VideoVedi 1.2
Copyright (c) 1987 Quest Software
Author
Diego Perini





























INTRODUCTION
Since the introduction of the Amiga there alaways have been a strong request of software for sequential display of pictures created by the user, practically a slide show emulator.

Until now only few programs coming from the "Pubblic Domain" suffice decently, but especially for the european countries they are not to be consider professional, first for the different resolution between the NTSC and PAL standards, second for the short number of available effects.

The biggest problem seems to be in viewing images wich cover the entire screen (overscan) without the annoing black border arround the picture, this gives a very bad look during video recording on tapes, and do not allow professional video work with the Amiga.

The lastest graphic software let you create picture bigger then the normal screen and let you view them without border, but what if you wish to view these pictures sequentially with some special video effect to make your demos more exciting ?

To obtain overscan images, Deluxe Paint II uses resolutions wich are different from those used by VideoScape 3D and the same is valid for all the  other available packages. There is not a valid standard for the oversacan resolution.

Here come QUEST with a splendid package called "VideoVedi", a software to solve all these problems at once. It lets you view pictures with resolution ranging from 320x200 to 704x576 pixel, it can use HAM images with up to 4096 colors, and use IFF format.

To solve the mentioned problems we have been forced to introduce some rule the user must follow to obtain good visual results. For example if you want to display HAM pictures, it will not be possible to use all the available effects and there is no way to obtain overlapping effects on images with different resolutions or number of colors, but these are not to be considered real limits.

VideoVedi well behaves even with the combined use of a GENLOCK device on every Amiga model (A500, A100, A2000), normally the color register number 0 will be the transparent color, so be sure to remember this while creating your pictures.

If you use a GENLOCK you can cover the entire screen area (thus the entire GENLOCK display) to obtain recordings without borders of different color or borders showing the overlayed video image.

The software is especially suitable for video production, graphic demos, professional video titling, data display in conferences or meetings or in applications like visual education.


AVAILABLE EFFECTS
You can choose between twenty special effects in more then sixty different combinations to show your graphic creations, the list wich follow gives a small description and the effect's names:

Pag. 1   Type                Description
   bang      load and appear immediatly
   fadeb     load with fade out/in black
   fadew     load with fade out/in white
   hpress    compress and decompress horriz. to center
   vpress    compress and decompress vertic. to center
   spirs     erase/load with small spiral
   spirl     erase/load with medium spiral
   spirm     erase/load with large spiral
   ospirs    load over with small spiral
   ospirl    load over with medium spiral
   ospirm    load over with large spiral
   diaguls   erase/load with small diagonal from top left
   diagulm   erase/load with medium diagonal from top left
   diagull   erase/load with large diagonal from top left
   odiaguls  load over with small diagonal from top left
   odiagulm  load over with medium diagonal from top left
   odiagull  load over with large diagonal from top left
   diagurs   erase/load with small diagonal from top right
   diagurm   erase/load with medium diagonal from top right
   diagurl   erase/load with large diagonal from top right
   odiagurs  load over with small diagonal from top right
   odiagurm  load over with medium diagonal from top right
   odiagurl  load over with large diagonal from top right
   wiped     erase/load with wipe from top
   wipeu     erase/load with wipe from bottom
   wipel     erase/load with wipe from left
   wiper     erase/load with wipe from right
   owiped    load over with wipe from top
   owipeu    load over with wipe from bottom
   owipel    load over with wipe from left
   owiper    load over with wipe from right
   rands     erase/load with small casual square
   randm     erase/load with medium casual square
   randl     erase/load with large casual square
   orands    load over with small casual square
   orandm    load over with medium casual square
   orandl    load over with large casual square
   hlines    erase/load with small horiz. lines
   hlinem    erase/load with medium horiz. lines
   hlinel    erase/load with large horiz. lines
   ohlines   load over with small horiz. lines
   ohlinem   load over with medium horiz. lines
   ohlinel   load over large horiz. lines
   vlines    erase/load with small vertic. lines
   vlinem    erase/load with medium vertic. lines
   vlinel    erase/load with large vertic. lines
   ovlines   load over with small vertic. lines
   ovlinem   load over with medium vertic. lines
   ovlinel   load over with large vertic. lines
   cheqs     erase/load with small checkerboard
   cheqm     erase/load with medium checkerboard
   cheql     erase/load with large checkerboard
   ocheqs    load over with small checkerboard
   ocheqm    load over with medium checkerboard
   ocheql    load over with large checkerboard
   dropd     reveal picture from top
   dropu     reveal picture from bottom
   rolld     roll images down
   rollu     roll images up
 Pag. 2VideoVedi can be executed both from Workbench and CLI, providing properly the needed parameters (script file).

From CLI type "VideoVedi <script filename>", from Workbench select the icon representing the script file containing a sequential list of pictures to be displayed, then SHIFT double click on the VideoVedi icon.

To simplify the execution process it is possible to modify the ".info" file through the Workbench menu function "Info".

The icon of your script file should have a "Project" type icon and the gadget "DEFAULT TOOL" must contain the exact path to find the VideoVedi program tool. Then if the program is in "dh0:" you would have to write "dh0:VideoVedi", if instead it is in the same drawer as the script file writing just "VideoVedi" will suffice. Be sure to leave the "Info" screen through the "SAVE" gadget to store permanently your updates.

The format of the script file to create is the following:

<picture path name>  <time> <effect type> <delay/increment>
where <picture path name> should be the exact full path name to find and load the picture (ex. dh0:lo-res/KingTut), <time> is the time the picture must remain on screen after having executed the effect, if this value is 0 the program will wait until a press on the left mouse button is detected, <effect type> is one of the available effect you wish to use to make the picture appear (see the included list), <delay/increment> is the value wich indicates an extra parameter for all the effects. It will be considered a delay by some effect or an increment by some other. If it is a delay it says how slow the effect will be executed, else it sets an increment in pixels for the specific effect. For example rolls and drops consider this parameter as an increments of vertical pixels between the steps of the effect. In this case it is the exact opposite of a delay, in facts higher is the increment, higher will be the effect execution speed.

Parameters must be spaced at list with one space character (see the demo script files for more examples).

VideoVedi allows you to change resolution between the sequential pictures, even if they have different colors or number of colors, but this must be achieved with only some of the available effects like Rolls, Drops, Fades, or Bang. Another way to obtain changes in resolutions or number of colors, is to insert a black picture between the two images with a low permanence time (1) and a low effect delay (0).

If the pictures have different resolutions and you do not use the 
specified method to browse through them you will see some strange movement of picture on your screen, this is due to "VideoVedi" wich tryes to center the image on the screen every time a new picture is loaded.

For a good show we recomend however to use the same resolution for all the pictures you wish to include in your demos. This will 
prevent the mentioned problem giving a smooth display.

Pag. 3