Smacker Development History

This file contains most of the development history of Smacker. It contains changes, updates, and fixes in both the Smacker Tools, and the Smacker SDK.

4.2 c - 02/21/06

Fixed a bug in the timer code in the Carbon MacOS players where the movie wouldn't advance.

4.2 b - 09/11/05

Fixed a bug in the Smacker player where files off another drive letter wouldn't play.
Updated the Smacker SDK to use Miles 7.
Added support for detecting dual-core Opterons.

4.2 a - 11/26/04

Added a DirectShow video and audio importer - this allows us to import a bunch of new file types! We can now import AVIs larger than 2GB, MPEG 1 videos (including the audio track), MPEG 2 videos (if you have a decoder installed), WMV videos (Windows Media), ASF files, MPEG-4 video files, DV video files, MJPEG videos, and tons of compressed audio formats (MP3 and WMA in particular). Many files types that were previously decoded with QuickTime (which is really slow) are now handled by DirectShow.
Added support for LZW-compressed GIF and TIF files (patent expired).
Added AMD 64, AMD Opteron, SSE3, Hyperthreading, EM64T and Windows 2003 Server detection to the System Info button.
Switched to building radutil.dll with VS 2003 which has slightly faster code generation.
Fixed a bug when reading 48-bit TIFF files (which we only compress as 24-bit files).
Fixed a bug with the Smacker DOS player printing garbage instead of playing.

4.1 f - 12/8/03

Fixed the DOS Smacker player so it could be compiled as an EXE again.

4.1 e - 7/1/03

On single image filename ranges (for example, `test?.bmp*0-9`), you can now specify the numbers backwards to process in reverse order (for example, `test?.bmp*9-0`).

4.1 d - 3/16/03

Smacker playback is now much smoother on medium to low-end machines running Win 9x, due to working around a multi-threaded bug in the system function, timeGetTime, that was eating up to 30% of the CPU!
Worked around buggy Windows XP sound drivers that report bogus playback positions (which was causing occasional skips).

4.1 c - 1/01/03

Fixed a potential crash in the SmackBlit API under XP.

4.1 b - 11/15/02

Fixed a bug when compiling DOS or Win16 EXEs where the file wouldn't start.
Made playback smoother in the Smacker player at very high frame rates (over 100 fps).
Switched to Perforce for all source code control.
Added the SmackGetKeyFrame to be exported on the Mac.

4.1 a - 3/15/02

Added an all new Bink audio encoder! Sounds much better and can compress up to half the old data rate!"
Added crash protection around all calls to Windows or QuickTime - we should now withstand crashes in buggy 3rd party codecs. The specific frame that was being decompressed will be blank, but the rest of the movie should survive.
Added lots of new configuration detection to the System Info button in the RAD Video Tools (Duron, P4, Celeron, Itanium, Me, 2000, XP, video card, audio card, memory, and disk space).
Detect larger than 2 GB AVI files and warn the user that they are not supported by the Windows reader.

4.0 k - 1/21/02

Fixed a timer wrap around problem that prevented Smacker movies from looping indefinitely.
Updated the Mac to 4.0k.
Added Carbon versions of the Smacker library.
Rewrote the Mac Smacker example player.
Released new versions of the player in both Carbon (MacOS X compatible) and CFM versions.

4.0 j - 8/21/01

Fixed a crash under the debugger when using the SMACKFROMMEMORY flag.
Added a workaround in the Smacker timer code for buggy motherboards that advance the QueryPerformanceCounter incorrectly under heavy loads.
Added new QuickTime importing code to support the video track of MPEG and Flash movies. QuickTime doesn't support audio exporting from either of these file types yet, unfortunately.
Added new QuickTime importing code to support AVIs that Windows can't open (like DV formatted AVIs).
Added new audio encoder that provides much higher quality sound on deep tones (may still have to use 0 lossy level on some files, though).
Fixed compression of unusual AVIs where the video stream format doesn't match the file format (usually seen in Debabilizer AVI files).
Fixed a bug compressing unusual QuickTime movies where the audio started at a non-zero offset.

4.0 i - 9/09/00

Fixed a subtle bug in the QuickTime importer where the first frame was sometimes duplicated.
Added new 256-color small and large icons.
Fixed the non-client area not being redrawn in the players after a window resize under Win2K.
Changed a few variable names in RAD.H to avoid conflicts with AMD's 3DNow header file.
Fixed a bug where a list file containing files with different original frame rates would wrap around if an adjusted frame rate was used on the list file.

4.0 h - 8/25/00

Fixed an obscure stuttering problem when using SmackGoto to jump back to frame one when another Smacker file with sound was open.

4.0 g - 7/10/00

Fixed a frame pausing problem when calling SmackSoundOnOff during playback.
Fixed a subtle aliasing error when using the "adjust to frame rate" option with non-integral multiples.
Switched to a new EXE compressor (UPX) under Win32 that gets better compression and should be more widely compatible.

4.0 f - 6/26/00

Switched to the real FFT instead of the complex FFT which can double audio decompression performance on some CPUs

4.0 e - 6/14/00

Added the ability to directly play compiled to EXE Smacker files.
Fixed an offset bug when using negative X offsets in the RAD graphics file importer when outputting true-color files.
Added the new RADSetMemory function that allows you to replace Smacker's memory allocation and freeing routines on both PC and Mac.
Switched to a faster FFT routine (speeds up audio decompression).
Fixed a crash when importing a Smacker file with Bink audio.
The Smacker mixer can now remove a sound track (use "-" for the sound track name).
The Smacker player can now hide the mouse cursor during playback.

