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PPShow 4.0 User Manual
Feb 16, 1994
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.
If you have suggestions or remarks about this program, or if you find
any bugs, please let me know.
Contacting the author:
FidoNet: 2:292/603.10 (Nico Francois)
Internet: nico@augfl.be
Mail: Nico François
Corbielaan 13
B-3060 Bertem
BELGIUM
If you can please use e-mail. That way you'll stand a much better chance
of getting a reply quickly.
PPShow 4.0 requires AmigaDOS Release 2 (Kickstart & Workbench 2.0) or
higher to run.
24-bit to HAM8/HAM6 rendering routines and IFF24 parsing and decoding
written by Rafael D'Halleweyn.
Chunky to planar routine based on a routine by Chris Green (who based his
routine on one of Richard Addison).
This software is based in part on the work of the Independant JPEG Group.
Contents
========
1. An introduction
2. Usage
3. Features
4. Note on crunching
1. An introduction
==================
PPShow was written to complement one of my other utilities, PowerPacker
(a command and data cruncher). It is used to show normal IFF ILBM files or
ILBM files crunched with PowerPacker. The decrunching is done automatically
so the user doesn't have to know if a file is crunched or not. From version
3.0 PPShow will now also play standard Opcode 5 animations. The ANIM Opcode 5
format is used by most ANIM generating programs, including DPaint IV.
From version 4.0 on PPShow also plays ANIM Opcode 7 and ANIM Opcode 8
animations. It will also show GIF, JPEG and IFF24 bit pictures. If your
Amiga doesn't have the color capability to display a GIF (ECS machines) PPShow
will show the GIF in 16 grayscales. JPEGs and IFF24 pictures will be shown in
HAM8 or in HAM6 (if your Amiga doesn't support HAM8).
PPShow uses 'powerpacker.library' and 'reqtools.library', so make sure
these are present in your Libs: directory. Double-click 'Install_libs' for
an automatic installation.
2. Usage
========
PPShow can be used in several different ways.
- First of all via the CLI:
If you enter 'PPShow ?' you will get a standard AmigaDOS usage template,
enter 'PPShow ??' for more information. You use PPShow like this:
PPShow {<file>|<dir>|-c} [ALL] [LO] [HI] [SHI] [PROD] [L=LACE]
[NL=NOLACE] [HAM] [TIME s] [CYCLE] [NO=NOOVERSCAN] [NOMOUSE]
[A2024 [15Hz]] [PAL] [NTSC] [VGA] [SUPER72] [LOOP] [NOFLICKER]
[MO=MAXOSCAN] [J=JIFFIES n] [T=TIMES n] [R=REPEAT] [NOANIM]
The program will by default load the specified ILBM file or ANIM file and
display/play it. If the file was crunched using PowerPacker 2.0 or higher
PPShow will first decrunch it for you. If the file was encrypted you will be
prompted for the password. You may specify more than one file on the command
line and you may even use wildcards, PPShow will show all files one at a time,
double buffering the display.
If you specify "-c" as a filename ('PPShow -c') PPShow will show you the
contents of the clipboard (if it contains an ILBM). ANIM files will not be
played from the clipboard.
If you enter PPShow without options, you will be presented with a
file requester. Entering PPShow with a directory instead of a file as an
argument will also get you a requester, but it will be positioned in the
directory you specified.
There are several command line options:
ALL : Enter subdirectories, show all pictures/animations.
LO : Force screen to open in LORES mode.
HI : '' '' '' '' HIRES ''
SHI : '' '' '' '' SUPERHIRES ''
PROD : '' '' '' '' PRODUCTIVITY ''
LACE : Force interlace on.
NOLACE : Force interlace off.
HAM : This switch is used to select HAM mode when no CAMG chunk
is found. If you don't specify this switch PPShow will
assume a 6 plane screen is extra-halfbrite. Note that this
switch does not force HAM mode, it merely instruct PPShow
to use HAM mode in case of doubt.
TIME s : Display pictures for 's' seconds.
CYCLE : Start cycling automatically.
NOOVERSCAN : Disable overscan.
NOMOUSE : No mouse pointer.
LOOP : Display all pictures in a loop, press CTRL-D to abort.
PAL : Use 'pal.monitor'.
NTSC : Use 'ntsc.monitor'.
VGA : Use 'multiscan.monitor'. Please note that when using VGA,
LO puts the screen in EXTRALORES, HI in LORES and SHI in
PRODUCTIVITY (same as PROD).
SUPER72 : Use 'Super72.monitor'.
A2024 : Use 'a2024.monitor'.
15Hz : Put A2024 monitor into 15Hz, rather than 10Hz.
NOFLICKER : Kickstart 3.0 only. If possible use a non-interlaced
monitor mode ('DoublePAL.monitor' or 'DoubleNTSC.monitor').
MAXOSCAN : Use VIDEO_OSCAN instead of MAX_OSCAN. Video overscan
offers the maximum possible overscan, but is not as system
friendly.
JIFFIES n : Set a delay between frames in jiffies. A jiffie is 1/50s
(PAL) or 1/60s (NTSC). During animation playback you may
press F1 to F10 to control animation playback speed. Press
Return to use the default speed.
TIMES n : Set number of times to play the animation.
REPEAT : Select repeat mode instead of loop mode (see below).
NOANIM : Don't play animations, just display the first frame.
DATATYPES : Always use datatypes.
The difference between loop mode and repeat mode is the following: in
loop mode PPShow 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 (REPEAT),
PPShow 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).
PPShow can be made resident so it doesn't have to be loaded every time
you use it, use the c: Resident command for this. You can't make PPShow
resident when it is crunched!! The file is supplied as an uncrunched command
file with the pure bit set. PPShow 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 :-)
Examples:
o PPShow dh0:pics/HAMpicWithoutCAMG.pic HAM
o PPShow dir/#?.pic TIME 5 LOOP
Show all files in directory 'dir' with a '.pic' suffix for 5 seconds
and loop until user presses CTRL-D.
o PPShow PICS:~(#?.info) NOOVERSCAN
Show all files on 'PICS:' NOT ending in '.info'. Disable overscan.
- Via the WorkBench:
There are three different ways of using PPShow via the workbench: you
can set the default tool of the (crunched) ILBM/ANIM file to 'PPShow', you
can single click the PPShow icon and then extend-select one or more icons
(use shift click, double-clicking the last one) or you can double-click the
PPShow icon and specify a filename using the file requester.
You set the default tool by single clicking the icon of the picture and
selecting 'Information' from the 'Icons' menu. You will get a window with
several gadgets in it, click in the string gadget where it says 'Default tool'
and enter ':ppshow'. PPShow should be in the root directory of your disk for
this to work, if e.g. it's in the system directory you should