Millennium Time Capsule

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Millennium Time Capsule / AC2000.BIN / disks / ac11disk / m_player / slidshow.doc < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1989-06-08 | 16.4 KB | 470 lines

M_PLAYER: SLIDE-SHOWS and MOVIE-MAKER section (Quick Time, AVI, FLM or GIF) ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ How to run a slideshow? ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Just choose your batch file instead of an animation (please, keep BAT as the batch extension). Slideshow of animations ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ See at the end of this file... How to run a movie-maker? ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ It's the same as before, but the batch file must contain the line 'o=file_path' to know witch file to create. If you simply clic on 'Go!', it will act as a slide-show, to get the Movie-Creation, you must use the key 'Alt' while clicking on the 'Go!' button. Easy, no? It's the type of images you give that will determine the type of movie created: tga -> Quick Time movie with RLE16 compression (and sound) img -> Quick Time movie with RLE8 compression (and sound) -> (*) Video AVI movie with RLE8 compression (and sound) gif -> Gif movie (no sound) Degas -> Extended FLM Neochrome -> Extended FLM (*) with 'img', the default format is MOV (Quick Time), but if the file specification in 'o=file_path' starts with a '#', an AVI file will be created instead. How to create a BATCH FILE for a SLIDESHOW? ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ A batch file is a simple ascii text files that contains 3 parts: - the identifier - the header - the datas Only the first line must start ont the leftmost row, for the others, spaces and tab to indent are allowed, there must be only one command per line, lines starting with ';' are considered as comments. The size of the file is limited to 12488 bytes (I think it's enough...). The identifier ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ It must be on the first line, first character and is always: M_PLAYER or m_player (or m_PlAYer if you prefer!) The header ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Starts on the second line (or after some comments lines) and gives general infos on the slideshow: w=xxxx the width of the movie h=xxxx the height of the movie c=xxxx the compression (the type of file): tga2 for TGA 2 uncompressed (24 or 16 bits) ximg for IMG with 'XIMG' extension and 256 colors gif8 for either gif87a or gif89a dega for Degas 320x200x16 neoc for Neochrome 320x200x16 b=xxxx size of the buffer to load the entire largest image file Those first 4 infos can't be ommited! The following can (for a slide show, but must appear for a MOVIE-create): t=xxxx time for one frame (number of 1/200sec), with a GIF it is the time to wait between two frames (without the display time), with 0, no delay block will be added. f=xxxx number of frames in the whole slideshow o=file_path path and name of the file to create (MOV, RLE16, RLE8 or GIF, or FLM compression), if file_path starts with '#' (with ximg only), the AVI format will be outputed instead of the Quick Time format. s=file_path path and name of the sound file to add to the MOV (WAV or AVR, 8/16 bits, mono/stereo). For MOV/AVI the frequencies are 11025, 22050, 44100, for FLM 12517, 25033, 50066 +/-2%. For FLM, 16 bits is forbidden. * not used with GIF movies * If 's=' is present, then 't=' is ignored and the frame rate is computed according to the sound duration. q=x quality, default value is 5 (5 bits per color), but you can reduce it to 4,3,2 or even 1 to get a more efficient compression, but with a lost of quality. I've tried 'q=2' on some frames, it seems to be correct (better compression, good quality). 'q=' is only useful when a MOV is created, it fixes the number of signifiant bits to know if the color of a pixel has changed or not. * not used with GIF, FLM movies * k=xxxx specifies the rate of the key frames (for example, with k=5, frames #5, 10, 15, 20 ... will be key frames). See below: "Key frames use". * not used with GIF, FLM movies * r=xxxx for GIF files only, fixes the number of loops for that movie, the range is 0 to 65535. This will add the NETSCAPE extension as follows: $21, $ff, $0b, 'NETSCAPE', '2.0', $03, $01, Intel word=xxxx, $00. A value of 0 indicated an infinite loop. v=max_x,max_y,start_x,start_y,img_cell,loop_x for MOV files only, this allows you to generate a QuickTime VR file (an interactive movie). max_x=number of columns (start at 1) max_y=number of lines (start at 1) start_x=horiz. index of the first cell (0 to max_x-1) start_y=verti. index of the first cell (0 to max_y-1) img_cell=number of images per cell loop_x=1 for horizontal looping, 0 to stop at boundaries See 'QuickTime VR' below for more details. m=xxxx if you call M_Player as a movie maker (MOV,AVI,FLM,GIF) from your own program and you don't want to fill your hard drive with TGAs, you can send to M_Player the images ones by one using a kind of dialog through this stucture: xxxx is an address that points to three longs: LONG your_routine LONG frame number requiered by m_player LONG the adress where your pixels are WORD flag for pixel format Each time my compressor needs an image file, it fills the frame number and then calls your routine. Your routine must fill the buffer address and the flag format. Supported values are (for now): FLAG=$0000 -> pixels are NOVA 15 bits VVVBBBBB xRRRRRVV FLAG=$FFFF -> pixels are FALC 16 bits RRRRRVVV VVVBBBBB For both formats, the output is MOV/RLE16 as if TGA files were used. The FILE names given in the "data" section are dummy but must appear, for example, with 100 images you can write: data DUMMY.TGA .rept 99 .disp .endr .stop Then you call M_Player with: m_player -d-a my_batch.bat (no dialogs, ALT on to create the movie). The order of those infos is not fixed, but you musn't put spaces between the characters (w = 320 is wrong!). The datas ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Starts immediately after the header with a key word: data Then, every line is read and: if starting with a '.' --> it's a command, executes it else --> it's the name of a file, displays it, and its name becomes the current name. commands are: .rept xxxx .endr repeat xxxx times what's between rept and endr. Loops can be nested. .disp displays the file corresponding to the current name .getp uses the palette of the next file (only applied with palette based images). If '.getp' is not specified, then the palette will be ignored (for example when all of the frames share the same palette that is loaded once), this speeds up the display when running in NOVA 256c (because the palette must be passsed to the VDI). * not used with GIF movies * .incr increments a number found into the current name (example, if name was: C:\IMAGES\FRM00001.TGA it becomes C:\IMAGES\FMR00002.TGA) .decr same as above with a decrementation. .stop end of the slideshow. This command MUST appear, else the program crashes. .keyf forces the next frame to be a key-frame (if k=xxxx is used, then this auto key counter will be reset). See below at "Key frames use". * not used with GIF,FLM movies * QuickTime VR movies ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ As the viewer will access the images in a random order, every first frame of each cell must be a 'key frame', so you have to use k=img_cell (for example, k=1 for fixed images). The number of frames (found at f=xxxx) must be the same as max_x*max_y*img_cell. Note that the indexes (start_x and start_y) start at 0, the first line isn't #1. The order of the images in the data section is a bit strange. For example, I want to create a VR with 3 lines of 4 columns, id 12 fixed images numbered 0 to 11: 3 2 1 0 <- X indexes ----------- 11 10 9 8 | 2 <- Y indexes 7 6 5 4 | 1 3 2 1 0 | 0 When replaying, suppose I fixed start_x=2 and start_y=1 (image #6), with UP arrow I will access #10, with DOWN #2, with LEFT #7 and with RIGHT #5. The line would be: v=4,3,2,1,1,0 for non looping (eg: stops at images #7 and #4) v=4,3,2,1,1,1 for x looping (eg: image #7 is linked to image #4). GIF movies ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ A GIF movie can only be created from GIF images, those images must have the same global size and the same global palette (if a local palette is present, it will be stored). Every other bloc than $2C (the images) are skipped (for example copyrights, infos, etc...). Only one bloc is always added, the one defined by myself that indicates the number of frames: $21, $ff, $0b, 'M_PLAYER', 'FRM', $04, Intel Long Frames, $00 This bloc must be located just after the local palette (and, if present, after the Netscape extension concerning the looping). The delay time between two frames is stored into an unsigned word, so it is limited to 65535, this means no more than 655.35 seconds (and so 131070 for 't=' as it a number of 1/200 of second). If the value is greater than this limit, 0 will be used instead (meaning no delay!). M_Player can be used to modify an existing GIF-Animation (for example to add the M_PLAYER extension, the Netscape extension or to modify the delays between two frames,...). Example, I have an animation NUKE01.GIF that has no M_Player extension, with a infinite loop and that is played too fast, I run it once to get the infos: size 64x64, 9 frames displayed (in the stats box at the end. When an anim has a loop, SHIFT stops it!). Then I create the following batch file: m_pLaYeR w=64 the size I noted h=64 c=gif8 b=16000 the file is only 15xxx bytes long t=11 11/200 = 0,055s of delay f=9 9 frames into my initial anim r=3 will repeat only 3 times (instead of infinite) o=C:\TGA\nuke.GIF the output file data C:\TGA\nuke01.GIF only one file! .stop Upon exit, I'll have a new anim NUKE.GIF with the M_PLAYER extension, with different delays and with 3 loops only. The output file is shorter, because M_Player has skipped very info bloc! FLM Movies ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ As they are created from ST-Low images (c=dega or c=neoc), you can omit 'w=', 'h=' and 'b=', they will be filled with the following default values: w=320 h=200 b=33000 (PI1 32034 or 32066, NEO 32128) A FLM file hasn't the 'key frame' capability, and so, be sure that the frame rate you specify will be possible on your machine. Else, as no frame is skipped, the images could last longer than the sound. Example of a BATCH FILE: ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ (The comments starting with ** don't appear in the file!) ** start of file M_Player ** Id ; comes from a FLI ** comment w=320 ** width h=200 ** height ; 67/200 means 3 f/s ** comment t=67 ** time for one frame f=29 ** number of frames c=tga2 ** files are TGA 2 uncompressed b=192018 ** size of one file (320x200x3 + 18) data ** end of header/start of data E:\imprimer\mou00001.tga ** first frame, display it .rept 2 ** twice the whole .rept 7 ** 7 times .incr ** increment name of file (00002 to 00008) .disp ** and display it .endr ** loop .rept 7 ** another 7 times .decr ** dec name of file (00007 to 00001) .disp ** and display it .endr ** loop .endr ** twice! .stop ** end of slideshow Well, this example has displayed: mou00001.tga mou00002.tga ... mou00007.tga mou00008.tga mou00007.tga ... mou00001.tga And this twice! The images came from a FLI that I saved using the Step by Step mode. INCR and DECR commands can only work correctly if the names of the files END with digits! (for example 00001BB.TGA won't work because it ends with BB). Another example: ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ You can specify each file if you don't want to use commands: M_PLAYER w=184 h=240 b=50000 c=ximg ** t= ommited because there's a sound f=5 o=#C:\ANIM\US.AVI ** will create an AVI if Alt+GO ('#') s=C:\SOUNDS\KISS.AVR ** will add this sound if Alt+GO data .getp ** supposing that all have the same C:\IMAGES\I.IMG ** palette, we load it once! C:\IMAGES\YOU.IMG C:\IMAGES\I.IMG C:\IMAGES\YOU.IMG C:\IMAGES\YOU_N_I.IMG .stop '.stop' is the only command that must appear. Common errors (those I made...) ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ * The header is built BEFORE adding the frames, so the number of frames that you specify (f=xxxx) must be exact! Else you'll get a totally corrupted MOV file. To ensure that it's the right value, launch a slide-show before encoding, if total_frames=frames_displayed, it's Ok. * this is the same for 'w=' and 'h='. Be sure that all of the images have the same size, the one you specified. * the 'supported' message into the graphic box is based upon your 'c=xxxx'. The program hasn't read a file to verify that, ensure that it's the good fromat. * The sound frequencies accepted are those from the PC world: 11025, 22050 and 44100 KHz, or the closest possible to them. Else, you get an 'Unsupported' message in the sound box. * if using IMG images you get the RLE8 compression that uses a palette. But, the MOV can contain only ONE palette, so you must be sure that all the images share the same colors, else, it's the last palette read (with .getp) that will be saved. The same with AVI files. Key-Frames use ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Here is a brief introduction to the utility of inserting key-frames into a movie. There are two cases: - your machine is fast and no frame will be skipped when playing, then you don't need to use the key frames. - your machine isn't so fast and there may be some frames skipped, the use of key-frames is highly recommended! What happens when a frame is skipped? In order to increase the compression, only the differencies between two frames are stored, this means that one frame is only a partial display. If one frame is skipped (because of the synchronisation) the next one won't have the background expected! You'll get a wrong display. A key frame is used to solve this problem, it is a complete reconstruction of the screen. So, when a frame is skipped, M_PLAYER just has to wait for the next key-frame to go on displaying. An example: Suppose you have used k=5 and t=40 (5 frames per second) into the header and that your machine can only display 3 images /second. Here is what will happen: second #1: frames 1,2,3 second #2: frames 5,6,7 second #3: frames 10,11,12 etc... Every key frame will be at its exact position (in time), and between 2 key-frames, the player does as much as it can. If you play this same movie with a faster machine, you'll get maybe: second #1: frames 1,2,3,4 second #2: frames 5,6,7,8 second #3: frames 10,11,12,13 etc... And with a very fast machine, you'll get every frame. The best is to put 2 key-frames per second, this way, the display will be synchro with the sound twice a second. You must know that a key frame is larger than a normal one, because it rebuilds every pixel, and that inserting too few key-frames will lead to a poor synchro quality. It's a question of balance. Make some tests to find the best solution. Idea: it's a good idea to choose the frames where the background changes suddenly, because anyway most of the pixels will be rebuilt! Slideshow of animations ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ The batch file is a simple text file and must begin with this identifier on the leftmost row of the first line: SLIDEANI or slideani Then, each line contains either a command (starting with a '.'), or a valid file name. The file MUST end with the ".stop" command. Example: SLIDEANI e:\anim\intro.avi .rept 5 e:\anim\me.avi e:\anim\you.avi .endr e:\anim\end.avi .stop This file will start with 'intro.avi', then will display 5 times me.avi and you.avi, finally it will display end.avi. Valid commands are: .rept xxx, .endr, .incr, .decr, .disp, .stop For example: SLIDEANI e:\anim\intro.avi e:\anim\scene000.avi .rept 50 .incr .disp .endr e:\anim\end.avi .stop This file will start with 'intro.avi', then it will display 51 scenes named 'scene000.avi' to 'scene050.avi', and it will end with 'end.avi'. IMPORTANT NOTE -------------- No resolution switch is made between two animations, no 'clear screen' either. So, you must be sure that all of your animations will be displayed into the same resolution and that every new one will cover the last image of the previous one to avoid garbage on the screen and crashes of the system.