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MainActor Documentation V 1.1, 1993 Markus Moenig ------------------------------------------------- Content ------- Introduction 1.1 Disclaimer 1.2 Credits 1.3 Introduction to MainActor 1.4 Features of MainActor The Menus 2.1 The Project Menu 2.2 The Text Buffer Menu 2.3 The Miscellaneous Menu 2.4 The Arexx Menu 2.5 The Windows Menu The Windows 3.1 The Project Windows 3.2 The Project Control Panel Window 3.3 The Project View Settings Window 3.4 The System Preferences Window 3.5 The MainActor Preferences Window 1.1 Disclaimer -------------- MainActor is shareware. The program may be freely distributed and copied, as long as the following conditions are fulfilled: -The sales price must not be higher than the cost of an (empty) disk plus a nominal copying fee plus costs for shipping. The total price must not be higher than 6 US$ or 10 DM. -All parts of the program and the documentation must be complete. The distribution of single parts is not allowed. -MainActor or parts of it must not be sold in combination with commercial software or as parts of it. -Program and documentation must not be changed in any ways. The repacking of this distribution with different packers is however allowed. -The author is not responsible for misuse, or damage caused by MainActor. I ask everybody who uses MainActor on a regulary basis to register by paying the shareware fee ($50). See the Registration.doc file for more info. NOTE THIS MANUAL ONLY COVERS THE ENGLISH VERSION, IF YOU RUN MAINACTOR ON AN LOCALIZED SYSTEM, THE GADGET AND MENU NAMES MAY DIFFER. 1.2 Credits ----------- This package was developed by usage of the following products: -Dice, from Obvious Implementation Corp -Devpac 3.04, from HiSoft -WShell2.0 and Arexx, from Wishful Thinking Corp -TurboText from Oxxi -MultiTool II from Boris Jakubaschk and finally ToolManager from Stefan Becker. Thanks for producing high quality software for the best computer around. Thanks to all GAMMA and BETA testers, which are: Stefan Becker, Boris Jakubaschk, Klaus Melchior, Per Flodin and Joerg Gutzke. Special thanks to Sefan Becker for his Amiga knowledge, without him this project would not have been become possible. Thanks to Norbert Bogenrieder for the icons. 1.3 Introduction to MainActor ----------------------------- MainActor is a modular animation package for the Amiga. There exist four different kinds of modules 1) Animation Loaders 2) Animation Savers 3) Picture Loaders 4) Picture Savers this can change in the future. You can handle up to five projects; every project can have an animation or picture loader, as well as an animation or picture saver. This makes it possible to convert everything in any ways, the number of available modules can be easily upgraded. Look at the Modules.Doc for information and the capabilities of the different modules included in this release. 1.4 Features of MainActor ------------------------- Here is a list of the general features of the modules and MainActor, note that some specific features are only possible on specific module types. -Intelligent caching/tracking, MainActor can cache your animations and picture lists, if you have not enough memory it will directly access your data from any device. This makes it for example possible to create/edit/play a 400MB animation on your 2MB Amiga. -If you run OS 3.0 or higher, you will get an extra speed bonus on animations through the use of the new graphics routines. For OS2.0/2.1 users there are specific routines in the modules, which will give them the best playback speed possible on their system (and my knowledge :)). -Under OS 3.0 you will get the extra features of showing pictures or playing animations in a scrollable, resizable window on your MainActor or Workbench screen. The colors will be properly adjusted to your screen attributes. -The modules have play routines of their own, so it will be possible to redirect the input/output of special modules to graphic cards or other hardware. -The play routines support a timecode per frame option. A Sound Module (per frame) option will be there in one of the next releases. -MainActor has a totally user reconfigureable GUI. The settings of your sessions can be saved, this includes the size/position of windows as well as the status of the projects. -MainActor has an arexx port, nearly all functions can be accessed through it. You can for example scale or dither whole animations on the fly through the use of an image processor, scripts are included. -MainActor lets you setup and save nearly everything concerning the display mode for playing an animation or showing a picture. For example you can set the X/Y offsets, the display mode ID of your screen (view) and so on. -MainActor supports localization. New features of Version 1.1 --------------------------- -You can now map your arexx scripts to the function keys. -New IFF-Anim8_32, IFF-Anim8_16, PCX modules. -The new Universal modules allow you