4.0 d - 4/5/00

First version of Smacker 4.0 for the Mac! PowerPC and 68K are both supported (you should avoid using Bink audio in Smacker files that will be played on 68K machines, though).
Fixed a bug in the Smacker encoder where files compressed with Bink audio tracks would be aligned incorrectly. This led to too slow Smacker files on the PC and unplayable files on the Mac. You have to recompress the Smacker file to fix the problem, though.
Renamed the SmackTimerRead function to RADTimerRead and switched to using QueryPerformanceCounter (from timeGetTime) on Win32 - should make Smacker movies play a little more smoothly on Windows NT and 2000.
Fixed a bug in the SmackGetRects function where an extra bogus rectangle would be returned on a frame where a palette change occurred, but no pixels changed.
Broke out the time spent in the audio and video decoders into separate values.
Fixed a bug in the Smacker player that cause an extra millisecond of sleep for every frame.
Fixed a crash in the Mac SmackBuffer API when a NULL rectangle was passing to SmackBufferBlit.
You can now override settings on the command line with a remove switch. For example, if you run "SmackPlw test /L", you can tell Smacker to ignore the loop switch with "SmackPlw test /L /-L". The "slash-minus-L" tells Smacker to skip the earlier L switch. This is mostly useful for overriding the switches that are compiled into a self-playing Bink or Smacker file.

4.0 c - 2/8/00

Fixed a bug in the QuickTime sound importer - there should be no more glitches with compressed MOV soundtracks, MP3 files or other compressed wave files.
Made the Bink and Smacker players for Win32 take longer lists of filenames (up to 50 files can now be compiled into an EXE).

4.0 b - 12/28/99

Fixed a bug in the Smacker player for DOS when playing new Smacker 4.0 files.
Fixed a bug in the Smacker player for DOS when playing an audio track compressed with the Bink audio codec.

4.0 a - 12/3/99

Smacker 4.0 is now fully integrated into the RAD Video Tools (which also contains Bink). There won't be separate Smacker and Bink tools any longer.
New Smacker 4.0 compression - double the quality of your Smacker movies!
Smacker 4.0 now includes optional Bink audio compression. You can now use Bink's perceptually-lossless 8 to 1 audio compressor.
Smacker 4.0 player now shares the CPU much nicer.
Smacker 4.0 player now correctly shows the logo if the movie was paused.
Smacker 4.0 DOS player now uses Miles 6.0 (smaller compiled DOS EXEs).
Smacker 4.0 uses the Bink bandwidth allocation routines to intelligently reallocate bandwidth to the frames that need it most.
Added a SmackGetKeyFrame() function to the Smacker 4.0 SDK.

3.2 q - 10/11/99

Fixed a bug with compiled EXE Smacker files not playing under NT.

3.2 p - 7/8/99

Added detection for the AMD Athlon processor (which is pretty awesome).
Used EXE compression on the Win32 Smacker player (for smaller video EXEs).
Switched to the Bink Compile to EXE utility.
The player now also adjusts the sound playback rate when playing back at a forced frame rate. This keeps the audio in synch on forced frame rates.

3.2 n - 7/1/99

Fixed a crash in the player when trying to play a non-Smacker file.

3.2 m - 6/15/99

Added a new credits window to the Smacker tools.
Fixed the importing of 16-bit BMP files.
Added importing and exporting of PNG files.
Added a new SmackOpen flag (SMACKFROMMEMORY) to open a Smacker file that is already in memory.

3.2 k - 4/21/99

Added a frame rate adjustment feature. Unlike the existing frame rate changer, this feature will add or remove frames to maintain your specified frame rate. So, if you have a 15 fps animation and you adjust it to 30 fps, then every frame will be copied twice.
Added decompressing of Bink files to the utilities (you can now Smack a Bink file).

3.2 j - 3/25/99

Can detect pretty much any type of CPU now (used the Scitech code).
Fixed some bugs when importing QuickTime files (you can now compress the Star Wars trailers).
You can now Smack a Bink file.

3.2 i - 2/10/99

On the Mac, fixed the mouse cursor always being shown after a SmackBufferOpen.
Fixed a few "space-in-the-long-filename" type bugs in the front-end.

3.2 h - 1/29/99

Added few more debug messages when in debug mode.
Updated the copyright to 1999.

3.2 g - 10/7/98

Fixed cropping when compressing or converting a QuickTime movie.
Fixed the Sound Processor not using a specified custom output rate.
Added a SmackSetVolume command to the Xtra.
Added stop keys for tab, up, down, left, and right to the Xtra.
Added a "don't skip frames" option to the Xtra.
Fixed DirectSound occasionally failing to load in the Xtra.
Added the new HWND detection code from Miles 5.0.

3.2 f - 5/23/98

Raised the limit on video complexity (usually gets rid of complexity errors).
Switched to floating point square roots (faster on PIIs and Pentiums).

3.2 e - 5/19/98

Fixed a bug when compressing using the "every other" flag.

3.2 d - 5/11/98

Fixed a bug converting AVI files when QuickTime 3 wasn't installed.

3.2 c - 4/19/98

Fixed importing of QuickTime movies that were sometimes being misidentified as TGA files (which would result in an "Out of Memory" error).
Fixed importing of QuickTime movies that had variable internal frame rates.
Fixed importing of 8-bit QuickTime movies.

3.2 b - 4/19/98

Merged all the make files.
Fixed some debug code in the DOS player that required a key press on palette changes.
Fixed an obscure problem with the 16-bit SDK when memory was compacted.

3.2 a - 4/2/98

QuickTime 3 import support - you can now directly compress and convert QuickTime movies. QuickTime support also gives us access to many other video and sound formats as well (like AIFF, AU, DV, Motion JPEG, etc).
New palette rotation option in compressor and graphics processor - allows you to set aside a portion of the palette to absorb palette switches without flashing.
New palette matching algorithm that matches incoming and outgoing palettes to allow limited palette rotation in 8-bit mode. This can also shrink the size of Smacker files with multiple palettes because similiar colors will use the similiar palette indexes.
You can now move an image down and to the right during compression or conversion by using a negative X and/or Y offset.
Fixed a problem converting or compressing a series of files in the front-end.
Speeded up reporting wave file information.
Made DirectSound volume control linear.
Added command to turn off accelerated blitting in the scriptor.
Added an Xtra command to set the title of the main window in a projector.

3.1 s - 2/17/98

Front-end now launchs the media viewers through Explorer.
Fixed a bug when Smacking sound files while palette rotation is set.

3.1 r - 2/4/98

Made the sound processor more tolerant of strange wave file headers.
Fixed an offset blitting bug when using start and end multiple blit.

3.1 q - 1/28/98

Added some new files types to the front-end.
Fixed a bug in the Xtra after a SmackGoto.

