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TV SHOW TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. OVERVIEW 1.1 INTRODUCTION.......................................1-1 1.2 ABOUT THIS MANUAL..................................1-1 1.3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS................................1-1 1.4 MORE ABOUT MEMORY..................................1-2 REQUIREMENTS 1.4.1 TV*SHOW PLAYER LIMITATIONS WITH 512K 1.4.2 TV*SHOW EDITOR LIMITATIONS WITH 512K 1.5 MULTITASKING LIMITATIONS...........................1-4 1.5.1 MULTITASKING WITH THE EDITOR 1.5.2 MULTITASKING WITH THE PLAYER 2. GETTING STARTED 2.1 USING TV*SHOW WITH READING THE INSTRUCTIONS........2-1 2.2 BOOT YOUR AMIGA WITH WORKBENCH.....................2-1 2.3 MAKE A BACKUP COPY.................................2-1 2.4 HARD DISK INSTALLATION.............................2-2 2.5 RUNNING TV*SHOW PROGRAMS FROM WORKBENCH............2-2 2.5.1 RUNNING THE EDITOR 2.5.2 RUNNING THE PLAYER i 2.6 RUNNING TV*SHOW PROGRAMS FROM CLI..................2-4 2.6.1 RUNNING THE PLAYER FROM CLI 2.6.2 RUNNING THE EDITOR FROM CLI 3. TV*SHOW SCRIPTS 3.1 WHAT'S IN A TV*SHOW SCRIPT.........................3-1 3.2 EVENT TYPES........................................3-1 3.2.1 SCREEN EVENTS 3.2.2 OBJECT EVENTS 3.2.3 CYCLE EVENTS 3.2.4 LOOP EVENTS 3.2.5 SPEECH EVENTS 3.2.6 KEY EVENTS 4. USING THE TV*SHOW EDITOR 4.1 RUNNING THE EDITOR.................................4-1 4.2 THE SCRIPT WINDOW..................................4-1 4.2.1 WHAT'S IN THE SCRIPT WINDOW 4.3 PROJECT MENU.......................................4-3 4.3.1 NEW 4.3.2 READ 4.3.3 MERGE 4.3.3.1 MERGE EXAMPLE 4.3.4 SAVE 4.3.5 SAVE AS 4.3.6 DELETE 4.3.7 PRINT 4.3.8 QUIT ii 4.4 ADDING EVENTS TO YOUR SCRIPT THE ADD WINDOW.....................................4-8 4.4.1 ADDING A SCREEN EVENT 4.4.2 ADDING AN OBJECT EVENT 4.4.2.1 POSITIONING THE OBJECT 4.4.3 ADDING SPEECH EVENTS 4.4.4 ADDING CYCLE AND LOOP EVENTS 4.4.5 ADDING KEY EVENTS 4.5 INSERTING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT THE INSERT WINDOW..................................4-11 4.6 EDITING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT THE EDIT WINDOW....................................4-12 4.6.1 WHAT'S IN THE EDIT WINDOW 4.6.2 THE EDIT WINDOW CONTOLS 4.6.2.1 EVENT SELECT ARROWS 4.6.2.2 DWELL SELECT ARROWS 4.6.2.3 DELAY SELECT ARROWS 4.6.2.4 ON TRANSITION ICON 4.6.2.5 OFF TRANSITION ICON 4.6.2.6 TRANSITION SPEED CONTROL 4.6.2.7 CYC ICON 4.6.2.8 MOUSE ICON 4.6.2.9 EYE ICON 4.6.3 EDITING INDIVIDUAL EVENTS 4.6.3.1 SELECTING THE EVENT TO EDIT 4.6.3.2 EDITING SCREEN EVENTS 4.6.3.3 EDITING OBJECT EVENTS 4.6.3.4 EDITING SPEECH EVENTS 4.6.3.5 EDITING CYCLE EVENTS 4.6.3.6 EDITING LOOP EVENTS 4.6.3.7 EDITING KEY EVENTS iii 4.7 DELETING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT THE DELETE WINDOW..................................4-22 4.7.1 WHAT'S IN THE DELETE WINDOW 4.7.2 DELETING A SINGLE EVENTS 4.7.2.1 SINGLE EVENT DELETION EXAMPLE 4.7.3 DELETING A RANGE OF EVENTS 4.7.3.1 EVENT RANGE DELETION EXAMPLE 4.7.4 DELETING ALL THE EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT 4.7.4.1 DELETE ALL EVENTS EXAMPLE 4.8 MOVING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT THE MOVE WINDOW....................................4-29 4.8.1 WHAT'S IN THE MOVE WINDOW 4.8.2 MOVING A SINGLE EVENT 4.8.2.1 SINGLE EVENT MOVE EXAMPLE 4.8.3 MOVING A RANGE OF EVENTS 4.8.3.1 EVENT RANGE MOVE EXAMPLE 4.9 PLAYING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT THE PLAY WINDOW....................................4-35 4.9.1 WHAT'S IN THE PLAY WINDOW 4.9.2 PLAYING A SINGLE EVENT 4.9.3 PLAYING A RANGE OF EVENTS 4.9.4 PLAYING ALL THE EVENTS 4.9.5 HOW THE EDITOR DEALS WITH SCRIPT PROBLEMS 4.10 INSERTING KEY MARKERS IN YOUR SCRIPT THE KEY WINDOW.....................................4-39 4.10.1 WHAT'S IN THE KEY WINDOW 4.10.2 VIEWING THE KEY EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT 4.10.3 ASSIGNING KEY EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT 4.10.4 REASSIGNING KEY EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT iv 5. PUTTING YOUR PRESENTATION TOGETHER 5.1 SCREEN RESOLUTION, SIZE AND MODE...................5-1 5.1.1 TV*SHOW TRANSITIONS & SCREEN CHARACTERISTICS 5.1.2 CHOOSING SCREEN RESOLUTION,SIZE AND MODE 5.2 OBJECT IMAGE CONSIDERATIONS.......................5-7 5.3 PRESENTATION CONTROL..............................5-8 5.3.1 TIMED PRESENTATION 5.3.2 MANUAL PRESENTATION 5.3.3 FUNCTION KEY CONTROL 5.3.4 MOUSE CONTROL 5.3.5 QUIT CONTROL 5.3.6 LOOP CONTROL 5.4 SOME SCRIPT EXAMPLES...............................5-9 5.4.1 SELF RUNNING DEMO 5.4.2 CONVENTIONAL SLIDE SHOW 5.4.3 FUNCTION KEY CONTROLLED INFORMATION DISPLAY 5.4.4 VIDEO SWITCHER AND SEG WITH GENLOCK 6. PLAYER 6.1 RUNNING THE PLAYER.................................6-1 6.2 EXTERNAL CONTROL...................................6-1 6.2.1 ESC KEY 6.2.2 MOUSE 6.2.3 FUNCTION KEYS 6.2.4 NON-FUNCTION KEYS v 6.3 HOW THE PLAYER DEALS WITH PROBLEMS.................6-2 7. THE SCRIPTMOVER UTILITY 7.1 RUNNING THE SCRIPTMOVER FROM WORKBENCH.............7-1 7.2 RUNNING THE SCRIPTMOVER FROM CLI...................7-1 7.3 OPERATING THE SCRIPTMOVER..........................7-1 7.4 SCRIPTMOVER ERRORS.................................7-2 APPENDICES APPENDIX A THE FILE REQUESTER APPENDIX B MINI GLOSSARY APPENDIX C LIMITED WARRANTY,COPYRIGHT NOTICE,AND TRADEMARKS vi OVERVIEW 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION Welcome to TV*SHOW! With TV*SHOW and your Amiga, you'll be able to create professional video presentations with ease. Your TV*SHOW disk contains three easy to use programs to assist you: the TV*SHOW Editor, the TV*SHOW Player, and the ScriptMover utility. You create the script for your presentation using the TV*SHOW Editor. The Editor permints you to play any portion of your script during the editing process,but once you've finished with your script,you'll probably want to use the TV*SHOW Player to run your presentation. The Player requires less memory and disk space than the Editor does. If the image files you are using in your presentation are on several different disks, or if you wish to run your presentation entirely from RAM: or hard disk, you'll find the ScriptMover utility a very handy tool indeed. It will automatically move all the files needed by your presentation to the disk or drawer you specify and then rewrite your script to reflect the new location of these files. 1.2 ABOUT THIS MANUAL This manual assumes a certain degree of familiarity with the Amiga's mouse based operating system. You'll find it very helpful to take the time to study your Amiga's Instruction Manual should you have difficulty understanding how to operate the TV*SHOW programs. 1.3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS To run the programs included with TV*SHOW, you will need an Amiga 500, 1000, or 2000 computer. You will 1-1 also need a Workbench disk version 1.2 or greater. Amiga 1000 owners also require Kickstart version 1.2 greater. TV*SHOW requires a minimum of 512k of ram, but you'll need a total of 1 meg if you wish to use the program to its fullest advantage. Additional hard and floppy disk drives are optional. 1.4 MORE ABOUT MEMORY REQUIREMENTS The TV*SHOW Editor and Player programs will run in 512k of ram,but with some limitations. Before discussing what these limitations are,it will be helpful for you to know why they occur. In a 512k machine,all the memory in the machine is known as "Chip Memory". This name is derived from the fact that the Amiga's graphic and sound integrated circuit chips can only look for their data in this 512k area. This means that all the data for a picture you're displaying must be in this memory area,since the Amiga's graphics chip requires it to be there. Pictures with greater resolution and more colors take up more memory than those of lower resolution and fewer colors. Normally there is enough memory to go around,but in an animation program such as TV*SHOW it is necessary to have at least two images in chip memory at all times: the one currently being displayed and the one waiting to be displayed. Two high resolution,sixteen color images,require 256k,or half of the total memory in the machine. The remaining memory is inadequate to hold TV*SHOW and the rest of the system software. Any memory in your machine above the 512k figure is knows as "Fast Memory" because the Amiga's main microprocessor does not have to share this memory with 1-2 the graphic and sound chips. If you have "Fast Memory" installed in your machine,most of the TV*SHOW programs and the Amiga's operating system reside there,leaving most of the 512k "Chip Memory" available for graphics and sound. 1.4.1 TV*SHOW PLAYER LIMITATIONS WITH 512K TV*SHOW Player program uses less memory than the Editor. It is possible that scripts which will not play properly when played from the Editor will play fine with the Player program. Scripts containing high resolution and medium resolution screens, of either normal or overscan dimenstions, are the most likely to exhibit probelms because there will not be enough chip memory for them. Flying large objects on or off even low-resolution screens might also tax the limits of available memory. 1.4.2 TV*SHOW EDITOR LIMITATIONS WITH 512K The TV*SHOW Editor is a larger program than the Player. It's unlikely that you will be able to play scripts from the Editor containing any high resolution images. Flying large objects on or off medium resolution screens may not be possible either. All is not lost,however. You will still be able to creat scrips containing these images and transitions. The resulting script will be playable on a machine with a larger memory size or,if your script's memory demands are not too great,playable in a 512k machine when run from the smaller Player program. 1-3 1.5 MULTITASKING LIMITATIONS Your Amiga is a multitasking computer. Most important is the Editor's memory requirements. Not including the chip memory requirements for the display of your script images, the Editor program requires over 100k of memory. Chip memory requirements vary depending upon the requirements of the images in your script as well as the transitions used. The chip memory needs of the Editor and your images may preclude running other graphics and sound programs while working with the Editor. In addition,when playing your script with the Editor, your images are always displayed in front of any other Intution screens that other programs might be using. Of course, it's doubtful that you would actually be trying to view another program's screen and your slide show at the same time, but be forewarned. 1.5.2 MULTITASKING WITH THE PLAYER While the Player requires much less program memory than the Editor,it still has the same appetite for chip memory. It also displays your images in front of any Intution screens other programs may be using. In order to execute the image transitions smoothly, the 1-4 Player runs at a higher than normal task priority. This could cause problems for other programs with critical timing requirements such as music programs. 1-5 GETTING STARTED 2 2.1 USING TV*SHOW WITHOUT READING THE INSTRUCTIONS If you're like us,you'll want to explore your new program now and read the instructions later. Since TV*SHOW has been designed to be an easy program to use, you shouldn't have much problem doing this. We do recommend, however, that you read through this section of the manual before beginning, since it contains the information you need to get the program running for the first time. In addition, we've included several example scripts on your TV*SHOW disk. Load them into the Editor to view, play and alter them. 2.2 BOOT YOUR AMIGA WITH WORKBENCH Your TV*SHOW disk is NOT a bootable disk. This means that you must insert a Workbench disk, not your TV*SHOW disk, when the "Insert Workbench Disk" screen appears when you turn on your Amiga. If you are using a single disk drive, you may remove the Workbench disk and insert the TV*SHOW disk once the Workbench Screen appears and the red disk drive light has gone out. 2.3 MAKE A BACKUP COPY For your convenience we have not copy protected your TV*SHOW disk. Before using TV*SHOW you should make a backup copy of your TV*SHOW disk and then store your master disk in a safe place. Consult your Amiga Instruction Manual if you're unsure of the disk copy procedure. 