to easily load all of the supported graphic formats. The Universal_Picasso-II modules remap the output of all modules directly to the Picasso-II graphics board from Village Tronic. -MainActor has now an powerful external player named 'MainView', it can view all animations/pictures for which MainActor has the proper loader module. It is executeable from the wb or cli and supports, per tooltypes or cli arguments, all of MainActors view options. -MainActor now (optionally) saves icons for your newly created animations or pictures, enabling you to view the animations/pictures by selecting their icons. These icons support the same tooltypes as MainView. -You can now control how many times MainActor/MainView plays animations. -The new 'Flash' option allows you to profile your animations. 2 The Menus ------------ Many of MainActors functions can be accessed through the menus, some function can only be accessed through them. When functions belong to a certain window, there will be a pointer to the appropiate section of the documentation. 2.1 The Project Menu -------------------- "Open Project" will open a new project window. There are five possible project windows; if all windows have already been opened, a requester will inform you about it. -> "Project Windows" The attributes of the project windows will be set, according to the defaults selectable in the -> "MainActor Preferences Window". "Project" consists of several submenu items, their functions are identical to the gadgets of the -> "Project Control Panel Window" "Open Prefs" will open an asl-requester which lets you choose an MainActor Preferences file, saved with one of the two following menu items. When you have choosen a prefs file, the display AND all projects and their contents will be closed, MainActor will then be reopend with the settings of the preferences file. NOTE that you can also activate MainActor by simply clicking on the icons of the prefs files. "Save Prefs As ..." saves your current setup of MainActor; nearly everything will be saved : the projects informations( All view settings, the actual project name, the size and position of all windows, the settings of the system preferences). An icon will be created for the preferences file. NOTE, you should save every setup used frequently ! "Save Prefs As Defaults" This will save your setup as the default preferences file, which will be automatically loaded when you start MainActor. The default preferences file is "MainActor:Prefs/Default_Prefs". Replace the default by your most used setup. "Iconify" MainActor will be terminated and the MainActor icon will be placed on your workbench. If you want to reactivate MainActor, just click on the icon. "About" Gives you some informations of the current version of MainActor. "Quit" Will quit MainActor. NOTE, when you have projects loaded, they will be closed automatically. 2.2 The Text Buffer Menu ------------------------ MainActor uses the -> "Text Buffer Window" for presenting feedback to the user. "Print Buffer" Prints the informations stored in the Text Buffer Window. "Save Buffer As ..." Let you choose a file, in which the contents of the Text Buffer Window will be saved. "Clear Buffer" Will clear the Text Buffer Window and its buffer. 2.3 The Miscellaneous Menu -------------------------- The menu items of this menu will only be accessable when a project is loaded in the source project. The "Set Timecode" Item will only be activated if an animation project is loaded in the Source. "Select All" This item will select all items (==frames/pictures) in your source project. "Select Range" A requester will pop up, just enter the start/stop frame for the range of items to be selected. "DeSelect All" This item will deselect all Items (==frames/pictures) in your source project. "DeSelect Range" A requester will pop up, just enter the start/stop frame for the range of items to be deselected. "Set Timecode" Enter the timecode in the requester which you want to be applied to all selected frames in the source project. Remember to hit return after you typed a new value into the integer gadget. The new timecode will be set immediately. All timecodes are entered in 1/60 of a second, MainActor calculates the right timecode for your vertical beam frequency itself. 