At 12:14 +0100 03/15/2002, Andreas Gaunitz P11 wrote:
>You could use the alpha channel (the fourth "color" channel) to
>embed data, if it's not being used for transparency. Not all img
>formats support alpha though. Eps, Png and Tiff do, but not jpeg.
Well, you would not want to use JPEG for this anyway. You'd have to
do the stego on a lossless format. (You knew that though.)
I'd avoid using alpha too on the off chance that Director (or any
other image display program) would try to display it even on images
that didn't use it -- and you'd get all kinds of wacky noise onscreen
then.
>One advantage of doing this is that you could tell you customer to
>just paste you copy protection image into the alpha channel in ie
>Photoshop, so the image won't need to go through Director in the
>first place.
In order to make the alpha protector it would. But then you can sell
an entire package -- a creation engine and a distribution one -- and
make even more cashola. :)
There's another rationale though. If you start involving other
programs, and working with the assumption end users will follow
instructions correctly, you have two variables over which you have no
control.
For instance the third party program might silently change some of
its algorithms, hosing your methods. And I think we *all* know what
happens when you trust a user to follow instructions correctly. ("It
says press any key... where's the 'any' key?")
Thus it makes more sense (to me) to offer a complete production
package that -- as far as possible -- removes such variables from the
mix. After all, Director *can* do it. (In fact I was talking to a
colleague earlier and mentioned to him in passing that right now you
could practically write PhotoShop in Director.) So since it *can* do
it, well, why not let it do it?
--
Warren Ockrassa | http://www.nightwares.com/
Director help | Free files | Sample chapters | Freelance | Consulting
Author | Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio: A Beginner's Guide
Published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill
http://www.osborne.com/indexes/beginners_guides.shtml
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