Collection of Morph/collectionofmorphcarat1997.iso/PROGRAMS/DTA.ZIP/WHATSNEW.DTA

Text File | 1993-10-23 | 27KB | 543 lines

What's new in DTA:

 Rel 2.0.8 (10/23/93)
  o Added 90 degree increment rotation... use "/ROT90", "/ROT180",
    "/ROT-90", "/ROT270" etc.
    Note: this is the order that operations get done...
    First rotation, next scaling, next clipping.
    So if you did "/cl100,100 /sc200,200 /rot90"
    then DTA will first rotate the picture 90 degrees to the
    right, then scale it to 200x200, and then clip off the
    top half and left half of the scaled, rotated image.
  o Expanded /R switch... in addition to preset resolution
    numbers like "/R6", you could also set the resolution
    explicitly like "/R640,480".  Just be careful that, if you're
    creating a .FLC file *don't* pick an odd number for the
    horizontal dimension: "/R149,200" is a no-no.
    (That's not a limitation of the .FLC format, just of
    my implementation.)
  o Reworked the way scripts work (you know, like "@pics.scr").
    Scripts can now include regular command-line switches
    in addition to filenames.  Just make sure that you've got
    a new file name or switch on each line of the script file.
    You can even include the name of a new script file...
    Just try to avoid recursive script files...
    *Don't* put "@script1.scr" inside of SCRIPT1.SCR, and
    *don't* put "@script1.scr" inside of SCRIPT2.SCR if SCRIPT2.SCR
    is called by SCRIPT1.SCR.
    Or DTA will go into an infinite loop and hang up.
  o If you don't include an extension with an @filename, DTA
    will add '.SCR' to the filename.
  o Fixed some clipping bugs.
  o DTA would sometimes crash with an out-of-heap-memory
    runtime error when flipping a large upside-down TGA file.
    Fixed.
 Rel 2.0.7 (09/30/93)
  o Scaling didn't work right when DTA was reading from a
    flic (probably also when reading an upside-down
    TGA and creating a GIF or TGA).
    Fixed.
 Rel 2.0.6 (09/27/93)
  o Fixed some more bugs in compositing and chroma-key.
 Rel 2.0.5 (09/12/93)
  o Finally got rid of the protection fault that invariably
    occurred after DTA finished building a .FLX file.
 Rel 2.0.4 (09/01/93)
  o Discovered a strange 'feature' in TGA files produced by
    a program called Imagine.  Even though they are unmapped
    24-bit images, for some reason they contain a color map.
    Because DTA doesn't support colormapped TGA files, I
    never paid any attention to color-map info... so DTA
    just would ungraciously treat the color-map in such files
    as if it were part of the image.
    DTA still doesn't read colormapped TGA files, but now if
    there's a color-map in an unmapped picture, it'll at
    least bypass it correctly.
 Rel 2.0.3 (08/25/93)
  o Added inverse chroma-key (/CI).  Works the same as chroma-key
    but backwards... only matching colors *won't* be made
    transparent.
  o Couldn't read .FLC files created with Autodesk Animator...
    it got confused when it ran into the optional "prefix" and
    "postage stamp" chunks.  Fixed.
  o Had problems reading 16-bit TGA files... sometimes
    resulting in page faults, sometimes in bad output.
    Fixed.
  o (There still seems to be a problem with .FLC files
     created with DTA... some players choke on some flics.
     And there's still that irritating page fault after it
     finishes building a .FLX file... I'm working on 'em.)
 Rel 2.0.2 (08/11/93)
  o Multiple layers didn't work right with /NM (no remapping)...
    only the bottom layer would show up in the final picture.
    Now it works, including chroma-key.
    Note: remember, all pictures in all layers must be colormapped,
    and must share the same palette for /NM to work right.
 Rel 2.0.1 (08/04/93)
  o Fixed a bug in /CL (clipping).
  o Fixed a bug in /CH (chroma-key).
 Rel 2.0 (07/29/93)
  o DTA can now read FLIC files.
  o DTA can now read DIB/BMP files.
  o DTA can now read Presidio .ANI files.
  o DTA can read and write hicolor Tempra ".FLX" files.
    Just specify /B16 (for 16-bit) on the command line to
