#MegaFlames
20 messages in this thread
Hidy Ho Neighbors! How about our new digs? Not the most appropriet
place but it will do. There has been some interest expressed in
restarting some of the flaming and since I started the first round I
would like to start it up again. Besides, I miss the mail. Remember,
this is all in good fun and the views expressed are not neccissarily
my own. Play nice, kids. What do you people have against .FL? and
bitmaps? Are you going to tell me that the pictures in 2 Reality were
draw pixel by pixel? How about the Gates warp in EMF's demo? Bitmaps!
Why not use 3ds or something to create an impressive object (instead
of that 16 color crap) and move it around. Thats how we do it and as
soon as you see our new screen saver (due out by xmas) I dare you to
scoff. It runs in Windows and speed is no problem. I had to introduce
timing loops to slow it down! Exactly how it is done is by creating
a .DIB sequence and retreiving and bitblitting the .DIB to the screen
at different locations. The same way Mortal Kombat was done. Get with
the times folks, there is always an easier way. Next I would like to
rave on .MOD files if that is ok. Ah, I can feel the heat already!
Windows, Windows, Windows!
>>What do you people have against .FL? and bitmaps?<<
What do you have against real performance?
Look at Airframe, and estimate the file size and required hardware for playback
of a FL* version, with the whole screen in motion because it's a flythrough,
not just a dif against a static background. It's something like 6 minutes long.
And it includes nonstop audio, accurately synchronized to the action. And of
course it incorporates the player and driver code in the single exe.
It's a 60k file. 60k, not 60 megs. And it plays fine full frame on a 386-20
laptop with 4 year old video. Try that in Windows. I'll even grant you the
filespace overhead of the entire Windows GUI, because you need it to play
Solitaire.
>>How about the Gates warp in EMF's demo? Bitmaps!<<
Of course it's a bitmap. Who was dissing bitmaps? It's 1 bitmap with real time
manipulation. Do that sequence as a FL* and it'd be bigger than the entire
demo.
FL* is a great format for development. So is an uncompressed TGA file.
>>Next I would like to rave on .MOD files if that is ok.<<
I've got a decent collection of rave MODs. This should be fun.
>> Look at Airframe…It's something like 6 minutes long…It's a 60k file.
60k, not 60 megs….
I haven't seen the sequence you talk about, but I have been programming
graphics for quite a few years. I've recently written a FLI/FLC player for our
companies use, but I don't know of any format that could store a six minute
(360 seconds, maybe 3600 frames, at low res > 230 MB uncompressed) animation in
60K. Is this true or ?
As far as industry standard formats go, we did an FLC around 4MB and when we
saved it as an AVI file it was 300K. AVI of course is a lossy compression
however, and FL? always gives you exactly what you started with.
jim
jim
Airframe is not compressed, and it is not a data file. Rather, it's
an executable the creates each frame from scratch (calculates what is
where and draws it to the screen) each time it is run. Now, I don't
think that any of us here actually dis-like .FLI/.FLC files (I myself
have an ever growing library of them), rather we apreciate the skill
involved in creating a 30 fps animation at 30 fps as oposed to
creating a 30 fps animation one frame at a time (which each frame
taking minutes, if not hours) and playing it back later.
Jeff
>>I haven't seen the sequence you talk about, but I have been programming
graphics for quite a few years.<<
Get it, run it, you won't be sorry. AIRFRA.ZIP, lib 17, demo team sources. 61k
download. If you don't have a GUS soundcard, you won't hear the audio. Whistle
along, and bear in mind that the audio's also interesting, nonstop, and synched
to the video.
>> I haven't seen the sequence you talk about, but I have been programming
graphics for quite a few years. I've recently written a FLI/FLC player for our
companies use, but I don't know of any format that could store a six minute
(360 seconds, maybe 3600 frames, at low res > 230 MB uncompressed) animation in
60K. Is this true or ? <<
Gaak! what a thought. 10 frames a second? As if the 15 frames
most "multimedia" uses wasn't bad enough.
The whole purpose of demos is _REAL TIME_. .FLs are great, but for
any length of time the tend to get huge! Demos are all done REAL
TIME, each frame IS NOT pre drawn, and just blitted to the screen.
The demos are drawn as you watch them. One frame is displayed while
the next is being drawn. With .FLs all you are doing is reading a
file that has each frame already calculated and pre-drawn and then
copying those frames to the screen. How long does it take for 3d
studio to render say a 5 second flic at 20 frames per second?
Probably quite a while. How long does it take a demo to render a 5
second animation at 20 frames per second? 5 seconds. Well, enough
said for now. <-ya
Lee TAylor [demo team]
John,
The focus of this workgroup is to create demos in the style of "Future Crew"
which push the limits of current hardware. Using a standard format such as Flx
may be more portable and widespread, but not offer the slickness that direct
coding can.
Come on, you can do better than that!
Better than what? We use no more than 10% of our brain capacity, right? I have
to spread that 10% through 27 forums each morning, all without the benefit of a
caffeine injection. Perhaps when I wake up I'll take a second look. <g>
I know how you feel. No offense intended. I've just been playing "flame wars"
with some of these kids in the demo area for fun. I hope I didn't act too
rashly. Thanks for your understanding.
John
I'll vouch for that…it's true…10% of Matt Drury brains are spread all over
the forums <grin>
(you're amazing)
hugs
Lily
>>Ah, I can feel the heat already! Windows, Windows, Windows!<<
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Hey dude! Love it!! Win95, NT, WinG & OpenGL…Dr.
GUI rules!
(I suppose DOS will be around for awhile though <G>
>>Ah, I can feel the heat already! Windows, Windows, Windows!<< >Ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha!!! Hey dude! Love it!! Win95, NT, WinG & OpenGL…Dr. >GUI rules!
Perhaps you guys want to start supporting it? (MS certainly leaves
something to be desired, just in that). I need docs on using the
'Engine—' calls, patching text generation functions in GDI.EXE, and
details on how to implement something like the Adobe Type Manager.
No sweat, be back to you next week.
>No sweat, be back to you next week.
I look forward to it (really!)
Bri
Right On Windows Brother! Let's make Gates a little richer.
>Right On Windows Brother! Let's make Gates a little richer.
While yer at it, make ME richer. Worthwhile work for trade.
Bri
If you can solve a problem for me maybe we can talk about it. I need
to know how to set a Windows screen saver name dynamically without
having to recompile my .DEF file. Any ideas?
>If you can solve a problem for me maybe we can talk about it.
Hey now I thought you were one of the ones speaking so highly of the OS that I
asked -you- for the support! <nudge nudge> 😉
>I need to know how to set a Windows screen saver name dynamically without
having to recompile my .DEF file. Any ideas?
Ideas sure, but wouldn't you rather have good docs?
Recompiling a DEF file or screen saver module does NOT dynamically
change a screen saver name. You need to copy it to a FILENAME.SCR
file in the \WINDOWS directory, and restart Windows. So, before you
start it, all you have to do is patch the .SCR file. Not pretty, but
it would work within the re-start method.
If you want to change the already existing blankers name, you'll first
have to figure out what is known by Windows about the screen blanker
names and files. Somewhere it has to store the list of screen
blankers, probably at the core level, not just in the Desktop control
panel application. Thats my guess because I know Windows looks up
all existing blankers at startup.
As far as run time permissions to find, read or change that core data
of Doze, good luck… cant help ya there.
Perhaps the best idea is to patch the SCR and give the user a dialog "Restart
Windows now? Your screen blanker will be known as "ABC" until you do restart
Windows".
Bri