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Contents
Contents for Visual FX Sample Program

Visual FX is a sample program to demonstrate the display effects found in the VISBBFX.DLL. It allows you to load DIB, BMP, and WMF files and display them using special effects. Several images can be setup at one time to create simple slide shows. You can select various effects, grains, and speeds for each image. This program is also an example of how you can add these same effects to your program.

Commands

Setup

Run

Stop

Help

How To...

Create a Slide show

Save a Slide show

Effects

Effects Listing


Help

Sample Program

DLLs

About Visual FX

Run Logo


Sample Program

This gives access to the Visual FX Sample Program help.


DLLs

This gives access to the Visual FX DLLs help.


About Visual FX

Shows the current version number and copyright statement for Visual FX.


Run Logo

Run the Visual FX introduction screens.


Create a Slide show

To create a slide show use "Setup" then "Add" to add image names to the list of images you want to display. Every time you do an "Add", it will insert the new name before the highlight bar. You can test the effect by using the "Test" button.

You can create animation by displaying several images in a row with different x,y locations. The "Load into Memory" option will load the image into memory so that the images can display even faster.


Save a Slide show

The Slide show is automatically saved when you exit Visual FX. It is saved in the file VisualFX.INI. When you run Visual FX again, it will use the information from this file to start the slide show the way it was when you exited Visual FX.


Run

Run from Top

Run from Position


Run from Top

Start running the slide show beginning with the first image.


Run from Position

Start running the slide show beginning with the image that was lasted edited in the "Setup" menu.


Stop

Stop the slide show. The slide show will remain stopped until you select one of the "Run" menu items.

A dialog box will come up notifying you that the slide show is stopped. Click on OK to remove the message.

You can also stop the effect by pressing ESC.


Setup

The Setup Dialog box allows you to Add/Delete images from a slide show listing. It also allows you to specify the Visual Effect, location, palette option etc. You can have as many as 300 slides in the slide show.

Image Names

Add

Delete

Done

Test

Near Palette

Files Palette

Universal Palette

Load into Memory

Fit image to window

Visual Effect

Grain

Subgrain

Delay

Get Default

Get Custom

Set Custom

Time Interval

X Position

Y Position

Use Transparent

Red

Green

Blue


Image Names

This is a list box containing the names of the images in the slide show. Use the mouse or arrow keys to select which image you want to edit. If you want to add an image to the list, move the highlight bar to the desired location and click on "ADD". The new image will be placed BEFORE the highlight bar. This is why you are able to move the bar one past the last image name.


Add

Add a new image to the list of image names. You can display DIB's, RLE DIB's, BMP's, and WMF files. The new image is placed before the highlight bar in the Image Name listing.

A file dialog box will come up allowing you to select the file from the directory listings.


Delete

This will delete the currently highlighted image name from the Image Name listing. You will be prompted to answer Yes or No to be sure that you want to delete the image.


Done

Press this button when you are done editing the slide show. To start the slide show, select one of the "Run" menu items.


Test

You can test the Visual Effect by pressing this button. The currently highlighted image will be displayed using the Visual Effect, position, transparency etc.


Near Palette

A Near Palette will display the image using the palette that is currently on the screen. This allows showing several images without seeing the palette shift. The colors are matched to the closest available colors.


Files Palette

Display the image using the exact palette stored in the image. Depending on what is currently on the screen, you will probably see a palette shift. This will display the image with the most correct colors.


Universal Palette

Display the image using a Visual FX pre-defined palette. This is very useful for displaying multiple images on the screen at the same time by forcing all images to use the same palette. However, because the colors have to be matched to the universal palette, the image might not have the exact colors desired.


Load into Memory

You can load the image into memory so that several images can be displayed very rapidly. If this item is not checked, then the image is loaded each time it is displayed. If there is not enough memory to load all of the images you request, then the images are read in as needed.


Fit image to window

When this item is checked, the image is stretched to fit the size of the window.

Note: In the sample program, WMF files will always be stretched to fit the window.


Visual Effect

The special visual effect that the image will be displayed with. Use the mouse or arrow keys to scroll through the listing of effects. Once an effect is selected you can test it using the "Test" button. Each effect has a Grain, Subgrain, and Delay. When you choose a new effect, default values will be placed into the appropriate fields. If you want to customize the grains, press the "Set Custom" button and the custom settings are changed to the current grains.

The speed of the effect is a combination of the size of the image, grains, and delay.


Grain

This the major grain for the effect. For example, if you are using the "Left to Right" effect then it will use the Grain for how many pixels it moves with each new location. If the effect uses both the Grain and Subgrain, then the Grain will usually be the X direction and the Subgrain the Y direction. You can experiment with the Grain sizes to create new and interesting effects.


Subgrain

This is the minor grain for the effect. Not all effects use the Subgrain. For example, the "Bottom to Top" only uses one grain (Grain). Effects that use the Subgrain, like the "Blocks from Top to Bottom" use the Grain for the X size and the Subgrain for the Y size of the blocks.


Delay

This is the time delay in milliseconds between each grain displayed. For example, if you are using a "Top to Bottom" effect and you want to slow down the effect, then increase the Delay number.


Get Default

Different effects work better with different grains and delays. When you choose a new effect, default values for the grains are inserted into the fields based on the size of the image. If you want to retrieve default values for the Grain, Subgrain, and Delay then press the "Get Default" button.


Get Custom

This button will retrieve your last custom Grain, Subgrain and Delay saved in the VisualFX.ini file.


Set Custom

Use this button to save the Grain, Subgrain and Delay in the VisualFX.ini file for later retrieval by the Get Custom button.


Time Interval

This is the time in milliseconds that the program will wait before going onto the next image in the slide show. If you want the image displayed for 5 seconds then enter a value of 5000.


X Position

This is the X position of the upper left corner of the image within the client area of the window. The values start at zero at the left and increase going to the right.


Y Postion
Y Position

This is the Y position of the upper left corner of the image within the client area of the window.

The values start at zero at the top and increase going to the bottom.


Use Transparent

If you want the image displayed using a transparent color, then check this item. To set what color is transparent, fill out the Red, Green, and Blue fields. These represent the actual displayed colors using the current palette. It is easiest to use either black (0,0,0) or white (255,255,255) as the transparent color.


Red

The red component of the transparent color. This can be any number between 0 and 255.


Green

The green component of the transparent color. This can be any number between 0 and 255.


Blue

The blue component of the transparent color. This can be any number between 0 and 255.