Volume Number: 13 (1997)
Issue Number: 7
Column Tag: MacTech Online
by Nicholas C. "nick.c" DeMello, URLs@mactech.com
"QuickTime, a set of functions and data structures that you can use in your application to control time-based data."
-- from the New Inside Macintosh: QuickTime
Moving pictures impress. Your application can have a startling splash screen or a dynamic about box, and the QuickTime pages at Apple have almost 50 code examples to show you how. Of course, the essential reference for QuickTime is the New Inside Macintosh: QuickTime (ISBN 0-201-62201-7), written by Apple and published by Addison-Wesley's Developers Press. An electronic version of that book is available from Apples developers world pages in either Acrobat or Apple DocViewer format. Make sure to review the QuickTime tips at Terran Interactive and Charles Wiltgen's QuickTime FAQ before digging too deep into NIM.
Graphic Converter hasn't appeared at the info-mac archive since version 2.5, but the latest version (2.8) of this essential shareware utility can be downloaded directly from the Lemke Software pages. Among it's many features, Graphic Converter allows you to combine a series of static images into a single QuickTime movie. Localized versions in English, French, Swedish, Spanish, and German can be downloaded. Another valuable freeware tool is Movie Cleaner Lite, available from the Terran Interactive site. It supports conversion between Cinepak and Indeo codecs, for those of you moving QuickTime videos between MacOS and Windows.
Just as tapes predated disks, linear access movies and sound tracks were only the first step in QuickTime. The QuickTime Media Layer now includes the new technologies QuickTime VR and QuickDraw 3D which allow users to interact with QuickTime movies -- to explore QuickTime worlds. QuickTime VR lets a user to rotate their perspective and experience a 360° view of a scene. It can also allow a user to roll an object in space -- to see that same object from any side they choose. Apple has put a quick explanation of how QuickTime VR accomplishes both these tasks online, with more detailed information available at their QuickTime VR FAQ web page.
QuickTime VR can add an impressive degree of interactivity to your web pages and to your Director movies. The latest version of the QuickTime VR Plug-in for both environments is available from Apple. But Apple isn't stopping there. Current Apple plans include merging the QuickTime VR worlds with QuickDraw 3D technology. QuickDraw 3D allows you to define objects in space, then manipulate them within your code and dynamically render the scene into 2D form. Visit the QuickDraw 3D web pages to see dramatic examples of this 3D standard, and to download the latest version (1.5.1) of the QD3D extension. Nine develop articles have described how to implement QuickDraw 3D, and Apple has put them and their example code online at Developer World.
With QuickTime, worlds of sound and animation, panoramic vistas, and dynamic 3D objects can exist on your web sites and within programs. Let the QuickTimes roll...
Next month MacTech Online is going to get serious about Java. Until then, those of you who missed the 1996 WWDC might be interested in reviewing the slides from the imaging workshop, including Shawn Hopwood's overview of QuickDraw 3D (be sure to also download the player for the slides if you don't have Persuasion installed). See you next month.
-- nick.c, online@mactech.com
