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- /* :ts=8 */
-
- Items not covered in the 2.0 Manual
- ===================================
-
-
- 1. Checks2 Texture
-
- The Checks2 texture is similar to the Checks Texture.
- It takes the same parameters as Checks, but whereas
- Checks makes objects appear as if they were carved
- out of a bunch of cubes with alternating colors,
- Checks2 makes them appear as if they were carved out
- of a bunch of square columns with alternating colors.
-
- 2. Rotate2.0 F/X
-
- The Rotate2.0 F/X module allows you to rotate an object
- around one if its axes (X,Y, or Z) by an abritary number
- of degrees throughout a range of frames in an animation.
- You CAN specify something like 720 degrees to rotate
- two full revolutions. We almost didn't include it,
- because it is not always totally effective -- it rotates
- the points of the object around its axis, but things
- like IFF brush wraps, etc., remain fixed to the axes.
- In some cases, though, it is such a time saver that we
- decided to include it.
-
- 3. Acceleration along paths
-
- If an object is following a path in an animation, it is
- possible to have it speed up or slow down at the beginning
- or end of the path. In the action editor, in the "info"
- requester for "follow path" positioning bars, there are
- four numeric entry gadgets that allow you to specify a
- starting and ending speed for the object, and also a frame
- count at the beginning of the path and a frame count at
- the end over which the speedup(s) or slowdown(s) will occur.
- Choosing the frame counts is easy - just don't let the sum
- of the counts be more than the number of frames. Choosing
- the starting and ending speeds can be difficult, depending
- on whether you choose them to be zero or not. First of all,
- if you don't specify a frame count at one end of the path,
- you don't need to specify a speed there either.
- If you just wan't the object to accelerate from a dead
- stop to up some speed, and remain at that speed until
- the end of the path, you specify give a starting speed of
- zero, and some number of frames to accelerate for. The
- software will do the rest. Likewise, to start from a
- dead stop, accelerate to some speed, remain at that speed
- for a while, and then slow down to a dead stop, you specify
- zero for the starting and ending speeds, and a frame count
- at each end of the path. The most difficult thing to do
- is to have an object be moving at some speed at the beginning
- of the path, and speed up or slow down over a frame range
- - or the similar thing at the end of the path. For this,
- you need to understand 1) the way speeds are specified, and
- 2) how your specified speeds will interact with the path
- length, and the number of frames that the object spends
- moving along the path. In the stage editor, there is a
- "Show Path Length" menu item, that will give you the length
- of the path in "units" - e.g. 600 units. Then assuming
- you don't use acceleration, you can divide the length
- of the path by the number of frames that the object spends
- traversing it to get an "average" speed that the object
- must attain in order to get to the end of the path by the
- proper frame. For example: 600 units / 60 frames gives
- 10 units per frame as an average speed -- so if you want
- the object to start out slow and accelerate, you must
- specify a starting speed smaller that 10 units/frame --
- which then means that the object will be moving somewhat
- faster than 10 units/frame at the end of the path.
-
-
- 4. Movie file commands:
-
- The Movie file allows you to have fine control over your
- animations. In most cases, you won't need to use it --
- the software will build a default movie file for you, based
- on some questions you answer, and then delete it when it's
- finished. When you click on the "Make" movie gadget in the
- Project editor, if there is no movie file, you will be
- notified of the fact, and asked the following questions:
-
- 1. No "movie" file - make temporary file from pick list ?
-
- - answer yes unless you want to make you own.
- -- you must have some frames picked.
-
- 2. Make a looping movie ?
-
- - answer yes if you want the animation to loop back
- to the start after showing each frame once.
- - if you answer no, each frame will be shown once,
- and then the animation will stop -- in Imagine
- the "Play Loop" gadget allows you to make it loop
- anyway, but with the standalone player (PlayIANM)
- it will always play only once.
-
- 3. Lock the Palette ?
-
- - if you answer yes to this, the animation stills will
- use the palette from the first frame throughout the
- entire movie. If you have specified the "ILBM-12 bit"
- file format, however, and you have already generated
- the stills, then the palette is already "built in"
- to each still, so this will not work.
- - if you answer no, each frame will use its own "best"
- palette.
-
- 4. Delete picture files after using them ?
-
- - if you answer yes, the "still" image file for each
- frame you use will be deleted as soon as it is no
- longer needed (the 1st two frames of a looping movie
- will not be deleted until the end, as they are needed
- to calculate the "loop around" part of the animation.
- -- this (last) question doesn't have anything to do with
- the movie file.
