History

Version 0.16.0 (10.Jul.2001)

• New option to loop the slideshow continuously. Requested by Peter Bootsma
• Added picture saving, printing and setting as desktop wallpaper.
• Added option to have the CD player always on top.
• Fixed two slideshow bugs: one was keeping movie files opened on screen even when viewing pictures, the other was keeping the slideshow running in the background when the user stopped the slideshow, resulting in repeated disk access.
• Fixed bug where sometimes movies in full screen mode were showing a blank display.

Version 0.15.0 (22.May.2001)

• 2 new colour functions: lighten and darken, each with four levels of brightness.
• 2 new distortion functions: edge detect and emboss.
• Added copying to the clipboard, so that opened pictures can be pasted into other applications.
• Added progress bar during folder reading so that users can look at a blue bar filling up! (In large folders you can see that something is still going on). This has also helped us to determine how the file reading can be sped up.
• Corrected a bug which was displaying Shockwave files in a small window at the top-left of the screen.

Version 0.14.0 (27.Mar.2001)

• CD Player has been reprogrammed without using the multimedia library, so that the program becomes smaller.
• CD Player appearance has also been souped up.

Version 0.13.0 (17.Feb.2001)

• Added Snatch function to copy desired files from viewed directories.
• New supported file type: WMF.
• Some internal re-programming make the program work better.
• By the way, we have registered a new web address which can be found at http://www.pantera-designs.com/

Version 0.12.0 (18.Jan.2001)

• 4 New supported file types: ASF, AU, ICO and SWF. Shockwave support may require downloading of the latest shockwave libraries from http://www.macromedia.com/
• File types are now split into four categories: Audio, Video, Picture and Text. This leaves room for more file types in the future. Cool!
• All filters are now enabled by default for first time installers. Way to go!

Version 0.11.0 (20.Nov.2000)

• Fixed bug that was bringing up a file error with the Random function in detailed viewmode.
• Added popup menus to the media screen, so that functions can now be performed with the right mouse button.
• With the popup menus, took the opportunity to add two new rotation angles.
• Detailed view updating has been speeded up considerably.
• Fixed bug where during a slideshow with one or both of the picture sizing options enabled, differently sized pictures showed a previous picture underneath the current one.
• Fixed bug that was crashing the program when the HTML browser was being minimised.
• Files are now closed with a double click, whereas the left mouse button is now used to drag the picture around the screen.
• Fixed bug where text files were not being closed after being read, resulting in other programs reporting that the file is being used.

Version 0.10.0 (9.Sept.2000)

• The Detailed viewmode has now been programmed. Hooray! You can now see the file size, modification date and file type as well as its name, and you can sort the files by any of the these properties.
• Slideshow feature takes on a new meaning now.

Version 0.9.0 (Not released)

• The help file can now be read from inside the program's HTML browser. A slight omission there I suppose.
• There is a custom file type entry where new file extensions can be filtered.
• The font for the text viewer can now be selected from the options window.
• Now only CD drives are selectable for Audio CD playback.
• Refresh menu item has been added to refresh the file list.
• Thumbnail loading is now accompanied by a progress bar and images are loaded one at a time. Before it seemed that it was too slow. Now it shows you that in fact it is doing something.

Corrected Bugs:

• The CD Drive letter option in the options window was generating an error whenever a CD was removed from the drive.

Although we enjoyed using this version's new features for our purposes, we at Pantera Designs have imposed on ourselves that there won't be another release before the Detailed viewmode is finally working.

Version 0.8.0 (10.Jun.2000)

Audiovisualmagitastic is back with another release after a period of two months. There was another version in the middle, but it was only released internally since the only difference from the previous version was that the CD player was now put in its own window.

There must be something new after two months?

Well, much of the time was dedicated to continue the TrancePlant engine among other things, but yes in fact there are some new features for those that have been waiting:

• CD Player now has its own little window, which can be situated anywhere on the screen without getting in the way.
• There are two new sizing functions:

• L - Fit picture length to screen length
• K - Fit picture height to screen height.

• Unrecognised file types can now be opened as text files if selected in the Setup window.
• Also in the setup window, there is an option to change the drive for CD playback.

Bugs Life

Add Noise function was mistakenly filling the screen with the colour of the GIF background. It has been corrected, but I'm sure it will be added as a new feature.

The program was also crashing when the user tried to click on an empty directory. If you see something similar happening report it immediately.

Version 0.6.0 (31.Mar.2000)

The major overhaul is ready. The big advantages are increased file type support and a better playback routine.

What new file types are supported?

The program now supports MPEG movie files and MP3 audio files. Additional file types will be supported in the next release.

Better routines?

Movies are now centered on the screen, and you can select the movie size from the options dialog. Also, as you probably know, GIF images can have a transparent colour in their palette so that they can be placed on a background and have some parts show through. So you now have the possibility to select the background colour of a picture by moving the RGB sliders always in the options dialog.

Return of the bugs

In the thumbnail view, everything was getting mixed up. Should be working properly now. Also maximise button was not scaling the main window at all. In the file-list, corrected a bug that did not display file types which can use different extensions (like MPG or MPEG), and files with multiple dots in the filename should also work properly now. Audiovisualmagitastic now also tells you that a zoomed picture is too big instead of just crashing out on you.

Version 0.5.2 (16.Mar.2000)

This version fixes some bugs and shortcomings noticed after the last major update. For example, in the About screen, we were still using an outside browser to display our homepage, even after we had implemented a browser function within the program. Doh! Here are some nasty ones that have been fixed.

Nasty Bug 1

The program was not clearing the buffer when scaling pictures, resulting in overlapping pictures.

Nasty Bug 2

After the Slideshow button had been pressed once, successive file viewing resulted in a new slideshow being started.

Something new?

