From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
Subject: Re: Amiga and Quicktime
Date: 16 Oct 92 03:47:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bw73vB.1nE
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA

In article <1bknfdINNeu9@gap.caltech.edu> jsurace@cco.caltech.edu (Jason A. Surace) writes:
>barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett) writes:
>
>>   WRONG!  ANIM is a very simple method of playing animations that
>>monopolizes the display.  QuickTime is a MUCH more flexible animation
>>scheme, but all of the extra flexibility makes it very slow.  QuickTime
>>animations can be rescaled on the fly, ANIMs cannot.  QuickTime
>>animations can be scaled to almost any color depth on the fly, while
>>ANIMs cannot.  QuickTime includes support for a plethora of 
>>compression formats, while ANIM does not.  
>
>>   Try taking an Amiga ANIM, play it in a 320x200 window on a
>>1280x512 screen, and then resize the windowto a bizarre shape 
>>(160x300, for instance).  Does the animation automatically resize
>>while it is playing?  This would assume that you found a way to
>>play ANIMs in a window in the first place, which no ANIM player 
>>will do.
>
>
>>---
>>| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
>>--------------------------------------------------
>>      Slick Willie Clinton: JUST SAY NO!!!
>
> Except for one thing: I'll admit, it may be neat to be able to rescale
>on the fly, and all that stuff, but is that anything more than a gimmick?
>Does it really improve an animation by being ablt to do that? Personally,
>I thinl the Amiga's animation abilities to do FULL SCREEN (I have yet to see
>quicktime do more than postage stamps, and yes it can be blown up, but into
>huge pixels) animations far superior to QuickTime.

   For now, even Apple developers have admitted that QuickTime is a gimmick,
for now.  This is again a case of Apple thinking long-term.  QuickTime 
animations are all rendered at a higher resolution than Amiga ANIMs, and
all seem to be 24-bit.  As faster Macintosh systems are released, playback of
the existing animations will improve.

   For example, let's say Apple releases Macintoshes two years from now that
are four times faster than the fastest Macs today, and Commodore also 
releases Amigas two years from now that are four times faster than the A4000. 
Would the playback of existing ANIMs improve on the new Amigas?  No.  The
existing ANIMs are hard-coded to 320x200 or 320x400 32-color graphics, and
better hardware will not improve the existing animations. However, on the
faster Macintosh, the playback existing QuickTime animations will improve
dramatically.  Eventually, Macintoshes will be released that will be able 
to play existing QuickTime animations at 60 fps on the full screen, at very
high resolutions, in full 24-bit TrueColor.  When this happens, the animations
will become truly useful.

>                                        - Jason Surace
>                                    jason@ipac.caltech.edu
>
>(I can't believe I'm trying to argue with Marc Barrett)

   Yes, you must be crazy to argue with a Master Debater such as me! :-) :-)

---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics