Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/231.lha/Display.DOC

Text File | 1989-04-10 | 5.4 KB | 141 lines

                                  DISPLAY

The Display program plays animations.  It understands several formats,
including: ANIM opt 3, ANIM opt 4, ANIM opt 5, HASH, and IFF animations.  All
resolutions are supported, including HAM and PAL.  It is extremely versatile,
and useful.

Double-click the "video display" icon to start the Display program or run it
from the CLI.

A requester lets you select the animation that you want ot play.  To exit the
Display program, click the CANCEL gadget in the requester.

To select an animation, click on the filename, then click the LOAD gadget. It
could take as much as several minutes to load, depending on the size of the
animation being loaded.  You can abort the LOAD process at anytime by pressing
the <ESC> key on the keyboard.  If the animation is packed using the HASH
format, the first two frames appear while the animation is loading, otherwise
a "Patience Loading..." message will appear.

After the animation is loaded, it will begin playing.  If there is not enough
memory for the entire animation, then only as much as can be loaded will play.
HASH packed animations will "BOUNCE", meaning they play from beginning to end
and back, continuously.  ANIM format animations "LOOP", meaning they cycle
from beginning to end, then start over.

Some ANIM format animations have a special mode called "continuous"' which has
the first and second frames of the animation at the end for smoother looping in
high resolutions.

The function keys <F1> through <F10> on the keyboard, control the playing
speed.  Some animations will play at faster speed.  This depends on the amount
of changes between each frame, the resolution, and whether or not the Amiga
has an accelerator card.

    KEY                           Frames per Second
       =====                         ===================

    <F2>                30    (if achievable)
    <F3>                20    (if achievable)
    <F4>                15    (if achievable)
    <F5>                12    (default)
    <F6>                10
    <F7>                 8
    <F8>                 6
    <F9>                 5
    <F10>                 4

The <up/down arrow> keys on the keyboard also adjust the playing speed.

    KEY                FUNCTION
       =====                           ==========

    <up arrow>            Increase by 1 frame per second
    <down arrow>            Decrease by 1 frame per second

The <left/right arrow> keys can change the animations direction in HASH
animation format ONLY.

    KEY                FUNCTION
       =====                           ==========

    <right arrow>            Animation plays forward
    <left arrow>            Animation plays backward

Other KEYS are defined as follows:

    KEY                FUNCTION
       =====                           ==========

    <L> or <l>            Toggle looping (HASH mode only)
    <O> or <o>            Toggle "One Shot"
    <C> or <c>            Toggle continuous (ANIM mode only)
    <M> or <m>            Toggle mouse control
    <esc>                Quit Playing, or Abort Loading
    <return>            Toggle Frame Numbers

To run the Display program fromthe CLI, use the following format:
    (Display is NOT multitasking)

        Display -<flags><animation name>

    FLAG                DEFINITION
       ======                          ============

    C/c                Continuous
    L/l                Looping
    F<n>/f<n>            Frame Rate followed by a decimal number
                    indicating the frames per second.
    O/o                One Shot
    M/m                Multiple Files (HASH format ONLY)

EXAMPLE:
        Display -LF12 frames:anim/animationtest.PAC

The above command states that a HASH format animation is to be loaded and
played in looping mode at 12 frames per second.  Since Display is being run
from the CLI, no Load Animation requester will appear, (unless you specify the
"-M" for multiple files).

HASH format animations are identified by a ".PAC" suffix on the directory name.
IFF format animations are identified by a ".IFF" suffix on the directory name.
All other filenames are considered to ne in ANIM format.

LOADING MULTIPLE DISK ANIMATIONS

When you run Display from the CLI, you can specify multiple filenames to be
run all together as one animation, (even if they are on different disks), for
the HASH format ONLY.  Each animation must start with the last two frames of
the previous one.  After the first file is loaded, the LOAD ANIMATION requester
will appear again.  You select another filename and it loads onto the first
one.  Again the requester will appear.  You can combine as many files as you
have memory for.  CLick the CANCEL gadget to start playing the combined
animation.

IFF ANIMATIONS

The IFF animations format consists of a directory, (which is the animation
name), under which is a series of IFF pictures numbered consecutively: "1", "2"
"3", "4", ...  The Display program recognizes IFF animations because of the
".IFF" suffix on the animation name.  When you select an IFF format animation
filename, a second LOAD ANIMATION requester will appear with the filenames
"1", "2", etc.  Click on the frame you want to see, then click the load
gadget, the frame will be displayed.  Subsequent clicks of the left mouse
button will show successive frames.  CLicking the right mouse button will
return you to the requester so that you can select another frame.  Click the
CANCEL gadget to exit the IFF format.

VIEWING SINGLE IFF PICTURES

If you click on a filename that is a single IFF picture, the display program
thinks is is an ANIM format animation, but it will still load it anyway.
The IFF picture will appear.  Press the <ESC> key to exit.
A "Trouble Loading ANIM" requester will appear; simply click the "CONTINUE"
gadget.

The Display utility is Copyrighted (c) by Martin D. Hash and Kenneth A. Baer.
Hash Enterprises 2800 East Evergreen, Vancouver, WA  98661 -  [phone]