Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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. ith Amiga powered sys- .! drive powerful multi- \ 33tems being used to media information systems at such places as the Cleveland police force, Colchester Zoo, hotels, petrol stations, football grounds and a multitude of other areas all over the world, and at a fraction of the cost of alternative PC systems. The Amiga has more than proved it has the capabilities to be used in such systems, ImageVision is a new product from a company based in Sweden, and it is their intention to produce and develop ImageVision to be, at the very least, as functional as Scala MM400, if not better, The ImageVision package comes in a very well presented double CD case. The actual disk is on the front side of the CD case with the extras CD on the other. You do not actu- ally need a CD-ROM drive to use the program because the entire ImageVision program and basic tutorial are all compressed onto the single floppy. The CD is just there to hold a far more advanced demo script and a whole host of extras. Some of the extras include a wide selection of excellent backdrops covering liquids, stone and some more surreal types, fullscreen Mpeg animations, along with a few music modules and a lot of high-quality sound samples. These are not all installed with the ImageVision program but will, of course, still be available off the CD. Installation is very straightforward using the standard installer, even though it does take a while. A basic installation will only require about SMb worth of hard drive space, while if you go for the full installation including the full CD demo script, this requires over 25Mb of hard drive space. Everything gets copied into a single directory, apart from the extra fonts and a couple of assigns that have to be added to your user-startup. When you start up ImageVision, the first thing that strikes you is just how good looking it is. The interface even puts MUI to shame, but just because something is goad looking does not particularly mean it is worth having. This thing is going to have to be quick Jargon box something the Attngo uses doing to years Mettntnedia is a butt Nord thought up by some 'oarketing man to make PCs • tnd Windows sound a good .•dea The true meaning is mything that can convey • • , P• sound, text and graphics , shon for Motion u p r , Nay of snaring video foologe e r a much smaller amount al tpixe thon normol methods. t hro decompress Mpeg video u footage a requires a kit of pro- rcessmg n power, and normotiy e only a special decompression chrp o E con achieve TV standard picture n x quaky, e p m e e c d RAPHICS EDITOR t i G II a r 1This built-in pad of Image Vision is where you t o can con- in a variety of ways. You are able to choose what font the struct your various menu screens. If you double-click y u on text should appear as, whether it should be freely posi- p any menu icon in the script window you con gain p access tioned or formatted with left/right justification or centred. e to the graphics editor from the menu's requester. , Along with these, you can also add drop shadows, back- The graphics editor seems to have been designed t with ground colour, text fill colour, or apply a bevelled effect to the basic assumption that you will be using a background h the text, all of which can take their colour from a scrollable graphic which will then have your various menu i choices colour selection at the bottom of the requester. on top of that This is because most of the tools s available Once text has been entered you are free to move it any- i are geared towards laying out and presenting blocks of where on the screen you want using the mouse, or enter s text over a background screen. Having said that, you are a another section of text which you can then apply with a able to load in brushes over your background and scale different set of effects. My of the current available colours these to any size you wish and move them to any position. can also be changed by hitting the edit button, and this The main tool box available on the editor's screen then pops up one of those newish Amiga colour wheel allows you to change the appearance of the on-screen text gadgets, allowing you to choose a new colour. I. •=irt.M1 ir AMIGA COMPUTING FEBRUARY 1996 11 hew/ fu ' J supremo Amiga multimedia package, Neil Mohr discovers whether lmageVision can pull off a coup J to learn, easy to use, and feature packed if it is going to beat Scala, The main interface consists of three basic windows - the script, tools, and icon windows. Using all three you can easily and quickly construct complex multimedia presentations. For each script you are working on there is a single . script window A start icon will always be the first icon you have and from this start point you drag in new icons, each icon relating to the action you want to take place at that point in the script. CONSTRUCTION The actual Script construction is done in a tree-style format, with Jparent icons in the tree having 'child' icons connected from them. As this is meant to represent the linear sequence that the presentation will take, only menu icons are allowed to have more than one 'child' connection. With a menu icon, each of its child icons would represent a possible selection in that menu. All the others have to be connected in the sequence they should appear in. To nWith aims to topple Scala Mnit 00's reign as the ca ption re quinwd connect one icon to another, even/ icon has a small white tail coming out of the top of it, and you just grab this and drag it