The Sinclair QL Forum

Great idea Dilwyn, an thanks for your contribution

Sorry, I didn't resist:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/397 ... ated/D.zip

He he, nicely done Cristian
Derek will enjoy that one!

Apparently nobody has checked out my latest SQRview, also using David Westbury's GIF tool.
<http://members.chello.nl/b.spelten/ql/sqrview.html>
This comes with 3 animated examples, 1 GIF & 2 SPRs of the same, one in mode 32 and one in mode 16.
Not spectacular but more proof of concept.
I have played more complex GIFs but as mentioned in the manual memory and device demands are the things to watch out for.

Per, RLE in SPRs is used in 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit form, depending on the mode used.

Bob

I had a quick peek at SQRview some time ago and started a list of comments, questions, and suggestions to send to you, but realised there was much more to the program than a quick peek would satisfy. That, and due to a number of other distractions, I havent got very far. I think it surprisingly fast compared to what Ive used before, and very versatile. I just wish it wouldnt ask so many questions, but make a best guess and leave it to the user to adjust things after an initial display. (This comment comes without me having looked further into whether that might be feasible

Thanks for the info on RLE. I though it might depend on choice or the data rather than the mode, as this wasnt stated in the early documentation. No doubt very obvious to the person who wrote it

pjw wrote:I had a quick peek at SQRview some time ago and started a list of comments, questions, and suggestions to send to you, but realised there was much more to the program than a quick peek would satisfy. That, and due to a number of other distractions, I havent got very far. I think it surprisingly fast compared to what Ive used before, and very versatile. I just wish it wouldnt ask so many questions, but make a best guess and leave it to the user to adjust things after an initial display. (This comment comes without me having looked further into whether that might be feasible

If you use the option to navigate the current directory, defaults are used and questions are mostly limited to the first load action.
SCR files are the exception but best guesses are used there.
For anything else, it doesn't pretend to know what the user wants.

Thanks for the info on RLE. I though it might depend on choice or the data rather than the mode, as this wasnt stated in the early documentation. No doubt very obvious to the person who wrote it

As patterns are always Long words this says nothing about sample size so the mode provides the clue.
Alpha masks are a byte per pixel so RLE1 is used, same as mode 16.
Modes 32/33 use RLE2 and mode 64 uses RLE4.
Beware that this RLE naming may be different from that used on the PC side where RLE4 or 8 means 4-bit or 8-bit.

Bob

Another "motion piQture" just added. Enjoy!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/397 ... asters.zip

Vanpeebles Christmas card reminded me - it would be fairly easy to use this code with some point and click SuperBASIC to create a simple graphic adventure...

Anyone fancy the challenge?

RWAP wrote:Vanpeebles Christmas card reminded me - it would be fairly easy to use this code with some point and click SuperBASIC to create a simple graphic adventure...

Anyone fancy the challenge?

Well, mk79 is usually the one who says he can't resist a challenge

Seriously, though, Silvester's fun.zip (FPIC_LOAD and FPIC_SAVE) are a quick and easy way to display PIC files, while QL sprites make it easy to display moderately compressed graphics with a degree of mode conversion automatically. All we need is a stand-alone SPRITE_WRITE type extension, along the lines of SPRW in Easyptr for example, then anyone could write a graphical program without having to learn Easyptr, TurboPTR or whatever.

SQRview makes it quite easy to convert existing PC graphics to QL PIC files or sprites, so the pieces arestarting to fall into place.

dilwyn wrote:All we need is a stand-alone SPRITE_WRITE type extension, along the lines of SPRW in Easyptr for example, then anyone could write a graphical program without having to learn Easyptr, TurboPTR or whatever.

Well Dilwyn, it seems Santa heard you: He asked me to pass this on (attached). You dont believe he exists? Well, according to a very young - and for all I know, not very PC - fellow I met at kindergarten recently, he does. According to him he's Black! How do you know? I queried. "'Cause when he gets home to his wife for dinner he calls out "Yoho, Ho!"" (I suppose he's not yet aware that women dont stay at home doing the cooking nowadays)

Seasons best to y'all