From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett)
Subject: Re: Amiga and Quicktime
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 15:23:49 GMT

In article <1992Oct12.045553.29455@mercury.unt.edu> west@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Bruce West) writes:
>In article <35763@cbmvax.commodore.com> kcd@cbmvax.commodore.com (Ken Dyke - Amiga Networking) writes:
>>Maybe so, but it's a hell of a lot more versatile than the ANIM format.
>>We're usually spoiled because we're used to seeing 30-60fps animations
>>all of the time.  Well, that's not hard to do considering that the data
>>in the ANIM file is usually A) Completely in memory, and B) already set
>>up for the correct display mode.   QuickTime files are somewhat display-
>
>   As far as completely in memory - My A3000 has no problem doing 60fps anims
>straight off the hard drive with a little buffering.  So having the entire
>anim in memory is not a necessity.  As far as being set up for the correct
>display mode -- in my opion that's a plus.  Opening up Quicktime animations
>to full screen (when they were meant to be smaller) looks SOO BAD it should
>not be an option.  It's like looking at my old Apple ][+ pixels.
>
>>independent.  I can play the same QT file in 24-bit, 16-bit, 8-bit, 4-bit
>>and 1-bit screens.  That's kindof hard to do with Amiga ANIM's.  Let alone
>>play them in a window on the Workbench screen and arbitrarily scale them.
>
>   You can play a 24-bit anim in any amount of bits you want -- why you would
>chose to lose detail is beyond me - but it is possible.

   He's talking about resolution scaling, not color scaling.  It is a bit
difficult to automatically scale an Amiga ANIM file from 320x400 to 512x200,
say, with all of the scaling done on the fly and not beforehand.  Quicktime
is geared for this kind of scaling.  Also, ANIM files currently only have a
very simple type of compression built into them.  

>>One could argue, however, that playing postage stamp sized animations in a
>>window is not very useful, and I might agree. But, it looks slick as hell.
>>
>>Ken
>
>    Slick?  SLICK?  Let me tell you the story of a guy (me) who went into
>see the new Mac Quadra (some time ago) and LAUGHED SOO hard he couldn't
>control himself.  The speed of an 040, and some nifty new program called
>Quicktime?  Hmmm.  And virtual memory no less -- super System 7.  So,
>I open up a anim that makes has some dog walking.  Everyone tells me how
>this is MULTITASKING. So, I say hmmm.  I click on somthing -- "bark bark
>bark *PASUSE* bark...".  The animation just STOPS as long as I hold the 
>mouse pressed on an icon.  So I gigle.  Well, how about 2 anims?  So I try
>to open up some big "cool anim".  NOT ENOUGH MEMORY.  I guess 4 megs and
>VM can't handle it.  So I say, ok.  How about a simple little earth spinning.
>Now this is when I fell down laughing!  Dog walk, earth spin, dog walk, earth
>spin, etc etc.  Press button both stop, then start.  This is an 040!?!?!
>And this is NOT 256 color mode guys, just so you know.  On my old old old
>A2000 I could have a program graphing a spreadhsheet, run an anim, and use
>the workbench (with the screen layered so you could see em all) with 1
>damn MEG.  This Quadra/Quicktime system is sick.  I'm POSITIVE the A4000 
>with its double A chips could put it to shame.

   With a less specialized method of playing animations, true.  Amiga 
animations are extremely simple; just load frames into a framestore and
cycle them.  Quicktime animations are built around an extreme amount of
flexibility; for one thing, the images are decompressed from JPEG 
compression and scaled to the resolution of the window on the fly.  The
images are color-scaled to the color depth of the system on the fly, too.
There is no wonder why Quicktime animations are so slow; animations on
the Amiga (ANY Amiga) would be every bit as slow if so much had to be done
on the fly.  

   BTW, I think Apple took the wrong road when they adopted JPEG compression
for Quicktime instead of waiting for MPEG, but this is beside the point.

---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------
      Slick Willie Clinton: JUST SAY NO!!!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics