home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The AGA Experience 2
/
agavol2.iso
/
c
/
ppanim.doc
/
ppanim.doc
Wrap
Text File
|
1978-08-11
|
9KB
|
224 lines
PPAnim 1.0b User Manual
Sep 22, 1991
Preface
=======
The programs and files in this distribution are freely distributable, but
are also copyright (c) Nico François. They may be freely distributed as long
as no more than a nominal fee is charged to cover time and copying costs.
No commercial usage is permitted without written permission from the
author. Everything in this distribution must be kept together, in original
unmodified form.
The above is generally known as freeware.
Coverdisks or diskmagazines need written permission of UGA to offer the
Powerpacker utilities or Powerpacker/Reqtools libraries on their disk. For
commercial use please read the copyright file on your original PP disk.
If you have suggestions or remarks about this program, or if you find
any bugs, please let me know.
Write to the following address:
Nico François
Corbielaan 13
B-3060 Bertem
BELGIUM
Contents
========
1. An introduction
2. Usage
3. Features
1. An introduction
==================
PPAnim was written to complement one of my other utilities, PowerPacker
(a command and data cruncher). It is used to play normal IFF ANIM #5 files or
ANIM files crunched with PowerPacker. The decrunching is done automatically
so the user does not have to know if a file is crunched or not. The ANIM #5
format is used by most ANIM generating programs, including DPaint III and
Videoscape 2.0.
PPAnim uses 'powerpacker.library' and 'reqtools.library', so make sure
these are present in your Libs: directory. Double-click 'Install_libs' for
an automatic installation.
If you haven't got PowerPacker you are of course missing one of the main
features of this program. PowerPacker is available as shareware (up to
version 2.3b) or as a commercial program (version 4.0a). Order a copy from
UGA, P.O.Box 881, 3700 AW Zeist, The Netherlands. The commercial version
offers several enhancements like 40 to 50 times faster crunching, overlay
support, an ARexx port, and much more.
2. Usage
========
PPAnim can be used in four different ways.
- First of all via the CLI:
If you enter 'PPAnim ?' will get a usage template. You use PPAnim like
this:
PPAnim [-h] [-j#] [-l#] [-r[#]] [-i] [-o] [<file|dir>]
The program will by default load the ANIM file and play it in a loop.
If the file was crunched using PowerPacker 2.0 or higher PPAnim will first
decrunch it for you. If the file was encrypted you will be prompted for the
password.
If you enter PPAnim without options, you will be presented with a file
requester. Entering PPAnim with a directory instead of a file as an argument
will also get you a file requester, but it will be positioned in the directory
you specified.
PPAnim has several options:
-h : This option is used to force HAM mode when no CAMG chunk is
found. If you don't specify this option PPAnim will assume a
6 plane screen is extra-halfbrite. (Note that it is wrong for
an Amiga IFF ANIM file not to have a CAMG chunk, especially
when there can be doubt about what display mode to pick!)
-j# : Set a delay between frames in jiffies. A jiffie is 1/50s (PAL)
or 1/60s (NTSC).
-l# : Set number of times to loop.
-r[#]: Select repeat mode instead of loop mode (see below) and
(optionally) set number of repeats.
-i : Force screen to be interlaced.
-o : Play the animation once, no loop (same as -l1 or -r1).
The difference between loop mode and repeat mode is the following: in
loop mode PPAnim expects the last two frames of the animation to be the same
as the first two frames, this makes looping easy and above all fast (DPaint
saves animations like this). Some animations are not like this however and
if you want these to loop correctly you must select repeat mode (-r), PPAnim
will then simply restart the animation when it finishes (note that there may
be a small hickup when the animation repeats because the first frame takes
longer to draw than the rest).
PPAnim can be made resident so it doesn't have to be loaded every time
you use it, use the ARP ARes command or the c: Resident command for this.
You can't make PPAnim resident when it is crunched!! The file is supplied
as an uncrunched command file with the pure bit set. PPAnim is reentrant as
well, so you can run it from several CLI's at the same time. (Not that this
is very useful, but it's possible :-D)
Example: '1> PPAnim -j10 -i Hard1:anim/SlowInterlaced.anim'
- Via the WorkBench:
There are three different ways of using PPAnim via the workbench: you
can set the default tool of the (crunched) ILBM file to 'PPAnim', you can
single click the PPAnim icon and then shift double click the animation icon or
you can double-click the PPAnim icon and enter the filename in the string
gadget (or filerequester) you will be presented with.
You set the default tool by single clicking the icon of the picture and
selecting 'Info' from the workbench menu. You will get a window with several
gadgets in it, click in the string gadget where it says 'Default tool' and
enter ':ppanim'. PPAnim should be in the root directory of your disk for this
to work, if e.g. it's in the C directory you should enter ':c/ppanim'. Last
of all select the 'Save' gadget.
You can set the same options as from CLI by setting tooltypes in the
animation's icon (NOT PPAnim's icon!). PPAnim recognizes the following
tooltypes (for more info see CLI options):
TIMES=<number> Set number of loops or repeats.
JIFFIES=<jiffies> Set delay in jiffies.
REPEAT Select repeat mode.
ONCE Play once only.
LACE Force interlace.
NOTE: - PPAnim will add '.pp' to the filename when the file wasn't found.
This is very useful in the WorkBench enviroment: you can make an
icon for 'bird.anim' but name the file 'bird.anim.pp'. Now the
WorkBench will show an icon with 'house.pic' as name, but if you
doubleclick it 'bird.anim.pp' will be played. (As long as there
is no 'bird.anim' file in the directory!)
3. Features
===========
- PPAnim uses the file requester of reqtools.library.
- PPAnim supports a change of the color palette during the animation.
- Abort PPAnim by pressing 'Q', Esc, or the right mouse button. The screen
can be dragged by an invisible drag bar at the top.
- The pesky little mouse will be removed while playing.
- PPAnim offers full overscan support, PAL or NTSC. All Amiga display
modes (like HAM, EHB) are of course also supported.
- Press 'L' to load another animation, you will be prompted for a filename.
- Press 'S' or the left mouse button to start/stop the animation. Press
'N' to advance a frame (when stopped).
- PPAnim reads the 'DPAN' IFF chunk DPaintIII saves with animations to find
the rate at which to play the animation. Note that user options override
this rate (-j# or JIFFIES=<j>).
- PPAnim is short (only about 7K)! A lot shorter than Sparta's ShowANIM,
and on top of that it has a lot more features :-)
- PPAnim is compatible with Kickstart & Workbench 2.0.
As always, I hope you find this program useful!
PROGRAM HISTORY:
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.0
First release.
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.0a
Seemed that the asl requester no longer worked on the latest
Kickstart 2.0 (release V37). Fixed.
Asl requester doesn't show '.info' icon files.
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.0b
Asl and Arp requester removed.
PPAnim now uses the ReqTools file requester from reqtools.library.
Pressing Esc also aborts the animation.
Canceling the file requester will no longer load the last animation
again.
*****************************************************************************
PPAnim 1.0b written by Nico François (Yes, Nico is my first name :-)
special thanks to Jim Kent (whom I don't know :-) for making his
ANIM #5 decoding source public domain.
(c) 1991 Nico François
//
Thanks to \X/ Amiga for being the best computer ever!