On Aug 12, 2004, at 4:24 PM, Chipp Walters wrote:
Troy, you're obviously knowledgeable about both of these platforms. Based upon that knowledge, what do you think would be most difficult imaging tasks if you were to port your streamlogger app to Rev? This can give us valuable insight into the directions Rev might be able to take to have better imaging tools.
;-)
StreamLogger is a poor example indeed. IMO, it should not have been written in Director in the first place. It works well, and does all the things it says, but it is more of an "application", and makes few demands on Imaging functionality - in fact, basically the same ones that "Fathom" does, which are easily achievable in Rev. When I release version 2, it will include an "engine" change. ;-) The Streamlogger example was more to show that such applications *can* be written in Director, as the implication had been that they couldn't.
When I say that Rev is behind in Imaging functionality, I'm talking more about real-time dynamic image creation. Director can composite (really composite, NOT overlay) many images with alpha at 30+ frames a second. This allows a single pixel bitmap to be transformed through code into a fully animated dynamic interface, with text, interactive buttons, rollovers, everything. Think of a dynamic animated hierarchical menu which is actually a one pixel bitmap that is written into and modified on the fly. This simply cannot be done in Revolution currently, yet is (relatively) commonplace in Director.
Consider this, in Director, virtually everything has an .image property. Text included. This means that you can generate a field of HTML styled text, which is never displayed, and exists only as a "cast member" (data resource). The .image of this field can then easily be obtained - with 8-bit alpha, and used within the same imaging functions as actual images. This allows real-time compositing of text and images into a single new image.
Also, all images have the ability to be real-time warped (essentially offsetting of individual points of their rects) before or after the compositing, with remarkable image smoothing. Useful in creating distortions, perspectives, and realtime soft semi-transparent drop shadows... and anything else the developer wishes to do. Are these sort of functions irrelevant? To some, maybe. Not to me. To me, they are a level of power and interface control I've yet to see in any other tool. Does it apply to all projects? Certainly not. StreamLogger makes NO use of them, and shouldn't. This is one of the reasons I anticipate moving it out of Director.
--
Troy
RPSystems, Ltd.
http://www.rpsystems.net
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