2.4 The Arexx Menu ------------------ Look at the Arexx.Doc for more informations of MainActors arexx capabilities. "Install Arexx Scripts" This menu item will open a window through which you can map your most used arexx scripts to the function keys. The cycle gadget in the upper part of the window will let you choose the function key on which you want to install an arexx script. The function keys are displayed as F1 ... F20, F10 ... F20 mean the function key + one of the shift keys. You can choose the function key by clicking on the gadget or (the faster method) by simply pressing the appropriate function key. (Remember that you have to press F1 together with the shift key to get the F11 key). Below the cycle gadget are the "Select Script ..." gadget and a string gadget. The arexx script which is currently associated to the actual function key displayed in the cycle gadget is visible in the string gadget. You can enter a new arexx script or edit the name of the existing one through the string gadget. You can use the "Select Script ..." gadget to choose the arexx script via an asl requester. The three gadgets in the lower part of the window are labeled "Save", "Use" and "Cancel". "Save" saves your definitions of the function keys, they will be automatically reloaded the next time you start MainActor. "Use" will keep the definitions, but will not save them, "Cancel" ignores the changes you made to the definitions. "Start Arexx Script" Will let you choose an Arexx script, which will then be executed. 2.5 The Windows Menu -------------------- This menu will let you open/close the different MainActor windows by simply selecting the desired Menu Item. 3 The Windows ------------- All windows, except the project windows, can be opened/closed using the windows menu. 3.1 The Project Window ---------------------- A new Project Window will be opend by selecting the "Open new Project" Item in the Project Menu. You can open up to five Project Windows, the number of your Project Window will be displayed in the title bar, in front of the project name, like "1: HAM8_Animation". If no project is loaded, the title is "Unused Project". If you have loaded a project, you can find further informations about it in the screens title bar (when the Project Window is activated). (CPF stands for Color per Frame, CPA for Color per Animation). The Project Windows are mainly controlled by the ->"Project Control Panel" Window. The first Gadget is the "Project Mode Gadget" Depending on your projects mode, it will be labeled "Source Project", "Destination Project" or "DeActivated Project". -The Source Project You can only have one source project. This is the project on which all actions from the -> "Project Control Panel" will be executed. The gadgets of the Project Control Panel and the Project View Settings will be setup, according to the source project. -The Destination Project This is the project into which all selected data from the source project will be appended through the "Append" gadget of the Project View Settings Window. There can only be one Destination Project. -The DeActivated Projects These projects are waiting to be switched into the source or destination mode. There can be more than one DeActivated Project. You can change the project mode by clicking on the Project Mode Gadget, for example if you click on the source projects "Project Mode Gadget", it will changed into the destination project and the former destination project will changed into the source project. If you click on a DeActivated Projects "Project Mode Gadget", it will change into the source project. If only one Project Window is open, you cannot change the "Project Mode Gadget". NOTE that everytime you switch on the source project, the gadgets in the "Project Control Panel" and the "Project View Settings" Window will be adjusted to the settings of the new source project. "Caching" This is a simple toggle gadget. If it is checked, it means that your Project is cached or is going to be cached in Ram. If you have not enough Ram, you will have to disable it. That means that for example animations will be directly played from your harddisk, which will be much slower than playing them directly from Ram. Note that you can only toggle the status of the "Caching" gadget when the project window is unused. As soon as you load a project, it will become 'ghosted'. "Select Load Module" When clicking on this Button Gadget, a requester will appear in which you can select the loader module. The cycling gadget in the requester will let you switch between "Picture Loaders" or "Animation Loaders". When hitting the "Load" Gadget in the "Project Control Panel" Window, MainActor executes the animation/picture loader you have selected for the source project. For further informations look at the "Load" gadget of the "Project Control Panel". The name of the current loader module becomes visible in an text gadget directly under the "Select Load Module" gadget. Next to the name is a small recessed box with an "A" or "P" in it. They stand for "A"nimation or "P"icture loader. Note that the "Select Load Module" gadget will be ghosted as soon as you load a project. "Select Save Module" When clicking on this Button Gadget, a requester will appear in which you can select the saver module. The cycling gadget in the requester will let you switch between "Picture Savers" or "Animation Savers". When hitting the "Save" gadget in the "Project Control Panel" Window, MainActor executes the animation/picture saver you have selected for the source project. For further information look at the "Save" gadget of the "Project Control Panel". The name of the current saver module you