2-1 2.4. HARD DISK INSTALLATION No special procedure is required to install and run TV*SHOW from a hard disk. Simply copy the contents of the TV*SHOW disk to the drawer of your choice on your hard disk. The easiest way to do this is from Workbench. Place your backup copy of TV*SHOW in any disk drive. Double click on the TV*SHOW disk icon to open its window on your Workbench. Next open a window for your hard disk, if you haven't already done so. Now, while holding down the Shift key on the keyboard, click the mouse over each icon you wish to move to your hard disk. When you've selected the last icon to move, continue to press the mouse button and Shift key, and drag the icons into your hard disk window. This will cause the files associated with the selected icons to be copied to your hard drive. The copy process is complete when the pointer returns to its normal appearance. Be sure to wait for the red light on your disk drive to go out before removing the TV*SHOW disk. the same things may be accomplished from CLI by entering: copy TV*SHOW: to dh0: all 2.5 RUNNING TV*SHOW PROGRAMS FROM WORKBENCH If the images in your script are of high or medium resolution, or if you have no more than 512k of memory in your Amiga, you can help insure that enough graphic chip memory will be available by running the TV*SHOW Editor and Player from Workbench. This permits the 2-2 Editor and the Player to close down Workbench and claim the graphics memory that Workbench would normally use. In order for the Player or Editor to succeed in obtaining this memory, they must be the only program running on the Workbench. Simply closing all open windows on the Workbench except the one containing the TV*SHOW icon you're going to use will accomplish this. 2.5.1 RUNNING THE EDITOR Double click on the TV*SHOW Editor icon. If you wish to obtain the maximum available graphics memory for your presentation, be sure to close all other open Workbench windows before doing this. Refer to the section in this manual on the Editor for details concerning its operation. 2.5.2. RUNNING THE PLAYER The Player can be run two ways from Workbench. The easiest way is to double click on the script icon you wish to play. This will cause the Player to start up and play the script. The TV*SHOW Player icon must be in the same window as the script you wish to play for this method. If the Player icon and the script are not in the same windows, first shift-click (hold the Shift key down on the keyboard while clicking the left mouse button) on the script icon and then shift-double click the Player icon. To insure the maximum amount of graphics memory for your program, be sure to close all but the window(s) containing the TV*SHOW Player icon and the script icon for the script you're going to play. 2-3 See the Player section of this manual for more detailed information on the player. 2.6 RUNNING TV*SHOW PROGRAMS FROM CLI TV*SHOW's programs may also be run from your Amiga's Command Line Interface (CLI). Doing this has the disadvantage of less graphic chip memory being available for the display of the images in your script which could result in your script not playing properly. For this reason, we recommend that you run the Player and Editor from Workbench, as described above, rather than CLI. 2.6.1 RUNNING THE PLAYER FROM CLI At the CLI prompt type: TVSHOW__PLAY SCRIPTNAME where "scriptname" is the name of the script you wish to show. 2.6.2 RUNNING THE EDITOR FROM CLI At the CLI prompt type: TVSHOW__EDIT The Editor ignores any arguments following the command. 2-4 TV*SHOW SCRIPTS 3 Before we describe the operation of the TV*SHOW Editor, you need to know about the scripts you'll be creating. 3.1 WHAT'S IN A TV*SHOW SCRIPT A TV*SHOW script consists of a series of events. An event is simply something that happens in your presentation. Displaying a screen, displaying an object in that screen, or turning on color cycling are each considered events by TV*SHOW. As you might expect,each event lasts a certain period of time. In TV*SHOW,only one event can occur at a time, so once an event begins,the next event in the script will not happen until that one ends. TV*SHOW's Editor program provides an easy way to build a script by permiting you to create,edit,and view the events in your script. 3.2 EVENT TYPES In a TV*SHOW script there are different types of events. At the time this manual was prepared TV*SHOW event types included: *Screen Events *Object Events *Cycle Events *Loop Events *Speech Events *Key Events The addition of other event types are planned for future versions of TV*SHOW. 3.2.1 SCREEN EVENTS The Screen Event is the most basic of all the TV*SHOW events. A Screen Event causes a new,screen-sized image 3-1 to be displayed,replacing the currently displayed screen,if any. A Screen Event consists of: *A file name *An "ON Transition" *A "DWELL" time *A transition "SPEED" The file name specifies the volume,drawer,and the name of the image file to be loaded as a screen. You must specify an IFF file saved as a picture or a screen for a Screen Event. TV*SHOW is not very fussy about the graphic mode or resolution of the screen images you include in your script. In fact,its quite alright to mix images of different resolutions and screen modes in the same script. For best results,though,we have a few recommendations on this subject in section 5 of this manual. The ON Transition is the special effect used in replacing the old screen with a new one. Examples of ON Transition effects include CUT, ROLL, and WIPE. The DWELL time for a screen event is the length of time to elapse before the next event in the script can take place. The DWELL for a Screen Event can be from 0 to 254 seconds or controlled manually by the user. The transition SPEED determines how fast the transition from the old to the new screen will take place. 3.2.2 OBJECT EVENTS An Object Event causes an object to appear in the currently displayed screen. Since an object must be displayed in a screen, you must have at least one 3-2 Screen Event in your script before an object event can occur. Other Amiga graphic programs refer to objects variously as "Brushes","Overlays",and "Windows". Regardless of the term used,an object is always smaller than a full screen in size and usually is something other than rectangular in shape. An Object Event consists of: A file name *An "ON Transition" *A "DWELL" time *A transition "SPEED" The file name specifies the volume,drawer,and the name of the image file to be loaded as an object. You can use any IFF image for an Object Event. Usually though,this will be an image you saved as a "Brush" or "Overlay" when you created it. When you save an object in this manner one of the colors in the object's palette is designated as "transparent". This means that when the object is reloaded later,the transparent color will not be drawn,letting the background show through in its place. Usually the transparent color is the background color of the screen on which the object was created. The ON Transition is the method by which the object will appear on the screen currently being displayed. Examples of ON Transition effects for objects include CUT, WIPE, and FLY. The DWELL time is the length of time to elapse after the object appears on sceen before its OFF transition,if any,takes place. The DWELL for an Object Event 3-3 can be from 0 to 254 seconds or controlled manually by the user. The OFF transition is optional for Object Events. As you might guess,the OFF transition is the effect used to remove an object from the display screen. The OFF transition may be either the same as or different from the ON Transition effect. You may elect to have the object to stay on screen by specifying in your script that no OFF transition is to take place. If you do select an OFF transition for your object,the DELAY time determines the amount of time to wait before the next event begins. The transition SPEED determines how fast the ON and OFF transitions of the object will be. 3.2.3 CYCLE EVENTS A Cycle Event consists of: *Cycle Command *A "DWELL" time *A second Cycle Command *A "DELAY" time. Cycle Event turns color cycling on or off in the current screen. Information concerning which colors in the palette are animated and their cycling speed is contained in the IFF file of your image and are not specified in any other way in your TV*SHOW script. Each Cycle Event permits two cycle commands with a delay time for each. A typical Cycle Event would be: *Turn color cycling on *Dwell 3 seconds 3-4 *Turn color cycling off *Delay 1 second 3.2.4 LOOP EVENTS You may wish to have your program run continuously,starting again at some point in the script each time the end of the script is reached. The Loop Event marks the place in your script where your program will restart after each completion. A Loop Event consists of: *A Loop Marker For example,if a Loop Event is the first event in your script,your entire program will play continuously from start to finish. but you can also create a continuously running script in which certain events occur only the first time the script is run. You might wish to include a screen at the head of your script providing information about the name and creation date of the script,or perhaps a screen to assist in the adjustment of your video equipment. Since you would not want to have these screens as part of your continuous program,you would insert a Loop Event after the last of these setup screens. Now when your program finishes,it will skip these screens and resume at the first event after the Loop Event. Only the first Loop Event encountered in your script is meaningful to this version of TV*SHOW,that is,TV*SHOW ignores all subsequent Loop Events. However, since future versions of TV*SHOW may attach some significance to multiple loop events in your script,it is best to be sure that your script contains only one Loop Event. 3-5 3.2.5 SPEECH EVENTS You can have your Amiga narrate your program by including Speech Events in your script. A Speech Event consists of: *A text file name *Speech Preferences The file name specifies the volume,drawer,and the name of an ASCII text file you want the computer to recite. You can create this file using Workbench's Notepad or any other text editor. If possible try to avoid including special text formatting characters in your text file as these might confuse your computer narrator. The Speech Preferences you include in your script tell your computer generated voice such things as how fast to speak,whether to use a male or female voice,and the degree of expression to use in the speech. Speech Events have no DWELL or DELAY time associated with them. This means that each Speech Event will last as long as it takes for the computer voice to read the text file you specified. Only when the computer has finished reciting your file will the next event in your script begin. If you wish to have your computer narrator comment on each image in your show, you should create an individual text file and Speech Event for each of them. Should you want to wait for a key click after a Speech Event has ended,you can insert a "do nothing" Cycle Event following the Speech Event for this purpose. Another use for a Speech Event would be to use it as an aid when controlling your scipt manually in video 3-6 production applications. For example,you could have the computer voice give you information about the next event in your script: "Main Title is now displayed. Sales Graph picture is next. Press mouse key to continue". Your computer voice might sound a bit queer when displaying medium or high resolution pictures with more than eight colors. This occurs because the display hardware and audio hardware must share access to the chip memory. The visual display has priority over the audio hardware,so in these situations the display hardware momentarily interupts the audio hardware,somewhat degrading the sound quality. Therefore,if speech quality is important in your presentation,you'll have to take this into consideration when designing your images. 3.2.6 KEY EVENTS Key Events are place markers in your script for the ten function keys (F1-F10) on your keyboard. By inserting Key Events in your script,you can play any portion of your script,immediately,at the touch of one of the function keys. A Key Event consists of: *A pair of Function Key markers. When you add a Key Event to your script,you specify the starting point and ending points for the sequence in your script you wish to associate with a particular Function Key. Then,if you press that Function Key anytime while your script is playing,the normal sequential playing of the script will be suspended,and the player will jump to the portion of the script defined by the Key Event associated with that key. The script 3-7 will then play normally from that point until the second key marker for that Function Key is encountered in the script. At this point,the player will jump to the first LOOP EVENT in your script and resume play from there. This powerful feature has many uses and is discussed in more detail in section 5 of this manual. 3-8 USING THE TV*SHOW EDITOR 4 TV*SHOW's script Editor has been designed to be easy and fast to use. With it you may create new scripts,modify existing ones,and even combine multiple scripts into one. 4.1 RUNNING THE EDITOR Refer to section 2-5 for instructions on how to start the Editor. 4.2 THE SCRIPT WINDOW When the Editor starts,it displays the Script Window. The Script Window contains the name of the script being edited and selection buttons for the various editing functions available. 