********************************* 20/12/91 * * * S C E N E P L A Y E R V1.0 * * * ********************************* Sceneplayer V1.0 is written by G. Vergauwe (alias Flipper from STORMS) General information ------------------- Sceneplayer is Public Domain and may be freely spread(on condition that this text is always included and only a nominal fee is asked for it). ScenePlayer is conceived as a utility to allow users of the 'Take 2'- package to distribute their animations without violating any software copyrights. It can be used without the 'Take 2' software by creating the scriptfiles, normally output by the program, manualy in any ASCII texteditor. It is obvious that this method is more errorprone and has to be tested by trial and error, rather than in an interactive way which is one of the strong points of the 'Take 2' software... About TAKE 2 ------------- Take-2 is an animation program that runs on all Amiga models. Its main purpose is to create animations from several elements, made within the program or imported from another, in a very flexible way. The concept is modeled after the procedure followed in a traditional animationstudio, and it can therefore be used to simulate such work- method. You could say it is an animationstudio at home. You can digitize your drawnings from within the program (rostrumcamera), create and edit the timing (exposuresheet), use multiple layers (cells) synchronize sound (editingtable) and view your animation (projection) in real time. Many professional animators and animationstudents contri- buted to the concept, making it the most animator tailored program on any personal computer. It is programmed by Geert Vergauwe (a professional animator himself), distributed by Rombo, Scotland and costs around £100. For more infor- mation look for the advertisements from Rombo in the Amiga magazines. Preparing a Scene ----------------- What is a Scene ? A Take-2 scene is a collection of all files needed to play an ani- mation. All files need to be in the same directory, in order to be found. The name of this directory is the name of the Scene. A Scene consists of an .xsht-file, all pictures used in it, and an optional .trck-file. Samples may be stored in another directory. The .xsht file: This is an ASCII textfile, containing the name of the pictures to be shown in each level for every frame. The end of a frame is marked by a linefeed character (ENTER or RETURN key). Thus the next frame starts on a new line. Each frame will be displayed 1/25th of a second. You must there- fore repeat imagenames on succesive lines to have them displayed longer on screen. Most often this will be 2 or 3 times. If you use more than one picture on a frame (layer/unionskin), you must separate each picturename by spaces or tabs. The .xsht-extension is required for the file to be recognized. example: pic_1A pic_1B pic_1C > 3 levels of animation pic_1A pic_1B pic_1C > repeat image for 1/25" pic_2A pic_2B pic_2C > next layered image The picturefiles: All pictures used in the .xsht-file must have the same resolution and reside in the scene-directory. If a picture is not found, the previous image in the same level will be displayed to keep the timing and sound synchronisation correct. Only standard IFF-ILBM pictures, as are used by almost all graphics packages for the Amiga, can be loaded. All current Amiga resolutions, including HAM and EHB, are supported. No special extension is required for these files to be recognized. The .trck-file: This is also an ASCI textfile, which can be created and altered in any texteditor or wordprocessor. It consists of keywords followed by parameters. Two keywords are used (SMP,SND) which must be at the start of a new line, but may be proceeded by spaces or tabs. All parameters must be separated by one or more spaces or tabs. The .trck-extension is required for the file to be recognized. The SMP keyword must be followed by the name of a sample on disk, which will be loaded in memory. This sample will be used by the following SND keys, until another SMP key is used. Use absolute disknames (such as Demo:) rather than logical device- names (such as DF0:) to be sure that the samples can be located on any system. example: SMP DemoDisk:Samples/effect The SND keyword must be followed by 6 nummeric parameters, separated by spaces or tabs, in a defined order, as described hereafter. Each SND will use the last loaded sample for data and calculations. the required parameters are: 1. frame: The position in 25ths/second where the sound should start. 2. channel: Which of the four Amiga soundchannels should be used. 3. length: How long in 25ths of a second it must be played, at most. 4. pitch: At witch speed it must be played (depends on the sample). 5. volume: How loud it must be played (64 is maximum volume). 6. repeat: How many times the sound should be repeated (0=until next) example: SMP Stormsdemo:Stormssound/Cat.smp SND 25 1 16 300 32 1 SND 128 2 13 250 64 3 first SND: starting image = 25 channel = 1 number of images = 16 pitch = 300 volume = 32 number of repeat = 1 time second SND: starting image = 128 channel = 2 number of images = 13 pitch = 250 volume = 64 number of repeat = 3 times NOTE: The TAKE 2 software generates .xsht and .trck files automaticaly ! Using the ScenePlayer --------------------- The sceneplayer can be started for the CLI or from the Workbench. Although it will mostly be used to create standalone animation disks, and thus be launched from the startup-sequence (CLI), a Workbench interface has been provided, mainly for aiding the preparation of such an animation disk. From WorkbBench: Simply doubleclick on the ScenePlayer icon to start the program from WorkBench. A window will appear, allowing to type in the name of the Scene in a stringgadget and to set any desired options with the toggle- gadgets. Pressing ENTER in the stringgadget or clicking on PROCEED will load and display the Scene. From CLI/Shell/startup-sequence: Type ScenePlayer followed by the scenename and parameters (optional) to start from CLI or a batchfile. All parameters must be separated by spaces or tabs and are preceded by a '-' character. You may use Run or Runback to launch the program and allow the batchfile to proceed. Options: Once: Play the Scene once and quit (otherwhise it loops until stopped). Turbo: Play the Scene as fast as possible (depends on processor). Dbuff: Use double-buffering to get rit of screentrashing (filty images). Slide: Wait for mouseclick for each frame (LMB=forward/RMB=backward). NoPtr: Hide mousepointer while playing the Scene. Flter: Disable the audiofilter to obtain clearer sound. Use the first letter of the option preceeded with '-' to use options as parameters when using the CLI or a batchfile. example: SYS:ScenePlayer StormsDemo:SmallStorms -d -p -f launch program scenename options An aditional option is available when using ScenePlayer from CLI. The -e parameter will cause the animation to be played forever. It can then only be stopped by resetting or turning of the computer. This fea- ture has been added to allow stores to display demos, without them being stopped by customers pushing keys or mousebuttons. Last important notes -------------------- * Some parameters don't go together, for example -s and -t. * Press any key or mousebutton to exit (only keys while using s-option). * When using sceneplayer V1.0, all pics and sounds are loaded in memory. Keep in mind that pictures are usualy compressed when stored on disk and take up more space when held in memory ! Text written by Ratt and Flipper Our adress: STORMS PB 24 9032 WONDELGEM BELGIUM