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IAS: Imagine Attribute Searcher
-------------------------------
© July 1997 by Oovis. Freely Distributable
Version 1.06.
First Public Release.
What is it?
-----------
IAS is a small program which will scan an Imagine object file and tell you
what textures and brushes have been applied to the object(s) within that
file.
IAS will scan all groups and subgroups contained within a file and give the
name of any subpart with textures and/or brushes applied.
IAS can automatically convert files from PC to Amiga versions or vice-versa
IAS will scan for TXT2, TXT3 and TXT4, BRS3, BRS4 and BRS5 chunks within the
TDDD object file
How Do I Use It?
----------------
Firstly you must copy the program IAS to somewhere in your search path,
e.g. your C directory.
Secondly you must have a version of Imagine installed on your hard drive,
as installed by the included Installer program. IAS tests for the existence
of textures within the imagine/textures subdirectory.
IAS should work with version 2, 3, 4 and 5 objects. If you find an object on
which IAS misses textures or brushes please send the object to me on disk
and I'll have a look and try to send you a fixed IAS in return (see below).
If the object's texture information contains assigns to partitions or disks
which AmigaDOS cannot find a system requester will appear asking for the
relevent disk. If you do not possess the named disk click CANCEL, otherwise
insert the disk in any drive.
IAS is CLI only at the moment. If there is enough demand I may try to get
my head round intuition and provide a GUI version in the future.
IAS needs input parameters as follows:
IAS {*options} <object> <Home Directory>
OPTION
------
option is as follows:
*p to redirect output to the printer.
*b to give more detailed information about applied brushes
*c to convert and re-save PC files as Amiga files
*u to convert and re-save Amiga files as PC files
These can be combined in the command input as *pbc or *bcp etc.
N.B. *u and *c are mutually exclusive. You cannot use both at the same time.
If you try this you will get an error message.
If you do something like *cC you will also get an error message.
Options can only be specified once each on the command line.
In order to convert files the disk must be write enabled. Therefore
you cannot convert a file straight from a CD-Rom. Copy the file to RAM or
another disk first.
OBJECT
------
object is the name of the object file you wish to examine. It must be in
the current directory.
HOME DIRECTORY
--------------
Home Directory is the directory where you have installed Imagine on your
system. You can use assigns if you've set them up.
EXAMPLE:
My copy of Imagine is in a subdirectory called Imagine5 in the tools
directory of dh1:. Therefore my Home Directory is dh1:tools/Imagine5
To test and object called star.ship on df1: I type the following in a
CLI (Shell) window:
cd df1:
IAS star.ship dh1:tools/Imagine5
The path to Imagine is assigned in my user-startup as Imagine5:, so I could
also use the following
cd df1:
IAS star.ship Imagine5:
A table will then be output something like this:
IAS: Imagine Attribute Searcher. Version 1.06. © Oovis 1997
See Documentation for details. This program is FreeWare.
This version revised 7 July 1997.
Part name Texture/Brush applied Test
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HULL textures/dethstar(.itx) OK
PANEL.1 brushes/name.ilbm OK
# of textures required : 1 # of textures not located : 0
# of brush applications: 1 Number not found: 0
The test column will tell you if you have the texture on your harddisk or
not.
Brush details such as size and colour count will only be output if the
*b option is specified.
N.B. 1: I only have the specification for BRS4 brushes, so some application
information from older versions of imagine than V4.00 may not be entirely
correct.
2: If brushes are not in the directory specified within the TDDD file
they will fail to be found, even though they may be somewhere else on your
hard disk, and Imagine will also fail to find them. You should copy the
brush files to the directory as it appears from IAS in order to use them.
IAS searches as follows:
1) Search for the texture as its name is saved in the TDDD file using the
Home Directory as input by the user
2) Add .itx to the name and search again
3) Try to find the name as saved without using the Home Directory. This
enables a search of assign paths, or other disks.
Now, Imagine saves all texture names without the .itx extension. I think
that the .itx versions are used by the floating point version of Imagine and
the non .itx by the Integer versions, and are therefore incompatible. IAS
will add '(.itx)' to the name on the info line if this version has been
found on your hard disk.
If the texture names come out with a \ instead of / they will all fail.
This is because the object is for the PC version of Imagine not the Amiga
version.
The *c option will convert the files and test them at the same time so you
don't have to run IAS twice to convert then test files.
A short info line appears at the bottom of the output table if the object
appears to be a PC type object and *c was not specified.
Redirecting the output
----------------------
If you want a hard copy of the output from IAS you can use the standard
redirection technique as follows:
To print the file use
IAS >prt: <object> <Home Directory>
or using the option switch *p
IAS *p <object> <Home Directory>
To save the table as an ASCII file use something like
IAS >Ram:testtable <object> <Home Directory>
Who wrote this and why?
-----------------------
This program was written by Oovis contactable at
Strand Theatre
Aldwych
London
WC2B 4LD
ENGLAND
If you want a reply please include correct stamps/money for return mail. I
cannot afford to pay postage out of my own pocket. Sorry.
I am the Chief Electrician and am 28 years old. This is the first bit of
programming I've ever released to the general public. You might never use it,
but I've found it useful.
I wrote this program because many objects have come my way from magazines
and a friend's internet connection which have been either PC format files,
or have needed textures I don't possess (e.g. the Essence II package), and
it's a real pain having to manually search a large grouped object to find
which part is stopping Imagine rendering. Now I can get a printout of an
object's structure and convert the file format at the same time should I
wish to do so.
Is this a useful program? It is for me, and it got me back into assembly
language programming again after a break of a few years, so what the heck.
Great Britain only: If you want a copy of the source code for this
program, send a cheque/postal order for £5 payable to D I Roberts to the
above address and I'll send out a copy on disk within 7 days.
<Proof of posting is not proof of receipt!>
Finally
-------
Thanks to:
Dave for the internet cruising
Impulse Inc. for Imagine
All the modellers out there for the great work
Hi-Toro, Commodore and Escom for the Amiga
Gateway 2000 for buying the Amiga technology. Let's hope they can do
something with it, and not over stretch themselves as Escom did!
Amiga Format for keeping me inspired and enthusiastic
Spoons and Duncan for keeping the ship going when I'm not there
All trademarks and copyrights acknowledged.
Oovis, London 1997.