4-1 4.2.1 WHAT'S IN THE SCRIPT WINDOW FUNCTION COMMENT PLAY Opens the Play Window which permits you to play any portion of the current script. EDIT Opens the Edit Window permitting you to change the parameters of any event in the current script. ADD Opens the Add Window which permits you to add events to a new script or additional events to the end of an existing script. INSERT Opens the Insert Window to permit the insertion of a new event anywhere in the current script. MOVE Opens the Move Window permitting you to reorganize the order of events in your script. DELETE Opens the Delete Window permitting you to remove events from your script. You select the desired function by positioning the mouse pointer over its function button,and clicking once on the left mouse button. Each of these functions will be described in greater detail later,but before you can use any of them,you have to have a script to edit,which brings us to our next topic. 4-2 4.3 PROJECT MENU The Project Menu contains commands dealing with the script you wish to create or edit. The Project Menu can be accessed from the Script Window by pressing the right mouse button,also known as the Menu button. Here's a description of each of the Project Menu commands and its function. 4.3.1 NEW - NAME A NEW SCRIPT Select this command when you want to create and edit a new script. Choosing this commnad brings up the File Requester. Normally you would select the drive and drawer for your new script from this requester,and then type in the name you have selected for your script. The NEW command neither creates a new file on the selected disk nor reads it into the Editor if it exists,rather it simply defines a working name for the script you will be creating. The Editor will use the name you specify with the NEW command to save your script when you select the SAVE command from the Project Menu. CAUTION: If the file you name with the NEW command already exists in the disk drawer,the Editor will overwrite this file with the new script you have created when you select SAVE from the Project Menu. Select OK from the File Requester to use the name you have entered. Select CANCEL to leave things as they were before you selected NEW. 4-3 4.3.2 READ - LOAD AN EXISTING SCRIPT INTO THE EDITOR Select this command to edit an existing script. Choosing this command brings up the File Requester. Choose the volume,drawer,and file name of the script you wish to work on. Select OK from the file requester to load the file you have selected into the Editor. Select CANCEL to leave things as they were before you selected READ. 4.3.3 MERGE - COMBINE AN EXISTING SCRIPT WITH THE CURRENT ONE Select this command to combine existing scripts with the one you are currently editing. Choosing this command first brings up the File Requester. Choose the volume,drawer,and file name of the script you wish to merge with the one currently in the Editor. Select OK from the File Requester to continue. Select CANCEL to abort the merge. If you select OK from the File Requester,the Insert Window will appear. Using the Event Select Arrows,choose the event in your current script after which you will insert the new script. Select INSERT to combine the two scripts. Select CANCEL to abort the merge. 4-4 4.3.3.1 MERGE EXAMPLE Let's suppose you're editing a hypothetical script named "Animals" and this script consists of three screen events. The Animal Script(in simplified form): Event 1 - Show Title Screen Event 2 - Show Dog Screen Event 3 - Show End Screen Suppose further that you have alread created and saved another script named "Cats" consisting of four events. The Cats Script: Event 1 - Show Lion Screen Event 2 - Show Tiger Screen Event 3 - Show Panther Screen Event 4 - Show House Cat Screen Now you want to include all the events in the Cats script in your Animals script. You could,of course,simply duplicate all the events in your Cats script by adding or inserting them one at a time,but it's much faster to use the Merge command for this. For this example,let's assume you wish to insert the cat pictures after the Dog Screen and before the End Screen in your Animals script. With the Script Window on screen,select the MERGE command from the Project Menu. Select the Cats script from the File Requester and 4-5 click on OK. This will cause the Insert Window to appear. Since you want the cat pictures to follow the Dog Screen in your Animals script,use the Event Select Arrows to get event 2,Show Dog Screen,in the Insert After Event box. Then click on the Insert button. The editor will then insert the entire Cats script following the Dog Screen. The events in your Animal script will now be as follows. The Animal Script after Merge with Cats script: Event 1 - Show Title Screen Event 2 - Show Dog Screen Event 3 - Show Lion Screen Event 4 - Show Tiger Screen Event 5 - Show Panther Screen Event 6 - Show House Cat Screen Event 7 - Show End Screen Note that the Merge command only alters the Animal Script in the editor. It leaves the original Cats script on the disk intact. 4.3.4 SAVE - WRITE THE CURRENT SCRIPT TO DISK Select this command when you wish to save the current script to disk using the script file name that appears in the Script Window. If a file by that name does not exist,the SAVE command will create one and then write the script file to it. If a file by that name does exist,the SAVE command will overwrite it with your script. Note that the SAVE command uses the file name appearing in the Script Window, and does not give you the opportunity to change it or cancel before it writes the file to disk. 4-6 4.3.5 SAVE AS - WRITE THE CURRENT SCRIPT TO DISK WITH A NEW NAME Select this command when you wish to save the current script to disk with a different name from the one appearing in the script window. Choosing this command brings up the File Requester. Choose the volume,drawer,and a file name to save the script to. Select OK from the File Requester to save the script. Select CANCEL not to save it. If you enter a new name for your script with the SAVE AS command,this new name will replace the original one in the name box of the script window. 4.3.6 DELETE - ERASE ANY DISK FILE Select this command when you wish to remove a file from one of your disks. Choosing the command brings up the File Requester. Choose the name of the file you wish to delete. Select OK to erase it. Select CANCEL to abort the deletion. Don't confuse this Project Menu DELETE, which deletes any disk file,with the Script Window DELETE,which deletes events from the script being edited. 4.3.7 PRINT - OUTPUT THE CURRENT SCRIPT TO YOUR PRINTER Select this command when you want a printed copy of the files and events in your script. The contents of the script you are currently working on is output to your printer. 4-7 4.3.8 QUIT - END THE EDITING SESSION Select this command after you've completed editing and have saved your script. 4.4 ADDING EVENTS TO YOUR SCRIPT - THE ADD WINDOW You add events to your script through the Editor's Add Window. To add an event or events to your script,click on the ADD button in the Script Window to open the Add Window. Once you've opened the Add Window,the Editor will permit you to add as many events as you wish,ultimately bringing you back to the Add Window after the addition of each event to your script. The Add Event process always adds the new event to the end of your script. When you've finished adding events,or need to perform one of the other functions available in the Script Window,select DONE in the Add Window. The Add Window contains icons corresponding to the various TV*SHOW events. See section 3 for a description of TV*SHOW events. 4.4.2 Adding an Object Event It's important to recall that you cannot add an object event to your script unless there is at least one Screen Event already in your script. Other than that,the procedure for adding an Object Event to your script is similar to the one used to add a Screen Event. Click on the Object Event icon in the Add Window,select the name of the object image from the File Requester,and select OK to add the event or CANCEL not to. 4.4.2.1 POSITIONING THE OBJECT If you elect to add the Object Event to your script by selecting OK in the File Requester,you will be required to position the object on the screen. The position you choose is where the object will come to rest after its On Transition. As soon as you click the OK button in the File Requester,the Editor will attempt to load the screen previously named in your script that the object will appear in. Then it will load the object itself. If the object was cut from TV*TEXT(version 1.11 or higher) the object will be positioned on the screen exactly where it was when it was saved. Otherwise it will be positioned in the upper left corner of your screen. You may change the screen position of the object by moving your mouse while 4-9 holding down the left mouse button. When the object is positioned where you want it,release the mouse button,and position the mouse pointer over the window close gadget in the left corner of the screen. Clicking the mouse here records the current position of the object on the screen,and slides the window down to reveal the Edit Window. Here you can set such things as the On and Off Transition,and the Delay and Dwell time. Selecting the DONE button in the Edit Window returns you to the Add Window for further additions to your script. 4.4.3 ADDING SPEECH EVENTS Click on the Speech Event icon in the Add Window to add a Speech Event. From the File Requester,select the ASCII text file you wish the computer to speak. Selecting OK from the requester adds the event to your script and brings you to the Edit Window. Here you may change such things as the speaking rate and voice sex. Selecting CANCEL from the File Requester returns you to the Add Window without adding the event. Selecting DONE in the Edit window after the Speech event has been added brings you back to the Add Window for further additions. 4.4.4 ADDING CYCLE AND LOOP EVENTS The procedure for adding Cycle and Loop Events to your script is identical to that for the preceding events with the notable exception that these events have no file associated with them. Clicking on their icons in the Add Window causes the event to be added to your script and the Edit Window 4-10 to appear. Here you may set Cycle On/Off and Dwell and Delay times for Cycle Events. Since Loop Events in this version of TV*SHOW are merely place markers in your script,there is nothing to edit for these events. The Edit Window appears after adding a Loop Event simply as an indication that the event was added. 4.4.5 ADDING KEY EVENTS You'll find it more convenient to add these events to your completed script, rather than during the script building process. As with Cycle and Loop Events, there is no filename associated with these events. Clicking on the Key Event icon in the Add Window brings up the Keys Window where you can place or reposition markers for any of the function keys. Key Events are discussed in more detail in section 4-10 of this manual. 4.5 INSERTING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT - THE INSERT WINDOW Another way to get new events into your script is to insert them through the Insert Window. The only difference between adding an event and inserting one is that adding a new event to your script places it at the end of the script. When you insert an event,you can choose to place it anywhere in your script. To insert an event,click the INSERT button in the Script Window. 4-11 This will open the Insert Window on your screen. Using the Event Select Arrows, find the event in your script after which you will insert your new event. Then click on the INSERT button to continue. This will open the Add Window. From here on you have the same choices and options as you do when adding an event. See the section on adding events for further details. 4.6 EDITING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT - THE EDIT WINDOW The Edit Window automatically appears on screen whenever you add or insert an event in your script. You can also bring up the Edit Window by selecting EDIT in the Script Window. As we learned in section 3,each event in your script has certain parameters-- transitions,time delays,etc.-- associated with it. The Edit Window permits you to view and adjust these parameters for each event in your script. 4.6.1 WHAT'S IN THE EDIT WINDOW The Edit Window displays the following information for each event: *The event number which is in the postion of the event in your script. *The file name associated with the event,if any. *An icon indicating the event Type. *An icon indicating the On Transition type. *The Dwell Time for the event. *An icon indicating the Off Transition type. *The Delay Time for the event. *The Speed of the transition. 4-12 *an icon indicating whether color cycling is on or off for that event. 4.6.2 THE EDIT WINDOW CONTROLS Here is a description of the controls you will find in the Edit Window. For some event types,you will use all of these controls. For others you will use some or none of them. See section 3 on Event Types for further information. 