File spoon-archives/surrealist.archive/surrealist_1996/96-06-11.135, message 134


Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 18:37:41 -0700
From: "William E. Elston" <welston-AT-halcyon.com>
Subject: Re: real audio


> there is a concept along the lines of "realvideo" in the works but i haven't
> heard much about it lately, unless "shockwave" is it (elston?).

The only one that I'm familiar with is CU-SeeMe, a nascent stage streaming
video technology that is not very useable over a dialup connection. The
proposed QuickTime "streaming" video standard requires that close to 90% of
the file is delivered before played. There was talk approx. two years ago
about a firm in Texas developing a video compression scheme that would be
lightyears ahead of anything else available, but I've heard nothing since.
I suspect that they've had difficulty porting it to the desktop.

Shockwave is a method of embedding MacroMedia Director files in a Webpage.
I've been playing around with it lately, and it can do some interesting
things, BUT... as soon things GET interesting, filesize issues rear their
nasty BIG heads. One of the advantages of Shockwave is that a large degree
of interactivity can be built into the file.

Some of the most interesting things that I've seen that don't require much
in the way of Kbytage are some QuickDraw GX animations developed by Lari
Software, the makers of a medium range drawing package called LightningDraw
GX. Right now, however, the QuickDraw GX architecture is Mac exclusively,
and is required to run the plug-in that runs  the animation.

The real issue is scale. Michael is right to be concerned about the
flexibility of the QuickTime Musical Instrument scheme for every sound
purpose (ooh! that "sound purpose" stuff sounds so moralistic!) But it is
certainly appropriate for certain types of delivery, just as embedded au.
files are just the thing the doctor ordered in other circumstances.
Likewise, animated GIFs are useful for small animated dingbats and logos,
and Shockwave and JAVA for more elaborate presentations.

There is one thing about trends in this field that bugs me, and thats the
developer insistence on sticking their logo all over the place. The
Shockwave logo is present during loadtime for all Schockwave files, and
I've read of one developer that demands a creative credit if his tool is
used. I shudder at the idea that every chair and table has to proclaim
"Stanley" and "Porter-Cable". I think that once you've paid for the tools
you shouldn't be required to provide free advertising.


William E. Elston

<URL:http://www.halcyon.com/welston/>




   

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