CD Exchange/CD Exchange - Volume 1.iso/graphics/utils/amiflick/amiflick.doc

Text File | 1993-11-21 | 5KB | 116 lines

                              AmiFlick v1.08
                        An FLI player for the Amiga
                            ©1993 Garrick Meeker

   This program is hereby placed in the public domain.  You may freely
distribute it as long no more than a nominal fee for time and copying costs
is charged.  This document must be included with the program.  I assume
no reponsibilities for the behavior of this program.

   Have you ever wanted to use your Amiga to handle all those zillions
of FLI files for PeeCee's?  Well, now there's AmiFlick.  It can play FLI's
or write them to disk as a bunch of IFF's.  It can also handle the newer
format of FLI's (sometimes called FLC's).  AmiFlick requires at least
AmigaDOS 1.2 (I might make it requires 2.0 in the future).  A version for
accelerated computers is not included because at the moment most of the
work is done in OS calls, so it wouldn't be any faster.

Usage: AmiFlick [-v] [-d<delay>] [-c] [-h] [-g]
                [-m<mode>] [-s] [-l] [-b] file [outfile]
 -v         Verbose file information
 -d<delay>  Delay between frames in 1/70s of a second
 -c         Color mode (requires AGA)
 -h         HAM mode
 -g         256 shade grey mode (requires AGA)
 -m<mode>   Screen mode to use
 -s         Scan file only
 -l         Load file into memory before playing
 -b         Double buffer playback
16 shade grey mode is the default
   The FLI file may be specified without the '.FLI' or '.FLC'
extension.
   If outfile is specified, a series of 256 color ILBM's are written
in the form outfile.nnn or outfile.nnnnn, depending on how many
frames are in the file.

   To write the frames as a bunch of pictures just type:

AmiFlick file outfile

   Where 'file' is the FLI and outfile is the basename for the 256 color
IFF pictures.

   'AmiFlick -s file' will just display info about the file, like how
many frames there are.

   For playback, just type 'AmiFlick file'.  This will give you a 16 shade
grey scale display.  During playback, you can use these keys:
        ESC          Exits the animation.
        Left Arrow   Slows down playback.
        Right Arrow  Speeds up playback.
        Space Bar    Pauses playback or steps forward a frame.
        Return       Resumes playback.
   If the screen is bigger than the display you can autoscroll with the
mouse under 2.0 and greater.  The other display modes available are:
        '-g'   256 shade grey scale.  Requires AGA.
        '-c'   Color.  This will display the file without any conversion.
               Also requires AGA.
        '-h'   HAM mode.  In order to speed things up this looks very blocky
               and has a "rainbow" effect on text.  I might improve the
               algorithm in the future.

   Some other options:
        '-v'         Verbose information on the file, mainly for debugging.
        '-b'         Double buffer the display.
        '-l'         Load the file into RAM before playing it.
        '-m<mode>'   Specifies a mode to use.  If 'mode' begins with '0x'
                     or '0X' then it is assumed to be the hexdecimal value
                     of the display ID.  Otherwise it is assumed to be the
                     name associated with the mode, e.g. 'NTSC:Hires'
                     under 2.0 or 'NTSC:High Res' under 3.0.  This name
                     must match one of the names in the display database.
                     The mode given should be compatible with the display
                     options, i.e. pick a HAM mode when '-h' is given
                     and don't when it isn't.
        '-d<delay>'  Changes the delay between each frame in 1/70's of
                     a second.

   Files with palette changes may look messed up unless you use either the
'-g' or '-c' option.  This is because of the conversion that takes place.
There isn't really anything I can do about it.  Fortunately, these files
are extremely rare.

Plans for the future:
   Playback is still pretty slow.  This is because of the hundreds of
calls to WritePixel().  However, there are still plenty of things I can
do to optimize AmiFlick.  The next release should be a good amount faster.
   This is probably the last version to support AmigaDOS 1.2 and 1.3.  The
next version will use different OS calls to speed things up, but these
calls aren't available under 1.2 or 1.3.  So, either upgrade or live with
this version.

   Some of the others things planned:
        Direct writing of ANIM5 and ANIM7 files.
        Writing files in one of the displayed modes instead of 256 color.
        Possibly a better HAM algorithm.
        Some sort of GUI.  At least a file requester and a screen mode
           requester.
        Possibly a separate program to write FLI animations from IFF
           pictures or ANIM's.
   If you want to see one of these features implemented then let me know!

History:
   v1.05   Initial release
   v1.10   Fixed double buffering under 3.0 and a few other bugs.
           Now tries appending '.FLI' and '.FLC' to find the file.
           Calls BestModeID() under 3.0 to figure out the mode, so
              super hires and other modes will be used if appropriate.
              This made the old '-H' flag obsolete as hires HAM will
              automatically be used.
           Screen mode can be specified.  No screen requester yet, though.

I can be reached by e-mail at:

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