NOTE: If you unzoo'd this and got a bunch of strange filenames with periods in the middle of them, and a lot of ".inf" instead of ".info" files, you used Booz or an old version of Zoo. If you can decipher everything and feel like doing a lot of renaming, fine; if not, unzoo it again using Zoo 2.0 and a command of "zoo x// filename.zoo" and everything will be extracted correctly, a directory created, and the proper files placed in the directory. (Everything will work even if you don't use Zoo 2.0, but it'll be a hassle figuring things out and renaming.) ***************************************************************************** How To Use the Pointer Animator (ReadMeFirst) This file describes Pointer Animator and how to run it from Workbench and the CLI, changing your pointer into a predefined animated pointer. For information on how to make your own animated pointers, read "ReadMeSecond". Introduction As the name implies, the pointer animator animates the Workbench pointer. It does this by substituting its own pointer for the default pointer and then rapidly changing the pointer image to cause the illusion of motion. The image sequences used are stored in standard IFF ILBM files. This allows you to easily edit predefined animations and create your own pointer animations. In addition to the normal three color pointer, the pointer animator also supports a fifteen color pointer. While at first this may seem like a frivolous workbench hack, it does have some useful applications. As well as giving you far more freedom of expression in your standard display, animation can cause the pointer to be much more visible. Our eyes are specially designed to detect motion. On a normal Workbench screen with a good contrast between the pointer colors and the display colors, you can easily distinguish the position of the pointer. On a 32 color screen it can become much more difficult to identify the pointer at a glance. Even with very similar colors an animated pointer is easy to spot. Starting an Animation To run a pointer animation from the Workbench, all you need to do is double click on the animation's icon (you've probably already tried this). Running an animation from the CLI is only slightly more difficult. If the pointer will work with the default values (default values are the preset values in the pointer animator program), just type: pa Where pa is the shortened name for PointerAnimator and is the name of the animation file. If the pointer doesn't work well with the default values, you can change several parameters on the command line (or in the .info file, from the Workbench.) You can enter as many of the parameters as you need, as flags on the command line. The names and descriptions of the flags follow: s - speed. This determines the image update rate of the animation. 1 would be equivalent to 60 images per second (in Europe, and much of the rest of the world, this is 50 images per second.) This is the fastest speed possible. To determine the number of images per second, divide 60 (again 50 in many places, all times given in the rest of this assume 60) by the speed. The default speed is 5. This is 12 images, or frames per second. h - height. The height of the pointer is measured in "pixels" (pixel is short for picture element: a pixel is a single dot). You can design a pointer for any height from 1 to 255 pixels. If you are using a predefined animation, it will already have a specific height. If you specify the wrong height, the animation will roll like a TV with the vertical sync adjusted incorrectly. The default height is 16 pixels. x - horizontal offset. Even though the pointer covers an area 16 pixels wide and many pixels high, there is only one pixel position where the pointer actually is. Commodore calls this position the "hot spot" of the pointer. On most standard pointers, the hot spot is near the upper left corner. You can put this spot wherever you want (but actually leaving it in the pointer image is a good idea.) The horizontal offset is measured in number of pixels right of the left side of the pointer. The default value is 0. y - vertical offset. This value, together with the horizontal position, determines the position of the hot spot. The vertical offset is measured in pixels down from the top edge. The default value is 0. Using these values from the CLI is easy. The command: pa shock -s3 -x1 -y1 uses the animation sequence stored in the file "Shock". It causes the animation speed to be 20 frames per second and the hot spot to be one pixel down and to the right of the top left corner of the pointer. This command could easily be inserted into your Startup-Sequence to cause the pointer animator to be automatically invoked when you turn on your Amiga. You can also set these parameters from the Workbench. First select the file by clicking once on the animation file's icon. Then select "Info" from the Workbench menu. The bottom line of the window that appears should be labeled "TOOL TYPES". It will probably contain a line that says something like "SPEED=5". This line corresponds to the 's' flag. By using the up and down arrow gadgets you can step though all of the parameters. They should read something like this: SPEED=5 HEIGHT=16 X OFFSET=0 Y OFFSET=0 If any of these are missing, you can add them by clicking on the "ADD" gadget. When you are done, click on "SAVE" to keep the changes you made. (Warning: There is a well-known bug in 1.2 which sometimes makes it very frustrating to enter several tool types without getting everything screwed up when the info window is saved. Check your tool types by checking the info window again after saving, to make sure they were saved right.) Stopping the Animation If for some reason you need to stop an animated pointer, double click on the "KillPointer" icon, or run "KillPointer" from the CLI. If you are just switching between animations, you don't need to stop the first animation before starting the second. It will be done automatically. For More Fun I strongly suggest you go make some of your own animations. It's very easy and the results are often better than you would have expected. For more information on making animations, read "ReadMeSecond" If You Use Pointer Animator... This program is shareware. Feel free to post copies of this archive to bulletin boards, in user club libraries, on disk based magazines and wherever else you feel the urge. You may also distribute unARC'd copies. But you must include "pa", "ReadMeFirst", "ReadMeSecond", "KillPointer", "KillPointer.info", "merge" and at least one pointer animation file with its ".info" file (the animation doesn't need to be one of mine.) If you use it please pay for it. If I distributed this commercially I would charge between $10 and $20. I won't ask for a particular amount, but please use these values as guidelines. In addition to the money, I would be glad to hear any comments or suggestions on any of my programs. Please send all correspondence to: Tim Kemp P.O. Box 23101 Columbus, OH 43223 Disclaimer It is sad but true, the Amiga is not very forgiving of software errors. I don't know of any bugs in my program. I have tried using it with several public domain and commercial programs, but as with any product, you can't test for every contingency. Therefore, in no event shall Tim Kemp be held liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the use of the pointer animator program or any of its related programs. This means, for example, that if you are writing what is likely to become your third best selling novel on your favorite word processor with a pointer animation of four grapes paying homage to a zucchini installed and you start running a paint program to better conceptualize what a six dimensional war lord might look like when compressed along each of the possible combinations of four dimensions, and just as you are starting on the fifteenth drawing, four planets line up with a galaxy far far away and the pointer animator recognizes this for what it obviously is and prays to its idol the Guru, and seeing the animator's message of worship upon the screen you sit back too quickly in your chair, knocking the microwave oven you are using to heat Brie into your jacuzzi, which is full of attractive people of the opposite sex, which shorts out the oven and overloads your house's circuits and causes the pennies you replaced the fuses with to become slightly warm and a high voltage transformer miles away (but directly over major well-known fault line) explodes spectacularly, releasing a large amount of stored geological energy and a small but heavily populated section of California plunges into the Pacific, then I am not to blame.