CompuServe Thread

PMJI, but may I suggest RAD Software's Smacker 2.0? It comes with DOS and Windows versions. Smacker is a Video and Animation Compressor that is optimized specifically for 8-bit .FLCs, unlike QuickTime and Microsoft AVI. It can compress 8-bit animations much, much tighter than any other compression method (including PKzip) and with less visible loss than any (except PKzip). PKzip, of course, can't play back compressed animations directly, nor can they be played back without first uncompressing them. Smacker can. Because the resulting files are 8-bit and are compressed quite tightly and efficiently and require relatively little computation to decompress, Smacker is _the_ _fastest_ 8-bit player I know of. It can play back up to 1280×1024 8-bit animations at up to 30fps with no dropped frames, with no special hardware assistance! Unlike any other compressor, Smacker even allows you to go back in and "touch up" areas that you feel lost too much detail! For instance, you can set the compression on a character animation rather high to save lots of space and time, then go back in and touch up the character's face to restore detail. You can even have it include the original uncompressed frames in the intermediate file so you can just copy and paste original uncompressed frame data into the compressed frames! Then have Smacker remove those original frames and re-compress with no additional loss and voila! Oh, yes, Smacker does include full .WAV sound support. Digital Video Magazine gave it an overall rating of 8.0. CADalyst gave it a very favorable review. With an original .FLiC of nearly 1.5MB, Intel Indeo actually made it nearly twice the size (almost 3MB!), while Microsoft Video 1 only reduced it to about 1.3MB, and SuperMac Cinepak reduced it to 1.25MB, all with considerable loss. Smacker reduced it to about 0.67MB — less than half the size of the smallest other codec! In terms of quality with 8-bit originals, Intel Indeo and Cinepak were both rated "Poor" whilel Microsoft Video 1 was rated "Good." Smacker was rated "Excellent." It also got an "Excellent" in CD-ROM support (all the others got "Good"), Touch-Up support (all the others got "None"), and Real-Time Playback (Indeo and Cinepak got "Fair" while Video 1 rated "Good"). It comes with the latest versions of Microsoft Video for Windows (playback), AutoDesk .FLiC Windows playback, Win32s, and WinG, which the Windows version fully supports. As you know from using Director, WinG can speed up 8-bit stuff under Win3.x and Win95 considerably. Includes both a 16-bit and a 32-bit Windows (for Win95 and WinNT) version. It also includes a trial version of a superb universal VESA VBE 2.0 driver (called UniVBE) which the DOS version fully exploits, which greatly speeds up DOS playback. It has a very powerful scripting language (more like a full-fledged programming language — complete with commands for flow-of-control, variables, file I/O, random numbers, execution of other programs from within a script, DOS environment string setting/getting, all sorts of bitmap and animation operations, etc. etc. etc. Indeed, with SmackScript, you may not even need Director at all for what you want to do! One thing it currently lacks, but which will be in the next version, is an MCI driver for playback. At present Windows playback requires the Windows player utility. You can't just play back from Director using MCI or from Visual BASIC using the MCI control. Speaking of VB, the next version should also have both .VBX and .OCX players for use with VB and other visual development environments such as Delphi, Access, etc.! Imagine efficiently storing 8-bit animations into Access Long Binary fields and playing them back on an Access form as the associated record is called up! WITH SOUND, no less! A Mac player is also in the works, as are optimized players for non-Intel versions of Windows NT (MIPS, DEC Alpha, PowerPC, etc.)! For CD-ROM development, Smacker will allow you to preview your anim as it will be played back on 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, or 6x CD-ROMs _before_ you burn the master CDs! So there are NO SURPRISES after you've burned a CD, thus causing you to waste a recordable CD or, even worse, service bureau fees! CD-ROM playback is set to maintain a consistent data streaming rate. Smacker is very reasonably priced (CIS will jump down my throat if I post the price), and is available from: RAD Software An Invisible, Inc. Company 307 W 200 S Suite #1003 Salt Lake City, UT 84101 (801) 322-4300 P.S.: I am not associated with RAD Software nor Invisible, Inc., nor did I post this at their behest nor with any anticipation of any remuneration or kickbacks from them. This was a spontaneous review.