3.1 p - 1/21/98 (skipped "o")

Fixed a bug in the Xtra when playing a range of frames without ever playing the first frame.
Fixed a bug in the Xtra that caused a black flash in interlaced movies that contain palette changes.
Fixed a bug in the Xtra that caused the quick play functions to align to the lefthand side of the screen.
Added CodeWarrior for the PC support in RAD.h.

3.1 n - 1/15/98

Switched to a new version of the compiler for the front-end. Fixed a few problems when switching to invalid media.
Fixed a couple DirectSound problems when using multiple CPU NT machines.

3.1 m - 12/15/97

Fixed a bug in the Smacker Xtra with transparent color remapping with unusual palettes (especially Mac palettes on Windows Director).
Fixed a bug in the Smacker Xtra when using SmackGoto.

3.1 L - 12/4/97

Fixed a bug in SmackFromScreen that also caused transparency problems in the Xtra when playing non-divisible by 8 Smacker files.
Made the Xtra copy from the upper-left hand corner of a supplied transparent background when the bitmap is larger than the Smacker file.
Fixed SmackSoundOnOff when called on the first frame.

3.1 k - 12/1/97

No longer attempt to use DirectDraw when running in 4-bit color mode (avoids a DirectDraw warning message).
Fixed color matching code in the Mac Xtra.
Fixed transparency offset in the Mac Xtra.

3.1 i - 11/21/97

Made allowances for Smacker's MSS code to correctly handle when MSS releases its digital drivers (use SmackSoundOnOff before releasing the digital handle).
Adjusted the way the that SmackSoundOnOff restarts the playback buffers - this allows sound sample accurate pausing and resuming.
The Smacker player now releases the sound handle when it loses the focus or you pause the video.
Fixed a bug in the Mac SDK when playing a video offset in a window.
Added the new commands in the 3.1 PC Xtra to the Mac Xtra (zoomed by 2 modes, alignment, and video hiding).
The Mac Xtra handles software cursors correctly in direct to screen decompression mode.
The Mac Xtra handles multiple monitors correctly now.
Both the Mac and PC Xtras were changed to return to Lingo faster when not in looping mode.

3.1 h - 11/15/97

First 3.1 version for the Mac.
Full implementation of the SmackBlit API for both PPC and 68K.
Accelerated blitters in the SmackBuffer API now support 16-bit mode on the Mac (up to 12 times faster when playing 2x into 16-bit mode).
Added the software cursor detection API for the Mac SDK.
Removed the SmackBufferUseGDevice function - Smacker now uses the window position to determine the destination device.
When using CopyBits, SmackBufferBlit sets the background color to insure correct blitter behavior.
Added all of the new transparent blitting options to the Mac SDK.
Added the SmackBufferStartMultipleBlits and SmackBufferEndMultipleBlits functions to the Mac SDK.
Do blitting with the Move16 instruction on 68040 Macs (up to 25% faster blitting).
Fixed a bug where the front-end wasn't remembering the frame rate in the Graphics Processor tab.
Made the front-end switch to the drive and directory when compressing files in one by one mode.
Fixed blitting bug in transparent modes and 2x 16-bit mode when using odd or very small rectangles.

3.1 g - 11/5/97

Fixed a bug when playing Smackers offset into a buffer.
Fixed a bug where full-screen 320x240 or 320x200 could be flipped vertically.
Fixed a bug with SmackBlitClear not using the offset position.
Fixed a bug in the front-end where the player wouldn't use your options when playing a read-only Smacker file.
Fixed a bug in the mixer and compressor where you weren't able to use a custom mixing rate.

3.1 f - 10/29/97

MMX optimizations in the Smacker codec itself - up to 20% faster!
Fixed a bug with software cursors and the new MultipleBlit functions.
Added Delphi support for the new APIs.

3.1 e - 10/27/97

Add the new SmackBufferStartMultipleBlits and SmackBufferEndMultipleBlits functions to the SmackBuffer API which gave almost a 30% blitting speed-up.
Optimized the number of rectangles returned from SmackGetRect.
Adjusted the scriptor to use less CPU time when idle.
Fixed a bug in the Xtra with playing transparently with a background cast member.

3.1 d - 10/21/97

Fixed a bug in the DirectSound code when no sound card is installed.
Fixed a bug in the Xtra on non-multiple of 8 bitmap extractions.
Worked around a bug in Macromedia Director 5 where files would be left in a locked-open state if a DirectX application had never been executed.
Made standard DIBs not automatically promote to DIBSections, instead they are created as normal inverted DIBs.
Fixed a few thunking bugs in the 16-bit version of the SmackBlit API.

3.1 c - 10/15/97

Fixed the blit acceleration clipping to taskbar even when full screen.
Added an extra couple lines to the player summary.
Added the 3.1 help file.
Fixed a bug in the PC Xtra in the SmackScreenMethod command.
Removed all dependencies to the MSVC run-time library which shrunk most of the utilities by 15K.
Linked with the FIXED flag to remove relocation information (saved another couple KB per utility).
Sped up SmkInfo when displaying information on Smacker files.

3.1 b - 10/13/97

Fixed a bug under NT 4 with non-DCI addressable DirectDraw cards (usually high-end OpenGL cards).
Fixed the utilities starting under NT 4.
Made the accelerated blitters check for window visibility before copying.