see in an text gadget directly under the "Select Save Module" gadget. Next to the name is a small recessed box with an "A" or "P" in it. They stand for "A"nimation or "P"icture saver. Note that the "Select Save Module" gadget will only be accessable when a project is loaded. "The Scrolling Frames/Picture List" The scroll list will let you choose the frames or pictures you want to execute a certain operation on. If you have an animation loader for this project window, the scroll list will show you the numbered Frames of the Animation with their timecodes. If you have a picture Loader, the scroll list will show you the names of the pictures you have loaded without their Path. Just (de)select the frame/picture by clicking on its text. The scroll list will automatically scroll up/down if you select an item at the border. At the ->"Main Actor Preferences" Window you can select, how many items shall be displayed in the scroll list. You can also select a special Font for it. (The default is Topaz 8 for the font and 8 for the number of items who shall be visible). 3.2 The Project Control Panel Window ------------------------------------ This window executes its functions on the actual Source Project Window. "Load" If you have an animation loader selected for the source project, an qequester will appear in which you have to select an animation of the appropiate type. If you have an picture loader selected, the first requester will ask you about the first Picture, after selecting this picture the second qequester will ask you about the last picture. MainActor will now alphabetically sort the pictures and load them. For example, if you have a picture list: Amiga_Pic.00001 Amiga_Pic.00002 . . Amiga_Pic.00155 and select Amiga_Pic.00055 in the first requester and Amiga_Pic.00100 in the next, all pictures from Amiga_Pic.00055 to Amiga_Pic.00100 will be loaded. The second requester is optional, that means you can abort it by clicking on "Cancel" if you just want to load one picture. The "Load" gadget is only available if you have not loaded a project into the source project yet. "Unload" Is the gadget directly under the "Load" gadget. It will unload the current project of the source project. It is only available when you have loaded a project in the source project. "Play" Is next to the "Load" gadget. It is only available when you have loaded an animation project in the source project. If you play your animation on a screen, there are two routines available. MainActor checks automatically if you run an OS Version lower than OS 3.0 and will play it the old fashioned way. If you have OS 3.0 or higher you will profit from the new double buffering routines. The following keys can be used to control the playing of the animation: ESCAPE OR A MOUSEBUTTON will abort playing the animation SPACE will stop playing the animation. While the animation is stopped you can use the TAB key to flip to the next frame. RETURN will enable the timecodes you see in the scroll list of the source project and which you can change (These timecodes are default). The cursor keys scroll the display, the offset changes will be shown in the "Project View Settings Window". The function keys are used to set the frame rate (and override the defaults, you can reactivate them by pressing RETURN). Funtion Key Framerate F1 1 /60 Second F2 2 /60 Second F3 3 /60 Second F4 4 /60 Second F5 5 /60 Second F6 10 /60 Second F7 20 /60 Second F8 40 /60 Second F9 60 /60 Second F10 120/60 Second If you have activated the "Frame Info" option in the ->"View Settings Control Window", you can cycle the color of the info text using the buttons "N" and "M" up and down. Note that the animation will be played according to the settings of the ->"Project View Settings" Window. "Show" Is the gadget under "Play". It will display all the frames/pictures you have selected in the source projects scroll list. This gadget is available for both animation and picture projects. The following keys can be used to control the showing of the pictures: ESCAPE OR A MOUSEBUTTON will abort showing the pictures. SPACE will show the next pictures you have selected The cursor keys scroll the display, the offset changes will be shown in the "Project View Settings" Window. Note that the frames/pictures will be shown according to the settings of the ->"Project View Settings" Window. "Save" WILL NOT BE USEABLE WITHOUT THE KEYFILE Is the gadget next to "Play". If you have an animation saver activated in your source project, it will ask you about the name of the new animation. Then it will build up the new animation in the appropriate animation Format. It will only save the frames you have SELECTED in the source projects scroll list. If you just want to convert or resave the animation, you have to select all the frames in the scroll list. If you have a picture saver activated in your source project, a requester will appear in which you have to select the directory and the base name of the