to the icon you want to connect it to. The two icons will then be linked in the tree. Once icons have been dragged from the icon's window into the script window they can be moved around, selected, cut, pasted, and if you double-click on them you can configure the various aspects of that type of icon. To help distinguish between similar icon types in the script window, each icon can be given a name that is shown in the screen title bar when you place the mouse over it This way of constructing the script is excellent. It is possible to see the form that the presentation will take straight away, and it is very easy to change the flow of a presentation. I was a little concerned at first that a large script would become unwieldy because the tree could become quite large, but to prevent this ImageVision has a couple of tools to help you organise the script into sections. The first are the group and ungroup holttions which help you package a selected area of icons into a single group icon on the script
w E A U T I F U L 'Id roe hive the ability to pla y 1E my (teletype sample - a s standard this 1 1 1 • • = 1 : 1 WM. IF F SAVA la ma . The only real options you ha ve a re to a dd a bile to the e nd of the sa mple . A cycle cadger a llows you to control how the amens icon works, e ithe r pla ying the sample until it finishe s or the uses, stops IL A more he lpful option is the * groyne slay which a llows you to pla y a sa mple miter the script to continuo, CO you could pla y a n a nima tion a long with the sample, or wha te ve r a ction icons you pl., after the sample icon. You would then use e ithe r a sa mple icon se t to stop or stop a ll to e nd the origina l umele- Also avaikkie horn a menu kon's requester, the dick editor is where you add the actual active areas to buttons or hot spots on each menu screen. When you first run the dkk editor for any ore menu, you are presented with whatever graphic design you have drawn up for that menu, along with a list view requester with all the possible menu selections for that screen. The possible selections are to go back to the previous menu from the current one and normaly this is made passible by pressing the right mouse button anywhere on the screen, and the others will be all the child nodes from that icon. These are all listed in the 'Action' list view requester. To make an area of the screen 'selectable' you have to first mark out the area that you want the user to have to click on for any one menu selection, This is done by using one of four tools provided by Image Vision. Currently, buttons can take four shapes - either rectangular, circular, elipse, or a complex polygon shape. The polygon shape allows you to define any outline shape using any number of straight lines, so with only a little patience it is possible to build up some tpite complex button shapes. was a little . concer tree ned q u i cript would because the t e large, but a ti s Image Vision has o f tools to help you organise the script into sections - window_ This will help you tidy up the look of your scripts. When a section of the script has been tested, select all the icons, hit the group option, and you will be left with a single group icon. This can be given a name in the normal way so you know what it is at a Later date. The other took are the jump, subroutine and return icons which allow you to create a new section of the script away from the rest. By adding a jump icon where the new section should go and then adding a subroutine icon, you are able to create part of the script away from the rest of it. The return icon then forces the script to return back to the parent icon of the original Jump command. This all adds up to a highly intuitive, easyto-use interface with which it is a doddle to BUTTONS Seven icon types ate available at the moment, and each one has different properties, ollomng you to perform different effects in presentations or to help organise the script Monti A me nu icon is the only one that ca n ha ve more tha n one link from it. a nd each link from the icon re pre - se nts a possible se le ction in tha t memo. From the me nu re que ste r you ca n ga in access to the click a nd gra phic e ditors where me nu buttons a re cre a te d a nd changed. You can also specify the type of wipe you want to bring the menu onto the scre e n with, A sa mple ca n be played a long with the me nu, a nd you ca n sa y if the right mouse button should take the use r ba ck to the la st me nu, ,11 0 —O quickly knock up impressive and easy-to-use presentations. However, in its current form even the authors admit ImageVision is not currently on a par with Scala, but it is their firm intentions to make it so. The program has been written in a rnodula form so new icons can be added at any time, therefore making the program easy to extend. ImageVision also has the advantage of being a good deal cheaper than MM400. E i g i l I P E S A N D S!itiPShow Adding a slide show icon will allow you to place a slide show into your presentation. Using a file requester, you ca n a dd single or multiple picture s to the re que ste r. For e a ch slide you ca n spe cify the a mount of time it should be displa ye d for, wha t, if any, sa mple should a ccompa ny it, a nd what type of wipe should be use d to bring it onto the scre e n. As Image Vision supports D a ta type s, you ca n loa d a ny type of picture tha t you have the da ta lypa for. ig 'gon box a way of storing music Invented years ago for use with an old Arntga program, tracker modules have been with us ever since. The PC hos now got the most advanced tracker programs, such as