Copyright: ® 1991, 1992 by Daniel S. Baker


Contents
MiniMovie 1.5.1 © 1991, 1992 by Daniel S. Baker · All Rights Reserved

MiniMovie is a utility to play DIB files that contain multiple bitmap images. The images are displayed in the MiniMovie window one after the other to produce a simple form of animation.

Creating Movies

Starting MiniMovie

MiniMovie Controls

Notes

A $15 dontation for the use of MiniMovie will be graciously accepted if this product is of use to you. Such a donation will entitle you to an authorized diskette version, free upgrades, and the complete C-language source code. Send check or money order (US funds only, please) to the author at the address below:

Daniel S. Baker

5993 Slippery Rock Drive

Columbus, Ohio 43229

Feel free to contact me on CompuServe:

71551,2300


DIB

Device Independent Bitmap, a Windows graphic format. A single DIB file may contain any number of bitmaps.


Creating Movies

The easiest way to create a movie is to let a program generate it for you. The µLathe application generates movies (called sequences) that are compatible with MiniMovie.

Another way to create a movie is to manually combine multiple BMP format bitmaps into a single DIB file. Use a program which supports the BMP file type (Paintbrush, for example) to create several bitmaps, one for each frame of your movie. Then, use the COPY command to concatenate the BMP files into a DIB.

The following statement combines every BMP file in the current directory, in the directory order, into a single DIB file called ANIMATE.DIB:

COPY /B *.BMP ANIMATE.DIB

The next few statements copy four bitmaps, BITMAP1.BMP, BITMAP2.BMP, BITMAP3.BMP, and BITMAP4.BMP, in that order, to a DIB file called MOVIE.DIB:

COPY /B BITMAP1.BMP MOVIE.DIB

COPY /B MOVIE.DIB+BITMAP2.BMP MOVIE.DIB

COPY /B MOVIE.DIB+BITMAP3.BMP MOVIE.DIB

COPY /B MOVIE.DIB+BITMAP4.BMP MOVIE.DIB


Starting MiniMovie

MiniMovie can accept an optional command-line parameter. If given, the parameter must be the full path and file name of a DIB file. If no parameter is supplied, the first thing you will see is a dialog box that will allow you to select and load a DIB file.

Inside the dialog box is a "Load frames" check box. If the "Load frames" option is checked, all the frames in the movie will be loaded into memory for optimum performance. This may not be possible if the DIB contains a large number of frames, or if it consists of very large bitmaps. If this option is not selected, each frame will be loaded from the disk as needed.

See also:

Notes


MiniMovie Controls

Click on any control above to view a description of its function.


Open

This button allows you to select another DIB file for viewing. It displays the same dialog box that appears when MiniMovie is first started.


Pause

Pressing this button stops the animation. Pressing it again resumes the animation.


Slower

When clicked, this button slows the speed of the animation by increasing the time delay between the display of successive frames.


Faster

When clicked, this button increases the speed of the animation by decreasing the time delay between the display of successive frames.


Help

This button causes the MiniMovie help system to appear.


Exit

This button shuts down the MiniMovie application.


Notes

Once the last frame of a movie has been displayed, the movie is repeated from the first frame in an "endless" loop.

The MiniMovie window's size is determined by the size of the first frame. The bitmaps of sucessive frames may be larger or smaller, but the size of the window remains fixed.

If the MiniMovie application posts an error message while trying to load a DIB file with the "Load Frames" option selected, try loading the DIB file again with the "Load Frames" option turned off.

When creating a movie, keep in mind that smaller movies (in terms of the width and height, not the file size) will play more smoothly than large ones.

When attempting to play an animation created in a different screen mode, be aware that the color conversion process can cause movie load times to be exaggerated. Loading a 24-bit DIB file on a 256 color system, for example, can take quite a while.

Running multiple instances of MiniMovie in a palleted video mode (generally all 256 color systems are paletted) will cause performance to be severely degraded.