3.1 a - 9/29/97

Added MMX support throughout Smacker - playback can now be up to 200% faster on MMX machines!
Added the new SmackBlit API for all Smacker platforms - gives SDK users a high-performance, low-level blitting library. Supports 1x, 2x, 2x smoothed, 2x interlaced to either 8-bit or 16-bit surfaces! See the ExamSmkB.C example program for a nifty demo of this new API.
Added replacement blitters for machines where DirectDraw has been installed with using the SmackBuffer API - now, whenever possible, Smacker does its own direct to screen blitting rather than using DIBSections.
Added masked and merged blitting to the SmackBuffer, SmackBlit, and DOS SVGA blit libraries (for much faster transparencies).
The front-end can now process a group of files one-by-one instead of only as a group.
Added a cursor API for detecting software cursors and then easily hiding and restoring them (for direct to screen blitting or playback).
Rewrote the DirectSound support code - should now have perfect synch and work on most emulated sound drivers.
The Xtra and the scriptor now use the merging blitter for faster playback.
Added BitmapToBitmapMerge and BitmapToScreenMerge command to the scriptor.
Added a "Play Last" button on the player tab that will play the last Smacker animation that was compressed, mixed, played, etc. Great for quickly viewing the last animation that you created.
Made the Smacker PC Xtra not use DirectSound unless you call the new SmackUseDirectSound global command.
Added a 2x playback mode to the Smacker Xtra (including interlaced and smoothed modes).
Added a SmackHideVideo command to the Smacker Xtra which allows you to hide the video without closing the Smacker object.
Added a SmackSetAlignment command to the Smacker Xtra to control how the playback window is automatically aligned.
Added the SmackScreenMethod call to the PC Xtra.
Switched to MASM 6.11 for most of the assembly files.
Added error return codes to the SmackSetTransBackground in the Xtra.
Fixed a playback bug in the Xtra when using a cast member background.
Added Win95, Win95 OSR2, WinNT, MMX, and Pentium II detection to RADSI.
Merged the 16-bit and 32-bit blitters into one 32-bit module.
On NT and 95, SmackBuffers now always use top-down DIBSections (even when standard DIBS are requested).

3.0 t - 10/27/97

Fixed a bug on the Mac where the stereo channels were reversed.

3.0 s - 8/27/97

Fixed a bug on the Mac when decompressing 16-bit stereo sound.

3.0 r - 8/6/97

Fixed a nasty race condition in the DirectSound shutdown code.
Fixed the compressor to honor the height when it was larger than the input height (pads with black pixels).

3.0 q - 8/1/97

Fixed an optimizer crash in the compressor and graphic processor when halftoning both 8 and 24 bit files together.
Fixed crash in graphics processor if the input and output filenames matched.
Added some extra debug dumping info in the DirectSound module.

3.0 p - 7/25/97 (skipped "o")

Fixed the filename quoting in the mixer when you used a wave file with a space in it.
Fixed a bug in the Mac decompression code where one of the block types was decoded incorrectly.
Fixed a bug in the summary window in the Mac 68K player.
Fixed a Mac Xtra bug where the palette wasn't being copied from the Smacker frame.

3.0 n - 7/15/97

Fixed a bug in the graphics file input routines that could cause a crash when compressing or converting under NT 4.
Added a debug dumping facility in the SDK. (Add "debug=1" under [Smacker] in the win.ini file to enable.)

3.0 m - 6/25/97

Worked around an optimizer bug that caused list files not be saved correctly.
Added AVI files as an output file in the graphics processor.
Added a true color support to the graphics processor (it can now copy directly from a true color input file to a true color output file).
Fixed crash in RAD system information utility.
Fixed the close button not working in the player.

3.0 L - 6/20/97

Converted all the Win32 code to the Microsoft compiler - the tools now run about 20% faster!
Improved the color quantizer slightly by using human vision color model.
Put all of the common internal Smacker APIs into a utility DLL - saved about 400K after installation.
Fixed a crash in SmackOpen when the Smack file could not be found.
Fixed a crash in the 16-bit Smacker Xtra.
Fixed the ScreenWindowHWND command in the scriptor.
Removed the SmkW32MS.LIB file from the SDK - use SmackW32.LIB for both Microsoft and Watcom compilers.

3.0 k - 6/2/97

Added new Smacker file compiler - compile one or more Smks into an EXE.
Player tab can now view files other than Smacks (double-click).
Added many speed-ups in the Mac Xtra.
Cleaned-up some palette problems in the Mac Xtra.
Fixed the preload option in the Xtra on both PCs and Macs.
Added new SmackGetSummary command in the Xtra to report runtime performance.
Fixed return codes on the utilities.
Tools check for running out of disk space more frequently.
Fixed bug in 16-bit SDK when playing with a file handle.
Fixed a bug in the DOS player where playback could stick on the final frame.
Added a new example for 16-bit DirectDraw with 8-bit off-screen surface.
Updated to Delphi 3 for the Tools front-end.
Dropped the DOS based Tools (the DOS player, scriptor and SDK remain).

3.0 j - 5/14/97

Fixed SmackGoto not setting the 16-bit palette.
Compressed the front-end executable.
Fixed the left offsets when playing into a 16-bit surface.
Finished the Mac Xtra for Director.

3.0 i - 5/4/97

Smacker can decompress directly into a 16-bit buffer (on- or off-screen).
DirectDraw example programs now all support 16-bit surfaces.
Fixed the Windows and icons moving when changing the video mode in Win 95.
Changed the Mac version to try to allocate the GWorld in temp memory if normal memory fails (helps in low mem situations).
Fixed scriptor FileFind command to return all files under Win 95 or Win NT.
Set the primary buffer format when NULL is passed to SmackSoundUseDirectSound.
Added 16-bit VESA support to SDK - use SVGAUSE16BIT in SVGADetect.
Added a flags parameter to the SmackToScreen call - you will usually just pass SVGAFlags() - see Example.c for details.
Added a warning when the hint file could not be opened.
Fixed a problem in the front-end where compressing losslessly didn't always work correctly.

3.0 h - 4/14/97

Fixed a bug in high-color mode on the Mac.
Fixed a bug if SmackSoundOnOff was called when no sound was playing.
Fixed bug in Xtra destructor (it was harmless - but a bug nonetheless).
Added MSS Xtra support into the Smacker Xtra.

3.0 g - 3/9/97

Fixed Xtra to not display a black frame when playback begins.
Switched to new Causeway extender.
Fixed a bug in the VESA linear address code when switching to a new VESA mode without switching to text mode first.
Added ability to convert 4-bit (16 color AVIs) - these AVIs are very rare.
Fixed a DirectSound deadlock when you use MSS and Smacker both with DirectSound - you should now call SmackSoundUseDirectSound only if you are using Smacker without MSS - otherwise, always call SmackSoundUseMSS.
Added CFM Smacker library to the Mac SDK.
Added an A4-relative library to the Mac SDK.

