Belgian Amiga Club - ADF Collection/BS1 part 26.zip/BS1 part 26/The Director Toolkit v1.0.adf/docs

Text File | 1987-02-25 | 7KB | 176 lines

|f2|t1|c7Director ToolKit V1.0 12/10/88|c3|t0|f1

The Director toolkit contains a variety of tools that we've collected
over time that make life easier or provide expanded capabilities when
used with the Director.  Many of the tools such as the
|c7ANIM Compressor|c3
and the |c7Palette Optimizer|c3 may be useful in conjunction with
other programs as well.|r1

There is a wide variety of |c7Director|c3 scripts included on this disk
that can be used as examples, or provide complete functions that you can
incorporate directly into your own projects.|r1

All of the drawers on this disk contain readme icons that describe the
programs in detail.  The remainder of this text presentation will
describe them briefly.
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|f2|c7Wipe Routines|c3|f1|r1

A collection of wipe transitions including venetian blind, diagonal,
serpentine and others are included in script form that can be used
directly or as ideas for further customizing your own wipes.  Also
included is a slideshow script using these new wipes that can be
used to display your own images.  All scripts are included.
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|f2|c7Enhanced BLIT Utility|c3|f1|r1

The |c7Enhanced BLIT Utility|c3 (EBU) is a mouse driven script
builder that can
build complete scripts for moving objects over backgrounds, animating
them as they are moved if desired.  You create your objects or
|c7"characters"|c3
with a paint program or digitizer, then use the |c7Enhanced BLIT Utility|c3
to create an animated character and then specify moves over background
images.  The |c7Enhanced BLIT Utility|c3 will create a working script
that you can use directly, or modify or incorporate into
other presentations.|r1

The |c7Enhanced BLIT Utility|c3 also provides a more visual based
interface to
the functions of the original |c7BLIT Utility|c3|-, also allowing you to
automatically attach common commands (such as PAUSE) to the |c7BLIT|c3|-,
|c7DISSOLVE|c3|-, or |c7WIPE|c3 commands you generate.
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|f2|c7File Requester|c3|f1|r1

The File Requester is a |c7CLI|c3 command that you can run with the
Director's
|c7EXECUTE|c3 command.  The File Requester can then be incorporated in your
own scripts where it may be desirable for the user to make a file name
selection.  The File Requester will leave the name in a file in the
|c7RAM:|c3 disk that can be accessed via the Director's
|c7OPEN|c3 and |c7READ|c3 commands.
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|f2|c7Screen Save|c3|f1|r1

A SaveIFF |c7CLI|c3 command is provided that can be run with the Director's
|c7EXECUTE|c3 command to save the current screen as an |c7IFF|c3 file.
This command
can be used to automatically save out individual frames of Director
animations for other uses.  One example might be to save out a series
of Director frames to be compressed with the |c7ANIM|c3 compressor included
in the ToolKit.  The SaveIFF command can optionally create an icon for
the image saved, and can be used directly from the |c7CLI|c3 as a general
purpose screen save program.
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|f2|c7MIDI Input module|c3|f1|r1

The |c7MIDI|c3 Input module is a special version of the Sound module
that can be signaled to listen to a specified |c7MIDI|c3 channel and return
|c7MIDI|c3 note-on and note-off messages to the Director for image and sound
synchronization.  |c7MIDI|c3 output is not currently provided with
the |c7MIDI|c3 module.
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|f2|c7Standard ANIM compressor|c3|f1|r1

A standard |c7ANIM|c3 compressor is provided that will take a list
of |c7IFF|c3
image files and compress them into the standardized |c7IFF ANIM|c3
op mode |c75|c3
compressed files.  The resolution and color palette of the |c7IFF|c3 images
you use should all be the same.  Both double buffered and single buffered
|c7ANIM|c3 are supported, single buffered being more memory efficient for
certain types of Director applications.
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|f2|c7Pie Chart Generator|c3|f1|r1

A generic pie chart generator is included that provides an example of
the use of integer-based trigonometric functions |c7Sine|c3 and
|c7Cosine|c3 to
convert |c7360|c3 degrees of circle into the required pie slices for pie
chart applications.  The generic generator can be used directly in
presentations without knowledge of the trigonometric functions involved.
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|f2|c7Sine and Cosine functions|c3|f1|r1

Degree based |c7Sine|c3 and |c7Cosine GOSUB|c3|-s are provided
that will allow you to
determine the approximate |c7Sine|c3 and |c7Cosine|c3 of any degree
multiplied times |c710000|c3|-.  The above pie chart
generator provides an example of how these
can be used for basic circle functions.
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|f2|c7Card Game Example|c3|f1|r1

The Card Game Example demonstrates a variety of Director techniques,
and contains an example |c7sort|c3 routine (used to shuffle cards) that can
be adapted to other applications.  In addition, routines for evaluating
poker hands and displaying the cards are also included in this instructional
script.
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|f2|c7Palette Optimizer|c3|f1|r1

The Palette Optimizer is a |c7CLI|c3 command that will take a list of |c7IFF|c3 files,
do a histogram over all the images specified, producing an averaged
palette that can be utilized when searching for a common palette for
several otherwise unrelated images.  It is particularly effective with
Digi-View, but can also be used with PixMate, the Butcher, and non-HAM
paint programs.  It can take any resolution images, and will produce a
palette the size you specify.  Extra Halfbright palettes, and odd-sized
palettes are also supported.
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|f2|c7Text Displayer|c3|f1|r1

The Text Displayer is an example of a text reader Director script and is
used to present the documentation for all the ToolKit programs on the
disk.  The script is included and can be adapted to any requirements you
may have for your own text reader type programs.
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|f2|c7IFF File Viewer|c3|f1|r1

"View" is included which is an |c7IFF|c3 image file viewer that can display
all the files in a given directory as a quick slideshow so you can
quickly determine what images are contained on any of your disks.
View can also take a short list of specific files, and can be looped
for quick |c7IFF|c3 viewing uses.  View accepts any resolution images including
overscan.
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|f2|c7Workbench Front/Back Command|c3|f1|r1

WBMove is a |c7CLI|c3 command that can be run using the Director's
|c7EXECUTE|c3
command to send the Workbench screen to the front or back of the Amiga's
display.  WBMove can be used in applications where system requesters
may arise on the Workbench screen (due to requests for disk insertions)
and it is necessary to return to the Director animation screen after
the requester has been serviced.
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|f2|c7Using With PAL Amigas|c3|f1|r1

If you have a |c7PAL|c3 video format Amiga (as opposed to NTSC), the
|c7Enhanced Blit Utility|c3 will be affected.|r1

You can adjust the |c7Enhanced Blit Utility|c3 for |c7PAL|c3 format
by renaming the text file |c7PALScreenY|c3 in |c7ToolKit:BlitUtil|c3
to |c7ScreenY|c3|-, and
using |c7ED|c3 to adjust the parameter on the second line in the file for
correct vertical centering of |c7PAL|c3 screens.