4.6.2.1 EVENT SELECT ARROWS Use these to select the event in your script you wish to alter or whose parameters you wish to view. Clicking once on the right Event Select Arrow selects the next event in your script,while clicking the left arrow selects the previous event in your script. Holding the mouse Select button down while the pointer is positioned over either of these arrows,will scroll through the events in your script until you release it. 4.6.2.2 DWELL SELECT ARROWS Use these to select the Dwell Time associated with the event displayed. The Dwell Time is the amount of time that the Player will allow to elapse after the event's On Transition. After this time elapses,the Player will continue either to the event's Off Transition or to the next event in the script. The Dwell Time,in seconds,is displayed in the box above the arrows. You may select time values from 0 to 254 seconds. Clicking the right arrow increases the Dwell Time while clicking the left arrow decreases it. If you click the left arrow one click past 0 4-13 seconds,or the right arrow one click past 254 seconds,the word KEY will appear in the display box. When this is selected,the Player will wait for an external signal,typically a mouse or keyboard click from you,before continuing. 4.6.2.3 DELAY SELECT ARROWS Use these to select the Delay Time associated with the event displayed. The Delay Time is the amount of time that will elapse after the event's Off Transition before continuing to the next event in the script. The Delay time in seconds is displayed in the box above the arrows. You may select time values from 0 to 254 seconds. Clicking the right arrow increases the Delay time while clicking the left arrow decreases it. If you click the left arrow one click past 0 seconds, or the right arrow one click past 254 seconds, the word KEY will appear in the display box. If this is selected,the Player will wait for an external signal,typically a mouse or keyboard click from you,before continuing. 4.6.2.4 ON TRANSITION ICON The information displayed by this ocon and what happens when you click on it depends upon the event type being edited. See section 4-6-3 on Event Editing for more detailed information. 4.6.2.5 OFF TRANSITION ICON The information displayed by this icon and what happens when you click on it depends upon the event type being edited. See section 4-6-3 on Event Editing for more detailed information. 4-14 4.6.2.6 TRANSITION SPEED CONTROL The slider control adjusts the transition speeds for the selected even. A number ranging from 0 to 32 appears in the box above this control indicating its preceise setting. The Transition Speed is how fast one screen changes to the next or how fast an object comes on or goes off screen. For Speech Events,this control determines how fast the computer voice speaks. 4.6.2.7 CYC ICON This icon indicates whether color cycling is enabled or not for the event being edited. If the icon appears as a solid color,color cycling is not enabled. If the icon appears as a rainbow of color,color cycling is enabled for the event. Whether color cycling is active or not,and thus the appearance of this icon,depends upon a previous Cycle Event in the script. Clicking this icon has no effect. 4.6.2.8 MOUSE ICON Clicking this icon when an Object Event is selected,permits you to reposition the object on the screen. The Editor will first load the screen in which the object is displayed and then load the object itself,positioning it as currently specified in your script. Moving your mouse while pressing the left mouse button allows you to move the object to a new screen postion. Clicking on the window close gadget in the left corner of the window's title bar records the current postion of the object and returns you to the Edit Window. 4-15 4.6.2.9 EYE ICON Clicking this icon when a Screen or Object Event is selected,will cause the image associated with that event to be displayed on the screen. If an Object Event is selected,the Editor will first load the screen in which the object appears and then load the object itself. 4.6.3 EDITING INDIVIDUAL EVENTS When you add a new event to your script,the Editor selects values for all the parameters associated with that event. These values are known as defaults. The default values insure that every event in your script has the minimum information required by the Player program to play the event. We will now discuss in greater detail how to alter the default values for your events, using the controls in the Edit Window. 4.6.3.1 SELECTING THE EVENT TO EDIT Use the Event Select Arrows to choose the event you wish to edit. The right arrow moves forward through the events in your script,while the left arrow moves backward through the script events. The number of the event selected appears in the box above these arrows. If the Edit Window opened as the result of an Add Event or Insert Event operation,the event first displayed here will be your new event. The file name for the selected event number is also displayed. 4.6.3.2 EDITING SCREEN EVENTS From section 3.2.1 we know that Screen Events consist of: *A file name *An "ON Transition" 4-16 *A "DWELL" time *A transition "SPEED" The file name associated with a Screen Event is determined at the time you add the event to your script. The Editor does not permit you to change the file name of an event once it is in your script. If you wish to use a different image than the one you originally specified for your Screen Event,you must delete the original event and insert a new one in its place. The default ON Transition for a Screen Event is CUT. To change this,click on the icon above the word ON in the Edit Window. This will cause the Transition Window to appear. Click on the screen transition you wish to use and then click the DONE button. The Edit Windo will reappear with the ON icon displaying your new choice for the ON Transition. The default Dwell Time for a Screen Event is one(1) second. Clicking the right Dwell Arrow increases the Dwell Time while clicking the left Dwell Arrow decreases Dwell Time. A Dwell Time of zero(0) means that the next event in your script will begin immediately after your screen is displayed. Clicking the left Dwell Arrow one click beyond zero displays "KEY" as the time KEY stands for keyboard and means that the next event in your script will not begin until some external signal such as a mouse or keyboard click from you occurs. The default Transition Speed is sixteen(16). Use the slider control to increase or decrease this speed. The higher the speed number displayed,the faster the transition. The actual speed depends to some extent on the resolution of the screen image,so 4-17 experimentation may be necessary to get the precise effect you want. For some transitions,such as CUT,the Transition Speed value has no meaning. The Off Transition and Delay Time values are not used by the Player for Screen Events,so adjusting these values has no effect. 4.6.3.3 EDITING OBJECT EVENTS From section 3.2.2 we know that Object Events consist of: *A file name *An "ON Transition" *A "DWELL" time *An "OFF Transition" *A "DELAY" time *A transition "SPEED" The file name associated with an Object Event is determined at the time you add the event to your script. The Editor does not permit you to change the file name of an event once it is in your script. If you wish to use a different image than the one you originally specified for your Object Event,you must delete the original event and insert a new one in its place. The default ON Transition for an Object Event is CUT. To change this,click the icon above the word ON in the Edit Window. This will cause the Transition Window to appear. Click on the object transition you wish to use and then click the DONE button. The Edit Window will reappear with the ON icon displaying your new choice for the ON Transition. 4-18 The default Dwell Time for an Object Event is one(1) second. Clicking the right Dwell Arrow increases the Dwell Time while clikcing the left Dwell Arrow decreases Dwell Time. A Dwell Time of zero(0) means that the Object Event's Off Transition will begin immediately after your object appears on screen. Clicking the left Dwell Arrow one click beyond zero displays "KEY" as the time KEY stands for keyboard and means that the Off Transition will not begin until some external signal such as a mouse click or keyboard depression is detected. The default OFF Transition for an Object Event is Remain. This means that the object does not leave the screen once it appears. To change this,click on the icon above the word OFF in the Edit Window. This will cause the Transition Window to appear. Click on the transition type you wish to use and then click the DONE button. The Edit Window will reappear with the OFF icon displaying your new choice for the Off Transition. The default Delay Time for an Object Event is zero (0). Clicking the right Delay Arrow increases the Delay Time while clicking the left Delay Arrow decreases Delay Time. A Delay Time of zero(0) means that the next event in your script will begin immediately after your object Off Transition has completed. Clicking the left Delay Arrow one click beyond zero displays "KEY" as the time KEY stands for keyboard and means that the next event in your script will not occur until some external signal such as a mouse click or keyboard depression is detected. The default Transition Speed is zero(0),the slowest speed. Use the slider control to increase this speed. 4-19 The higher the speed number displayed,the faster the transition. The actual aspeed depends to some extent on the resolution and size of the object's image,so some experimentation may be necessary. Also,for some transitions,such as CUT,the Transition Speed value has no effect. Note that the transition speed affects the speed of both the On and Off Transitions. 4.6.3.4 EDITING SPEECH EVENTS A Speech Event consists of: *A file name *Speech Preferences The file name associated with a Speech Event is determined at the time you add the event to your script. The Editor does not permit you to change the file name of an event once it is in your script. If you wish to use a different text file other than the one you originally specified for your Speech Event,you must delete the original event and insert a new event in its place. Remember that a Speech Event has no transitions or time values associated with it,but rather has its own unique set of parameters. The default for Speec Events is an expressive male voice speaking at a normal rate. To select the gender of the speaking voice,click the icon over the word ON in the Edit Window. To select the degree of voice expression,click the icon over the word OFF in the Edit Window. To select the rate of speech,adjust the Speed slider. 4-20 4.6.3.5 EDITING CYCLE EVENTS A Cycle Event consists of: *Cycle Command *A "DWELL" time *A second Cycle Command *A "DELAY" time. When the Cycle icon is displayed as a solid color,color cycling is disabled. When it is displayed with rainbow colors, color cycling is enabled. The ON and OFF icons in the Edit Window have a different meaning for Cycle Events than those of Screen and Object Events. First recall that the color of the Cycle icon appearing underneath the Mouse icon in the Edit Window indicates the status of color cycling prior to this event. If the icon is a solid color,colory cycling was not enabled prior to this event. If it is displayed with rainbow colors,it was enabled. The color of the Cycle icon over the ON is the first cycle command in the event. Solid means turn color cycling off,rainbow means turn color cycling on. Clicking on the ON icon will switch the first cycle command to its opposite state. This first cycle command happens as soon as the event begins. The Cycle event then waits the selected Dwell Time before executing the second cycle command of the event. Adjust the Dwell Time as with the previous event types. After the Dwell time has elapsed the cycle command indicated by the icon over the word OFF is 4-21 executed. Solid color means turn color cycling off,rainbow colors mean turn color cycling on. Clicking the icon switches the cycle command to its opposite state. The Cycle Event ends after the Delay Time has elapsed. 4.6.3.6 EDITING LOOP EVENTS Perhaps we should have titled this paragraph "Not Editing Loop Events" since a Loop Event is simply a place marker in your script. The parameters used with other event types,such as On and Off Transitions,Delay and Dwell Time,etc.,have no function for this event,so there's nothing to edit. If you wish to remove a Loop Event from your script, use the DELETE function in the Script Window. 4.6.3.7 EDITING KEY EVENTS Like Loop Events, Key Events are simply place markers in your script that are used by the player. The settings of the Dwell,Delay,and Speed controls in the Edit Window have no meaning to Key Events. You can view and alter Key Events in the Key Window by clicking on the icon over the ON and OFF positions in the Edit Window. See section 4-10 for more information on Key Events. 