I thought that I'd mention that there is an partially implemented feature
in 3.7 that may interest some folk who want to do things with the source.

Basically, we were considering adding the ability to output animations
directly in quicktime or AVI format using MJPEG compression. At the time
there was some doubt as to whether or not we could generate compliant
quicktime or AVI files using only the libjpeg code we already have present
in the source.

The infrastructure for actually co-ordinating all the things needed inside
the program to bring such a file together during an animation hasn't really
been put in place and would probably be too much of a bite for someone who
isn't already familiar with the code.

However, testing the code that has been added and working out if it is
indeed possible to generate working animations directly (i.e. testing the
files stand-alone) is probably somewhat more approachable. There is already
working and tested JPEG writing code, and some support code for writing .qt
files; the test status of the latter I am not sure of as while it hasn't
been used in 3.7, it could have been used by Thorsten elsewhere.

We also thought about allowing the reading of animation files that were
compressed with supported codecs (something we can read with existing code,
such as perhaps again MJPEG) to allow frames to be mapped into an animation
being generated (for example, if your animation has a TV in it, and the TV
is showing a program, the program itself could be an animation file read as
input with each frame mapped exactly as a still image may currently be).

Anyhow, if you're interested in having a poke at this, have a look at the
files in source\base\animation\. The POV-specific JPEG implementation code
may be found in \source\base\image\.

regards,

-- Chris

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