-
- After you answer all the questions a temporary movie file
- will be generated for you.
-
- If you want to build your own movie file, you can either
- create the file by hand - it goes in the subproject (.pix)
- directory, and is named "movie" - or you can click on the
- "Edit" movie button in the project editor, and (assuming
- there is no existing movie file) you will be aked the same
- set of questions as above, and then allowed to edit the
- the file that your answers would produce. At that point,
- the file becomes no longer a "temporary movie file", but
- THE movie file for the current subproject.
-
- The "Edit" movie gadget in the project editor normally
- lets you edit the existing movie file for the current
- subproject. It launches a text editor on the Workbench
- screen, with the movie file as input. By default, the
- editor is "C:ed", but in the Preferences editor, you
- can change the editor to one of your choice. The only
- requirement is that a CLI command such as
- "C:ed prj.imp/1.pix/movie" will start up the editor
- with the specified file as input.
-
- In the movie file, you can use any of the commands
- described below. Following the command descriptions
- is an example - which you may wish to glance over first.
-
- MOVIE - this command must appear somewhere in the file
- and specifies the start of the main sequence
- of display commands.
-
- SCENE - this command may appear several times throughout
- the file. It specifies the start of a (usually
- short) block of display commands that can be
- refered to by name later. Along with the word
- SCENE, you must specify a name. The name cannot
- begin with a digit.
-
- examples:
-
- SCENE StartLoop
- SCENE MainLoop
- SCENE EndLoop
-
- BLACK - this command causes a black screen to be displayed
- as if it were a generated frame.
-
- PLAY - this command is the basic command for displaying
- frames, or playing scenes. It has several syntax
- variations that are best illustrated by example.
-
- examples:
-
- PLAY 12 - causes frame 12 to be displayed
- PLAY 1-20 - displays frames 1 through 20
- in sequence.
- PLAY 12 30 TIMES - shows frame 12 for the next
- 30 animation frames.
- PLAY 1-20 2 TIMES - shows frames 1 through 20 twice
- in succesion.
- PLAY StartLoop 2 TIMES - plays the scene "StartLoop" twice.
- PLAY Middle - playes the scene "Middle" once
- PLAY EndLoop FOREVER - plays the scene "EndLoop" until
- the user presses the ESC key.
-
- LOCK - causes the color palette to "Lock" to the palette of the
- next frame displayed.
-
- FREE - causes the next frame displayed to use its own palette.
-
- HOLD - waits for the user to press the spacebar before continuing.
-
- RATE - specifies a number of running frame times to display each
- generated frame for - at 60 per second for NTSC displays,
- and 50 per second for PAL.
-
- examples:
-
- RATE 0 - plays as fast as possible.
- RATE 6 - plays at 60/6 = 10 frames/sec.
-
- PAUSE - specifies a time interval to pause and display the last
- frame. The time is specification contains a seconds
- part and a "jiffys" part - a "jiffy" is one frame time,
- at 60 per second for NTSC, and 50 per second for PAL.
-
- examples:
-
- PAUSE 2 - pause for 2 seconds
- PAUSE 2.10 - pause for 2 seconds + 10 jiffys
- PAUSE 0.30 - pause for 30 jiffys
-
-
- Sample Movie script:
-
- Suppose we want to do the following:
-
- 1) Show a starting frame (frame 1) for 5 seconds.
- 2) Play a loop section (frames 2-31) 5 times - locking the
- palette for frames 10-31, and releasing it when we loop
- back to frame 2. And play at 30 frames per second (NTSC).
- 3) Play an ending section (frames 32-50), and hold, waiting
- for the viewer to press the space bar.
-
- The movie file we would write is the following:
-
- SCENE Loop
-
- PLAY 2-9
-
- LOCK
- PLAY 10-31
- FREE
-
- MOVIE
-
- RATE 2
- PLAY 1
- PAUSE 5
-
- PLAY Loop 5 TIMES
-
- PLAY 32-50
- HOLD
-
- If later, we decide we need to make this whole thing
- repeat forever, we would change the MOVIE line to
- something like "SCENE MainLoop", and add the following
- lines (either at the top, after the 1st scene, or at
- the bottom):
-
- MOVIE
- PLAY MainLoop FOREVER
-
- -- note that this would be an example of a one scene that
- calls for another scene to be played. That is no
- problem, but be aware that you can get into trouble
- by doing things line this:
-
- SCENE a
- PLAY b
- SCENE b
- PLAY a
-
- - you will get an "Infinite recursion" error if you
- attempt to do something similar.
-