Scream Tracker, a tracker that allows up to 32 channels. There is, however, an Amigo player available • o n obrectmnented extensmn to AmigaD03 A program supportmg Datotypes can toad any file you have a Data type for. Compared to Scala there is only a paltry number of wipes and fades available. The scroll gadget to the right of them, however, suggests that there could be future additions here. The wipes currently available are fade to black/white and background, slide up/down, bounce up/down, cover up/over, and card up/down. Wipes can be applied between sections in the script so menus can be gracefully disposed of and in the slide shows, with different wipes being applied to each picture. Only twe lve wipes a re currently available, but more should come in the future AMIGA COMPUTING FEBRUARY 1996 'inimatinn Imagelftsion ha s support to pla y sta ndard I FF Anim 518 a nd COAL, a nd I t will also pla y a n M oe n ca rd if you ha ve one . Moth use se pa ra te re que ste rs with none Mpeg a nima tions, a llowing you to choose a ba ckground picture a nd a lso a scre e n offset. M oe n options a re a little more limite d, with only the option to ha ve the sound turne d off, a nd We e r pla y is controlle d simila rly to sound sa mpte s Product Supplier Price Tel MEMEMMEMI Crig:COMMEMM CM Can .iLLkoi11111111111111111110 Magoc User Interlace, a comptetety object-oriented set of (thrones (hot allow the user to tailor almost every aspect of a MU: program's interface to thew DOD tastes. On extremely powerful multrmedia program, capable of produc trig very complex interoctve presentations. Used aver the world for all manner of information tasks In terms of features, Scala currently has the advantage, but with ImageVision's superb easy-to-use interface, and if the authors can keep regularly adding to Imagellision, Scala could be faced with a very strong competitor. Werl , ben ch P A M RE a11111EMENT CD-1.10M dnve Ease of use Implementation Value For Money Overall Bottalia line KAM _ rec ' e d In S M b hard AGA ., nnce i 3drive spa ce fk• . , 0 rd Mb h a rd _ _ 1LS ImageVision BlitterSoft E149.95 01908 061466
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11141 Issue 96 • February • 199
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RAM EXPANSION I I POWER SCANNER I I
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HE COVERDISKS IMAGEVISIG.II DEMO Pr
Page 7 and 8: k f i t t i r g i n s t r - . R E E
Page 9 and 10: 1111•1•11n- ol o m pacha age fo
Page 11 and 12: • C i t i e s B o u r d i n , H e
Page 13 and 14: 1 ProG aft' Supports all recent Anu
Page 15 and 16: ALIEN BREED 30 SIM CITY 2000 19.99
Page 17 and 18: You have read the review, now you c
Page 19 and 20: which is situated on the right of t
Page 21 and 22: Investing in AM I GA" Li Li Li Magi
Page 23 and 24: W u a ... nm rt . u., ; Video VIDI
Page 25 and 26: • IC 1 r - English map that comes
Page 27 and 28: n C ine ma s sce ne conta ins the t
Page 29 and 30: The IJK 9leading Light s Wave and A
Page 31 and 32: matically in the background and you
Page 33 and 34: lv NEW - UPDATED VERSION New Search
Page 35 and 36: I l e 1 7 7 CAMERA / 2 3 4 AM I GA
Page 37 and 38: 3 and I'm on the track of the I new
Page 39 and 40: In _ a nd fully te xture d bricks ,
Page 41 and 42: ELF HELP .ammi I have owned my Amig
Page 43 and 44: RRIOUS PACK COMMODORE C64 113 ZX SP
Page 45 and 46: 0 ISSING MMU I own an Amiga 4000/03
Page 47 and 48: GlIGP-ED V3 Produced by: Oliver Rob
Page 49 and 50: SCANNER FOR AMIGA 1200 TO 4000 COMP
Page 51 and 52: Turbocalc v2.1 • ( O M P R I C E
Page 53 and 54: A SSASSINS ULTIMATE GAMES 2 3 " M r
Page 55 and 56: The Power CD-ROM for the Amiga 600/
Page 57: Amiga Al200 Compute 2Mb RAM ik t
Page 61 and 62: HAT'S NEW PUSSY CAT? Tiot indeed. W
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Page 67 and 68: Emplant - Macintosh and PC emulatio
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Page 73 and 74: THE WORLDIs FASTEST AMIGAS ARE ON T
Page 75 and 76: \HIGA BACK CATALlOGUE Ti FLIE6 AVAI
Page 77 and 78: Reviewed , OMIS The best game of 1
Page 79 and 80: yen more Doom s. I'm afraid so. Jus
Page 81 and 82: you'll like it... but not a lot...
Page 83 and 84: CD32 too! The joys of Worming are a
Page 85 and 86: Meanwhile the mad scientist demonst
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Page 89 and 90: The backroom boys The programmer fo
Page 91 and 92: Manual read I'm not really the sort
Page 93 and 94: Take your pick from the many shops
Page 95 and 96: K e i g i t 'ojanaent Pun NIde(thIn
Page 97 and 98: t, Fit for anyone, The first thing
Page 99 and 100: 1 The space track is by the far the
Page 101 and 102: " am', amig 9" guiaGUIDE " riigc gu
Page 103 and 104: 1 FALCON per i or performance. Full
Page 105 and 106: Paul Overac delves beneath the surf
Page 107 and 108: Paul Overaa explains how AlRexxis d
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el Mohr thinks some people really d
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ank \ord shows u how to avoid ows i
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HI South shows you ow to emulate or
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Paul Overaa looks behind the scenes
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Steve White explains how you can ma
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• • • • • , 5 1 Gary Whit
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Paul Austin explores the on-line of
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41,0 041.5 "Breathless has boldly t
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