[ Mega Script Archive ] [ Frequently Asked Questions ] [ Animation ]

  1. What does the nph- on the front of a file mean?
  2. What does the line print "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\n"; do?
  3. How can I make this script work with JPEGs?
  4. What can I do if my images appear too fast?
  5. My images appear to skip or jump? How do I fix it?

What does the nph- on the front of a file mean?

  • Short Answer:

    It stands for non-parsed header file.

    Long Answer:

    The nph- portion of the filename tells your server to not parse this file. Therefore, it should, in theory, run slightly faster as an animation script, since you are interfacing directly with the client instead of going through the server to the client. That is the reason for the HTTP/1.0 200 OK line. This is a header response that is normally sent by the server, but if the server is not parsing your files, the script will need to send this header line, as the animation script does.


What does the line print "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\n"; do?

  • Short Answer:

    A simple response header telling the client everything is ok. Similar to other things like 403 Not found, 501 Server Error, Etc.

    Long Answer:

    If you have the filename set to something that begins with nph-, then this header response is necessary in order to tell the client that everything is ok. If you choose to name your file something other than a filename that begins with nph-, you should simply comment this line out of the perl script by putting a # sign in the front of the line.


How can I make this script work with JPEGs?

Simply make the following changes to the script:

What used to be:

      @files = ("begin.gif","second.gif","third.gif","last.gif");
      $con_type = "gif";

Should be replaced with:

      @files = ("begin.jpg","second.jpg","third.jpg","last.jpg");
      $con_type = "jpeg";

In other words, change the @files variable to reflect the filenames of the jpg formatted images and change the $con_type variable to 'jpeg'.


What can I do if my images appear to fast?

Simply add a sleep command in between each image and it will delay it by a second. For most people, they don't have this problem, since the network accounts for enough lag, but if you have small images, they may appear to skip or jump. To fix this, add the line:

      sleep 1;

inside the loop that looks like:

      foreach $file (@files) {
      }

It will probably work best if you put it at the end of this loop.


My images appear to skip or jump. What can I do?

  • Short Answer:

    Download the new version. You probably are using version 1.1 or lower. Get version 1.2 or higher.

    Long Answer:

    You can add the following lines to the script directly after the variable configuration box, and it will upgrade you to version 1.2 from version 1.1. The fix made the script not buffer the images, so they appear smoother. Add the following to your script:

            select (STDOUT);
            $| = 1;

    If it still appears choppy it is probably through the download, and that is as good as you can get.


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