might not know all about it yet. Please bear with me. B. Setting the Origin After you have entered your options and Peri has displayed the picture, you are asked to enter the origin. Move the mouse to the origin that you wish to use and click the Left Mouse Button. All of the other points entered using Peri will be determined by this point. The origin is the place on the screen that you wish X=0 and Y=0 to be. C. Entering Points After entering the origin, Peri saves the origin in a PEBF file and then starts displaying mouse location information and the current point count. Notice that the point count is the actual number of points entered unlike Tracer3D which did not include the origin in the point count. Just move the mouse along and enter the points you wish to have using the left mouse button. Let me point out now some difference between Peri and Tracer3D. When entering points in Tracer3D, you must be careful not to move the mouse when entering a point or the drift could mess up where you entered the point. In Peri this is not a problem. Recall that Peri is written in C as opposed to Tracer3D's AmigaBasic. C allows for more control in the processing of Messages from the mouse so I have been able to avoid the problem from Tracer3D. Also, when the autosave feature of Tracer3D was working at saving data to the disk, you could not enter points. This resulted in points being selected wrong and sometimes it confused Tracer3D. The author was aware of this limitation of AmigaBasic and warned the user; however, that warning is NOT necessary for Peri. If you get to going to fast and try to enter a point when Peri is in the AutoSave routine, nothing happens. The messages from those clicks during a write to a disk are ignored. To avoid confusion later on when entering your polygon list, you should try to choose the points on the picture in a clockwise direction. This is not required since Peri lets you enter points wherever you wish; however, Bob Castro, who works with VScape a lot, says that less confusion results from a clockwise direction. He reports fewer problems with using the Tracer3D generated files with VScape when he used the clockwise method. The same applies to Peri. Also, let me note here that the shape of the mouse you use is important. I suggest using a cross-hairs design mouse image. This allows you to get an intuitive feel for where the mouse is actually pointing. Make sure that the hot-spot for the mouse is in the center of the cross-hairs!!!!!!! D. Quitting Peri To quit Peri and/or finish your project, just click the left mouse button on the window close gadget. You are then asked if you really meant to select this option. If you choose CANCEL, Peri pretends you never hit the close gadget so don't worry. If you choose OK, then Peri finishes up the PEBF file and then asks you if you wish it to create a VScape geometry file at that time. If you are just quitting to go to lunch or something, just choose CANCEL and you can pick up where you left off later using the -r option. If you choose OK, Peri creates the file. In either case, Peri exits and displays the settings of the options you chose. This information is just for you to look at. The discussion on the PEBF File in the next chapter will confirm that all of this information is stored in that file. There is no reason to remember this information. It is only displayed so you can further guard against messups. To save that information in a file, just use the UNIX redirection provided on the Amiga. By using "Peri >ram:stuff" to run Peri from CLI, that Amiga automatically saves the output information at the end of the program to the file "ram:stuff". Remember that in order to use this feature, the redirection command MUST come before any other arguments you specify for Peri. E. The PEBF File The PEBF file is a type of IFF file that I have come up with for this specific purpose. It is a file in which the information of points and options is stored for future reference. This allows you to quit and restart later at the same place and guard against power-failures that would destroy all of your work. While you are entering points, Peri saves them to the PEBF file ever 15 points. Please refer to the RELOAD and PEBF options sections for more information. As for reloading, the PEBF file contains ALL of your option settings from before with the exception of the PEBF option set with the -e command line flag. There is no perfectly standard form to this file yet so I will refrain from explaining the sections of this file. It is enough to know that this file is created by Peri for your own good. F. The VScape Geometry File and Polygon Listing After you are finished with your Peri project, you are now ready to put in the Polygon listing section of the VScape Geometry file. Just get out your favorite text editor and edit the saved file. You will see information in the following form without the comments provided by me here: 3DG1 5 <-- number of points in file 0 0 0 2.5 1 0 2.5 1 5 This file was created with the default options in Peri. Notice the autoextruded points after the points that I entered. I only entered the origin and 2 other points. The first section of the file says that this is a VScape Geometry file ( 3DG1 ). The next entry is the number of points in the file. Immediately following this is the point listing that Peri generates. Immediately after these points is where you will enter your polygon list. Once you are done with this, you have a usable VScape geometry file. V. Updates and Brendallson :------------------------------------- A. What's in store for 1.+++ ? What is in store for the full-release version? Well, for one thing: PolyGon Editing. You can also look forward to point-deleting, file requesters, and possibly support for overscan video. The only problem with the full-release version of Peri is that it is slated to be a Commercial Release and will NOT be available through the ShareWare program. What does this mean? Well, it means that most people will have to buy that program from their Amiga Dealer. The good news is that those who respond to the ShareWare add at the beginning of this doc will be able to purchase the full-release for $15 as an update charge. B. Disclaimer This program carries no warranty implied or written. I have tested it extensively and find no GURU bugs; however, they may exist. Please write and tell me about the circumstances that lead to a GURU error from Peri. I have taken great care to provide a SOFTWARE ERROR free program, but I am not perfect. The only support that I do offer is for BUG FIX UPDATES, and the special purchase price of the full-release version to ShareWare contributors to Peri. C. Afterword I would like to take this chance to thank you for trying out Peri. I hope that the program will perform to your expectations and I think you'll agree that this is a much better way to go about setting up VScape Geometry files. This program is from Brendallson Software and Gregory A. Kendall. It has no affiliation with Aegis Development in any way. Remember that Video Scape 3D is a copywrited program of Aegis Development. Thanks again for using Peri and feel free to drop me a line concerning bugs, suggestions, and your ShareWare contribution. You can find my address in the first chapter of this manual. Special thanks go to Jim Wamsley, Bob Castro. and John Lotshaw for development ideas and concept theory interfaces. This program was written at the request of Bob Castro of Atlanta Georgia. Gregory A. Kendall, Brendallson Software The End P.S. Please Note : As an added feature, I have added a way to find out just what that last point you entered was. I figured that this would be helpful for when you quit and come back later. The ESC key on the keyboard toggles a circle that indicates the last point you entered using Peri. P.S.S I neglected to note in this doc that you can use any IFF picture file for use in Peri with the exception of HAM pictures. As long as the IFF file is an ILBM file, it could have come from DPaint, Digitizer, or your grandmother. One of the nice features that I would like to point out is that you can make a picture in DPaint, save it as a brush for memory saving, and Peri will load it quite fine. I included routines to handle the loading of Dpaint brushes to provide a way to keep disk space as free as possible.