4.7 DELETING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT - THE DELETE WINDOW The Editor permits you to remove unwanted events in your script through the Delete Window. In the Delete 4-22 Window,you may delete single events,a block of events,or all the events in your script. To open the Delete Window,click on the DELETE button in the Script Window. Deleting an event does not remove the image or text file from your disk. It simply removes the event from your script. 4-23 4.7.1 WHAT'S IN THE DELETE WINDOW CONTROL FUNCTION SINGLE BUTTON Click on this button when you wish to delete a single event from your script. RANGE BUTTON Click on this button when you wish to select a block of events to delete from your script. ALL BUTTON Click on this button to delete all of the events in your script. START EVENT ARROWS Click on these arrows to select the single event or the first in a block of events that you wish to delete from your script. The event number selected appears in the box above the arrows,and the file name associated with the event appears in green in the file name box below. The Start Event Arrows are disabled if the ALL button is selected. END EVENT ARROWS Click on these arrows to select the last in a block of events to be deleted. The event number selected appears in the box above these arrows,and the file name associated with the event appears in red in the file name box below. The End Event Arrows are enabled only when the RANGE button is selected. 4-24 CONTROL FUNCTION DELETE BUTTON Clicking on this button causes the event or events selected to be deleted from your script. UNDO BUTTON Restores your script to the way it was prior to the last deletion. CANCEL BUTTON Restores your script to the way it was prior to the opening of the Delete Window. In other words,clicking the CANCEL button will undo all the deletions made to your script since the opening of the Delete Window. Closes the Delete Window. DONE BUTTON Click this when you're finished deleting events from your script. Closes the Delete Window. EYE ICON Click this to view the image of the file currently displayed in the file name box. If the image is that of an object,the Editor will first load the screen for that object,and then display the object in that screen. 4-25 4.7.2 DELETING A SINGLE EVENT Open the Delete Window on your screen. Click on the SINGLE button. Use the Start Event Arrows to select the event you wish to delete. You can click on the Eye icon if you wish to double check your selection by viewing the event's image. Click the DELETE button once you've made your selection. If you mistakenly delete the wrong event,click the UNDO button before making any further deletions to restore the event to your script. Clicking CANCEL will also restore this event,and any other evemts deleted since the Delete Window opened. 4.7.2.1 SINGLE EVENT DELETION EXAMPLE Here again is our simplified Animal Script: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 3 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 4 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 5 - Show Panther Screen EVENT 6 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 7 - Show End Screen Let's say we want to delete Event 5,the Panther Screen,from the script. Since we only want to delete one event,we first click the SINGLE button. Then using the Start Event Arrows we select event 5. Now we click the DELETE button to actually remove the event. Here's our Animal Script after the Deletion: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Dog Screen 4-26 EVENT 3 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 4 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 5 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 6 - Show End Screen Note that the Panther screen is no longer part of our script and that the remaining events have been renumbered to reflect their new position in the script. 4.7.3 DELETING A RANGE OF EVENTS Open the Delete Window on your screen. Click on the RANGE button. Use the Start Event Arrows to select the first event in the series of events you wish to delete. Use the End Event Arrows to select the last event in a series of events you wish to delete. You can click on the Eye icon if you wish to double check your selection by viewing an event's image. Click the DELETE button once you've made your selection. This will delete the start event through the end event. If you mistakenly deleted the wrong events,click the UNDO button before making any further deletions to restore the events to your script. Clicking CANCEL will also restore these events,and any other events deleted since the Delete Window opened. 4.7.3.1 EVENT RANGE DELETION EXAMPLE Here's our simplified Animal Script: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 3 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 4 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 5 - Show Panther Screen 4-27 EVENT 6 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 7 - Show End Screen Let's say we want to delete all of the Cat Screens from the script. Since we want to delete a range of events,we first click the RANGE button. Then using the Start Event Arrows we select the first event to delete,event 3,the Lion Screen. Next,using the End Event Arrows,we select the last event in the block of events we wish to delete,event 6,the House Cat Screen. Finally,we click on the DELETE button to actually remove these events from the Script. Here's our Animal Script after the Deletion: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 3 - Show End Screen Note that the Cat screens are no longer part of our script and that the remaining events have been renumbered to reflect their new positions in the script. 4.7.4 DELETING ALL THE EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT Open the Delete Window on your screen. Click on the ALL button. Since you're going to delete all the events in script,there's no need to use the Event Arrows. Clicking the DELETE button will remove all the events from your script. If you mistakenly deleted the events,click the UNDO button to restore the events to your script. Clicking CANCEL will also restore these events,and any other events deleted since the Delete Window opened. 4-28 4.7.4.1 DELETE ALL EVENTS EXAMPLE Here's our simplified Animal Script: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 3 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 4 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 5 - Show Panther Screen EVENT 6 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 7 - Show End Screen Let's say we want to delete all of the events from this script and start over. We click the ALL button and then the DELETE button. Here's our Animal Script after the Deletion: (It's blank) 4.8 MOVING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT - THE MOVE WINDOW The Editor permits you to reorganize the events in your script through the Move Window. In the Move Window,you may move single events or a block of events either forward or backward in your script. To open the Move Window,click on the MOVE button in the Script Window. 4-29 4.8.1 WHAT'S IN THE MOVE WINDOW CONTROL FUNCTION SINGLE BUTTON Click on this button when you wish to move a single event in your script. RANGE BUTTON Click on this button when you wish to select a block of events to move in your script. START EVENT Click on these arrows to select the single ARROWS event or the first in a block of events that you wish to move in your script. The event number selected appears in the box above the arrows,and the file name associated with the event appears in green in the file name box below. END EVENT Click on these arrows to select the last in a ARROWS block of events to be moved. The event number selected appears in the box above these arrows, and the file name associated with the event appears in red in the file name box below. The End Event Arrows are enabled only when the RANGE button is selected. MOVE BUTTON Clicking on this button begins the move process. 4-30 4.8.1 WHAT'S IN THE MOVE WINDOW continued CONTROL FUNCTION UNDO BUTTON Restores your script to the way it was prior to the last move. CANCEL BUTTON Restores your script to the way it was prior to the opening of the Move Window. In other words, clicking the CANCEL button will undo all the moves made in your script since the opening of the Move Window. Closes the Move Window. DONE BUTTON Click this when you're finished moving events in your script. Closes the Move Windows. Eye Icon Click this to view the image of the file currently displayed in the file name box. If the image is that of an object,the Editor will first load the screen for that object,and then display the object in that screen. 4-31 4.8.2 MOVING A SINGLE EVENT Open the Move Window on your screen. Click on the SINGLE button. Use the Start Event Arrows to select the event you wish to move. You can click on the Eye icon if you wish to double check your selection by viewing the event's image. Click the MOVE button once you've made your selection. Now the Insert Window will appear. Using the Event Select Arrows in the Insert Window,select the event after which you will place the event you're moving. Click the INSERT button to move the event there. Click the CANCEL button to abort the move. Clicking either of these returns you to the Move Window. If you mistakenly moved the wrong event,or moved it to the wrong place,click the UNDO button before making any further moves to restore the event to its original position in your script. Clicking CANCEL will also return this,and any other events moved,to the positions they occupied when the Move Window opened. 4.8.2.1 SINGLE EVENT MOVE EXAMPLE Here's our simplified Animal Script: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 3 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 4 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 5 - Show Panther Screen EVENT 6 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 7 - Show End Screen Let's say we want to move Event 2, the Dog Screen from its current position to after the House Cat Screen of Event 6. 4-32 Since we only want to move one event,we first click the SINGLE button. Then using the Start Event Arrows we select event 2, the Dog Screen. Now we click the MOVE button. This brings up the Insert Window so that we can choose the new position for the Dog Screen. Using the Event Select Arrows in the Insert Window,we select event 6,the House Cat Screen. When we click INSERT,the Dog Screen Event will be moved from its script position following the Title Screen to its new position after the House Cat Screen. Here's our Animal Script after the Move: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 3 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 4 - Show Panther Screen EVENT 5 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 6 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 7 - Show End Screen Note that the events in the script have been renumbered to reflect their new position in the script. 4.8.3 MOVING A RANGE OF EVENTS Open the Move Window on your screen. Click on the RANGE button. Use the Start Event Arrows to select the first of the block of events you wish to move. Then use the End Event Arrows to select the last event of the block you're going to move. You can click on the Eye icon if you wish to double check your selections by viewing an event's image. Click the MOVE button once you've made your selections. Now the Insert Window will appear. Using the Event Select Arrows in the Insert Window,select the event 4-33 after which you will place the event block you're moving. Click the INSERT button to move the block of events. Click the CANCEL button to abort the move. Clicking either of these returns you to the Move Window. If you mistakenly moved the wrong events,or moved them to the wrong place,click the UNDO button before making any further moves to restore the events to their original position in your script. Clicking CANCEL will also return these,and any other events moved to the positions they occupied when the Move Window opened. 4.8.3.1 EVENT RANGE MOVE EXAMPLE In the Single Event Move example we moved Event 2,the Dog Screen, to after Event 6,the House Cat Screen. Here we'll accomplish the same thing by moving a block of events beginning with Event 3,the Lion Screen and ending with the House Cat Screen will be moved to after the Title Screen. Here's our Animal Script after the Move: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 3 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 4 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 5 - Show Panther Screen EVENT 6 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 7 - Show End Screen First we click the RANGE button in the Move Window. Using the Start Event Arrows,we select Event 3,the Lion Screen,which is the first event in the block we intend to move. Now using the End Event Arrows,we select the Event 6,the House Cat 4-34 Screen,the last event in the block we're going to move. Next we click the MOVE button bringing up the Insert Window. Using the Event Select Arrows in the Insert Window,we select event 1,the Title Screen. When we click INSERT,the block of events beginning with the Lion Screen and ending with the House Cat Screen will be moved to after the Title Screen. Here's our Animal Script after the Move: EVENT 1 - Show Title Screen EVENT 2 - Show Lion Screen EVENT 3 - Show Tiger Screen EVENT 4 - Show Panther Screen EVENT 5 - Show House Cat Screen EVENT 6 - Show Dog Screen EVENT 7 - Show End Screen Once again the events are renumbered to reflect their new position in the script. Notice that the result of this block move of events is identical to that of the single event move example. 