3.0 f - 2/16/97

Fixed mixing error when mixing with very slow frame rates and very fast sound data rates.
Fixed some Xtra problems with focus control and mouse clicking.
Fixed some Xtra weirdnesses with odd palette remapping modes.
Fixed some Xtra problems with full-screen mode.
Fixed Xtra playback in 16-bit color depth mode.
Improved quality of halftoned images.

3.0 e - 1/28/97

Try to open a graphics file as a TGA before a JPEG to handle TGAs that have "jpeg-ish" headers.
Made the maximum frame rate 10000 fps.
Added new mouse functions and display mode switching to the Smacker Xtra.

3.0 d - 1/22/97

Fixed the front-end resizing when new screen size is too small for the front-end window.
Fixed the front-end to allow negative frame rates (for ms per frame).
Fixed the front-end when clicking on the change frame rate button.
Fixed display of centered movies that exactly matched the current screen size under Windows NT.
Fixed crash when displaying a Smacker summary with the Win32 player under Windows 3.x.
Fixed crash in the 16-bit player under Windows NT 4.0 (worked around the new, buggy DPMI host).
Added a simple RAW graphics import type for easy Smacker import (call us for the exact file format).
Fixed halftoning of 8-bit input files.

3.0 c - 1/20/97

Added ability to directly Smack wave files into a sound-only Smk file.
Added a double-buffered DispDIB 320x200 mode in the SDK.
Speeded-up Smacker batch file processing.
Fixed batch file processing of very long commmand lines.
Updated copyright notices.
Fixed halftoning when processing list files.
Fixed Smacking of non-4x4 animation files.

3.0 b - 1/10/97

Added the new help file.
Merged in the Xtra code changes.
Added a few const defines in the SDK.
Made the Smacker DLLs check to see if they are incorrectly installed in the Windows or Windows system directory.
Added some hint text in the Expert sub-tab on the Smack tab.
Added a specific lossless compression mode in the Smack tab.
Fixed a crash in the DOS mixer.
Changed the auto-key frame default to 95%.
Made the main tab hook directly to our web page.
Updated the Mac SDK to 3.0b.
Fixed offset blitting in SmackBufferBlit on Mac.

3.0 a - 1/8/97

Fixed processing of single image filenames that are zero-padded.
Switched to an hourglass when reading large directories.
Fixed the directory and drive properties window.
Made some small changes to the short-cuts in the front-end.

2.2 k - 1/2/97

Added intelligent halftoning (tries to only halftone gradients).
Reversed the order of this history file.
Allow multiple calls to UseMSS under Windows NT.

2.2 j - 12/17/96

The compressor can now process sound while it is compressing the video.
The front-end has new compression settings for sound in the Smack tab.
You can now use any data rate (not just 11025, 22050, and 44100) for sound.
Fixed a bug when encoding some Smacker palettes.
Fixed conversion of 32-bit AVIs (24-bit worked fine).
Fixed problem with Borland 4.5 and Smacker header file in SDK.
Added switch for the player to use DirectSound (/Z).
Added command for the scriptor to use DirectSound (SYSTEMUSEDIRECTSOUND).
The mixer and the sound processor can take a list of sound files.
Fixed border when compressing different sized list files with a ring frame.
Added ability to show frame numbers in the Windows player.

2.2 i - 12/8/96

Fixed zooming with CreateDIBSection blitter.
Fixed error when playing extremely long movies with high data rate sound.
Improved frame timing slightly (should help on > 15 minute movies).
Added an option to the player to only show the differences between frames.
Added an option to the player to not pause the video when the focus is lost.

2.2 h - 11/22/96

Changed the way file handles are read to work with all C compilers under Windows - use _lopen for 16-bit, CreateFile for 32-bit.
Integrated Diamondware sound support to Windows version.
Added CreateDIBSection support for Win95 and WinNT - WinG is now only necessary for 16-bit and Win32s playback.
Added a DirectDraw example that shows how to use Smacker with a 16-bit color pimary surface (ExamDDP6.C and DoDDP6.BAT).

2.2 g - 11/19/96

Fixed overly large frame compression on palette switches.
Fixed problem when compressing with "% of its size" option.
Fixed weird palette compression bug when rotating palette counter-clockwise.
Added raw output type to Sound Processor.
Fixed ring frame creation when using a non-final end frame.
Added non-sound mixing to SmackMixer.
Expanded compression ranges for "% of average" and "% of its size" (1-200%).
Fixed Smacker's support for DirectX II (DirectX III worked fine).
Smacker commands minimize nicer now.

2.2 f - 11/15/96

Fixed every frame full window repaints on high-color video cards.
Removed the second parameter from SmackSoundUseMSS under DOS (wasn't necessary anymore).
SmackMix can now take WAVs, AVIs or Smks as sound input files.
SmackMix can change the sound format type on the fly.
SmackMix mixes sound into Smacker files with ring frames correctly.
Major improvements in compressor quality over multiple frames.
Compressor is much faster with certain types of flics.
Smacker analysis tool doesn't count the first frame in the moving average.

2.2 e - 11/11/96

Changed front-end notification message number to avoid control conflicts.
Fixed conversions of 24-bit still images.
Fixed left-over temp files when you cancel during SmackC.

2.2 d - 11/07/96

Fixed AVI sound extraction.
Fixed focus order in Front-end.
Fixed click on same name from a different tab with no highlighting.
Changed the utility sub-windows to be 3D.
Changed the player utility window to be 3D and added several other window styles (/I#).
Added new scriptor command to change window border type: SCREENWINDOWBORDER type. 0=thick, 1=thin, 2=none.
Removed setting of thread priorities in Scriptor and player.

2.2 c - 11/05/96

The Smacker compressor can now compress AVIs, BMPs, TGAs, GIFs, TIFs, PCXs, JPGs and list files directly.
Fixed pop-up window after playing movie from Explorer in NT.
Added a list file editor to the front-end.
You can now highlight a group of files to create a list file from.
Added the new Sound Processor utility. It takes Wavs, Smks and AVIs files as input and writes out wave files. It comes in both DOS and Windows versions.
Sound Processor filters sound when scaling to different rates to avoid the "tinny" sound when upscaling.
ToWav, SmackUnm, and SmackUnW have all been removed (replaced by the general purpose sound processor.
OSmk2Flc removed and placed separately on ftp site.
Added starting and ending millisecond times to the Sound Processor.

