*** AniF/X Pre-release Beta *** Copyright(c) 1994 Realistic Automation All Rights Reserved. Designed by: Rudy Mathieu ****************************************************************************** Development Start Date: May 15,1994 Release Date: October 14,1994 (Beta 1.0) for Shareware outlet. ****************************************************************************** P R E F A C E AniF/X is a multi-media editing tool that allows one to script Animation, Music & Sampled sound effects for later playback through use the AFXPlayer. The AFXPlayer gives the user a fullscreen animated, musical playback with the ability to play up to 8 sound samples overlapping each other real time without effecting each other. Everything is scripted and cued at frame accuracy with I/O cueing, Image transitions, Music and Sound transitions, and Text Titling wiping & scrolling transitions. AniF/X will finially allow (during playback) the user to alter the script program flow as to giving anyone the opportunity to contruct their own 7th GUEST or Myst type game without having any programming skill. This program is one of few dealing in the nature of multi-media strictly working in the DOS environment. This allowed me as a developer to focus the CPU's attention to the Sizzle. The primary intention of the development of such a program stemmed from the need for me to produce decent prologues and epilogues for entertainment packages I was working on. It seems that most of my peers liked my Text-Based editor for creating the prologue more so than the package I was focused on (I guess most people feel that they themselves want the opporunity to show off their imagination). Although effective, the text- based scriptor was not fun to play with. The release of this beta version is to give a small taste of what this package will include. It is simply the result of a request by popular demand for it's early release. Please Read "AniF/X Professional Soon To Release" for Ordering Details and what the entire full release package has to offer. ********** D O C U M E N T A T I O N ********** This program is really self explainatory to a degree and at the risk of being a little hard to deal with, I have to explain that I am not at the moment ready to write the full fledge documentation yet but I will go over most of the not so obvious features in the program. 1. Program Setup This option normally would allow one to change the Default Search Directories for a given event type. This works find but this version has no way of informing the AFXPlayer where those files are. The Finial Release will compile all your Animation,Music & Sound files into one common Resource file called an AFX file. Don't use this for your scripted playbacks yet. (Not really implemented in this version). 2. Script Creation A) Currently all events must in some way cue to an animation event's frame number. Frame numbers can be Local or Global. Local- Is the exact frames number. Animations that are looped serveral times recycle the frame number again and again. These are local frames. PolyFX events key on local frames. Global- Is the relative frame taking into consideration the loop count. If an animation sequence is 50 frames long and we refrence it's 75th global frames. The event is cued during the 2nd Loop cycle. Cueing a event to a frame beyond the maximum number of frames in the animation automatically changes the animation event's loop count to the appropriate count. B) The left mouse button selects a given event on the Event Grid and moving the mouse cursor all the way to the top of the screen de-selects it. Selecting an event automatically loads it in it's respective module for review. C) When utilizing the CUE-TO-FRAME feature, the event being attached is cued to the selected Visual event's current frame which could be changed on the fly by simply touching the new Visual event. 3. Animation Previewing While animation is playing the preview window... Right mouse button plays in slow motion. Left mouse button stop completly. (Yes, the STOP button has no function at the moment.) 4. Sound Previewing While Sound Sample is playing... Any button stops audio playback. ****** Events Types ****** PolyFX Event files Polyphonic effect samples are Microsoft multi-media compliant WAV sample audio files or Creative Labs VOC files(with no compression). (Packed files will not work). All PolyFX samples must be less that 64k(65535) bytes long. Otherwise you are force to utilize this sound sample as a Normal Sample. Sample Event files Normal Sample files are Microsoft multi-media compliant WAV sample audio files or Creative Labs VOC files. These sound files which plays one at a time (and by the way cancels all currently playing PolyFX sounds) are necessary for the long lengthly samples like for example during a narration. Music Event files Music files are Standard MIDI files type 0 or type 1 and Creative LABS Music files (CMF). Visual Event Visual events are currently only Autodesk's FLI files. PCX,GIF and FLC support is in the code but won't be implemented until the actual finial release of the product. Text Event Scrolling,Wiping,Fading Text titling. (Not implemented in this version) I/O Event Allows other events to stop or loop until a certain key or mouse action occurs and then alters script flow. (Not implemented in this version) AniF/X utilizes XMS memory (Expanded is OK too) to hold all the actual Polyphonic Effect(PolyFX) and Music. The -R command line switch using AFXPLAY.EXE reports exactly how much upper memory is being used. Animation files are handled real time directly from the drive media instead of memory, this allows for a very quick snap to the next animation event. Normal Samples are handled real time directly from the drive media instead of memory, which allows for the unlimited length of sample playback combined with an instant start. (Not having to have to load a new voice file). This demand of having to cycle to the drive media combined with the animation playing in the background doesn't allow room for the system's resources to handle PolyFX's too. So Poly's are turned off if a Normal Sample cues on. If by chance your screen goes blank when AniF/X is started, try using the -V switch to engage the VESA setup. Try: AFX -V If you need help from the Player or the AFX command line switch type -? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ System Requirments: AniF/X (AFX.EXE) 80286 using DOS 3.3 or Later Sound Blaster Compatible Sound Card 450k of Base Memory About 2 MB XMS or Expanded Memory AFXPlayer (AFXPLAY.EXE) 80286 using DOS 3.3 or Later Sound Blaster Compatible Sound Card 450k of Base Memory About 1 MB XMS or Expanded Memory (Determined by how much PolyFX and Music utilize) Use the -R switch in AFXPLAY to find out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ***** AniFX Professional Soon To Release ***** - MIDI & CMF files support - VOC & WAV file support - FLI/FLC/PCX/GIF support - Up to 8 Polyphonic FX Channels - All Animation,Music & Sound data packed into one single AFX file for ease of delivery - Documentation * Scrolling/Fading/Wiping Text/Titling * 16 & 32 bit protected mode Support * High Resolution SuperVGA Support * MOD support * AVI & Quicktime Support ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ Release Date ------------ - AniF/X Version 1.0 Retail $39.00 Nov 1994 * AniF/X Professional Version 1.0 Retail $279.00 Dec 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************* Anyone choosing to pre-purchase AniF/X Professional before it's release date received the Basic AniF/X, and the AniF/X Professional for only $89.00. ******************************************************************* Edit and print the file !ORDER.FRM and order today!!!