ANIMATE3.PRG
(9/87)
(c) 1987 by Tom Hudson
Program & Documentation
by Tom Hudson
This is a Public Domain utility.
ANIMATE3.PRG is the third generation animation display program for the
CYBER family of products (CYBER STUDIO, CONTROL and PAINT).
This program will display delta-file AND sequence animations,
created either by CYBER PAINT in .DLT or .SEQ format, or CYBER
STUDIO/CONTROL in .DLT format. Delta files (with initial
.PI1 files and data files with a .DLT extender) take up more
space on disk than sequence files (composed of only file file,
which takes up about 30-40% less disk space than a comparable
.PI1/.DLT combination). Sequence files take up the same amount
of space in memory as delta files, however.
To display .DLT files, click on the .DLT button in the custom
file selector. Likewise, to display .SEQ files, click on the
.SEQ button.
Disk drives may be altered with the drive-letter buttons. Paths
may be moved through with the "Back" and Reread" buttons.
As with my previous program, ANIMATE2, there are 2 operating modes:
Batch and manual. Animations can be run in sequence from a hard disk
and/or floppy drives in batch modes, with chained animation files
easily accomodated. NOTE: You can only chain delta files --
sequence files are NOT chainable.
MANUAL MODE
The manual mode is invoked by simply double-clicking on the
ANIMATE3.PRG icon. The program will display help information
-- take some time to read it for the basic commands such as
(B)uffer, (F)orward, etc.) Click on OK, and you will be presented
with my new file selector.
Loading Delta Files:
Select the delta file you want to run (it
can be either stereo or monoscopic). The program will load the delta file and its
associated .PI1 file (L_ and R_ versions, if the animation is in
stereo). It will ask if you have more delta file sections (this will
only happen if you chained the animation), click on the appropriate
button. If there are more delta files, the file selector will
reappear, and you must select the name of the chained delta file.
After all delta files are loaded, the program will start animation.
Loading Sequence Files:
Click on the .SEQ button, and the sequence files on the disk will
be displayed. Select the sequence file you want to run (sequence
files can only be monoscopic). The program will load it and
begin running automatically. Hit the B and/or F keys to turn
buffering on and, if necessary, toggle into Ping-pong mode.
BATCH MODE
The animator program will run in a batch mode for continuous
demonstrations of animations. This is done through the use of a run
control file, which has the extension .RUN. To work properly, the
ANIMATE3.PRG program must be installed via the "Install application"
selection on the desktop. Install ANIMATE3.PRG as a GEM application
with document type RUN.
To execute the animator in batch mode, just double-click on the
appropriate .RUN file.
For example, on the CYBER PAINT disk, if you click on DEMO.RUN
from within the ANIMATOR folder, it will automatically load
all the demos on the disk, one by one, and display them for
a number of loops and in a direction specified by the text in
the DEMO.RUN file. This will only work when the CYBER PAINT
disk has been used as the boot disk because the DESKTOP.INF
file is used to store the "Install application" information
for GEM.
The .RUN file format is discussed after the keyboard command
section.
KEYBOARD COMMANDS
Once you have an animation sequence running, the following keys are
operational:
F1-F10 -- Control the speed of the animation from slow (F1) to fast
(F10). Default speed is F6.
Help -- Aborts the animation and displays the file selector for a new
animation in both batch and manual modes. Changes to manual mode if
running in batch mode.
Undo -- Quits the program, returning to the desktop.
F -- Toggles the animation direction from forward-only to a
forward-reverse ping-pong effect. Default is forward-only.
B -- Toggles from single-buffer to double-buffer mode.
Double-buffering usually runs slower (top speed of 30 fps)
but can result in a cleaner image in complex animations and
sequence files.
Space bar -- Pauses and single-steps the animation. Press any other
key to resume normal operation.
Alt-L -- Locks the keyboard to prevent tampering during demonstrations,
no keys will have any effect. Press Alt-L again to unlock the
keyboard.
.RUN FILE FORMAT
The .RUN file is a simple text file, which can be created with any text
editor or 1st Word. Each line has the following format:
PATH,FILE,MORE[,FWDBAK,BUFFER,SPEED,TIMES]
PATH -- Drive and path of animation delta file or sequence file, may
be upper or lower case. Example: A:\ANIMATIONS\
FILE -- Filename of animation delta file, in upper or lower case.
Example: CARGO.DLT. If it is a sequence file, the example would
be CARGO.SEQ.
MORE -- Indicates whether or not there are more delta files to be
chained to this one. Enter Y if there are more, or N if there are not.
May be upper or lower case. If the Y is entered, the next line
contains the filename of the next delta file in the chain, and the
extra parameters on this line are not used. Any number of files may be
chained. For sequence files, use an N.
FWDBAK -- Indicates whether the animation should be run forward only
(F) or forward/reverse (R). May be upper or lower case. Not used if
the file has more delta files chained to it.
BUFFER -- Indicates whether the animation should be run with
double-buffering (B) or non-double-buffered (N). Upper or lower case.
Use this all the time for sequence files.
SPEED -- Indicates the speed at which the animation should be run.
Values range from 0-9, corresponding to function keys F1-F10.
TIMES -- The number of times the animation is to be run before going to
the next animation. In forward/reverse mode, this is the number of
complete forward/reverse cycles; in forward mode, it is the number of
normal animation cycles. A value of 9999 indicates to run the
animation forever, until HELP or UNDO is pressed. Use 9999 when
you're creating a .RUN file that will be used to load one animation
from a floppy disk and display it forever.
Example batch files:
b:\,cargo.dlt,n,f,n,8,9999
Runs the CARGO animation forward without double-buffering at speed 8
forever.
c:\animate\,hollow.dlt,y
c:\animate\,hollowb.dlt,n,f,b,9,9999
Runs the two-part HOLLOW animation (HOLLOW.DLT and HOLLOWB.DLT, in the
ANIMATE folder on drive c:) forward at speed 9 double-buffered
forever.
a:\,bounce.dlt,n,r,b,7,20
b:\,atari.dlt,y
b:\,atarib.dlt,n,f,n,9,25
Runs the BOUNCE animation from drive A: 20 times in forward/reverse
mode at speed 7 with double-buffering, then runs the two-part ATARI
animation (ATARI.DLT and ATARIB.DLT) from drive B: 25 times at speed 9
forward without double-buffering. When the ATARI animation is
complete, operation resumes with BOUNCE again and continues until HELP
or UNDO is pressed.
a:\tutorial\,tesla.seq,n,f,b,9,9999
Runs the TESLA animation on the CYBER PAINT disk with buffering
on, forward, at speed 9, forever (or as long as the hardware
holds out, whichever comes first).