2.2 b - 10/23/96

Simplied front-end for converters.
Multimedia tab has been removed - just double-click on a file to play it.
Front-end has built-in viewers for bmp, gif, pcx, tif, tga, and jpg.
Graphics processor uses an improved color reduction method.
Graphics processor can take an input palette.
Graphics processor can overlay windows colors on conversion.
Graphics processor can extract portions of a frame (X,Y,W,H).
Graphics processor can take Smack files as input.
Graphics processor can take a list of files to convert.
Crash when converting single image files is fixed.
SmkInfo can display info on wav,avi,bmp,gif,pcx,tif,tga and jpg files.
FlicJoin and FlicCpy were dropped (GraphPr has these features now).
Graphics processor can save as BMPs, GIFs, PCXs, TIFs, TGAs or JPGs.
Added multiple Smacks example program (ExamMult.C) to SDK.
Smacker now requires 3.50F of MSS.
Fixed pause of Smacker animations on MSSW with large internal MSS buffers.
Made the Smacker decompressor tolerant of file i/o errors - when an read error occurs, Smacker goes into a friendly skip mode.
Fixed crash when playing two flics in a row with the 320x200 and 320x240 full screen modes.

2.2 a - 9/23/96

Fixed scrolling in front end for goto and find editor commands.
Added web page button in front end.

2.1 m - 9/20/96

Utilities 32-bit only - Win95 and Windows NT - no more Win3.x.
New 32-bit front end - long filenames.
SmackTune now built into the front end.
ToFlic now runs under NT and is much, much faster.
SmackC now has more compress types.
Fixed bug in SmackC when compressing multiple files.
Fixed error in calling SmackSoundOnOff back to on.
Added BitmapToBitmapMask and BitmapToScreenMask commands to scriptor.
Added SystemCurrentExe to scriptor.
Made scriptor clip when blitting, lines, rects, etc.
Fixed scriptor loosing current directory on FilePieces.

2.1 l - 9/10/96

Fixed the return value of SmackDoFrame when SMACKNOSKIP is specified.

2.1 k - 8/22/96

Rewrote compressor lossy engine to be data rate based
Added auto-key framing to compressor.
Raised limit on code overflows in compressor.
Add new frame skipping logic resulting in much fewer frame skips on low data rate devices.
New cursor management code on Macs.
Fixed crashes in scriptor.
Added auto run feature to scriptor - rename script to autoexec.ss and they run when scriptor is run without parameters.
Removed the SmackToScreen option from the Mac (use SmackBuffers with the SMACKDIRECTBLIT option).

2.1 j - 08/10/96

Switched to new MSS for DOS and Windows.
Fixed 16-bit sound on 68K Macs.
Switched to Microseconds call on Macs.
Switched to new 64-bit divide on Macs.
Fixed palette problems on Mac.
Fixed 44 Khz sound on Mac.
Improved 2x blitting on Mac by 8 times.
SmackBufferFocused uses process id to determine focus.
Added new blit type for Mac (it is the default on 8-bit): SMACKGWORLDCUSTOMBLIT.
Blitters are 25% faster on Mac.

2.1 i - 07/10/96

Allow multiple calls to SmackSoundUseMSS (make sure all smks are closed 1st).
RADSIW returns accurate Mhz for Pentium Pros.

2.1 h - 06/21/96

Now query the VTD vxd device for timing info under Win3 and Win95 DOS boxes.

2.1 g - 06/19/96

Fixed non-export of hook procedure in 16-bit DLL - cause full 320x200 to fail.
Fixed sync of 22Khz sound with MSS for DOS.
Removed outputdebugstring in directsound code.
Fixed odd-sized SmackBuffer problem (use Pitch in SmackToBuffer, BTW).

2.1 f - 06/06/96

Fixed capitalization of the Unsmack function.
Made the 16-bit SmackW16 thunk to SmackW32 on WinNT.
Switched to the stdcall calling convention in SmackW32.
Use declspec imports in Smack.H to optimize Smacker calls.
The 16-bit DLL can switch modes under NT.
Fixed extra mode reset under Windows NT.
Now ship with Borland DEF file.
Fixed SmackFromScreen when hwnd is valid and not at 0,0.

2.1 e - 05/25/96

Fixed SmkInfo opening files in read/write mode.
Fixed Mac looping of sound.
Improved sound synch on Mac.
Fixed ToFlic and MMInfo reading PCXs with TGA-style headers.
Fixed compressing palette fade-ins.
Fixed palette fades on >256 color cards.
Optimized palette fade-ins and fade-outs.
Rewrote low-level decompressor - up to 30% faster on 586, up to 12% on 486.
Added doubled playback along the y axis.
Fixed opening more than 32 Smackers in the 16-bit DLL.
Improved memory allocation code.
Made SmackSoundUseDirectSound take a DirectSound object instead of a HWND.
Fixed mixer sound type switches and descriptions in front end.
Added new compression and playback options to front end.
Added three directdraw example programs: examdds, examddp, and examddf.

2.1 d - 04/25/96

Added interleaving to Smack compressor.
Compiled with Watcom 10.6.
Fixed stupid looping sound synch error for MSS and MSSW.
Change new palette logic to handle jumping to the same frame that you're on.
Fixed DirectSound volume control.
Use NewPtr and MultiFinder temporary memory instead on malloc on Mac.
Fixed looping of Smacker movies with sound on Mac.
Fixed looping of preloaded Smacker movies on Mac.

2.1 c - 04/09/96

Made NULL buf in call to SmackToBuffer turn off video but leave sound on.
Adjusted mixer to be more tolerant of weird format headers in WAV files.
Fixed SOS code for new version of SOS 4 (must now have SOS4 1/26/96 version).
Mac memory allocation now uses NewPtr and NewSysPtr for memory allocation.

2.1 b - 03/18/96

Added new switch to SmackPlay to force the extra buffer to be filled on open.
Fixed stupid clipping error in the sound mixer for 16 bit sound.

2.1 a - 03/11/96

Fixed error when you changed the volume with SOS before the first frame.

2.0 z - 03/01/96

Fixed leak if preloading a smack file, and not enough memory was available.
Added AnimationTracks command in the scriptor.

