TrueMotion

There is no sound in SGL 2.0a with True Motion.

Q)

The TRUE MOTION library supplied on the CD-ROM seems to support SGL 1.3, but isn't it compatible with SGL 2.0a?
No sound is played when compiling. (It worked normally in the supplied state.)

A)

The reason why there is no sound seems to be that the bug-fixing program of SGL Ver1.3 is included.
The function that actually had the problem is executed by using the _sound_request_sub function in the inline assembler to fix the bug in the slSoundRequest function. After this SGL Ver2.0a, please delete the _sound_request_sub function and change it to use the slSoundRequest function directly.

The movie size decreases when "Compression Level" = "High".

Q)

When "Compress Mode" is "Int ERframe" and "Compression Level" is "High", the generated compressed image is reduced (?) By 1 to 2% in the horizontal direction, and a black vertical line appears at the right end (230x224). 4 dots wide in the image).

A)

"High" compression achieves a high compression ratio by reducing the size of the movie to two-thirds. In other words, if it is 320 x 224, it is encoded for the one reduced to 208 x 224 and displayed as 312 x 224 while complementing the data at the time of playback. In conclusion, the above problem does not occur for movies that are multiples of 12.

What are the precautions for allocating memory for TrueMotion to Low-RAM?

Q)

Since the memory is not enough with High-RAM alone, it is necessary to allocate a part of the memory used by the TrueMotion library to Low-RAM, but at that time, it is better to allocate only this memory with High-RAM. Please tell me the priority of the memory allocated by.

A)

The memory allocated by the HFB library function does not affect the performance so much even if it is allocated to Low-RAM. In particular, we recommend putting the CD buffer in Low-RAM. The memory allocated by the DXL library function is read / written, so it is recommended to put it in High-RAM.

The created TrueMotion movie contains a logo mark that is not included in the material.

Q)

When I play a TrueMotion compressed movie on Saturn, the TrueMotion logo mark is attached to the movie. Did the movie creation fail?

A)

If you do not turn off the recompression option when merging multiple compressed movies on the movie editing tool, recompression will be applied. When this recompression occurs, the logo mark will be included.

Is there a way to eliminate the block noise that appears in the highly saturated areas?

Q)

Is there a way to eliminate the block noise that appears in the highly saturated areas?

A)

The most effective way is to increase the color resolution to "High_XY" with the Color Resp parameter during compression. This will improve the 4x4 pixel block to 2x2. However, with Release 3.0 distributed on CD, this color resolution can only be selected in 16bitColor IntRAframe mode. Other modes are only up to "High_Y".

In the latest version of Release 3.5, "High_XY" can be selected in all modes, but please note that increasing the color resolution will increase the transfer data rate accordingly.

Another method is to cut out only the scenes where the block noise of the material is conspicuous, and apply filter processing such as desaturation by preprocessing before compression.

I can't test-play a TrueMotion movie with a commercial title.

Q)

When I took out TrueMotion movie data from a commercially available Sega Saturn title and tried to play it in a test, the sound played on Windows, but the video did not play well with only vertical red stripes appearing on the screen. .. Can I play it on Sega Saturn using VCD without any problem?

A)

This is due to the difference in the key code issued at the same time when the TrueMotion development kit is distributed to each licensee. By giving the movie data different key code information for each development environment during TrueMotion compression, it is possible to prevent editing work from being performed on other development environments and prevent copyright infringement due to modification of the movie data. The purpose. It is possible to play the same movie as the product version using VCD on Sega Saturn.

Is it possible to use only TrueMotion audio compression?

Q)

Is it possible to use only TrueMotion's DK4BIT and DK3BIT audio compression?

A)

This is possible by creating an audio-only AVI movie file and using the audio decompression function of the TrueMotion library. There is no dedicated sample program, so you need to create an audio compression data decompression routine by referring to the audio part of the sample player provided.

Currently, we can only handle AVI format data, but we will consider supporting other audio formats if there is a great demand.

What is DCK_DEFAULT_READSIZE in the HFB_FillBuffer () function?

Q)

There is DCK_DEFAULT_READSIZE of the HFB_FillBuffer () function, but what is the size actually read into the buffer when the frame is updated?

A)

For example, when playing a 20fps movie, set the reading size for each frame to 300/20 = 15 (KB) based on the upper limit of the transfer rate of double-speed CDs of 300KB / s on the library side.
Here according to the sector of 2K unit

14 (KB), 16 (KB), ...

You can read the data from the CD alternately. In other words, if the average data rate of the movie to be played is only about 200KB, it is better to directly use 10 x 1024 (byte) as an argument instead of the above DEFAULT value for more efficient buffer management.

When compression is applied with TrueMotion, the whole is dithered.

Q)

When compression is applied with TrueMotion, the whole is dithered.
The situation does not change even if the parameter is changed to "smooth".

A)

When compressed with 24bit, all become "grainy". This is a mode that generates noise throughout to increase the compression ratio.

In 16bit, "smooth" and "grainy" can be selected. If you do not want to apply dither, set "Amount" of "Dither" to 0 in "smooth" and the Mach band will appear, but dither will not be applied.

True Motion samples may not compile.

