Programming With QuickTime Sprites
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This chapter describes wired sprites, which are new with QuickTime 3. Wired sprites extend the interactive capabilities of QuickTime, enabling you to create movies that respond to user interaction. For example, you may "wire" sprite buttons to a QuickTime movie, so that the buttons link to specific URLs, start or stop the movie, or play a custom sound when pressed. These interactive movies can then be played in any Web browser using the QuickTime plug-in, and in all applications as long as they use the QuickTime movie controller API.
When you wire a sprite track, you add actions to it. Wired sprite tracks may be the only tracks in a movie, but they are commonly used in concert with other types of tracks. Actions associated with sprites in a sprite track, for example, can control the audio volume and balance of an audio track, or the graphics mode of a video track.
Wired sprite tracks may also be used to implement a graphical user interface for an application. Applications can find out when actions are executed, and respond however they wish. For example, a CD audio controller application could use an action sprite track to handle its graphics and user interface.
These wired sprite actions are not only provided by sprite tracks. In principle, you can "wire" any QuickTime media handler. The QuickTime 3D media handler, for example, implements a subset of them.
Before you use wired sprites, you should be familiar with the information in Chapter 1, "Introduction to Sprites and the Sprite Toolbox," and Chapter 2, "Sprite Media Handler."
This chapter is divided into the following major sections:
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