4.9 PLAYING EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT - THE PLAY WINDOW The Editor permits you to play the events in your script through the Play Window. In the Play Window,you may play single events,a block of events,or your entire script. You may open the Play Window by clicking on the PLAY button in the Script Window or the Edit Window. 4-35 4.9.1 WHAT'S IN THE PLAY WINDOW CONTROL FUNCTION SINGLE BUTTON Click on this button when you wish to play a single event in your script. RANGE BUTTON Click on this button when you wish to select of block of events to play in your script. START EVENT Click on these arrows to select the single ARROWS event or the first in a range of events that you wish to play in your script. The event number selected appears in the box above the arrows,and the file name associated with the event appears in green in the file name box below. END EVENT Click on these arrows to select the last in a range of events to be played. The event number selected appears in the box above these arrows, and the file name associated with the event appears in red in the file name box below. The End Event Arrows are enabled only when the RANGE button is selected. 4-36 4.9.1 WHAT'S IN THE PLAY WINDOW continued CONTROL FUNCTION PLAY BUTTON Clicking on this button begins the playing of the selected events. DONE BUTTON Click this when you're finished moving events in your script. Closes the Play Window. Eye Icon Click this to view the image of the file currently displayed in the file name box. If the image is that of an object,the Editor will first load the screen for that object,and then display the object in that screen. 4-37 4.9.2 PLAYING A SINGLE EVENT Open the Play Window on your screen. Click on the SINGLE button. Use the Start Event Arrows to select the event you wish to play. You can click on the Eye icon if you wish to double check your selection by viewing the event's image. Once you've made your selection,click the Play button to play the event. 4.9.3 PLAYING A RANGE OF EVENTS Open the Play Window on your screen. Click on the RANGE button. Use the Start Event Arrows to select the first in the block of events you wish to play. Then use the first in the block of events you wish to play. Then use the End Event Arrows to select the last event of the block you're going to play. You can click on the Eye icon if you wish to double check your selections by viewing an event's image. Click the PLAY button once you've made your selections. The events in your script will play beginning with the Start Event selected through the End Event selected. You can abort the playing at any time by pressing the ESC(escape) key on your keyboard. 4.9.4 PLAYING ALL THE EVENTS Open the Play Window on your screen. Click on the ALL button. Click the PLAY button to start playing the script. You can abort the playing at any time by pressing the ESC(escape)key on your keyboard. 4.9.5 HOW THE EDITOR DEALS WITH PROBLEMS WHEN PLAYING YOUR SCRIPT Since you are usually in the process of creating or altering your script when you're using the TV*SHOW Editor,it will usually let you know when it encounters 4-38 a problem. Like the player though,the Editor will pop an object on or off the screen if it cannot obtain the memory it requires to fly it. If the disk containing the next image in your script is not inserted in a drive,the Editor will ask you to insert it by placing a requestor on the screen. If the image is part of a screen event and you select CANCEL from the requester,the Editor will skip over any object events that take place over that screen and attempt to resume playing at the next screen event it finds in your script. If the image is part of an object event and you select CANCEL from the requester,the Editor will simply skip that event and move on to the next event in your script. If the Editor cannot obtain the memory required to load an image,it will put up a requester asking you whether you wish to continue playing the remainder of the script or not. If the image is a screen and you select CONTINUE,the Editor will skip over any object events occuring in that screen and attempt to resume playing at the next screen event in the script. If the Editor was unable to load an object image and you select CONTINUE,the Editor will simply skip that event and move on to the next event in your script. 4.10 INSERTING KEY MARKERS IN YOUR SCRIPT - THE KEY WINDOW You can create presentations which are controlled by the function keys on your keyboard by inserting key markers in your script. This is done through the Editor's Key Window. You can access the Key Window by clicking on the Key icon which appears in the Add and Edit windows. 4-39 4.10.1 WHAT'S IN THE KEY WINDOW CONTROL FUNCTION F1-F10 Buttons Correspond to the Function Keys on your keyboard. Click one of these to view or assign the range of events to be associated with that key. Start Event Click on these arrows to select the first event Arrows in a range of events that you wish to play when the selected Function Key is pressed. The event number selected appears in the box above the arrows,and the file name associated with the event appears in green in the file name box below. End Event Click on these arrows to select the last in a Arrows range of events to be played as the result of a function key press. The event number selected appears in the box above these arrows,and the file name associated with the event appears in red in the file name box below. ADD Key button Clicking on this button causes key markers for the selected Function Key to be inserted in your script at the places indicated by the Start and End events selected. 4-40 DONE button Click this when you're finished with the Key events in your script. Closes the Key Window. Eye Icon Click this to view the image of the file currently displayed in the file name box. If the image is that of an object,and then display the object in that screen. 4-41 4.10.2 VIEWING THE KEY EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT To view the range of events associated with each Function Key, open the Key Window by clicking on its icon in either the Add or Edit windows. Now in the Key Window,click the button corresponding to the Function Key you wish to view. The start and end events associated with that key will be displayed. A start or end position of zero(0) means that no key markers for that key have been assigned. 4.10.3 ASSIGNING KEY EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT Open the Key Window and click on the button corresponding to the key you wish to assign. Using the Start and End Event Arrows,select the range of events you wish played when the selected Function Key is pressed. Now click on the ADD KEY button to insert the key markers in your script. If markers for this key already exist,they will be moved to the new start and end positions indicated. 4.10.4 REASSIGNING KEY EVENTS IN YOUR SCRIPT You may wish to change the location of the key markers in your script. Select the Function Key button you wish to change, select the Start and End Events desired and click the ADD KEY button. The Editor will find the old markers assigned to this key and move them to the new locations indicated. 4-42 PUTTING YOUR PRESENTATION TOGETHER 5 You'll find that producing a presentation using TV*SHOW's Editor is quick and easy. Here are some helpful points to keep in mind when writing your script. 5.1 SCREEN RESOLUTION, SIZE, AND MODE The graphics system of your Amiga is very flexible. It gives you a great deal of control over the final appearance of your display. In order for you to produce the highest quality presentations,you need to know a little bit about the Amiga's graphic modes and how TV*SHOW deals with them. Let's start by reviewing some terms. The smallest dot you can display on your computer screen is called a pixel. The image on your screen is made up of tens of thousands of these pixels. The relative size of these pixels determines the resolution of your display. The Amiga's NTSC low-resolution display is made up of a grid of 320 horizontal pixels by 200 vertical pixels. The pixels making up the NTSC high resolution display of 640 by 400 pixels are half the size of those in the low resolution screen. So,the smaller the pixel size,the greater the screen resolution. It's important to note that we defined the resolution of an image by the size of its pixels,not the number of its pixels. Here's why. The Amiga's normal display modes have a border of background color around the display area. For most computer applications this is desirable since it insures that the entire image will be visible given the normal variation in viewing areas on various monitors. But for video and presentation graphics applications,we ofter don't want a border around our picutre,so we increase the size of our picture by utilizing this border 5-1 area. This is known as overscan video. By using the border area in our normal high resolution screen of 640 by 400 pixels, we can increase the size of the image to 704 by 480. Note that even though our overscanned image has more pixels than the normal image size,we have not changed the resolution of our image by utilizing this border area,since the size of our pixel remains the same. A screen's DEPTH is the number of bit planes it has which in turn determines the maximum number of colors displayable in that screen. Here's a chart: SCREEN DEPTH MAXIMUM NUMBER OF COLORS 1 2 2 4 3 8 4 16 5 32 6 64(Extra Halfbrite Mode) 6 4096 (Hold and Modify Mode) The greater a screen's depth,the greater the number of displayable colors and the greater amount of memory required. A screen's mode describes special characteristics of the display. Of particular interest is the Amiga's Hold and Modify mode (HAM) which permits up to 4096 colors to be displayed on screen simultaneously. Another screen mode worth mentioning is the "Extra Halfbrite" mode which doubles the number of colors in your palette by repeating the normal palette at half intensity. 5-2 5.1.1 TV*SHOW TRANSITIONS & SCREEN CHARACTERISTICS TV*SHOW allows you to use images of differing resolution,size,depth,and mode within the same script. While you may safely use any of the transitions offered,transitions between certain screen types of differing characteristics may produce unexpected results. Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind when using screen with different characteristics. SCREEN TRANSITION COMMENT CUT Works fine regardless of screen resolution,size or mode. FAD(fade) Works fine regardless of screen resolution or size. All colors might not fade to black in HAM screens however. ROL(roll) Not recommended when switching between normal size and overscan RVL(reveal) sized screens whether they be the same resolution or not. No WIP(wipe) problem when going between screens of differing resolution PSH(push) and/or modes provided both screens are either normal or overscanned. Pattern Not recommended for use between screens of differing resolutions. No problem between normal size and overscan size images. These wipes look best when the two screens share the same palette. 5-3 From this you should gather that it is best,although not mandatory,to try to utilize screens of the same resolution and size in your presentation. Doing this will provide the most flexibility and the best results. 5.1.2 CHOOSING SCREEN RESOLUTION,SIZE AND MODE When creating your images with one of the many fine graphic tools available,you need to choose the screen characteristics best suited to your presentation. Here is a chart to help you make that decision. Sizes are given for normal NTSC screens. Extra-Halfbrite mode is available in low resolution only and has a Max Depth of 6 for 64 colors. SCREEN TYPE COMMENTS Lo-Resolution Provides good color selection. 320 X 200 Loads relatively fast from disk. Uses small amount of Max Depth = 5 disk space. 32 color display requires 40k bytes chip for 32 colors memory. Text appearance is poor. Lo-Resolution Provides same color selection as Lo-Resolution. Average Interlace disk load time. Greater disk space requirements than Medium Res. Max Depth = 5 32 color display requires 80k bytes chip memory. Text for 32 colors appearance is fair. 5-4 5.1.2 CHOOSING SCREEN RESOLUTION,SIZE AND MODE continued SCREEN TYPE COMMENTS Medium Half the color selection of Lo-Resolution. Average disk Resolution load time. Smaller disk space requirements than Lo Res 640 X 200 Interlace. 