Turbo Silver Addendum Oct 3, 1988 ===================== =========== As usually happens, we made a few changes and additions to the Turbo Silver program, after the the manuals were already printed. This text file will detail those changes to your Turbo Silver 3.0 program. You may want to print out this text file, and place the changes in you "Turbo Silver" Manual. CELLS and OBJECTS ================= The file formats for both cells and objects are radically different in Turbo 3.0, than the format which was used in version 2.0. Turbo 3.0 will automatically read version 2.0 objects and cells and save them out in the new more efficient 3.0 format. This will allow you to read all of your previously created cells and objects, as well as those objects created by "3-Demon" from Mimetics, "Interchange" from Syndesis, and "Fancy Fonts" from Access. Scripts however, are not compatible between the two versions. Also, objects and cells saved in version 3.0 format cannot be used by version 2.0. OBJECTS and CELLS from "TERRAIN" =============================== Objects and cells created from our "TERRAIN" program are directly loadable in Turbo Silver version 3.0. However, waves and cells containing water, may not render properly in "SOLID MODEL" mode if they are IFF wrapped. If the object renders black or just disappears, then you need to set the Filter values all to "0" on the object. PANIC BUTTONS! ============== As we all can make mistakes, or change our minds, we have now provided 2 means of escape in the "Object Editor" portion of the program. You can exit ANY of the "Super Requesters" bringing you back to the editor surface in the object editor without applying changes, by pressing the "ESCAPE" or key. You can also exit the "Object Editor" portion of the program without updating the current cell file on disk, by selecting the "Escape" option from the "EDIT" menu or by pressing the "Left Amiga <[> key. SHINY AND GLOSSY ================ Version 2.0 of Turbo Silver uses a property called "Shiny". Any objects which contain the "Shiny" attribute will be changed to "Glossy" in Turbo Silver. These attributes are somewhat similar, but they are not exactly alike. Some experimentation with the "filter" values may be necessary to get the effects you desire using the new glossy mode. WIRE FRAME SET ZONE =================== At the request of a number of users, and to make it easier for you to determine the area you want to test trace when using the "SET ZONE" function, we have added a method to allow you to pick the zone from a wire frame view of your scene. To use this function, simply pick the "SET ZONE" menu item from the "VIEW" menu in the "OBJECT EDITOR". You may also use the "Left Amiga" <]> key. A wire frame view of you current scene will be displayed on the screen. You can then use the mouse to pick the desired "zone" in the same manner as the "SET ZONE" function in the "ANIMATION" portion of the program. MOVIE ===== We have added several more command to the MOVIE scripting feature to allow you even more control over your animations. The new commands are: RATE PAUSE HOLD BLACK LOCK FREE RATE - This command allows you to vary the rate of animation playback during an animation. The rates correspond to the FUNCTION keys, and the "+" and "-" keys used in Turbo Silver and the Turbo Silver stand alone PLAYER. Syntax - RATE 12 The rates correspond to the function keys in the following manner: KEY RATE === ==== 0 Rates correspond to the function keys in 6 in multiple units of "6". Selecting 12 numbers which are between units of "6" 18 allows fine tuning of the speed similar 24 to using the "+" and "-" keys from the 30 keyboard. 36 42 48 54 PAUSE - This command allows you to pause on a single frame in an animation for a specified amount of time. The time is computed in both seconds and "jiffies" (1/60th of a second). Syntax - PAUSE 5.47 (This would pause the frame 5 and 47/60ths seconds) HOLD - This command will stop the animation on a single frame and hold there until the is depressed. When using the HOLD command as the last command in the script, be aware that depressing the will loop the animation if "LOOP" has been selected from the play menu, and the animation will end if "ONCE" has been selected from the play menu. BLACK - This command will insert a black frame in the animation. The screen will go to black and then resume the animation. It is advisable that you place a PAUSE command before and after the BLACK command to give a smooth transition to the animation. LOCK - These commands will lock or free the color palette during the FREE creation of an animation. The commands take effect on the animation immediately after the command. This can be especially useful when creating animations of combined pictures from more than 1 previously rendered Turbo Silver File, or importing converted RGBN pictures from other programs. SILVER.CONFIG ============= For those users who would like to have their wire frame animations in a color other than white, we have added an additional entry to the "silver.config" file. The command is called "WIRE". The entries for this new addition are identical to the other color settings in the "silver.config". We have set the "WIRE" command to default to YELLOW, or "ff0", as with the other settings in the "silver.config" file, these setting can be changed to what ever you prefer. Please refer to your Turbo Silver manual, appendix A for a complete explanation of the settings. PLAYER ====== With the release of version 3.0, A new standalone player is also on the disk. This new PLAYER will play any animation created by any previous version of Silver or Turbo Silver. But, the previous version of the PLAYER will not play Turbo Silver 3.0 Animations.