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Frequently Asked Questions

• 1. Why is the GUI so slow?

  First of all we are using MUI, thats slowing things a little bit down.
  But the main point is, that we use so-called Bit-Buttons (the small images inside the gadgets) to make the look more interesting. If it`s too slow for you then simply deactivate the Bit Buttons option inside the preferences.
  Furtheron Wildfire is very complex. We have over 6000 elements in our windows and lots of them support drag`n`drop, so it`ll be a little bit slower than `standard` programs...

• 2. Who is the one I should contact if I have problems with Wildfire?

  Andreas Küssner
  Marrinksweg 5
  48531 Nordhorn
  Germany
  Tel: ++49 (0)5921 330420 (18.00 - 20.00 o`clock german time weekdays)
  email: eksec@eure.de
  homepage: http://www.oberland.com/amiga/wildfire/

• 3. How do I animate an effect?

  Insert a effect into the effect list. Then open the effect window an press on the `V` gadget beside the parameter you want to animate. Now you can create a variable with a so-called envelope, where you can specify which value should be given to the parameter at which frame of your animation.

• 4. Wildfire needs a lot of memory, especially when using 3D Effects!

  Yes, thats true. As WF is a very complex program it can use quite a lot of memory. You can do the following things to `gain` some memory:

  • Turn image cache off inside the preferences
  • Try to use less buffers
  • If you use 3D effects then you can select inside any 3D effect, that has an image buffer (not Temp3D) as input, a higher Quant3D value than 1. (Inside the Render Settings) The higher this value the lower the quality but the less memory and time is needed.
• 5. What is the difference between the Stream buffer, Temp buffers, the Alpha buffer and the Temp3D Buffer?

  This is only important in the linear effect mode, when using the non linear mode then you do not have to care about buffers!
  

  • The Stream buffer is Wildfire`s Main image buffer. The converter-Input gives the input image inside this buffer to the effect processor and the image that is inside the Stream buffer at the end of the effect script will be used as output.
  • The Temp1 - Temp7 buffers are image buffers that may be used to combine some images with other images.
  • The Alhpa Buffer is a standard image buffer, like the Temp1 - Temp7 buffers, too. But when rendering a 3D object into a 2D buffer then you can turn on Render Alpha inside the Render Settings. So the Alpha Buffer will be filled with the to the rendered 3D object corresponding Alpha Channel automatically.
  • The Temp3D buffers are Wildfire`s special 3D buffers. Here you can apply more than one 3D effect to a 3D object. You could create a cube, use a 3D buffer as output and use another 3D effect (like twirl) and select the 3D buffer with the cube as input. Then you would apply the twirl effect not to a rendered image but to the 3D coordinates of the cube. This makes it possible to superimpose 3D effects!
• 6. I have a PPC card but Wildfire disables the PPC gadget inside the preferences!

  There are two possibilities:

  • You have a WarpUp Program running and Phase5`s ppc.library is disabled. So quite th WarpUp program and start the computer again.
  • You have an old version of the ppc.library installed. On the CD there are the (currently) latest versions of the ppc.library and the 68060/68040 librarys inside the bonus drawer. Read the textfiles about the installation and install them on your system. Attention! There are no icons for this directory as there is no installer script existing. You have to install it by yourself.
• 7. I want to change the Screen Wildfire is running on!

  Go to the Introduction Part and have a look at the Windows and Menus chapter. There it is described how to select another screen for Wildfire.

• 8. My second running copy of Wildfire uses other MUI Preferences!

  Thats right! We have the possibility to use other MUI preferences for every running copy of Wildfire. We use that for screenshots and so on.
  Inside the envarc:mui/ directory there is the `standard` preferences for the MUI settings called WILDFIRE.1.prefs
  The second copy will use WILDFIRE.2.prefs and so on. So if you selected you best fitting MUI preferences why not go into the envarc:mui/ directory and create clones of the WILDFIRE.1.prefs called WILDFIRE.2.prefs, WILDFIRE.3.prefs ...

• 9. As we are at it, why are you using MUI?

  In our opinion it is the only possibility to deliver a really good gui which almost fits the things we wanted to do at the moment.

• 10. The screen is not updated very often while rendering!

  Thats true, too! But we do not have internal Multitasking in Wildfire so you have to wait until the rendering is finished (or you abort it) until you can change something in Wildfire again. So why do you need to have the update of the Wildfire-Window every second? The only thing that would be the result is that the calculations would be slowed down!

• 11. Why do I have to press the abort-button such a long time?

  It has something to do with the Speed of the calculations. We do not disturb our routines while rendering so we wait till one effect is finished.

• 12. How can I get a fast impression on how my animation will look like?

  You see the render preview button in the lower part of the project window? There you can render parts of your animations fast! The size from the preview inside the effect pages will be used. Simply try it out!

• 13. If I press on the `Test` button then the system can`t open the screen

  On the project page there is a button called `Screenmode`. There you can select the screenmode for the screen which is used for the Test preview and for the preview while converting. This screenmode is saved inside the sessions, so if you open a session which was saved by someone else than you then it`s possible that there is a screen selected which does not fit your envoirement.

• 14. What happens with the image sizes and the variables when I select another input?

  We designed Wildfire to help the user as much as possible! So it`ll automatically adjust the size-dependent values and the size dependent variables if you select a new input. This makes it possible to use our standard scripts for your own images which have a different size. The same goes for the frame number. Everything is adjusted concerning your new frame number, if you need it!

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