
flip -- a flic file player for the Linux console
Version 0.2a

This is a non-X flic animation file player for Linux. A VGA compatible card
is required.

Flic files can usually be recognized by the .fli or .flc extensions at the
end of their filenames. Fli files are limited to a resolution of 320x200,
while flc files can have any resolution.

The flic player requires svgalib to compile (svgalib can be found at
sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/Linux/libs), although it should also compile with
VGAlib if you define graph_mem in vga.c to be non-static. A binary compiled
with svgalib v0.89c with SVGA drivers disabled is included.

The default method of playing is to load the first frame of the animation
sequence and display it. After this the remainder of the flic file is loaded
into memory, and the animation starts. The animation ends when q or ctrl-c
is pressed. There are some flags that control the way the flic file is
handled: 

-a	Remove frames from memory after processing. Using this option
        leaves more memory for other processes, but relies on the buffer
        cache for continuous animation.

-b	Process frames immediately as they are loaded. When using this
        option the animation frames are shown as soon as the player has read
        them, so you don't have to wait until the entire file has been
        read. The disadvantage is that the animation becomes jumpy if the
        speed set by the animation is higher than the speed of loading.

-c	Keep the screen black while loading the animation. This conflicts
        with option b, which can give interesting results.

-f	This removes the clock synchronization. This is just for fun, so
        you can show off the speed of your computer :-)

-n <number>
	Play the flic file <number> times.

-s <delay>
	Sets the delay between frames to <delay>*0.01 seconds. Option -s 0
        is the same as -f.

Other options are:

-v	Shows some information about the flic file being played.

-?	Shows a bit of help.

Flc files with resolutions higher than 320x200 are not yet supported, but as
soon as I can get my hands on such a flic file I'll attempt to fix that. If
you know where to find one, please let me know.


Bugs:
- X and Y offsets are not handled.
- Flic files with resolutions > 320x200 can't be played yet (probably dumping 
  core).
- Flic files with resolutions smaller than the screen size are probably not
  handled correctly, but I have yet to see one.


Release history:

V0.2	Added decoding of DELTA_FLC chunks, so some flc files can also be
	played. Changed the command line parameters. Removed some small
	bugs.

V0.1	First release, only just capable of playing fli files.


John Remyn (author)
Harm Hanemaayer	hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl
