Xanima should usually run on the local workstation which will display the image. It can run on a different client, but that would cause a severe performance loss, unless the images are stored on a faster machine than the display workstation, that is connected to the display workstation over a local Ethernet.
After Xanima is invoked, two windows will appear on the screen, one a control panel, and the other the window in which the image(s) will appear. These behave like ordinary X windows, e.g. they can be moved.
The best window manager to use with Xanima is olwm. twm can be used, but will fail to set the color map correctly if the number of colors allocated by Xanima plus the number of colors already allocated by the window manager and other windows is more than 256.
The default number of colors to allocate is defined by S_MAX_COL_DISPLAY in scry/include/scry_limits.h. This can either be changed before making Scry, or reset with the -c option. Any color map entries with indices greater than this number will be undefined. The lower the number of colors allowed, the more likely it is that color flashing and blanking of the screen outside the display window will not occur.
The display window will come up with a width and height given by S_DEF_WINSERV_WIDTH and S_DEF_WINSERV_HEIGHT in scry/include/scry_limits.h. It will automatically resize to the size of whatever Anima file is entered, up to the default maximum size, given by S_MAX_WINSERV_WIDTH and S_MAX_WINSERV_HEIGHT in scry_limits.h. Xanima will exit if images in an Anima file are bigger than the maximum.
The usage of the buttons is as follows: Pushing the "quit" button causes the windows to be destroyed and Xanima to exit.
To stop at a particular frame and/or to clear all the text fields, click the "stop" button.
To read a file, type its name in after "File:" and then type "<CR>". If the caret is not in the file field, click the left button with the cursor to the right of "File:". (All control features require the use of the left button.) Xanima must be in stopped mode to read in a file.
Entering a number in the "Number Input:" field and then pushing the "go to" button will display the image associated with that number. The current frame number and the total number of frames in the sequence are displayed after the "#:" sign.
"< step" will step to the previous frame if one is not at the beginning of the sequence, and "> step" will step to the next frame if not at the end of the sequence. " > " instructs Xanima to move forward through a sequence of images, and " < " instructs it to move backward. If the end of the sequence of frames is reached, Xanima will go back to the beginning. If frames are being played back in reverse order and the beginning is reached, Xanima will start playing frames backwards from the end of the file.
"full" instructs Xanima to display images at full speed. Alternatively, one can click on the slider to control the speed (10 is the same as "full" speed.)
Entering a number in the "gamma" field will adjust the gamma value of the next image displayed. Xanima must be in stopped mode for this selection to have effect. The default value is 1, and the legal range is from 0.1 to 4. The default gamma value can be changed by resetting S_DEF_GAMMA_VALUE in scry/include/scry_limits.h before making Scry.
To save a file on disk in Postscript form, first type in the dots per inch in the "Number Input:" field (the default is 60 dpi), and then push the "postscr button". The file saved will be of the form "Anima_file_name.current_frame.post". Note that it will be grey-scale and not color Postscript format.
To save a file on disk in Sun rasterfile format, push the "sunrast" button. The file saved will be of the form "Anima_file_name.current_frame.ras".
At full speed, Xanima can play back scry/Anima/data/dye2d.iff at 8 frames per second on a Sun 4/110, and 17 frames per second on a Sparcstation 2 with the standard frame buffer. scry/Anima/data/skull.iff can be played back at 2 frames per second on a Sun 4/110, and 5 frames per second on a Sparcstation 2. Note that both these files are the output of the program genonemap.