FRAME LOAD
function: load frames into memory
frames=Frame Load(channel To bank/address)
frames=Frame Load(channel To bank/address,number of frames)
Use this function to load one or more IFF frames directly into memory. The parameters in brackets are as follows:
The channel number is the number of an animation file that is currently opened using the OPEN IN command.
Next, specify the memory address or bank number where the frames are to be stored. If an address is specified, the entire file will be loaded into the chosen memory area, exactly like a BLOAD instruction. If you give a bank number, a new memory bank will be reserved automatically. It will hold your animation frames and be a permanent data bank in fast memory, called "IFF". Please note that bank numbers can range from 1 to 65535. To avoid overrunning your memory area and crashing the system, it is vital that enough space is reserved to hold the entire animation sequence in memory. The actual storage requirements may be calculated with the FRAME LENGTH function, which is explained later.
Finally, there is an optional parameter that specifies the number of animation frames to be loaded. If this number is omitted, only Frame 1 will be loaded, but if your request is greater than the total number of available frames, all of the images will be grabbed in the current file, if memory allows. This can be exploited to load entire sequences no matter what their length, by setting this optional parameter to an overlarge number, as no error will be generated.
FRAME LOAD returns the number of frames that have been successfully loaded into memory. This value may be saved into a variable once the animation has been loaded, and made use of when the sequence is to be played. For example:
E> Rem Open animation file for reading Open In 1,"AMOSPro_Tutorial:Iff_Anim/AMOS.Anim" Rem Load all frames in current file Rem use overlarge value of 1000 to grab all available images to bank 10 N=Frame Load (1 To 10,1000) Close Rem N now holds the number of actual frames Print "Number of frames in this file is ";N
FRAME LENGTH
function: return the length of frames in bytes
size=Frame Length(channel)
size=Frame Length(channel,number of frames)
This function is used to calculate the precise amount of memory needed to hold the selected frames of an IFF animation file. To find the exact size of the required data area with FRAME