home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3
/
Almathera Ten on Ten - Disc 3: CDPD3.iso
/
scope
/
051-075
/
scopedisk61
/
giffy2
/
giffy2.notes
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1995-03-19
|
6KB
|
125 lines
Giffy2 version 2.0 - Release notes
This version of GIFFY contains several enhancements over the original GIFFY.
First and foremost, it supports the entire GIF specification. This includes
Multiple images, extension blocks (which currently are ignored since there
aren't any supported), and colors more than 32. The second major change is
that it supports multiple gif files in a kind of slide show. One can easily
show ALL the gif files in a directory by simply typing "GIFFY2 #?". GIFFY2
is smart enough to ignore non-GIF files (by checking the 6 byte signature in
the beginning of the file...) and will automatically switch resolutions to
match the picture. Finally, this version works a tiny bit faster, and it
runs with expansion memory.
Command line parameters:
There are five optional flags:
-d<len> - This flag changes the length of the delay between each
GIF file displayed. Note that this delay is the time from
the completion of display of one GIF file to the *start* of
display of the next GIF file. Display time is extra.
The value <len> is a decimal number of seconds. For
example: -d5 would delay 5 seconds between files.
The default is a 10 second delay.
-c Normally, when the next GIF file is displayed, the screen
is cleared. Most people probably will like it this way,
but in some cases (most notably when your disk contains many
NON interlaced ["interlaced" here being the GIF file format,
not the 400 line graphics mode...] pictures all of the same
resolution...) you might find it more esthetically pleasing
to simply display right over the previous picture without
clearing the screen. This flag turns off the clearing.
(Note that when the screen resolution changes, the screen is
necessarily cleared in all cases.)
-r This flag tells GIFFY2 to repeat the list of files
continuously until the user stops the program by hitting the
close box. Normally, GIFFY2 shows the entire list of files
and holds on the last file until the close box is clicked
on. (This is mainly for showing single files...)
-a<val> This flag is a bit strange. Some GIF pictures have more
than 32 colors (or more than 16 colors in hires mode...).
When GIFFY encounters one of these, it takes, as a default,
the first 32 (or 16) colors it encounters in the color
table to be it's palette. For any color it then encounters
which is NOT in the palette, it attempts to match it to the
closest color in the palette. For many pictures, this will
work fairly well, and the picture will look good. For
others, this will look bad, due to a bad sample of colors in
the beginning of the table. Which is where this flag comes
in. Depending on how large val is, the color picker will
skip over colors in the palette which are close (based on
val) to any color already picked. When it runs out of
colors in the color table, it starts over again, after
decrementing val, repeating this until the palette is full.
The practical upshot of which is this: If you supply a
value to this between 1 and 8 (the higher the better
with higher colors on the average. 4 is almost always
good.) you should get better output with files with too
many colors. Experiment!
-s One annoying feature of the slide show is that when you
switch resolutions, the Workbench pops up for an instant.
If this annoys you, you can blank it out with this flag.
It's not perfect, but it is better. Only problem is,
it eats up another chunk of memory (I'd guess about 8K.)
There may be one or more filenames, any or all of which may be standard
Amiga search patterns. For example: "GIFFY2 A#? B#?" would show all
GIF files in the current directory beginning with "A" followed by all
GIF files in the current directory beginning with "B".
During display, if you click on the close box at any time, you will
exit the program. If you click anywhere else, you will skip the current
image and begin displaying the next one. (Useful for previewing a whole
buncha images...)
To get a quick summary of this information, run GIFFY2 with no flags or
filenames.
-------------------------------------------------------
Things on the wish list for GIFFY 3.0:
(At the rate I have free time, probably it will be late spring... I hope.)
- Even faster decoding/rendering. (Decoder rewritten in assembler...)
- Ability to scroll screen around for pics larger than visible...
- Smoother resolution switching
- Various wipes/fades/dissolves between GIF files...
- Save image as IFF.
- Support for a couple of extension blocks I want to propose...
(In particular, Color Cycling & Pause between Multiple images...)
After GIFFY 3.0 (or maybe even before depending on feedback...) there
will be a sort of special version of GIFFY which will handle color
dithering and/or HAM mode. I don't intend to put these in with the other
stuff because I want the main GIFFY stuff to remain fast (and get faster),
and both of these things are gonna slow things down.
GIFFY is freely redistributable. This means you can give it to anyone you
like. It is NOT, however, intended for commercial sale, and copyright is
retained by me.
When you give GIFFY away, be sure to also give this file. It contains
information some user somewhere will eventually want to see.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome!
I can be reached on CompuServe via my account number:
--> Steve Bennett [70046,441] 12/5/87