Click above to get retro games delivered to your door ever month!

PlayFLC

Play one or more Autodesk Animator FLI/FLC animation sequence in VGA/SVGA


Syntax

PLAYFLC [<switches>] <cFILE1.FLx> [ ... [<cFILEn.FLx>]
   [<nLeft> <nTop> <nScreenWidth> <nScreenHeight>]

or

PLAYFLC [<switches>] @<cFileName.LST>
   [<nLeft> <nTop> <nScreenWidth> <nScreenHeight>]


Switch

/t<n>
Set total playtime for single or multiple flics to <n> seconds, where <n> 
is the number of seconds to play (Range 0 to 32,767 seconds, 0 = infinity). 
Play may be interrupted with a keystroke.

/s<n>
Set play speed to <n> milliseconds (delay time between frames). Default is 
to use the flic file playspeed. /s0 is faster, /s600 is slower.

/loop
Play FLIC in an infinite loop (default is to play FLIC once). Play may be 
interrupted with a keystroke.

/noblank
Do not set graphic mode, play flic in current graphic mode, do not blank 
the screen. This parameter causes <nScreenWidth> and <nScreenHeight> on 
commandline to be ignored.


Arguments

<cFILEn.FLx>
An Autodesk Animator FLI/FLC animation file to be played, by itself or 
with additional FLI/FLCs. May include optional drive and path, extention of 
FLI or FLC required.

@<cFILENAME.LST>
Optionally, play an ASCII script or list of  flics, one per line, with 
optional drive and path. Script must contain one valid DOS (up to 8 
character) flic file name with FLI or FLC extention per line. "@" must be 
included to identify a script.

<nLeft>
Left or horizontal offset into the screen in pixels to play flic in a 
window (default is centered on screen).

<nTop>
Top or vertical offset into the screen in pixels to play flic in a window  
(default is centered on screen).

<nScreenWidth>
Screen width of graphic video mode to play animation in (default is FLIC 
viewport width).

<nScreenHeight>
Screen height of graphic video mode to play animation in (default is FLIC 
viewport height).


DOS Error Levels

1
Cannot open <cFILEn.FLx>.

2
Not enough memory to load FLIC frame.

3
<cFILEn.FLx> is not an Autodesk Animator FLIC file.

4
Can not find a graphic mode for <nScreenWidth> x <nScreenHeight> x 256.

5
<cFILEn.FLx> has a bad frame.

6
Read error on <cFILEn> (<cFILEn> may be truncated).

7
Play terminated by user.

8
Play timed out.

Cannot play FLIC in current graphic mode.

Cannot find a graphic mode for <cFILEn.FLx>.


Remarks

PlayFLC plays an Autodesk Animator 320x200x256 FLI animation sequence or an 
Animator FLC (usually 640x480) in its default graphic video mode or, 
optionally, forced to another graphic mode (up to 1024x768). To display 
animations in SVGA (beyond 320x200x256, Mode 19) the correct Sunshow SVGA 
drivers must be installed.

The total play time, /t<n>, is the total seconds for <cFILEn.FLx>, whether a 
single FLIC or multiple FLICs or a file list. The play speed, /s<n>, is the 
playback speed of the FLIC in milliseconds for all <cFILEn.FLx>, whether a 
single FLIC or multiple FLICs or a file list. /s0 is the fastest playtime, 
/s1000 is a practical, maximum slowest playtime (range is from 0 to 
16,000,000). The /loop parameter repeats playback of cFlicN in an infinite 
loop or until paused with the SPACE BAR or any other keypress to terminate. 
Pressing the SPACE BAR during normal playback or during a loop will pause 
or unpause current frame.

Optional offsets allow animation to play in a window. Any FLI or FLC that is 
compatible with the Autodesk Animator FLI or Animator Pro FLC formats can be 
played. FLI and FLC may be intermixed, however, there will be a hardware 
screen blank when your video card changes video modes between FLI/FLCs. 
Smoothest transition between sequentially played FLCs occurs when they are 
both in the same video mode and have similar background colors. If the 
palettes or background colors are dissimilar, the screen will show momentary 
corruption as the video card loads the new palette between FLC/FLIs in the 
same video mode. This hardware induced corruption can range from an 
inconsequential "blip" to a very noticable flash, depending on the design of 
the video chipset used in your video card. Changing to a different video 
card may improve this problem. Designing your animations to use similar 
palettes will improve this minor problem. The best bet, is when designing 
the FLI/FLCs that are to be played sequentially, use the same palette in 
each animation to avoid the previous unique palette from visibly corrupting 
the subsequent unique palette.

When designing FLICs that will be looped continuously, please note that the 
first frame is normally a full viewport image, subsequent frames are 
usually Delta frame compressed, differences from the previous frame, until 
the next full viewport is required. When the /loop parameter is specified 
during playback, the first frame (full viewport image) is displayed at the 
start of the playback of the frames. When the loop replays the flic for the 
second time, it starts at the second frame, which is usually a Delta 
Compressed frame. This bypasses the lengthy load time of the initial, full 
viewport frame, which tends to cause a delay or jump in the animation 
playback. Instead, playback starts with the much smaller Delta 2nd frame is 
played to avoid a delay or jump in the otherwise smooth playback desired. 
Since the Delta frame is very small, it has a brief load time and the flic 
will loop smoothly. When designing a flic in Animation software, place as 
much of your image elements as possible in the first full viewport image, 
so that subsequent Delta frames are smaller. For these same reasons, 
smoother playback will result when you use the /loop parameter to 
continuously play the same flic, rather than specify the same flic several 
times on the command line. When you specify the same flic multiple times, 
the load time of the first full frame repeatedly being loaded will cause 
playback to jump or be jerky.

Passing <nScreenWidth> and <nScreenHeight> parameters allows the animation 
to play in other than its default video mode. By passing a <nLeft> and 
<nTop> parameter, the animation can be forced to a window at any valid 
screen coordinates. Playing a 320x200 FLI in 640x480 SVGA mode will cause 
the FLI to be noticably sharper in apparent resolution and not play 
appreciably slower.

During playback, to quit or terminate: Press ESCAPE key to stop play. 
Pressing the SPACE BAR will pause or unpause current frame.


Example

To play the 320x200x256 animation sequence, WIZARD.FLI for 20 seconds 
total playtime, using the file's default play speed:

PLAYFLC /T20 WIZARD.FLI

To play the 320x200x256 animation sequence, WIZARD.FLI for 20 seconds 
total playtime, in 640x480 video mode and at the lower right quadrant 
of the screen, using the flic's default play speed:

PLAYFLC /T20 WIZARD.FLI 319 199 640 480

To first play the 640x480x256 animation sequence, 3DROSE.FLC then play 
the 320x200x256 animation sequence, WIZARD.FLI and finally, the 640x480 
animation sequence, ENGINE.FLC for a total playtime of 130 seconds, at 
640x480, using the flic's default play speed:

PLAYFLC /T130 3DROSE.FLC D:\WIZARD.FLI C:\ENGINE.FLC 0 0 640 480

To play from a filelist, FLIC.LST, at 80 millisecond delay, for 80 
seconds total playtime:

PLAYFLC /S80 /T80 D:\ANIMATION\@FLIC.LST 0 0 640 480

Where the script, FLIC.LST consists of an ASCII list of filenames 
with optional Drive and Path:

C:\FILES\3DROSE.FLC
C:\ANIMATE\WIZARD.FLI
ENGINE.FLC
C:\ANIMATE\AMERFLAG.FLC