Q)

When I try to rebuild the TRUE MOTION sample by deleting all .o .cof files and using the make command, the compilation works fine, but the link using ld does not work. ..
Then, the following error is output.

c: /gccsh/bin/ld.exe: cannot open dukaudio.o: Interrupted system call

A)

The solution is to increase files = in config.sys in the development environment.
The above error seems to be output when the file cannot be opened due to insufficient file handles.

What is the required buffer size when playing a movie for a long time?

Q)

When I tried to play a 45-minute movie with English education software using Western movies, I could not play it properly unless I increased the buffer size to 550Kbyte.
Other movies can be played with 480Kbyte of sample without any problem. Why is this happening?

A)

TrueMotion requires an 8-byte data area for each frame as index information.
Therefore, in the case of a short movie, the required memory size is about 21K for a demo of about 3 minutes with a frame rate of 15fps, but when this is 45 minutes, about 315K, which is 15 times that, is also required as this index information. .. Therefore, the required buffer size also increases.

An error occurs during playback of the specified frame and playback is not possible.

Q)

I want to start from the specified frame, but HFB_GetStreamingData () returns an error value of -4 and cannot play at all. Why is the error returned?

A)

If the error value is returned, there is a problem with how to call the function. You should be able to play it properly if you change it as follows.

(Change before)
bg.index = HFB_GetStreamingData (xVideoStream, (void **) & bg.data, \ & bg.length, DUK_FORWARD, 1);

(After change)
bg.index = HFB_GetStreamingData (xVideoStream, (void **) & bg.data, \ & bg.length, DUK_ABSOLUTE, 0);

What does the sample "0x25a004a1 = 0x00" do?

Q)

There is the following description in the "duckAudioInitHW ()" function

* (volatile char *) 0x25a004a1 = 0x00;

What is this doing?

A)

The handshake is off. If you don't do this, you won't hear any sound.
For more information

reference

"Sound Driver Programmer's Guide / 3. Sound Control Command "

Please refer to etc.

What is the relationship between buffer size and data rate?

Q)

How does the data rate that can be achieved change depending on the buffer allocation status?

A)

Basically, there is no choice but to adjust the buffer while checking the peak state by movie analysis such as Premier with the transfer limit of 300 Kite of 2x speed CD as a guide, so it can not be said unconditionally.
However, materials that have a long peak of over 300K cannot be played back no matter how much buffer is secured.

What is the data transfer method?

Q)

What data transfer method do you use?

A)

If the frame buffer is set to HighRAM by IntERFrame compression, SCU-DMA etc. can be used, but if it is set to LowRAM, it is always transferred by the CPU.
Since the data transfer method is not fixed on the library side, it can be set freely on the application side.

White noise appears on edges in sprite display

Q)

There is no noise on the Windows Premier, but when playing with Sega Saturn, white noise appears at the edges of the black background.
The movie is displayed on the sprite surface in 16bit Color, but the plane where the noise is displayed has not yet been identified.

A)

Due to the fact that the RGB = 0 part of the sprite surface becomes transparent and the BG color appears, it is a specification on the hardware of Sega Saturn that it becomes transparent when 8000H is written in the character data of the sprite. ..

Currently, TrueMotion encoders do not support this, so as a workaround, when compressing the movie, increase the "Brightness" parameter by about 3% and change the 8000H data to 8001H.

There is noise in the audio in loop playback mode

Q)

When loop playback was performed using HFBMODE_FORWARDLOOP with the HFB_SetBufferMode function, noise began to appear in the audio playback after 10 minutes.
The movie is on SIMM, and I have confirmed that the first 10 times are playing normally in a loop.

A)

This mode is not recommended due to audio and video rate differences and buffering issues.
However, you should be able to use the audio with the built-in sound source without any problem, such as when you want to loop only the video.

About the capture environment

Q)

DUCK's capture system sold by Nippon Columbia has MACH64 / 4M and SB16 specified for VGA card and sound card, respectively, but I think these cards are already in very short supply. If this is not the case, there is no help for it, but if so, please tell us which cards you can use.

A)

Unfortunately, the VGA card can only be confirmed with ATI's MACH64 on the DUCK capture board. VRAM can be 2M.

What are the specifications of the SGL sample for Ver 3.5.1.

Q)

Since the sample attached to TrueMotion does not follow the code creation convention (using cinit.c) since SGL3.0, what is the correspondence around that?
Regarding the playback process, the playback method was different between Ver3.2 and Ver3.51. What is the reason for this?

A)

To explain the transition of the contents of the sample program, first, the SGL samples up to "Ver3.2" were created based on "SGL1.31".
The newly provided "Ver 3.5.1" is a sample corresponding to "SGL 2.10", and changes such as modification to the form in which SGL directly controls slave processing have been added. Therefore, the sample of "Ver3.5.1" works well with "SGL3.0", but "cinit.c" is not supported yet.

Win95 TrueMotion driver does not recognize DK4Bit and DK3Bit.

Q)

I installed the TrueMotion driver in the Win95 environment, but DK4BIT and DK3BIT are not recognized as audio compression drivers.

A)

TrueMotion audio compression drivers from Ver 3.0 to 3.5.1 do not support 32-bit. Use a 16-bit application for the editing tool used for audio compression, and Ver 4.0 for Premiere.