2.0 y - 02/27/96

Fixed divide by zero error in the Miles Sound System code.
Fixed divide by zero error in the HMI code.
Fixed nasty overwrite bug in the background buffering code.
Fixed color palette weirdness on Mac Quadra AVs.

2.0 x - 02/19/96

Used new Causeway extender.
Fixed a problem with offsets when zoomed on the Mac.
Adjusted the way ToFlic creates its palettes (weight green higher).
Fixed a problem with the smacker extra buffer when specified as zero.

2.0 w - 02/07/96

Switched to new combined Win32/Win32s MSS DLL.

2.0 v - 01/16/96

Fixed MSS and MSSW sync code.

2.0 u - 01/09/96

Remerged final Mac SDK.
Major changes in sound subsystem - simplified third-pary lib use.
Fairly major changes for Windows DLLs - just the two DLLs now.
Half dozen or so minor SDK changes to match Mac.

2.0 t - 01/02/96

Fixed buffer bug when using very tiny extra buffer amounts.
Add ability for player (/D##) and scriptor (WindowsDisplayResolution) to set the screen display mode (under Win95 and NT only).
Fixed ToFlic converter leaving a DLL in memory.
Fixed ToFlic converter for mostly dark images.
Optimized skipping to a frame that is already in the read ahead buffer.
Added new Smacker DLL for WAIL with Win32s.

2.0 s - 12/22/95

Major improvement in buffering system - will lower dropped frames by half.
Adjust VGA detection routine to allow for strange VGAs.
Fixed AIL too agressively dropping frames.

2.0 r - 12/04/95

First Mac code integrated back into RAD.h Smack.h Rfile,h lowsnd.h and Smackinp.cpp.
Header files pretty drastically modified (to add Mac support).
Upgraded to patch level 'a' for Watcom 10.5 - fixes several DOS problems.

2.0 q - 11/28/95

Recompiled with WAIL 3.03D - you must update to this version for Smacker.
Fixed caption option in the 16-bit Smacker playback utility.
Optimized palette fade out compression.

2.0 p - 11/27/95

Fixed nasty bug in 16-bit WAIL support code (good catch Illumina).
Tweaked DOS HMI timer code.

2.0 o

Speeded up looping of ring frames in scriptor.
Added new DebugFile command that dumps your script to a file as it runs.
Added new DebugText command that dumps to the DumpFile output.
Dialed in DirectSound synching code.

2.0 n

Fixed resync after loss of synch in WAIL.
Changed SmackToBufferRect param to a u32.

2.0 m

Tweaked WAIL synching code.
Added ability to set ms per frame down to hundredth of a ms to all utilities.
Remove BreakPoints from ToFlic and SmackW32.DLL.

2.0 l

Tweaking SmackBuffer close code.

2.0 k

Fixed stupid flag reversal in SmackBufferNewPalette code.
Fix Y coordinate in fliccpy.
Locked more of the AIL data structures for DOS under Win95.
Added example program that does its own i/o.
DirectSound support.

2.0 j

WAIL DLL unloaded problem fixed.
AIL under DOS locking problem fixed.
Added palette type for SmackBufferNewPalette (same flags as SmackColorRemap).
Added check for null pointers in all Smack functions.

2.0 i

Temporary DirectSound support for Zombie.

2.0 h

Fixed timer code for AIL under DOS.

2.0 g

Added WAIL support to the SDK.
Took out automatic timer slow down on SVGASetText and SVGASetGraphics.

2.0 f

Added mousemode command for absolute mouse devices under DOS.
Used the new dead code eliminator in Watcom 10.5 to make utilities smaller.
Minor optimizations to compressor and toflic converter.
Tweaked flic output code so that copies will byte compare as identical.
Fixed double-buffered playback under DOS with larger vesa modes.

2.0 e

Fixed stack error with HMI 4 (make sure you have HMI 4 from 9/11/95).
Fixed error in front end with blank switches.
Fixed error on exit from player after help displayed.
Fixed conversion of 16-bit images to flics.

2.0 d

Tweaked timer code.
Fixed looping error in scriptor.
Fixed button highlighting in scriptor tab.
Fixed file i/o in scriptor under Win386.
Added support in the SDK for HMI4.

2.0 c

Fixed bug when playing multiple sound Smacker file in a row with SmackPly.

2.0 b

Switched to Watcom 10.5 (files got smaller for some reason).
Added API support for Borland (Windows only - no powerpack).
Tweaked full-screen mode setting for 16-bit SmackBuffers.
Added SmackBufferFocused command.

2.0 a

Fixed palette clearing after mode set.
Added new fliccpy command.
Finished demo.
Keep fractional frame rates hidden in the flic file.
Fixed line and button settings on restore of edit tab in Scriptor tab.
Fixed saving current edit position in scriptor tab.
ESC on command to run in command tab will clear the line first.
Fixed Ctrl-PageDown in edit memo boxes.
Changed Multimedia tab, so that it doesn't automatically open the MCI file.
Fixed file highlight after a file find or recent file choice.
Fixed crash when sound interrupted under NT.
Fixed beeping under Win32s
Fixed loop around slowdown when using animationadvance to the end of a flic.
Updated help files.
Fixed a null region select in weird palette reselect cases.
Fixed GPF when using Recent Directories after running the scriptor.
Fixed multiple notification to parent from scriptor.
Created better default mouse for scriptor (12x20).
Fixed crash on looping under NT 3.51.
Fixed dragging on a lower priority for smoother dragging.
Switched to AIL-lite sound library for DOS version.
Switched to the Causeway extender for DOS version (compressed EXEs).
Major change to the DispDIB code for greater compatibility (changed API).
Improved ToFlic quantoning on darker colors.
Made palettes into keypalettes on keyframes.
Allow copy from the pop-up copy file option to a directory name.

1.9 u

Took thread priorities out of Smackinp - put into player and scriptor directly.
Took out feature of calling SmackerW with SMK or SS - put into SMACKGO.EXE.
Fixed misspellings and always asking to install FFS, VFW or Win32s.
Fixed cursor on utility windows.
Fixed compressing flics directly from read-only media.
Fixed div error when mixed non-sound data.
Fixed new palette on input change error in toflic.
Fixed using SmackBuffers with SYSPAL_NOSTATIC turned on.
Fixed error using ".." with DirChange in scriptor.
Added SystemPaletteLock command in scriptor.
Fixed centering error on odd-sized flics under the DOS scriptor.

