Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Just a few questions.
    
    I am very new to the amiga world, could Amigavision run on a 2000HD
    machine with 4 MEG of memory?   Could you tell me what you did
    your presentation on, what machine, the configuration etc.
    
    Thanx.
    
    
    Ian Thomson

re .1    Don't think you are going to get an answer.  The base note 
was extracted from USENET and not the experience of someone here at DEC.

	Dick

    re .2  Correct.  I didn't do it, someone else did. 
    
    re .1  Yes, you can run amigavision on an A2000 with all the features
    you mentioned.  In fact I think you can run amigavision on any amiga,
    even a plain 500.  I don't think it needs a meg, but a could be wrong.
    
    If you want to send the guy who wrote that article some mail about it,
    send to the address listed in the title of this message.
    
    Steve
    

    
    that should be
    
    nm%decwrl::"[email protected]"
    
    The title wouldn't take the quotes...
    

    Re: .1

    According to the AmigaVision brochure:

            Hardware System
        
            � Minimum Delivery System:
                Amiga computer with 1 meg RAM

            � Suggested Development System:
                Amiga computer with hard drive and 3 megs RAM

    AmigaVision truely lives up to it's hype. After a short weekend with 
    the program I feel it is the best money I spent in a long time. I am
    now in the process of building the many input files that the program
    uses. I am building disks of sound,music(amigavision looks at them
    as different),and animations. My problem is I haven't got an
    application to strive toward. The pontential for this program is
    openended for sure.
    								bill

I've read a little about AmigaVision, but have yet to see it in action.
It seems to be an excellent tool for putting together multimedia presentations
(ie. synchonizing sound w/video, w/graphics, etc), but is that all it will
do?

Does it have to make use of pre-created IFF images, or can you use an
image as a "background", and only change small pieces of the screen.
Hmnn, I'm not wording this very clearly.  How about...

Does it function as a highly advanced "screen-flipper", using pre-created
images, or does it contain tools for creating the animations, as well as
displaying them?  (Slightly better)

If I want to create a presentation with a couple of dozen "frames" 
(containing bullet lists, graphs, diagrams, etc), does each of these frames 
have to be a complete IFF image?  That would seem to make the presentations
very large, and difficult to distribute via floppy.  If I want to create a 
bar graph and show it being "created" in 10 steps, do I need 10 different
images, or can I use 1 basic image, and update it as I need to?

Any idea what was used to put together the (very nice) Amiga 3000 demo?

I'm sure I'll buy this package in the near future, I was just curious about
some of the functionality.

Thanks,

Steve

    I have not personaly worked with Amigavision, but at my last user group
    meeting we had a persentation on it with a brief comparison with Cando.
    The person doing the presentation is a club member, but he is one of
    the most technical and knowledgable people in our club.
    
    Here are some of his statments on Amigavision.
    
    1) To improve application perfomance it is much better to design a
    screen using a paint program, than creating a screen with Amigavision
    controled objects.
    
    2) The Amigavision image must be used to run any application, therefore
    to run an application you must have an Amigavision distribution.  This
    also makes the possibility of a single floppy runnable applications very
    difficult because of the size of the image.
    
    3) Amigavision is very powerful and easy to use, after the initial
    learning curve of 3-6 days.
    
    He did not indicate whether or not Amigavision could do partial page
    flipping.  But he did use some programming techniques that reminded me
    of my using TDMS.
    

>    1) To improve application perfomance it is much better to design a
>    screen using a paint program, than creating a screen with Amigavision
>    controled objects.
 
That's what I was looking for.  So it seems that AmigaVision does have 
the ability to manipulate "objects" on the screen (even if there is a
performance hit).  What types of data can be used for these objects?  
Titles, graphics primitives, brushes, etc?

I'll have to go see a demo...

Steve

    Does anyone know if and when AmigaVision will support MIDI music?
    I'd like to see a package that will load and play Standard MIDI
    files (rather than SMUS) and provide some kind of syncing.  Gold
    Disk's Showmaker says it supports MIDI, but doesn't clarify whether
    it just plays SMUS files through MIDI (Like DMCS) or if it can actually
    do something with a standard MIDI file.
    

    re .9
    	Because Amigavision can use any IFF picture for any purpose I also
    recommend using a paint program,scanner or maybe Turbo Silver to build
    your presentation data. Amigavision will allow you to use any
    picture,or part of a picture as a hit box. I used an Dpaint brush made
    from the First frame on an engine animation as a hit box. Then when the
    screen comes up you just click on it to run the animation. The demo of
    the States program that comes with it is neat. They pull in a picture
    of the US into the object editor and then used THE DRAWING tools in 
    AmigaVision to trace over the map. This makes it possible to have each
    state as a hit box. You do not see the outline you traced in the object
    editor until you select a state. A very powerfull feature. I miss the 
    neat moves etc you could do in Deluxe Video III(I sold it),but feel
    that The ease of use of AmigaVision makes up for this. If you want to
    have a sun orbiting a planet you have to do it in Dpaint. DVIII made
    this easy ot do.
    							bill

    As of this week AmigaVision will no longer be shipping with the 2000,
    and the 500p systems. It will still be bundled with the 3000 system.
    This is too bad. I always felt AmigaVision being bundled was a selling
    point for all the systems. 
    								bill 

I agree that this is too bad. From reading through the latest Amazing
and Amiga World, it seems C= is proving packages of mediocre and/or
outdated software with their system packages (Deluxe Paint II, old games,
no accounting with the the "business" package). 

