AmiFlick v2.02 An FLI player for the Amiga ©1993 Garrick Meeker This program is hereby placed in the public domain. You may freely distribute it as long no more than a nominal fee for time and copying costs is charged. This document must be included with the program. I assume no reponsibilities for the behavior of this program. Thanks to Chris Green and Richard Addison for the chunky to planar routine. Have you ever wanted to use your Amiga to handle all those zillions of FLI files for PeeCee's? Well, now there's AmiFlick. It can play FLI's or write them to disk as a bunch of IFF's. It can also handle the newer format of FLI's (sometimes called FLC's). AmiFlick requires at least AmigaDOS 1.2 (I will probably, but not definately continue to support 1.2). AmiFlick also requires iffparse.library to write files. This is part of WB2.0, but will run under 1.2. However, the only legal way to get it is to buy WB2.0 or a program that has licensed it (Deluxe Music is one that I know of). A lot of you 1.2 and 1.3 users won't be able to write files, and this isn't going to change. You should probably consider upgrading, anyway. Enough said. A version optimized for the 68030 is included, but the difference isn't all that noticable. Usage: AmiFlick [-v] [-d] [-f] [-c] [-h] [-g] [-s] [-l] [-b] [-m] [-a5] [-a7s] [-a7l] [-n] file [outfile] -v Verbose file information -d Delay between frames in 1/70s of a second -f Fast mode (requires more memory) -c Color mode (requires AGA) -h HAM mode -g 256 shade grey mode (requires AGA) -s Scan file only -l Load file into memory before playing -b Double buffer playback -m Screen mode to use -a5 'outfile' will be ANIM5 (smallest format) -a7s 'outfile' will be ANIM7 short-word -a7l 'outfile' will be ANIM7 long-word (fastest playback) -n No ANHD in the first frame of ANIM 16 shade grey mode is the default The FLI file may be specified without the '.FLI' or '.FLC' extension. If outfile is specified, a series of 256 color ILBM's are written in the form outfile.nnn or outfile.nnnnn, depending on how many frames are in the file. To write the frames as a bunch of pictures just type: AmiFlick file outfile Where 'file' is the FLI and outfile is the basename for the 256 color IFF pictures. If one of the '-a' options is used, an ANIM file will be created. By default, AmiFlick saves a ANHD chunk for the timing information in the first frame of the ANIM file. This is perfectly legal, but some programs may get confused by this. If this is a problem, use the '-n' option to leave out the ANHD in the first frame. AmiFlick now saves pictures using the display type selected. If no flag is given, the files will be 16 shades of grey. To save in 256 colors, use the '-c' flag (AGA is not required when only saving the files). 'AmiFlick -s file' will just display info about the file, like how many frames there are. For playback, just type 'AmiFlick file'. This will give you a 16 shade grey scale display. During playback, you can use these keys: ESC Exits the animation. Left Arrow Slows down playback. Right Arrow Speeds up playback. Space Bar Pauses playback or steps forward a frame. Return Resumes playback. If the screen is bigger than the display you can autoscroll with the mouse under 2.0 and greater. The other display types available are: '-g' 256 shade grey scale. Requires AGA. '-c' Color. This will display the file without any conversion. Also requires AGA. '-h' HAM mode. In order to speed things up this looks very blocky and has a "rainbow" effect on text. I might improve the algorithm in the future. Some other options: '-v' Verbose information on the file, mainly for debugging. '-f' Use a chunky bitmap in fast RAM. Uses more memory, but can be much faster. '-a5' Create ANIM5 file instead of separate pictures. This is the most common and smallest ANIM format. '-a7s' Create ANIM7 short-word file. Larger files, but faster playback on accelerated machines. Not many programs support this type. ViewTek is one program that can be used to view these ANIM files. '-a7l' Create ANIM7 long-word file. Largest and fastest type. '-b' Double buffer the display. '-l' Load the file into RAM before playing it. '-m' Specifies a mode to use. If 'mode' begins with '0x' or '0X' then it is assumed to be the hexdecimal value of the display ID. Otherwise it is assumed to be the name associated with the mode, e.g. "NTSC:Hires" under 2.0 or "NTSC:High Res" under 3.0. This name must match one of the names in the display database. The mode given should be compatible with the display options, i.e. pick a HAM mode when '-h' is given and don't when it isn't. '-d' Changes the delay between each frame in 1/70's of a second. Files with palette changes may look messed up unless you use either the '-g' or '-c' option. This is because of the conversion that takes place. There isn't really anything I can do about it. Fortunately, these files are extremely rare. Plans for the future: A color option for non-AGA other than HAM. Possibly a better HAM algorithm. Some sort of GUI. At least a file requester and a screen mode requester. Possibly a separate program to write FLI animations from IFF pictures or ANIM's. If you want to see one of these features implemented then let me know! Also, if you want to send me a faster chunky to planar routine, I'll consider using it in the next version. History: v1.05 Initial release v1.10 Fixed double buffering under 3.0 and a few other bugs. Now tries appending '.FLI' and '.FLC' to find the file. Calls BestModeID() under 3.0 to figure out the mode, so super hires and other modes will be used if appropriate. This made the old '-H' flag obsolete as hires HAM will automatically be used. Screen mode can be specified. No screen requester yet, though. v1.12 Fixed bug with uncompressed frames. v2.01 Major improvements. Faster playback, writing in modes other than 256 color, writing ANIM files. When writing files, 256 color mode is no longer created by default. The '-c' flag is needed for this. v2.02 Minor bug fixes. Finally plays uncompressed correctly. Also fixed HAM mode when double buffering in fast mode. I can be reached by e-mail at: gmeeker@soda.berkeley.edu