Slideshow Demo coding help needed

zeropolis79 · 20:21, 03 February 25

I'm wanting to do a slideshow demo but of course the 17k size of screenshot files is a limitation. I've found a compressor program proven to work for slideshows.

I've got the SQ23 program used by the late David Carter to prepare the Amiga graphics demo but any attempts to modify the BASIC loader on it for my files doesn't seem to want to work and the Amstrad Action demo listing in issue 86 only covers loading and displaying two files.

Finally, I have a YM file from CPC Power with the music I plan to use - what BASIC code would be used to load it and have a continued loop? Would it also be possible to keep it going while the images load?

If anyone can help me with this, I'd be very thankful.

Many thanks

Targhan · 00:05, 04 February 25

There are a lot of crunchers for your images out there: but the most efficient runs on PC, and you can then use the decruncher code on CPC (you must call it from Basic, shouldn't be too hard). I don't know which ones are the best for images (pucrunch? exomizer? zx0?)

As for the music, I suggest NOT to use YM, but there is the good old AYC cruncher (on CPC) by Madram that will crunch the YM that with ease, and replay it with speed. You can surely find the original player of the music of the production, already ripped by Shap, Tom&Jerry or others, though. Such players can easily be called from Basic in a loop. Megachur, who provided the YMs in CPC-Power, would I'm sure be glad to provide you with the original player.

If you want a ready-to-use player, you can use the Basic interruption player of Arkos Tracker 2/3 (see my signature), there is a DSK for that and a tutorial here:
https://www.julien-nevo.com/arkostracker/index.php/using-interruption-player-with-cpc-basic/
Now you need songs made with AT2/AT3, but many are available in the package, or you can ask people to compose it for you.

zeropolis79 · 07:54, 04 February 25

Thanks!

roudoudou · 08:06, 04 February 25

depending on images, exomizer is still very competitive for images but zx0 is also excellent and faster to decrunch. If the images are stored linearly (progressive format), the crunch will be better but you will have to interlace back for screen display

Raft · 10:37, 04 February 25

As it has been said, you can use exomizer to compress your data/code, but that will need a little bit of coding.
So maybe you could try ConvImpCPC/Demoniak. I think that this tool can save compressed pictures with an included loader - well this has to be checked, my memory might be wrong

For the tune I would also recommend the excellent AT3. About "to keep the music going while the images load" you might have to tweak the player code, as I'm not sure how the interruptions will behave while accessing the disk/tape. Tharghan could probaly tell you more about that

andycadley · 11:15, 04 February 25

Disk loading will stop any interrupt driven code. It's not impossible to play music whilst loading from disk, but it does require a non-standard loader and is probably quite a way outside the realms of something you want to be thinking about if your program is primarily BASIC.

zeropolis79 · 12:22, 04 February 25

Thanks all. It's planned to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed slideshow demo comprising of screen grabs from the credits.

I can already get them into CPC format by importing them into JavaCPC (although it's tricky getting the colours and stuff just right). (I know I'll have to manually set the colours in BASIC)

When it comes to the coding, it'll have to be done in BASIC as I'm not as skilled with Z80 as I used to be. I'm not wanting it to be something fancy, just eager to make something other than adventure games.

I'm not trying to be lazy and get other people to do all the work for me, was just after recommendations and maybe a little bit of advice.

ZorrO · 22:59, 04 February 25

I have somewhere a program to convert Art Studio PAL+SCR images into CSI. It's a very convenient way because all you have to do is type: LOAD"picture.csi":CALL &6000
And you have a picture on screen with correct mode and colors. CSI are compressed and usually take up about 30% less than 17K, and sometimes it's enough to remove a few lonely pixels to compress it to 50%. Pictures with big empty areas are even smaller. I'm lazy today but I'll found it soon.

zeropolis79 · 00:26, 05 February 25

That sounds great! Thanks!

lightforce6128 · 03:09, 06 February 25

Just one additional idea: Are the slides full-screen images? Or can they be divided in text blocks, a bit of vector graphics, and a (small) image here and there (like Impress or PowerPoint)? If yes, then the slides could be created in background and then made visible. Storage should be much smaller, even without compression.

zeropolis79 · 21:10, 08 February 25

I considered finding a split mode routine in Amstrad Action so I could have some text with the MODE 0 graphics but I'm considering that one for a different project. It was mainly considered a slideshow.. it was intended to be a slideshow of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles from the 87 cartoon. (I'm doing this as a present for a friend who is Turtles mad).

I imported the grabs (in PNG format) into Java CPC as I don't know of anything else that could be used and while the results weren't great (sadly I don't have the files anymore) they were just about useable but the problem with that is that you can't reset the graphic settings used to make the images presentable without deleting the program and reinstalling. (if anyone knows of a different program I could use, I'd be all ears please).

Raft · 15:10, 10 February 25

I'm not used to the JavaCPC image tool, but as I said you could try ConvImpCPC. It has lots of gfx features, and the way to save pictures as compressed files

zeropolis79 · 22:49, 10 February 25

Thanks - will take a look

zeropolis79 · 23:32, 10 February 25

Quote from: Raft on 15:10, 10 February 25I'm not used to the JavaCPC image tool, but as I said you could try ConvImpCPC. It has lots of gfx features, and the way to save pictures as compressed files

Just tried putting it into google but there were no results.

andycadley · 23:39, 10 February 25

Quote from: zeropolis79 on 23:32, 10 February 25
Quote from: Raft on 15:10, 10 February 25I'm not used to the JavaCPC image tool, but as I said you could try ConvImpCPC. It has lots of gfx features, and the way to save pictures as compressed files
Just tried putting it into google but there were no results.

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/ConvImgCPC

Raft · 09:02, 11 February 25

Quote from: zeropolis79 on 23:32, 10 February 25
Quote from: Raft on 15:10, 10 February 25I'm not used to the JavaCPC image tool, but as I said you could try ConvImpCPC. It has lots of gfx features, and the way to save pictures as compressed files
Just tried putting it into google but there were no results.

Yeah sorry for the typo. It's ConvImgCPC http://ldeplanque.free.fr/ConvImgCpc/new/

zeropolis79 · 17:53, 11 February 25

Thanks!

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Slideshow Demo coding help needed