Nasty bug 2 has given me an idea that I implemented. Now, a slideshow can be started from the highlighted file in the list by pressing the right mouse button on the Slideshow button.

Version 0.5.1 (6.Mar.2000)

The program has had a bit of an overhaul in the way it works internally. It now works better when viewing a slide show since it views the file list as one entity instead of looking at each file individually as it did before. As a result of this, there are two new commands available:

Space - Launch the next file in the file list.

Backspace - Launch the previous file in the file list.

Any other new keys for me to press?

Yes, you can now align an image to the edges of the screen with the following keys:

Home - Align image to the top of the screen.

End - Align image to the bottom.

Ins - Align image to the left.

Del - Align image to the right.

I heard that there was a cool new feature coming our way. Is that so?

You heard right. Under the File menu, there is now a Page Builder function. With it you can create an HTML document to link to the files in the file list. For example, if you have a site on the internet with a number of pictures, just use this function to create a web page that will let your visitors view these pictures. All you have to do is to upload the generated file to your site and that's it. It's that simple, and it works with all kinds of files as well, as long as you take care to provide the plug-ins that your visitors need to view your pages.

You can change the page title and filename, as well as select the number of columns that will be generated in the HTML page. The greyed-out options shows you what you can expect in a future release.

New for Release 3 (23.1.2000)

I know it's been almost a month since my last update, but after Christmas I started playing around with some other things, mainly having to do with my new Dreamcast. Apart from that, I have been busy with my other software projects, but during the last week I have been back full time on improving this program with new features.

Here is a summary of the new functions:

8 - Pixelise the image with 4x4 blocks.

9 - Pixelise the image with 8x8 blocks.

0 - Pixelise the image with 16x16 blocks.

Movie functions

P - Pause/Unpause the currently playing movie. Can also be used for audio files.

< - Steps the movie backward.

> - Steps the movie forward.

Again the < and > keys can be used with Shift, Ctrl and Alt for bigger steps. If sometimes Ctrl and Alt don't work it's because the movie is too short for the selected steps.

What is that yellow message at the bottom of movie and audio files?

During playback of movie and audio files some timing information is provided. The current position in the playing file and the total length are displayed in bright yellow at the bottom of the screen. As always, once I add a new feature I give you the option of taking it away, so you can turn off timing information from the setup menu.

Promises, Promises!

As promised last time, I have added a key template which you can access from the Help menu. Now you don't have to memorise every single command as it's so easy to get help abaut it.

Are there any new supported file types in this release?

Indeed yes. The program now supports HTML files which are opened in a browser window for you to navigate.

Bugs

Only one reported this time. The program kept crashing whenever a previously opened directory was not being found. Because the program remembers the last directory you were exploring when it is started up, it sometimes crashed without starting at all if the required directory was not found. This was the case for removed CDs or floppies or for deleted directories from the hard disk. However don't worry or indeed try to understand as this problem has now been fixed.

New features on 2nd Release (26.12.1999)

You can now change the screen image with a number of different effects. They can be executed with various key presses whilst viewing the pictures. And I promise that in the next release I will include a key template inside the program.

Here are the effect descriptions and the keys you have to press:

Basic Functions

Cursor keys - move the picture around the screen, 1 pixel if pressed alone, increased steps if pressed together with shift, further increased with ctrl and alt keys.

H - flip the screen horizontally.

V - flip the screen upside down.

S - stretches the picture to cover the whole screen.

T - turns the picture 90 degrees anticlockwise.

7 - adds some random noise to the picture.

+ - zooms into the screen.

- - zooms out of the screen.

Zoom scale is x2 for above two keys. If keys are pressed while holding shift the zoom scale is x3, x4 for ctrl and x6 for alt.

Colour Alteration Functions

R - red component. Removes all colours except red.

G - green component. As above for green.

B - blue component. Same for blue.

Above keys can be used with modifiers which are:

Shift - removes the selected colour component from the picture.

Ctrl - XOR picture with selected colour component. e.g. Ctrl - R results in removing the red component where there is red and putting the red component where there isn't.

Alt - Increase the selected colour component by half the RGB scale.

N - Inverts colour component as in photo negative.

Strange But True Functions

1 - Distorts the picture with a sine wave function with minimal wavelength and amplitude.

2 - Sine wave function with same wavelength but double the amplitude.

3 - Sine wave function with double the wavelength but same amplitude as in 1.

4 - Sine wave function with double the wavelength and double the amplitude.

5 - Sine wave function with wavelength x4 but amplitude as in 1.

6 - Sine wave function with four times the wavelength and amplitude.

Didn't you forget something last time?

Oh!, yes there is a feature which has been available since the first release, but it has gone undocumented. You can call the program from the dos prompt followed by a filename. This makes the program play the file and then exits back to the prompt. Don't make a big fuss about it since it has not been fully utilised yet. However you can use this function to show some files from a script file or to make other programs call it to play files.

What about those two new buttons below the file counter?

The first button, Random, will select a random file from the file list and play it. This lets you sample a number of files from a big selection. The second button, Slide Show, shows you all the files in the file list one after the other. If it is a picture file, it will go to the next file after a timeout. This timeout can be set from the options screen, named Slide Delay and is measured in seconds. The default timeout is 5 seconds.

Where did those two scale options in the setup window come from?

As in my previous Picview program, there is an option to scale the image automatically. This is either done if one of the four sides of the picture is bigger than the screen or if all sides of the picture are smaller than the screen. You have the option to select if the image is scaled when it is larger than the screen, when it is smaller, on both occasions, or just leave the image as it is if no options are selected. The image will be scaled to fit in the screen.

I have also ironed out some obscure bugs that have popped out, but I bet there are others lurking around the place.

For future updates, point your browser at http://pantera-designs.com/download.htm