Gaf viewer v1.2 Readme

This file decribes what various GUI elements do and how to edit the 
GafViewer.ini file which control various options.

For our website :
http://cc.tauniverse.com
or vist the TAU forums :
http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=77
or vist the TA designers forums :
http://www.isjx.ch/tadesigners/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=98

Most things have pop-up hints.

* Features *

----Opening gafs----
Top open a gaf file use the "File->Open Gaf" menu.
This will bring up a standrad win32 file selection dialog box.
There are 3 filters you can use.
1st filter-Gaf files(*.gaf)
- Opens the file as a Gaf.
2nd filter-Hpi files(Can contain gafs)|*.hpi;*.ufo;*.gp3;*.gpf;*.ccx
- Allows a file to be selected from a file archive to be used.
  The Selection
3rd filter-All files(*.*)
- Allow any file to be selected. It will bring up the same file selection window
  as the Hpi files filter. If the file isnt an archive it will only display 1 file 
  in the righ hand plane, the file you selected in the open dialog box.

The keyboard Shortcut is "Ctrl-O". 

The dialogs can handle multipule files too.


-------- Close Gaf --------
Closes the current Gaf. Not much to see here move along.

The keyboard Shortcut is "Ctrl-Q"

-------- Close All Gaf --------
Closes the all Gafs. Even less to see here move along.

---------- Quit -----------
If you need this explained to you why are you using this program?

The keyboard Shortcut is "Alt-F4", clicking on the X also works :)


--- Viewing a GAF image ---
The left hand plane is used to hold a list of image names.
To select on click on it.

To slect multipule files hold down CTRL or SHIFT. These behave the 
same as they do in explorer. Use the right click menu to do batch operations.

The right hand white box is were the image will be rendered.


--- Selecting image(s) ---

The image selection box can have its witdh changed.
Right clicking on a single image will bring up a popup menu with 3 options.
1) Export Frames - Exports the sub frames of the selected image
2) Export SubFrames - Export the sub frames of the selected image
3) Export All - Exports all images in the gaf.

To select mutlipule images use CTRL & SHIFT keys like you would in Explorer.
When selecting mutiplue images, the current image is unloaded. It will be
reloaded once multiplue images are no  longer selected.  

When multiple images are selected the right click popup menu hsa 2 options:
1) Export Selected - Exports the selected images
2) Export All - Exports all images in the gaf.

The white(by default) box on the right hand side, is were the image attributes 
are the image it self is displayed.

Animation speed, Animation speed is measured in milliseocnds, and is the time elapsed between frames.
67 milliseconds per frame is equivelent to 15 fps, which is apparently what TA animates GAFs at


------- Settings ---------
Animate 
- Animates the current selected image if it has more than 1 frame

Auto centre 
- Forces the image

Auto select 1st image
- Controls when a GAF is loaded, the 1st images is selected

View Subframes
- Switchs to viewing each seperate subframe in an image instead of by frame
- When enabled, the action 'Export subframe' is enabled

History list
- Max history list size is how long the history list can be before Items are dropped off

Background color
- The background color on the image box

Archive search filter
- The filter to use when searching archive files.

Export Frame
- Saves a frame to disk as a 24bit bitmap

Export Frames
- Saves the frames of an image to disk as a series of 24bit bitmaps

Export SubFrame
- Saves a subframe to disk as a 24bit bitmap

Export SubFrames
- Saves the subframes of an image to disk as a series of 24bit bitmaps

About dialog
- Brings up the About dialog. 
  Contains: 
  Version info, 
  Clickable link to website, 
  Contributor list.

* Editing GafViewer.ini *

The ini file is divided into sections. 


***********
[WindowPos]
***********
- Contains setting regarding the window appearance

***********
Top=
Left=
Width=
Height=
***********
- The window position, in pixels.
  Defaults to the centre of the primary monitor. 

***********
SeperatorWidth=
***********
- SeperatorWidth controls how wide the image list box is. 
  This is changable in the application.



***********
[Settings]
***********
- App settings

***********
Animated=1
***********
- Animates the image if it has more than 1 frame

***********
AnimationSpeed=1000
***********
- Controls the time between frame changes in milliseconds. 
  Due to technical limitations, minium value is 100

***********
AutoCenter=1
***********
- Ignores offset data, and draws the image perfectly centred in the paintbox.
  If it looks offcentre, turn off transparancy to see that it IS centred.

***********
AutoSelect1stImage=1
***********
- Control is, when a gaf is loaded the 1st image is auto selected.

***********
ViewSubFrames=0
***********
- Control is the individual subframes are viewed instead of just the frames

***********
Transparent=1
***********
- Controls is images are drawn with transparancy. 

***********
BackGroundColor=clWhite
***********
- The background color, if an image looks like it isnt being 
  displayed turn transparancy & change the back ground color.   
  IE "totala.hpi\anims\vismask.gaf" is a white cicle.

***********
ArchiveSearchFilter=*.gaf
***********
- The search mask to use when the select file dialog from 
  archive file is presented

***********
Filter=Gaf Files|*.gaf|Hpi files(Can contain gafs)|*.hpi;*.ufo;*.gp3;*.gpf;*.ccx|All Files|*.*
***********
- The filters are the filters used by the open file dialog.
  The 1st filter is special, as if it is selected the file is handled directly 
  as a GAF file . Any other filter the select file from archive dialog is presented.
  This dialog can handle real files as well, not just HPI files.

***********
FilterIndex=1
***********
- The last selected filter (starts at 1)


***********
LoadLastDir=
***********
- The last directory which was used to load files from

***********
SaveLastDir=
***********
- The last directory which was used to extract files to

***********
[HistoryList]
***********
- The list of last opened gaf files

***********
MaxHistoryListSize=5
***********
- The max size of the history list before items a dropped of the end

***********
HistoryList=
***********
- A semicolon (';') delimited list of history entires. Should be absolute paths
  The syntax for loading a file out of a HPI file is:
  "<path in system Filesystem>\<hpi filename>\<path & filename in HPI>"
  <hpi filename> is directed by the 1st entry in the path with a '.' in it,
   ie   "c:\cavedog\totala\totala.hpi\anims\commongui.gaf"
  Thus normal directories can NOT have a '.' in them. Sorry.