AmigaVision is not only a selling point. Giving it away develops a
standard and a reputation that the Amiga needs. Oh well.
Dave

    The stuff they are giving away is probably better than the intro stuff
    that was being given. I know crossdos was on that lists, and that is
    well worth having.
    							bill

    I guess they don't want to make it the Amiga equivalent of Apple's
    Hypercard.  Or maybe they want to leave it up to the dealers to
    do the bundling.  The assumption in the ibmpc world is that most
    of the software that comes bundled with your new system isn't great,
    but the price is right.  You need to buy real application separately
    or convince your dealer to enhance the bundling.
    
    I'd like to see CBM set standards for how this stuff ties together.
    And use Amigavision as an example of how 3rd party vendors could 
    implement it.
    
    Dave

    I rather tend to think it is tied to the recent cost reductions to the
    %00, and 2000 systems. Thr thought may be that the systems will sell 
    better at a more attractive price. AmigaVision is nice but to those
    that don't know about it(many many) price may bring them in. After all
    many that buy the 500 for christmas won't be using Amigavision, but
    will be after entertainment software. 
    								bill 

 I am cynical enough to say price is always the answer... But that doesn't
 mean that Commodore should abandon something that sets the Amiga apart
 from other computers or games systems. If they intend to sell purely
 as an entertainment system, they will lose big against the new Nintendo
 and other 16bit game systems. If they provide a  bunch of mediocre, 
 unmatched and unintegrated software that does't capatilize on multitasking
 or multimedia, than they are in the same market as cheap clones, where
 they will also lose big. I see a big squeeze in the market and no obvious 
 marketing where the Amiga waves a different colored flag. 

Dave

Re: .15

>    I guess they don't want to make it the Amiga equivalent of Apple's
>    Hypercard.

Maybe they do.  I seem to remember hearing the Apple no longer bundles
Hypercard with Macs.  Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Article: 548
From: [email protected] (John Campbell - CATS)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia
Subject: Re: latest version of AV
Date: 17 Sep 91 17:41:18 GMT
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected].
Edu (ftp Amiga Manager) writes:
 
>I received version 1,70W when I finally got my PowerUp A3000.
 
Are you sure it was not 1.70Z?  Did it have an official label on the disk?
What dealer?  We have had a number of interim development releases for testing
purposes, but only 1.70Z was released for shipment.
 
>I haven't really had a chance to play with it much yet, but after installing
>it on my hard drive, I was able to lock up my machine with the address book
>tutorial flow.
 
We consider program quality very seriously.  You should not have a 1.70W,
as it did have bugs, but we do not know of any such problem with 1.70Z.  If
you would like to send me the exact disk you received I will personally 
update your diskette in this situation.  (This is NOT the upgrade plan, this
is a specific instance to help this particular individual.  Other readers
should not send for upgrades to me, they will be ignored.)  By the way,
did you receive a perfect bound manual or a 3 ring binder manual?
 
I am still working on the official press release and upgrade plan, and will
post here when available.
 
US MAIL:
   John Campbell
   Commodore
   1200 Wilson Drive
   West Chester PA 19380
 
   

Article: 592
From: [email protected] (John Campbell - CATS)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia
Subject: AmigaVision announcement
Date: 8 Oct 91 20:03:12 GMT
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
 
Attached is the press release which was recently distributed from Commodore
Business Machines (US).  The contact is listed as Chilton G. Goebel, Jr. APR,
Ketchum Public Relations, 215-626-8210.
 
This is an effort to answer the many questions surrounding this topic.  I hope
people are not offended by its commercial content since many "netters" have
requested this posting.  Thank you for your bandwidth.
 
John
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
NEW AMIGAVISION (TM) FEATURES MAKE CREATIVITY EASIER
 
	West Chester, PA, October 8, 1991 -- AmigaVision (TM), an icon-based
 authoring language used to create multimedia programs complete with sound,
 animation, pictures and video, has been enhanced by Commodore Business
 Machines, Inc.  New AmigaVision features facilitate the creation of
 sophisticated multimedia presentations and innovative interactive
 applications.
 
	According to David J. Archambault, director of business markets, the
 new features are part of Commodore's ongoing enhancement program for the
 Amiga computers.
 
	A key feature of the new AmigaVision 1.70Z, upgraded from the earlier
 1.53G version, is the ability to chain applications together with a simple
 icon control.
 
	John Campbell, director of applications development, says the new
 chaining feature will allow users to manage applications in smaller, modular
 programs and to extend memory usage.
 
	Additional new features include an upgraded standard music file
player with improved support for tempo, dynamics and chords, and new video
device drivers including ones for the Panasonic OMDR and Pioneer 8000
laserdisc player and the NEC-PC VCR.  AmigaVision 1.70Z also lets the user
drive additional peripherals out of the serial port and offers six new
functions in the expression editor.
 
	Campbell says that the AmigaVision manual and example disks have
been revised to include new application and presentation development sample
programs.
 
        AmigaVision currently is bundled with the company's Amiga 3000 series
computers.  In addition, it can be purchased as a standalone unit for $149.95
(MSRP) for use with other Amiga computers. The standalone package includes
four diskettes and the user's manual.
 
	The AmigaVision 1.70Z upgrade is available to current owners by
 sending their original program disk and a check for $35.00 to:
 
		Commodore Business Machines
		AmigaVision Upgrade
		P.O. Box 18370
		Memphis, TN 38181
 
	Commodore Business Machines, Inc., based in West Chester, PA,
manufactures and markets a complete line of computers and peripherals for
business, education, government and consumer markets. The multitasking Amiga
line includes the Amiga 500, Amiga 2000 series and Amiga 3000 series of
computers.
 
	Commodore is a registered trademark of Commodore Electronics Limited.
Amiga is a registered trademark, and AmigaVision is a trademark of Commodore-
Amiga, Inc.
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