Pictures. Example, you have activated an animation loader and a picture saver and loaded an animation. The animation is called "Example_Anim". Now you select the first ten frames of the animation and click on the "Save" gadget. In the requester you type "Ram:" for the Directory and "Example_Pics" for the Base Name. The ten pictures will then be saved as Ram:Example_Pics.00001 Ram:Example_Pics.00002 . . Ram:Example_Pics.00010 This is also valid if you have a picture loader and a picture saver. If you have a picture loader and an animation saver, some more gadgets will appear and ask you for some specific attributes of the new animation: "Palette per Picture" and "Looping Animation". If you have an animation loader and saver the saver module will only ask, if you want to have a looping animation, the color per frame setting will be set according to the source animation. (You could change this by executing the "Save" function through an arexx script). The following combinations are possible: Animation Loader and Animation Saver Animation Loader and Picture Saver Picture Loader and Animation Saver Picture Loader and Picture Saver In this way, you can easily convert any picture/animation format into any picture/animation format. "Append" WILL NOT BE USEABLE WITHOUT THE KEYFILE You can append the frames/pictures you have selected in the source project to the destination project. The destination project has to be an animation project. NOTE, the source projects animation saver has to belong to the destinations loader module. (For Example the IFF-Anim5 loader and saver). The destination project must NOT be cached. Some Animation Types have to fulfill some other attributes, for example the Anim5 format can only append to non-looping animations. When you want to append frames to a loop Anim5 animation, just resave it and select NO in the loop animation requester, then append the frames. If you want to add a loop to a non-looping animation, just append two pictures which are identical to the first two, then reload the animation. Look at the Modules.DOC information about the specific attributes of the modules. 3.3 The Project View Settings Window ------------------------------------ With the "View Settings Window" you can setup the "Show Pictures" / "Play Animation" output; it can be set for every project, its content will be saved when saving the preferences. "Frame Info" This switch (when activated) will give you informations about the current frame while playing animations. If playing on a screen you will see the info on the top right edge of the screen. When you see no info text, use the "M" and "N" keys while playing to cycle the color of the info text up and down When playing in a window, the windows title text will display the infos for the current frame when "Frame Info" is enabled. "Display Mode" This cycle gadget will let you choose between the screen and window mode. In the screen Mode the animation/pictures will be shown on a screen (view) of its own. In the window mode the animation/pictures will be shown in a resizeable, scrollable window on your MainActor screen. THIS OPTION IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON SYSTEMS RUNNING OS3.0+. Note, the more colors the MainActor screen can display (->"System Preferences Window"), the better is the dithering of your frame/picture. If you show a 256 color picture on a 4 Color screen, you will be disappointed by the result. The timecodes of the animation will be ignored, the animation will be displayed as fast as possible. "Select Display" You can choose the resolution/view mode of your animation/picture with this gadget (makes only sense in the screen mode). Note, this will override the old value, if you resave the animation/ pictures, the new value will be saved. "X/Y Offsets" With these two integer gadgets, you can select the offsets for showing animations/pictures (again, this makes only sense in the screen mode). If you scroll a frame (while playing an animation or showing a picture), the values of the gadgets will immediately be set up to the new values. "Number of Repeats" This integer gadget controls how often MainActor will play an animation. If it contains for example a "1", MainActor will play it one time. Possible values are 1 to 9999. "Flash" If the flash gadget is enabled, MainActor will flash the display while playing animations when the animation format is not fast enough to decompress the current picture within the current timeframe. This means that you can profile your animations using this gadget along with the "Frame Info" option. The flash is done by shortly changing color 0 of your animation to red. Consider: -Nearly no bigger animation can decompress every picture in 1/60 of a second, dont worry if your animations flashes much (press F1 to get max. speed). If the animations flashes VERY much at 2/60 (press F2) or 3/60 (F3), you should try another (faster) animation format. -Flashing slowes the animation down in itself, if you have a lot of flashing it will play much slower. -The "Frame Info" option also slowes animations down, you get less flashing if you turn it off. -Non-Looping animations will often flash while decompressing picture 1 (IFF-Anim5,IFF-Anim7,IFF-Anim8). -You can easily find out the weak spots of your animations (much flashing), try to smooth the deltas at these points if you use delta compression. (IFF-Anim5,IFF-Anim7,IFF-Anim8). 