16 color display requires 64k bytes chip memory. 8 color display requires 48k bytes chip Max Depth = 4 memory. Text appearance is good. for 16 colors High Half the color selection of Lo-Resolution. Slow disk Resolution load time. Greatest disk space requirements. 640 X 400 Max Depth = 4 16 color display requires 128k bytes of chip memory. for 16 colors 8 color display requires 96k bytes of chip memory. Text appearance is excellent. Object size and transitions may be limited by chip memory requirements. Hold & Modify 4096 colors. (HAM) Slow disk load time. 320 X 200 Average disk space requirements. Depth = 6 for Requires 48k bytes chip memory. Unable to use objects 4096 colors in HAM screens. HAM images are typically camera digitized or ray-traced. 5-5 5.1.2 CHOOSING SCREEN RESOLUTION,SIZE AND MODE continued SCREEN TYPE COMMENTS Hold & Modify 4096 colors. (HAM) Slow disk load time. 320 X 400 Greater than average disk space requirements. Depth = 6 for Requires 96k bytes of chip memory. Unable to use 4096 colors objects in HAM screens. HAM images are typically camera digitized or ray-traced. 5-6 Keep in mind that the most chip memory available to you is 512k bytes regardless of how much memory you have installed in your machine,and that the player requires that at least two screens be in chip memory at any given time. For example,to display two high resolution,16 color screens in a row requires at least 256k bytes of chip memory. You can compute the chip memory requirements of any screen or object image with this formula: Width X Height X Depth / 8 = Number of Bytes Required 5.2 OBJECT IMAGE CONSIDERATIONS If you plan to use object images in your presentation,here are some points to remember. Most importantly,the resolution,number of colors,and the colors in the display are determined by the screen the object will ultimately appear in,not the object. Therefore,you should endeavor to create the objects you will be using with the same resolution,palette,and color depth as the screen they will be appearing in. If the object characteristics differ from those of the screen, you'll probably want to resize or recolor it before using it. TV*TEXT and most paint programs provide facilities to perform this sort of alteration. Flying an object on or off screen requires the most chip memory of any transition available in TV*SHOW. Even with extra memory in you machine,chip memory never exceeds 512k bytes,so flying large objects in high resolution screens may not always be possible. 5-7 5.3 PRESENTATION CONTROL There are a number of different ways that the playing of your script can be controlled. In addition,you may find it desirable to use several of them in the same script. Let's look at each method individually,and then we'll examine how you can combine them. 5.3.1 TIMED PRESENTATION You assign a Dwell and Delay time for each event in your script. Specifying a zero(0) for either of these causes the next event to begin as soon as possible. The next event in the script begins when the file for it has loaded and the times associated with the current event have elapsed. 5.3.2 MANUAL PRESENTATION Rather than specifying time values,you select KEY for the Dwell and Delay times for the events in your script. Each event will then wait for either a mouse click,or keyboard stroke before permitting the next event to begin. 5.3.3 FUNCTION KEY CONTROL This permits the Function Keys on your keyboard to play select portions of your script. Pressing a Function Key causes the player to find the corresponding key marker in your script and to continue playing from there. If a marker does not exist for that particular Function Key,the player will ignore it,or,treat it as a keyboard stroke if the current event is waiting for one. 5-8 5.3.4 MOUSE CONTROL The mouse buttons can be used to tell the player to advance to the next event or to replay the previous screen. Clicking the left mouse button signals the player to advance to the next event,while clicking the right mouse button backs the player up to the previous screen. 5.3.5 QUIT CONTROL Pressing the ESC(escape)key on your keyboard while your script is playing will exit the presentation at the conclusion of the current of the current event. If you have a Loop Event in your script,pressing this key is the only way to end the presentation. 5.3.6 LOOP CONTROL The first Loop Event in your script marks the place where play will automatically resume after the end of your script is reached. This version of TV*SHOW ignores all but the first Loop Event encountered. 5.4 SOME SCRIPT EXAMPLES Now let's look at some practical examples of scripts you can create with TV*SHOW. For the sake of brevity,we'll use a simplified form of our scripts to illustrate these examples. Some of these examples are present on your TV*SHOW disk as actual scripts which you may wish to load and alter with the Editor. 5.4.1 SELF RUNNING DEMO A self running demo will play your script over and over without the need of any operator assistance until the 5-9 ESC key on the keyboard is pressed. A simplified self running demo script would look like this: Event 1 Setup Screen This screen will only play the first time through the script. Event 2 Loop Event Events following this one will play over and over until the ESC is pressed. Event 3 Screen Event The first screen in our repeating program. Dwell time should not be set to KEY if demo is to run unattended. Event 4 Next Event Screen,object,cycle or speech events. Don't use KEY for Dwell or Delay time. Event 5 More Events Event N Last Event When this event completes,play resumes at Event 2,the Loop Event. 5.4.2 CONVENTIONAL SLIDE SHOW For business,sales,and educational applications a manually controlled slide show is ofter the best bet. Specify Delay and Dwell times as KEY for those events in your script you wish to control. You can then move on to each event in your script at your convenience by clicking the left mouse button or pressing any key 5-10 on your keyboard. You can back up to the previous screen by pressing the right mouse buttton. Event 1 Screen Event A screen event must come before any object events. Dwell time set to KEY. Event 2 Next Event Screen,object,speech,or cycle event. Event 3 More Events Event N Last Event The show's over after this event. A useful variation is to have certain events in your script execute automatically. For example,with a single key click for you,you might wish to have a new screen displayed,an object fly on,color cycling begin,a speech event begin,color cycling end and wait for the next key click from you. In this case you would specify Dwell and Delay times for those events you wish to occur automatically and specify KEY for the Dwell or Delay time of the last event in that series. 5.4.3 FUNCTION KEY CONTROLLED INFORMATION DISPLAY By using Key Event markers in your script,you can present a menu of options on screen. By pressing a Function Key,the user can see a presentation on the subject selected from the menu. When the presentation for that subject is complete,the menu screen then reappears and waits for another selection. Here is a simplified example with three function keys. 5-11 Event 1 Set Up Screen This screen will only appear once because Function Keys return to the first Loop event in the script. Event 2 Loop Event Marks the place that all function key markers return to. Event 3 Menu Screen Tells user to Press F1 for information on TV*TEXT,Press F2 for info on TV*SHOW,Press F3 for information on both. Set Dwell time for this screen to KEY so it waits for the user to make a selection. Event 4 F1 Key marker If user Presses F1 key we start here. Event 5 F3 Key marker If user Presses F3 key we start here. Event 6 TV*TEXT Screen Now we start the TV*TEXT show. Event 7 More TV*TEXT Event 8 Last TV*TEXT This is the final event in the TV*TEXT portion of the script. Event 9 F1 Key marker If F1 key was pressed,we resume play at the Loop 5-12 Event of Event 2. If F3 were pressed,we continue onward. Event 10 F2 Key We start here when the F2 key is pressed. marker Event 11 TV*SHOW These next events will be seen if either Screen F2 or F3 were pressed, but not if F1 were pressed. Event 12 More TV*SHOW Event 13 More TV*SHOW Event 14 Last TV*SHOW The last event in the TV*SHOW sequence. Event 15 F3 Key marker Causes return to Loop of Event 2 if F3 were pressed. Event 16 F2 Key marker Causes return to Loop of Event 2 if F2 were pressed. This is the last event in the script. There are a couple of important things to note in this example. First,it is permissible for Function Key sequences to overlap one another. The F3 Function Key program encompasses both F1 and F2's show. When the F3 key is pressed in Event 3,the player finds the first F3 mark in the script and continues playing until it encounters the second F3 mark of Event 15. It ignores the markers for other Function Keys it encounters along the way. 5-13 Also note that it is not necessary that the key markers appear in the script in any special order. In our example,the F3 marker appears in the script before the F2 marker. Nor is it necessary to use those particular keys. We could have just as easily used F4,F6,and F10 in our example. 5.4.4 VIDEO SWITCHER AND SEG WITH GENLOCK You can turn your Amiga into a video switcher and special effects generator by using TV*SHOW in conjunction with one of the genlock units available for the Amiga. A genlock unit permits you to overlay the Amiga's computer generated graphics over another video source such as a camera or VCR. When designing your graphics for this type of application,remember that the genlock unit treats color 0,the first color in the palette and usually the background color,as transparent to the external video source. That is,the picture from your camera or VCR will be visible wherever color 0 occurs in your image,and will be obscured by the rest of the colors in the image. If you wish to have the picture from your video source totally visible,create a solid screen of just color 0. If you wish to completely obscure the video source,make sure that color 0 does not appear in your computer graphic image. To permit random access to your script you'll want to use Function Key markers as in the previous example. Here's how a script for a family video might look. Event 1 Setup Screen Adjust your equipment here. Event 2 Loop Event Each Key Event returns here. 5-14 Event 3 Transparent This is just a screenful of color 0 which the genlock Screen treats as transparent allowing your camera signal to show through. Set the Dwell time for this screen to KEY so it waits for you. Event 4 F1 Key Marker Come here when F1 key is pressed. Event 5 Papa Screen Contains text to overlay on your camera video. Event 6 F1 Key Marker Returns to Event 2 if F1 were pressed. Event 7 F2 Key Marker Come here when F2 key is pressed. Event 8 Mama Screen Contains text to overlay on your camera video. Event 9 F2 Key Marker Returns to Event 2 if F2 were pressed. Event 10 F3 Key Marker Come here when F3 key is pressed. Event 11 Baby Screen Contains text to overlay on your video. Event 12 F3 Key Marker Returns to Event 2 if F3 were pressed. 5-15 Event 13 F4 Key Marker Come here when F4 key is pressed. Event 14 Title Screen "Jr's First Birthday" Event 15 F4 Key Marker Return to Event 2 if F4 were pressed. The last event in the script. 5-16 THE PLAYER 6 TV*SHOW's Player Program uses the script created with the Editor to show your presentation. While you can play your program from the Editor itself,the separate Player program uses less memory and takes up less disk space. The Player also deals with problems it might encounter a bit differently than the Editor. 6.1 RUNNING THE PLAYER See section 2.5.2 for instructions on running the Player. 6.2 EXTERNAL CONTROL TV*SHOW offer a number of ways of controlling the playback of your presentation. These were discussed in detail in section 5 of this manual. Let's review them here as they pertain to the Player. 6.2.1 ESC KEY Pressing this key will terminate the presentation at the completion of the current event. Using this key is the only way to end presentations with Loop of Function Key markers in their scripts. 6.2.2 MOUSE Pressing the left mouse button will advance the Player to the next event in the script. This will occur even if the current event's Dwell or Delay time is not set to KEY. In effect,this overides any time delays associated with that event. Pressing the right mouse button will cause the Player to back up to the previous Screen Evenet in the script. This will occur even if the current event's Dwell or Delay time is not set to KEY. In effect,this overides any time delays associated with that event. 