Q: Is there a way to change the default setting of 5 for playback speed in the aaplayhi animation player to a different setting? I need to play a demonstration back with a speed setting of 3 for the entire demo.

A: You can change the default speed of the flic using AA Pro. When using AAPLAYHI or ANIPLAY, you have to use scripting.
There should be a .DOC file in your player directory, but here is the most important part:

You have to write an ASCII file with a script that lists all the FLI,FLC and image files you want to show in the presentation. The default extension is .SCR.

  • To play the file MYFILE.FLC at the speed of 3, write
    myfile.flc -s 3

  • To let the file pause at the end for 3 seconds, write
    myfile.flc -p 3

  • To repeat the flic 3 times, write
    myfile.flc -l 3

  • There are also transitions FADEIN, FADEOUT and CUT. You can specify color and duration. The following fades in from red in 1.5 seconds and then cuts to the next flic:
    myflic.flc -t fadein 1.5 (255,0,0) cut

    You can combine the switches:
    myfile.flc -s 0 -p 2 -t fadein 2 fadeout 3 white -l 10
    will fade in in 2 seconds, play at maximum speed, wait 2 seconds, fade out to white in 3 seconds, and repeat the same 10 times.

  • You can load a flic into RAM using
    loadflic myflic.flc

  • You can free RAM using
    freeflic myflic.flc

    This is the command summary from the AAPLAYHI.DOC file.

        Option         Action
_______________________________________________________________
    -l (x)         Loops flic; x is the number of times a flic
                   plays (must be an integer)
    -s (y)         Sets playback speed for flic; y is the number
                   of jiffies (1/70 second) per frame
    -p (z)         Pauses flic at the end; z is the pause time
                   in seconds (can be decimal)
    -t (options)   Transitions (fade-ins, fade-outs and cuts);
                   options include the type of transition,
                   whether it is an in transition or out
                   transition, and the time in which the
                   transition is to occur (can be decimal or
                   integer)
    -type (pdr load type)  Specifies the type of picture to
                   load; pdr is the filename of the picture
                   driver; do not include the filename
                   extension .pdr


Command        Effect
___________________________________________________________
Loop (count)   Repeats portion of script within loop, count
               times.
Break          Aborts loop and proceeds to next script
               command.
Subroutines    Means of organizing and modularizing scripts;
               called using the gosub command.
Return         Returns program to main script from
               subroutine
Call