1.9 t

Cleaned up help significantly.
The front-end has context-sensitive help for the scriptor (Ctrl-F1).
Fixed locating file associations under Win95.
Fixed rare crash when compressing under Win32s.
First CD-based version.
All new set-up programs.
Can call SmackerW with an SMK or a SS to play.

1.9 s

Added help to front end.
Fixed scriptor problem where you move up to 640x480 then back to 320x200.
Fixed error passing in SMACKTRACKS to SmackVolume.

1.9 r

Renamed a few executables for consistency (ToFlicW6, SmkInfoW, MMInfoW).
Front-end figures out if it is running WinNT/Win95/Win32 and runs Win32s versions of the utilities, otherwise it runs the 16 bit versions.
Fixed crash at end of toflic.exe under NT and Win95.
Fixed reversal of channels and quality flags in SmackUnmix.
Added the built-in SVGA (non-vesa) drivers from FastGraph.
Fixed too short entry for simulate and extra mem in front-end for player.
Fixed error where high indexes mapped to lower indexes in SmackC.
SmackOnOff releases the Windows waveout handle while it is off (SDK).
Fixed simulation speeds under Windows 3.11 with SmackPlay.
Fixed variable deletion when another variable holds same variable (scriptor).
Fixed palette loading in AnimationLoadToBitmap command.
Added VESA controls in player (/A option).
Added VESA control in DOS scriptor-SCREENSETTINGS num (num same as /A).
Added blitter control in Windows scriptor-SCREENSETTINGS num (num same as /V in Windows player).
Added ScreenInfo command in scriptor - returns settings used for display.
Added frame specific settings in DOS and Windows.

1.9 q

Added ScreenWindowAutoPause command in SmackScript (pauses when lose focus).
Added ScreenWindowHasFocus (returns whether SmackScript has focus).
Fixed slow loading of the player from 16 bit apps under WinNT.
Bump up the thread priority automatically under NT and Win95.
Fixed support for VBEs that hose the top of the extended registers (UNIVBE).
Added support for VBE 2.0 32 bit bank switching.
Added support for VBE 2.0 32 bit linear frame buffering - very,very fast.
Fixed bug in playback of very large, or very unusual flics.
Removed support for FlashTek's X32.

1.9 p

Adjusted RAD.H for Microsoft.
Fixed SmackW32.DLL linker error.
Fixed file buffering for NT (fixes all sorts of weird errors on 3.51).
Fixed port calls to avoid NT exceptions.
Did import library for MSC 2 - nightmare city.
Added support for full-screen under Win95 - another nightmare city.
Made front-end icon show in title bar under Win95.
Made copy command in front-end retain the file times.
Fixed front-end not restoring with Win95 (bug in build 490 and below).
Fixed front-end error when sub-process sends finish flag at awkward time.

1.9 o

Fixed non-display of VESA modes with DOS radsi.exe.
Switched all of the windows utilities to Win32s versions (normal Windows versions of the scriptor and player are still licenseable). This allows the utilities to run well under Win NT and Win95.

1.9 n

Fixed directory command in SmackerW.
Fixed playback problem with extremely small Smks (less than 2K).
Added Recently used file and directory options.
Fixed error on directory with invalid file date/times.
Fixed error renaming/copying twice in a row.
Now allow more than one rename/copy window open at a time.
You can use wildcards in del, ren, copy.
Rename directory remembers where it is.
Can make Smacker Batch files (*.SBT files).
File attributes windows and command.
Find File command.
Batch file editor.
Fixed error holding down down arrow in command history.
Added Cls,SaveHist,type and edit commands in command line.
Handle switching away from default drive and back again.
Fixed problem where script files weren't being closed.
Fixed problem where utilities couldn't allocate a window.
Speeded up fades in the Windows scriptor.

1.9 m

Fixed SmackMixing into non-first frame .
Created SmackMix option to loop the sound over and over.
New front-end (tab based, written in Delphi).

1.9 l

Fixed blip that occurred when playing very short sound files.

1.9 k

Fixed 100* error in negative frame rates with SmackPly.
Finished sound extractor - can also convert between wav formats.

1.9 j

Changed the way the SmackBlw.DLL initializes palettes to account for buggy Diamond display drivers.
Added replaceable font support in SmackScript . (TEXTFONTFROMBITMAP bitmapvariable,charwidth,charheight,startcharnum,endcharnum)
Added easy loading bitmap support in SmackScript . (opens a smk, allocs a bitmap, puts each frame into a bitmap) (ANIMATIONLOADTOBITMAP smkname, bitmap1, bitmap2, etc).
Added BitmapWidth, BitmapHeight commands in SmackScript.
Switched to latest HMI version (2/5/95).
Set the blit mode when using STANDARDBLIT to COLORONCOLOR in Windows.

1.9 i

Fix divide by zero error when compressing unusual flics.
Palette fades compress better.

1.9 h

8/16 bit AVIs are handled by ToFlic.
TGA, PCX, BMP, GIF, TIF, and JPEG are handled by ToFlic.
Palette remapping has been improved - it is now the default on 256 cards.
Can specify key frames with SmackC.
SmackC handle negative frame rates correctly (as MS Per Frame).

1.9 g

Fixed off by one error on ScreenFilledBox when on reversed WinG screens.
Added file handle options on SmackOpen.

1.9 f

Windows front end updated.
New palette setting code.
Fixed bug in scriptor.
Scriptor sped up by 100%.
Fixed bug in Windows scriptor when playing a sound.

1.9 d

Scriptor added.
Most of the utilities slightly updated.

1.8 s

Fixed SmackScr when using unusual multiple VESA windows.

1.8 q

SmackScr will reset the mouse cursor on a mouse add.
SmackPlw will skip frames if it is falling behind the audio.

1.8 p

Smackc can take a list of flics to compressed instead of just one (useful when your flics are huge and you don't want to join them.)
ToFlic gives info on PCX, GIF, TIF, TGA, JPG, and BMP files.