3.4 The System Preferences Window --------------------------------- These window will handle everything concerning the outer appearance of MainActor. "Select Font" Choose your font for MainActor. This font will then be used for all windows, gadgets, menus. Only the list items of the project windows will be displayed in a different font, you can select it in the ->"MainActor Preferences Window". The actual font and its size are displayed beneath the gadget. The "Select Font" gadget is not activated when you clone the workbench screen (->"Screen Size"). "Select Display" ONLY AVAILABLE AT OS 2.1 + Choose your display mode for your MainActor screen. The current display mode is displayed beneath the gadget. This gadget is only activated when a) MainActor has a screen of its own and b) you dont clone the workbench screen (->"Screen Size"). "Use own Screen" If enabled, MainActor uses a screen of its own, if not, MainActor will use the workbench screen. "SHANGHAI Windows" If enabled, MainActor uses the SHANGHAI public screen mode, that means that for example shell windows will automatically pop up on the MainActor screen. This gadget is only activated when you run MainActor on a screen of its own. "Screen Size" You can choose MainActors screen size and its overscan mode with this cycle gadget. The screen size of the current mode is displayed in the two integer gadgets to the right of the "Screen Size" gadget. The screen size depends on the screen mode you selected with the "Select Display" gadget. "WorkBench" Clones the workbench screen properties (screen size, overscan mode, display mode, font). "Custom" Enter MainActors screen size in the two integer gadgets to the right. "Standard" Use the standard screen size, without overscan ( for Example 640 * 512) in Pal: HighRes Interlace). "Text Overscan" The normal overscan mode the workbench uses. "Video Overcan" Tries to open as big a screen as possible. Flickers on normal displays at the right border. "Max Overscan" Slightly smaller than the "Video Overscan" mode, but as useless on normal displays due to its flicker. This gadget is only available when you have enabled the "Use own Screen" gadget. "Palette Size" Select the colors of your palette with this gadget. The value left to the slider gadget shows the current colors available on your MainActor screen. This gadget only makes sense if you display pictures or play animations in the window mode. More colors == better dithering of your frames/ pictures. (the window mode is only available under OS 3.0 +). This gadget is only activated when a) MainActor has a screen of its own and b) you dont clone the workbench screen (->"Screen Size"). "Use System Preferences" If you want to activate the changes you have made to your display, just click on this gadget. 3.5 The MainActor Preferences Window ------------------------------------ This window lets you choose/enter some special MainActor attributes. "Select Default Load Module" Lets you choose the default load module. Everytime you open a new project window, the default load module will be the one choosen for this new projects load module. "Select Default Save Module" Lets you choose the default save module. Everytime you open a new project window, the default save module will be the one choosen for this new projects save module. "Select List Item Font" Choose the font for your list items in your project windows, this font must have a fixed with, the current font and its size are displayed to the right of the gadget, (the default is topaz.font 8). "Number of List Items" You can enter how many list items will be displayed in the project windows with this integer gadget. "Save Icon" If you enable this gadet, MainActor will save an workbench-icon for every animation/picture you create. You can then view them by double clicking on their icons. The icons support the same tooltypes as MainView (look at the MainView doc). The initial settings of the tooltypes clone the settings of the source project (from which you create the new animation/picture). "Use MainActor Preferences" When activated will enable the changes made to the MainActor preferences. 3.6 The Text Buffer Window -------------------------- This window shows and buffers messages for feedback of the user. You can use the cursor up/down keys to scroll the text one line up/down. Control+cursor up/down will move to the start/end of the buffer. You can also use the scrollbar to scroll through the buffer. Look at the "Text Buffer Menu" for more functions concerning the text buffer.