6-1 6.2.3 FUNCTION KEYS The result of pressing a Function Key depends upon whether a Key Marker for that key exists in the script being played. If the Key Marker exists,the Player will find the first occurance of that Key Marker in the script and resume playing the script from that point. The Player will jump to the first Loop Event in the script,or the beginning of the script if no Leep Event exists,when it encounters the second Key Marker for the pressed Function Key. If the Key Marker for the pressed Function Key does not exist,the Player treats it in the same manner as it does Non-Function Keys. 6.2.4 NON-FUNCTION KEYS The Player interprets any other keyboard entries as follows. If the Player is waiting for a key stroke as the result of a Dwell or Delay time being set to KEY,the player will resume playing the script. If the Player was not waiting for a key stroke when the key was pressed,it simply ignore it. 6.3 HOW THE PLAYER DEALS WITH PROBLEMS The phrase,"The show must go on",is a show business tradition. TV*SHOW's Player tries to honor this tradition. Like an actor who momentarily forgets his lines, the Player will try to recover,without letting the audience 6-2 know,should it encounter an error while attempting to play your script. If the Player is unable to load a screen due to insufficient memory,or some other problem,such as the image not being found on the disk specified in the script,it will ignore any object events that were to have occurred in that screen and attempt to load the next screen it finds in the script. It will continue doing this until it finds a screen it can load,if any,and continue from there. Flying an object on or off screen requires the most memory of any of the transitions possible with TV*SHOW. If the Player is unable to obtain sufficient memory to do this,it will simply pop up the object on or off screen instead. Better to get an actor on stage,even if it is through the wrong door. And if the object cannot be loaded at all for some reason,the Player will simply pass it by and continue with the next event in the script. Since the Player will not prompt you to insert disks,you must be sure that all the disks containing the files required for your script are in your disk drives when you raise the curtain by starting the Player. If your script requires more disks than you have disk drives,the Script-Mover utility is likely to be able to remedy this problem. 6-3 THE SCRIPTMOVE UTILITY 7 If the image files you are using in your presentation are on several different disks,or if you wish to run your presentation entirely from RAM:or hard disk, you'll find the ScriptMover utility a very handy tool indeed. It will automatically move all the files needed by your presentation to the disk or drawer you specify and then rewrite your script to reflect the new locations of these files. 7.1 RUNNING THE SCRIPTMOVER FROM WORKBENCH Double click on the ScriptMover icon. 7.2 RUNNING THE SCRIPTMOVER FROM CLI At the CLI prompt type: ScriptMover 7.3 OPERATING THE SCRIPTMOVER The operation of the ScriptMover is the same whether it was launched from Workbench or CLI. It's as simple as 1-2-3. 1. Choose the Script Name When the ScriptMover is started,it opens a "Read Script" File Requester on your screen. Enter the drawer and file name of the script you wish to move in this requester. Click on the OK gadget to continue, CANCEL to abort the program. 2. Choose the Destination Volume and Directory Next,you must specify the Volume and Directory,ie. Drawer,you wish your images and script moved to. Enter this information in the "Choose the Directory To Move To" File Requester. It is unnecessary to enter a file name 7-1 in this requester. If you do,the ScriptMover will simply ignore it. Click OK to continue. 3. Relax While the ScriptMover does its job The ScriptMover will now read your script and copy all the files named in it to the Drawer you specified in step 2. The program will ask you to insert any disk volumes it might require. When all the files are copied,the ScriptMover will then rewrite your script using the new locations of the files for its file names. Then it will write the revised script to the same Drawer it copied your files to. 7.4 SCRIPTMOVER ERRORS A number of error conditions are possible when using the ScriptMover. The two most likely to occur are "Disk Full" and "File Not Found". The ScriptMover will put up a System Requester for these and other possible errors. If the error condition is not corrected,the ScriptMover will stop what it was doing and delete those files it had already moved from the destination directory. 7-2 APPENDICES APPENDIX A THE FILE REQUESTER A.1 DEFINITION OF TERMS When you load or save a file on the Amiga,you must specify its location in terms of its volume and its directory,or drawer,in addition to its name. The volume a file is contained on is simply the disk it is on. Each Amiga disk has a name associated with it. This name is the volume name. It appears under the disk's icon on Workbench. This name is assigned when the disk is initialized or through the Relabel command. The file's drawer is the directory containing the file. On the Amiga,a directory can contain files and other directories. A directory within another directory is known as a sub-directory. This sub-directory can have sub-directories of its own. Here is an example file specification for file "Tiger": MyPictures:Lo-Res/Animals/Cats/Tiger MyPictures:is the olume name of the disk. The volume name is always followed by a colon(:). Lo-Res is a directory,or drawer if you prefer,on this disk named MyPictures. We know Lo-Res is a directory because it is followed by a slash (/) and another name. The slash indicates that Animals is contained in the Lo-Res directory. Animals is a directory,too,because it is followed by a slash. Cats is a directory(why?)in the Animals directory,in the Lo-Res directory,on the MyPictures disk. Are you beginning to get the idea? Finally we come to the Tiger file which is contained in the Cats directory. A-1 The MyPictures:Lo-Res/Animals/Cats part of our file specification is sometimes known as the file path since it describes the route one must take to find the file Tiger. The Animals directory is the "parent" directory of Cats,while Lo-Res is the "parent" directory of Animals. The parent of Lo-Res is the MyPictures:volume itself,which is also called the "root" directory. Fortunately,the File Requester helps simplify all this for you. A.2 USING THE FILE REQUESTER The File Requester lets you select directories and files with the mouse or keyboard. In the center of the requester is a list of files and directories found on the volume and directory in the box labeled "drawer" above them. You use the scroll gadget to the right of this list to view all the files and directories in the defined drawer. Directory names in this list are preceded by "(dir)". Names without the (dir) before them are files. If you click your mouse on one of the (dir) entries,a new list of file and directory names will appear showing the contents of that directory. The name of the directory will also be appended to the text in the "drawer" box. For example,if the text in the drawer box is: MyPictures:Lo-Res/Animals The contents of the Animals directory is displayed in the list below. If you click on (dir) Cats in this list,the text in the drawer box will read: MyPictures:Lo-Res/Aminals/Cats and the contents of the Cats directory will be displayed in the list below. A-2 If you now click you mouse on the PARENT button to the left of this list,the contents of the original directory will be displayed again. For example,if the text in the drawer box was: MyPictures:Lo-Res/Animals/Cats After clicking the PARENT button this text would read: MyPictures:Lo-Res/Animals with the contents of the Animal directory being displayed again. Clicking on one of the drive designation buttons,DF0:,DF1:,DF2:, or DH0: will change the selected drawer to the root of the volume(disk)contained in that drive. You may also click your mouse in the drawer box and enter your own file path directly from your keyboard. If you enter a file path that does not exist on the selected volume,you will get the message "Wrong Disk?" on your screen. Now that you know how to select the drawer for your file,you can probably guess that to select the actual file name is simply a matter of clicking your mouse on the file's name,if it appears in the list,or clicking your mouse in the file box and entering a new file name from the keyboard. When entering names into the file requester from the keyboard,remember to keep the volume and directory name in the drawer box and file names in the file box,or you'll get the "Wrong Disk?" message. When the desired file path appears in the drawer box and the desired file name appears in the file box,you're ready to click on the OK button to Save,Load, or Delete that A-3 file. If you change your mind,you can forget the whole thing by clicking the CANCEL button instead. A-4 APPENDIX B MINI GLOSSARY CHIP MEMORY: Memory accessible by the Amiga's custom graphic and sound chips. Image and sound files must be in this area of memory. Regardless of the amount of memory installed,the total amount of Chip Memory can never exceed 512k bytes. CLI: The AmigaDos "Command Line Interface" is a traditional line oriented DOS user interface which accepts commands entered from the keyboard. COLOR 0: The first color in Amiga palettes. This is usually the background color and is rendered transparent to external video when the Amiga is used with a genlock. It is also frequently the transparent color in objects. CPU: Central Processing Unit. The brains of the computer responsible for the manipulation of program data. DOS: Disk Operating System. The DOS is the system software responsible for handling all file activities,among other duties. DRAWER: Another name for a disk directory,so called due to the image used to represent it on the Workbench. EXTRA HALFBRITE: A screen mode that allows 64 color palettes. The extra colors are derived by repeating the first 32 colors of the palette at half of their original brightness. Available on all A500's and A2000's, and some A1000's. FAST MEMORY: Memory not accessible by the Amiga's custom chips. Since the CPU does not have to share this B-1 memory with these chips,it can run programs and manipulate data loaded here faster under certain conditions. GENLOCK: A hardware device that synchronizes the Amiga's video signal with an external video signal,such as a camera or VCR. Most genlocks available for the Amiga are technically genlock-keyer combinations,permiting the Amiga's video to be superimposed(keyed)over the external video. Color 0 in the Amiga graphic being displayed is rendered transparent to incoming video. HAM: Hold and Modify. An image compression technique which permits the display of the entire 4096 color palette in images. HAM images are typically camera digitized or ray-traced. IFF: Interchange File Format. A standardized file format for graphics,sound, and other data files. Use of such a standard permits files created with one porgram to be used in other programs. Virtually all Amiga graphic programs use IFF for their image storage. K: Short for kilo meaning 1000. 512k bytes means 512,000. KICKSTART: A program disk required by Amiga 1000's containing the operating system. Amiga 500's and 2000's do not require this disk as their operating system is in ROM. MULTITASK: The ability of a computer to run more than one program(task)at a time. Each program thinks it is the only one running when actually they are each sharing the computer's resources. NTSC: The color video broadcast standard used by most of North American and Japan. B-2 OBJECT: A graphic image which will be combined with a larger full screen image. Alternately referred to as a "brush" or "overlay". OVERSCAN: Parts of the display image that extend beyond the normal borders of the Amiga display screen. The image data in the overscan area may not be visible on all monitors,but is desirable for borderless displays in video production and presentation graphics. PAL: The color video broadcast standard used by most of Europe and australia. RAM: Random Access Memory. Memory which can be both read and written to. The contents of RAM memory are lost when power is removed. ROM: Read Only Memory. Memory which can only be read and retains its data even without power. TASK: A program running on a Multitasking computer. TASK PRIORITY: The importance of a task relative to other tasks running with it. Lower priority tasks are temporily suspended when a task with a higher priority requires computer time. VOLUME: Another name for a disk. The Volume Name is the name of the disk. On the Workbench,the Volume Name of each disk appears under its icon. WORKBENCH: The icon based user interface environment on the Amiga. See also CLI. WORKBENCH DISK: The disk supplied with your Amiga of the same name. Contains disk loadable libraries and files used by DOS and other programs. B-3 WORKBENCH SCREEN: The default screen that appears on machine start up. TV*SHOW's Editor and Player programs attempt to close this screen to claim more chip memory if they are launched from Workbench rather than CLI. B-4 TV*SHOW DOECS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SOUTHERN STAR WITH ASSISTANCE FROM RAP.