#Visual Basic Animator?
9 messages in this thread
To All animator developers:
I'm trying to develop a simple animator display program to run under Visual
Basic (and, obviously, Windows). The idea is to have a full- screen flic file
viewer, with three buttons on-screen: Quit, Pause, and Continue. This is for
use in a larger bedside system by hospital patients who know little about
computers. (The system uses a touch screen which emulates mouse clicks.)
My confusion is at several levels. The only FLI files I have so far are
320×240. I have the old DOS animator which edits and displays FLI files in
this format.
I see references to AAPLAY.DLL here on this forum. Does this DLL contain
everything I need to write a VB program to view FLI files? I tried downloading
the latest plus the declarations for VB, but I get General Protection Faults
when I try running it. Are there any examples here on the forum? Or am I
trying to do something for which I'm supposed to buy other software from
Autodesk?
Secondly, I see some 640×480 FLI files in the library. What plays these? The
only Autodesk Animator stuff at my local computer store (Egghead) only support
320×240, even the new Multimedia Animator for windows.
And lastly, am I trying to reinvent the wheel? Does anyone know of programs or
VB support tools to do what I'm trying to do?
I'd appreciate any suggestions pointing me in the right direction!
Selden McCabe <—mildly confused by all this…
Selden,
There is a custom control for VB that Autodesk sells that makes it easy to do
what you want. Animator Pro runs in 640X480 and above. By the way what are
you doing? I use animator and a host of things for developing patient
education software as well, mostly orthopedic topics that I use in my office.
We are currently working on commercial products as well.
Randale
Randale,
Thanks for the information. Do you mean that the custom control from
Autodesk supports both 320×240 and 640×480? And you can stop on a frame? I'll
give them a call.
I've worked on several versions of a patient operated bedside computer
system, designed to reduce state anxiety by providing information and a sense
of control over the future. One was for bone marrow transplant patients, and
the latest one is for nursing home residents.
Thanks again for the information.
—Selden
Selden,
There are two important files in the libraries that demonstrate control of the
AAPLAY.DLL from Visual Basic. If you download my BROWZ.ZIP you will get full VB
source for a file browsing program. Also check out NOTIFY.ZIP (or some similar
spelling) for a VB application that demonstrates the use of AA_NOTIFY.
If you are using Visual Basic 2.0 you can expect to get "General Protection
Fault" errors. My contact at Microsoft says that there is a definate problem
compiling BROWZ.MAK under VB2. He thinks that the AAPLAY.VBX custom control
needs to be recompiled under the new VB2 Professional do-hickey. Please let me
know what you find cause I haven't got VB2 yet.
Glad to see you're in touch with Randale. His medical applications of
multimedia are blazing a new path.
Phil,
Thanks for all the information. I don't know how I missed the two
refrences you mentioned… must just be the sheer volume of information!
I'll post a message about whatever I find. Yes, I am using VB2 (it's MILES
ahead of VB1) and also have inside lines to Microsoft (after all, it's just
across the street from me:)
—Selden
Selden,
If you really want a dynamite way to utilize animations in your educational
programs check out GRASP (GO GRASP) as a programming scripting language.
Nothing comes close to GRASP in allowing control over the presentation of
graphics and animation. It's DOS based however, but that makes the animations
smooth and quick.
Randale
Hi again, Randale:
I've seen earlier versions of Grasp, but didn't know that there was anything
here on Compuserve about it. Thanks!
I've been having trouble with some Dos programs running shelled out from
Windows (locking up the mouse, keyboard, etc.) but I may give Grasp a try
anyway. Speed isn't so much an issue as compatibility and bullet-proofness.
But, I'll take a look at it.
Thanks again!
—Selden
Phil,
Not quite blazing, maybe lukewarm at this point. VB2 is definitely worth your
nickel, much easier to use, much improved. How's the book coming?
Randale
Phil,
I tried the VBPlay program, and have learned many useful things from it.
However, one problem I haven't figured out yet is this:
The animations I'm running are 320x240x256 colors. Even though I set the
animation control's fullscreen property to True, the animation is a small box
in the middle of the screen. This contradicts what the help file says
(fullscreen, 320×240 will switch VGA to 320×240 and hence should fill the
screen). Is this maybe a VB2 problem, our perhaps an artifact that my
animations were done with the DOS based version of the Animator?
I'll keep poking around with it and see if I can figure it out..
Thanks for pointing me to these valuable files!
—Selden