    build an FLX instead of an FLI or FLC.
    (This feature seems to work well enough, but there are
    still some bugs.
    For some reason I haven't figured out yet, DTA crashes
    with a General Protection fault whenever it builds a FLX file.
    This only happens after it's finished building the animation.)
  o Now including the FLISPEED program with the DTA package.
    This'll change the speed value in the header of a flic
    without requiring you to rebuild the animation.
    Just type:
      flispeed xxx.fli /s5
    to change xxx.fli to a speed value of 5.
  o Added multi-layer (use /L to separate layers) compositing.
    Like this: DTA BACKGRND.TGA /L FORE*.TGA
    If FORE*.TGA are 32-bit TGAs with alpha, then
    DTA will make use of the transparency info.
  o Added chroma-key (use /CHr,g,b to specify a transparent
    color) ... this works okay, but not nearly as good as
    starting with 32-bit TGA files containing transparency
    info (which you can create in Polyray and, I'm told,
    3D Studio).
    You can use this feature to create 32-bit TGA files that
    contain alpha information like this: DTA *.TGA /OT /B32 /CH255,0,0
    (DMorf fans: DMorf will morph the alpha info along with the
    color info... but DMorf can add alpha better than DTA can.)
    Or, DTA BACKGRND.GIF /L FORE*.GIF /CH0,0,0 to composite a
    over a background... DTA will make all black pixels transparent.
      /CT specifies a tolerance for chroma-key.  If you (for example
    specify "/CH0,255,0 /CT5" then all pictures in the range
    <0,250,0> and <5,255,5> will become transparent.
  o Added /REP# which repeats a single frame a specified number
    of times.  Useful for inserting pauses in your flics.
    For example, if you type
      DTA before.tga /rep10 morf*.tga after.tga /rep10
    before.tga and after.tga each get repeated ten times.
    Note that this'll only create a pause if you have a speed
    value greater than 0.
  o Added /STx,y (start) ... instead of centering a picture
    on the screen, you can tell DTA where to place the top-left
    hand corner of an image on the screen.  You can have a separate
    start value for each layer.
  o Added /CLx1,y1,x2,y2 (clip)
    X1 and Y1 specify the top-left corner of the clipping window,
    and X2 and Y2 specify the size of the clipping window.
    Clipping takes place AFTER scaling, if you use both.
    You can have a separate clip for each layer.
  o Got rid of /SX (scale X) and /SY (scale Y)... just use /SCx,y
    for scaling.
    You can have a separate scale value for each layer.
  o No more real-mode executable.  DTA is just getting too darn
    big.  Maybe I'll build a pared-down DTALITE or something
    later on, if there's any demand.
  o Fiddled with the status display some.
  o Skipped 1.9... I think the amount of change justifies going
    all the way to a new major release number.  Alexander
    Enzmann requested flic-reading way back even before I
    released 1.0 and here it is, finally.
  o Probably some other stuff I've forgotten about.
  o Fixed a bunch of bugs (and probably added some new ones
    while putting in new features).
 Rel 1.8g (01/18/93)
  o Added comments to @files... just prefix comments with a ";".
  o DTA now ignores blank lines in @files.
  o Fixed assorted bugs.
  o Added grayscale TIF output (/FI)
  o Added /I option, which works like /K (skip), except instead
    of specifying how many frames to skip, specify the total
    number of frames you want in your flic.  So if you have
    50 files... X000.TGA, X001.TGA, on up to X049.TGA, and
    you type:
     dta x*.tga /i10
    then DTA will create a 10-frame flic from X000, X004, X009,
     etc.
 Rel 1.8f (12/30/92)
  o Fixed some more bugs.
  o Added support for 8-bit grayscale TGA files (type 3).
    (To create one, use /B8 /FT).
  o Added picture rescaling.  The /SC option, which only works
    when you're creating flics, rescales an image so it's the same
    size as the screen resolution.
    The /SW option rescales an image so it's the same width as the