@Tpod

Quote:

It plays but on the A2000 parts of it are missing.

Please download again. There have been many improvements since my last post. One is that masking is applied correctly in OS 3.2.


Quote:

Just wondering, how I quit a gif that is playing in icon mode or change back to Windowed mode?

Use the Icons menu. "Delete" closes the selected animation. "Empty trash" closes all animations and quits ViewAnim. "Leave out" changes the selected animation to windowed mode. "Information" shows the About window and "Snapshot" does just that. It creates an icon for the animation if one does not yet exist.

_________________
Email: thomas-rapp@web.de
Home: thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de

@thomas

I downloaded the latest version of ViewAnim (2.46) & with that sure enough the problem gif Runner 3 I mentioned now plays perfectly. I have several other gifs that never played correctly on any Amiga Gif viewer, which now also play perfectly with this new version of ViewAnim .

You mentioned the improved balance of RAM usage which is good to hear. I wondered would it be possible to have a tool type (file tool type), for the player to almost exclusively use Fast RAM? I understand the playback would be like a slide show. It would only make some sense for very large gifs (better to be able to view as a slide show rather than all the Chip RAM being used up).

_________________

@Tpod

I do not explicitly select Chip vs. Fast RAM anywhere. I just ask datatypes.library to load a frame from a file. Which probably means that the bitmap ends up in Chip RAM unless you have FBlit or the Native driver of Picasso96 installed.

What I meant by RAM balancing was that if a frame of one animation fails to load, it can steal buffered frames from other animations to free some memory.

_________________
Email: thomas-rapp@web.de
Home: thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de

@thomas

I had a ruff idea what you were saying about RAM, it was just the mention of RAM balancing prompted me to think about the one type of GIFs that are still an issue i.e. very large GIFs that gobble up all or nearly all Chip RAM. Most GIFs aren't that big & will play fine on an RTG system if they are, so I guess in reality it's an inevitable limitation of using ECS/AGA rather than an actual problem.

I use HippoPlayer to play Protracker mod files. It has an option to load protracker mods into Fast RAM; most mod players don't have this option. Probably a silly idea but I just wondered if a similar kind of process could be used to put Animated GIF frames into Fast RAM for playback. The more I think about it the more I suspect not (obviously it's the CPU that can make use of Fast RAM directly not Agnus) but that's really what I had in mind when I asked about a Fast RAM tool type.

Last edited by Tpod on 08-Apr-2026 at 10:04 AM.

_________________

@thomas

I’ve tried out the new Audio feature of ViewAnim.

Results:

A2000 (OS3.2.3)
WAV files - CYCLES =1 plays once as expected but unfortunately if I enter any other number, the WAV file still only plays once.

IFF 8SVX files - CYCLES=1 plays once as expected unfortunately entering any other number results in the IFF playing once correctly followed by just the first approximately 1 second repeating itself! Even if I exit ViewAnim that first 1 second continues playing (I have to do a soft reboot for it to stop).


A1200 (OS3.9, 040, RTG)
WAV files - CYCLES=1 plays once as expected but as with the A2000 if I change the number of cycles it still just plays the WAV once.

IFF 8SVX files - Plays whatever number of cycles I input correctly; I tried 5 different numbers including 1 & 0.

Finding out ViewAnim can play Audio files along with GIFs was a nice surprise & a great little enhancement to the player .

_________________

@Tpod

Thanks for the feedback. But I am afraid I cannot do much about it. ViewAnim forwards the values of SOUND and CYCLES straight to datatypes.library/NewDTObject(). Then it issues the STM_PLAY trigger to start the playback. After that the sound is left alone. All issues with playback are caused by sound.datatype and/or the respective sub-class.

I admit that I only ever tested sounds with OS 3.9 and the included sound files. Now that you pointed me to OS 3.2, I can confirm that wav files are played only once whatsoever and for 8svx it is quite random, usually one less than the number given. I never had the issue that the sound continued playing after exit, though.

_________________
Email: thomas-rapp@web.de
Home: thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de

@thomas

Well it’s a bit strange we both have weird but different results for 8SVX files on OS3.2. I wonder if it’s because your using OS3.2 rather than OS3.2.3? I guess the reason for the difference doesn't matter too much, as you say it’s nothing that can be resolved by changes to ViewAnim.

On a positive note I would say the most important number of CYCLES is 1. Selecting 1 works perfectly for both of us using WAV files on OS3.2 & 3.9, & for me at least, it also works perfectly for 8SVX files. Not sure if 8SVX files CYCLES=1 works reliably for you on OS 3.2 though, with the random issues you mention? Also all 8SVX CYCLES options seem to work for anyone using OS3.9.

Despite the issues, sound features that are working certainly still make for a more capable & fun to use ViewAnim.

Last edited by Tpod on 15-Apr-2026 at 05:59 PM.

_________________