Myths And Magic By Michael "Aussie" Holten

s the position of the moon upsetting your system... or does it help? How about the comet and its tail winds? Myths are flying these days. A number of users are pushing (i.e. testing) the crouton limit of a Flyer project. All types of numbers are coming in and while they vary between users, they seem to stay on constant on each individual machine. (It does seems a little odd to be beta testing a product that's been out for a while, but Amiga operators never seem to tire of this.)

The new Flyer CD, Flyer version 4.2, should be sent out free to registered users quite soon. When you install Flyer 4.2, please make sure that you are IN-BETWEEN projects... don't push the moon or the comet too far!

Joe Tracy's new book should appear this month. The Flyer Mastery Guide promises to be an up to date look at using the Flyer to the max. Orders can be placed at 1-800-672-1880 ($63.95 includes S/H) or, better still, through your favorite dealer.

I have tossed in a couple of myths from distinguished flyer users that have been sailing around this month. Myth or Magic.... you decide.

Alert, Audio: Change Audio Drive from FC0: ???

While I have not tried this myself, at least four users have posted that they successfully eliminated all audio stutters from their projects by changing their audio drive assignment. (Moon... Comet... Magic...) Some went to FC1: Others to FC4:

If you try this, remember to also switch the "driver" in your workbench:Devs drawers. Take Sys:Devs/DosDrivers/FC0 to Sys:Storage/DosDrivers, then bring your new assignment name from the storage into the devs/dosdriver drawer. After re-booting, the new assignment will kick in.

If you are unsure... then find a buddy. That way if something goes wrong you can either blame him/her, or have a friend to cry/drink with.

Flyer: Close other programs when saving project

When you save your project, it also remembers whether your CG, TPaint or LightWave programs were loaded. When you re-load a project, the Flyer re-opens those programs too. For the sake of memory, when you last save a project at the end of a day, close down those other programs (by holding SHIFT key and selecting them on the programs menu.) Then save your project. When you start up again you will have less overhead.

Flyer: Crouton limit in Folders

While there is much discussion about how many croutons can be in a project, there has been agreement that there is probably a 180 crouton limit in a folder (or sitting out on the root directory of a drive. Create and name new folders, and drag some files into each. Then build your project.

If you already have a project built, and it won't run, and you have too many croutons in one area.... then split up the files to new folders and use the RXTool "Fix Project" to locate the files in the new folders.

Flyer: Do you still use Flyer Info command

The original c:info that comes with workbench was not designed for the huge drives we now use. Hence NewTek's Flyer installs a newer info command into your c: drawer. If you have ever reinstalled workbench (i.e. had a bad day) then you probably wrote over that new file.

To check which version you have, open a shell window and type in: info FA0: (or FB0: etc.) It will list the drive with some information. Under the heading "status" you should see "read/write". If so then you have the NewTek version running.

If status shows "unreadable disk" or some other error than you are probably back on the Amiga version. You can download this NewTek version and copy it to c:info.

Flyer: File naming conventions

It could be worse. PC users get 8 letters, one dot, and 3 more letters. They end up with some pretty cryptic file names (like license plates). Amiga users have less limits (generally 32 letters) and can develop some better file managing techniques. There are limits though. What might work in the Flyer, might not with some add on tool.

ARexx presumes that a file (or directory) name ends at the first space (so why is the Flyer's default folder name "Folder 1"... or why is Ram: named "Ram Disk:"??? Standard suggestion... use "_" instead of spaces.

To get around this, we jam a quote at the start & end of a name, which tells ARexx to keep the spaces and anything else. So, don't put any quotes or apostrophes into filenames (" or ').

The next item is the length of a file name. Many ARexx routines create a copy of a file and usually take your file name and add something to the start or end of the name. This makes the file name longer, so leave some room for the name to grow.

So if you name your file as a shot description (like Darrell does!) "Woman jumps off table while woman's husband rides in on a kangaroo with a fish on its head.shot with VX1000 cause I like it" then you might run into problems. Rename it "WeirdShot.01" instead.

Flyer: Fix Project ARexx script

One of the most useful ARexx programs that is in everyone's ARexx/editor drawer (RXTools) in FixProject. This routine helps locate files that have been moved on your hard drives. (Note: reloading a project from a tape backup may put files in a new location automatically.)

To use FixProject, simply load your project. When it tells you that some files are missing, tell it to continue to load. When the project is loaded, you will see that some croutons display the "mystery ?" icon.

Find FixProject and double click on it. Then select "Semi-auto". It will search through your project and ask for you to show where the first missing file is located. Use the lower half of the Flyer screen to open the necessary drive and folder, then select continue. The ARexx routine will try to pull a number of files from that folder. It if can't find everything, it will prompt you again for the next missing file.

When it is completed, you will be prompted to save the project as a new name. Afterwards, load the new project. Bingo. All your files have been found.

Video: Blank CG fixes stutter at cut points

This refers to a visual "stutter" that may occur when "cutting" from one clip to another (by cutting, I mean there is no effect between two visuals). I rarely see this stutter and have usually tracked it down to a problem of split audio. Other folks like to put a 2 frame video fade (a "soft cut") instead of a "hard cut".

One user creates a blank CG key page and places this in the project so that it plays over any "cut" points. He reports that all his stuttery cuts then played fine.

When you have a problem, you can lose a lot of time trying to figure out what is wrong. Often a simple trick like this will get your project out the door quickly.

Cheers, Aussie

OZware
21230 Meadow Lake Rd.
Snohomish WA 98290
(360) 805-0148.
ozware@aol.com

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