#animator timing
20 messages in this thread
Why is a "jiffy" 1/70 of a second and not a more common multiple of video
timing like 1/60 of a second?
I'm wondering because, if I have an animation where timing is critical I
can't get it to play at a 30 fps rate. the system I'm using is fast enough
to do many more times that rate, but I can't get it to play a perfect (or
even nearly) 30 fps. I have a 300 frame animation which if single framed
would be exactly 10 seconds, but at a play speed setting of 2 I get an 8.6
second time and at a play speed of 3 I get 12.4 seconds. What gives?
James
Interesting question…
A "jiffy" is actually the time it takes for one vertical retrace on a VGA
display. It's a hard-wired event that happens once every 70th of a second.
When Jim Kent wrote Animator and Animator Pro, he felt much more
comfortable working within the native constraints of the VGA hardware, and
didn't feel comfortable getting into real-time conversion. That was too
bad. When we rewrote 3DSr2, on the other hand, Dan Silva managed to figure
out how to do the jiffy->realtime conversion and we put the realtime
"locking" code into the 3DSr2 previewer. Unfortunately, that was AFTER
Animator Pro was shipping. So, if you NEED to play a flic at exactly x
fps, you'll have to use the Flic playback code within 3DSr2 to do it.
– G
Gary,
How about a quickie realtime player, no scripting or fading or stuff like
that just a rtplay.exe that will play flics with a AAPRO .DRV driver. I'm
trying to get these flics playing out of a Targa+ card at 756×486. It would
save me days worth of single framing out to Betacam. (checks in the
mail<g>)
James
How about I get to take a couple of months off, now that I almost killed
myself getting 3DSr2 out the door?
How about nobody asks me to "make" ANYTHING for awhile?
How about you get the Animator Pro flic libraries and do it yourself?
How about those Dodgers?
– G
Gary,
Nuff said. For somebody who's supposed to be on vacation, you sure are in a
testy mood lately. I guess it'll take a couple of months to catch up on all
that sleep. (Soon to be -G for GONE!) I'll admit I've let quite a few
messages go unanswered because I know Gary e'll get them. We'll pick up the
slack if you'll chill out.
It's time for me to be busting my ass to get work out now. Oh well, this
one client always has me riding the edge. Last year it's minutes of 2D
animation with no decent product, so I had to do it in 3DS. A couple of
weeks later Animator Pro arrives. I'm sure something will show up after I'm
done.
James
Hey, I'm in a much better mood today than I was two weeks ago!
– G
Gary,
How about you let Jack & Grant take over on the forum for a while,
and you go ahead and take that break? I'm sure we can manage without you
for a spell, and you oughta trust them to keep you up on forum comments if
necessary.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Since I'm doing so much work in front of the computer anyway, it's actually
a welcome diversion to log on and check out the email. I'm HOPING that I
get some interesting questions about release 2 from people who've gotten
the new version recently.
Hey, I don't mind hanging out on Compuserve… it's just that I can't
handle anyone asking me to DO anything!
– G
Gary,
I figured you were just hanging on the forum trolling for
compliments. Well, please accept mine. I understand your aversion to
being asked to DO anything. I did want to caution you that you were
starting to swing a little to the negative, though. I feel that both C#
and I have the greatest experience in spotting "testy" responses, given our
own carefully maintained reputations. Grrr.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
How about Jack takes a vacation too? (Or is Gary the only one that killed
himself on 3dsr2?)
– J
Yes Jack should take a month off too. And, certainly all the programmers
too, whose efforts get less applause since they work "behind the scenes".
We will all try mightily to cover for you.
Jack,
Don't think I in any way undervalue your contributions to 3D Studio
or this forum. You do seem to be coping better in print, while Gary has
been starting to sound a little ticked. Do you have some time off planned,
soon?
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Actually, I'm working on another project (outside Autodesk). Things are a
little (quite a lot, really) slower right now. But a vacation sounds like a
good idea. It's been almost two years now since I took a _real_ vacation.
Judging from my last response, I'm sounding a little ticked off in print,
too. Maybe towards the end of summer I can find some time to get away from
this computer stuff for awhile.
– J
Gary:
How come the only times I ever see you are when you're totally burnt from
working on a project?
Take some time off. Please. Go find a beach and do the Yost maneuver.
Evan
Don't worry… in two weeks I'll be long gone and you won't have me to kick
around anymore. I expect to be spending alot of time practicing the
"maneuver" and scaring the locals.
– G
Gary,
POCO power to the rescue!!!!!!!!
Why didn't I think of that before? Here's a POCO routine that will get
pretty damn close (close enough for government work <g>):
main() { int frame_count; frame_count= GetFrameCount(); SetSpeed(31);
PlayFlic(frame_count); }
Theoretically the variable passed to to set speed should be 33.3333… but
I assume there's some POCO overhead involved, I empiricaly found 31 to be
close enough.
Wow! Four lines of code saved over 22 hours of deck time! I'm amazed.
James
Great news! That's using your noggin!!
(and I didn't have to do ANYTHING)
– G
James,
Am I correct that you were able to get close to 30 FPS on a 486 with a Targa
board? Did you use a RAM disk? Caching controller? How's it look?
I'm looking for a way to do near 30 FPS with a Targa for industrial
presentation. I've been holding off buying the Targa until I could see a
way to do this.
Ken ///
Ken,
I'm using the Targa+ driver for Animator Pro so the color are limited to
256. It's pretty near 30 fps but just be sure that you have enough ram to
hold the whole FLC unless you have a very fast hard disk.
James
Please suggest to your bosses that this real-time feature is critical to
the success of your product line in a world where quick-time is real and
has solved all of these crappy problems so that artists like me can get
some of our own work done. We are not capable of the engineering and we
need you and your company to provide the tools. Thanks for such great
stuff so far!!
Larry