LEGACY SAVE OPTION

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Brooke
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LEGACY SAVE OPTION

Post by Brooke »

I think you should include a legacy save option in ASP.

Sometimes when a newer version of any software comes out there are still a few unpredicted bugs, and although there are a lot of pros to switching, if I originally created something in ASP 7 and then opened it up and continued working on it in ASP 8, and then things went pear shaped I would have lost all of that work.

Also legacy saving allows you to take your files and work on another computer that may not have ASP 8 installed.

In Adobe Flash they cater to this and allow you to save your work in previous versions. (Obviously any newer features will not translate into the earlier version especially code. A dialogue box does appear to warn that certain newer features may be lost, but other than that it if your not adding a major new feature like for example bones that wouldnt be supported in an earlier version then it works fine)

Is this something that ASP 8 can offer or is considering?

I can't stress enough how helpful this feature is - especially when working in different environments that do not have the most recent software.
Brooke
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DK
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Post by DK »

Hi Brooke.
This is something I have been pushing hard for some time now with SM. With any first release software there are bound to be bugs no matter how much beta testing is done so a legacy save option is a necessity especially with pro users who are relying on the software for a living. If you can't get your crashing files out of any new release software that software will end up costing you time and money.

Fingers crossed.

Cheers
D.K
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hayasidist
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Post by hayasidist »

strong support from me too for this. or, if that's "too hard" then how about something that will convert between versions.. Other threads have hinted that it isn't too difficult to use a text editor to change .anme files to be loadable by earlier versions (but I still haven't figured out how yet .. any hints anyone??)
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DK
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Post by DK »

Hi.
When I had trouble with version 6.1 I had already started a working on a TVC and discovered a major bug that was so bad I could'nt continue working in 6.1 but had already done so much work in it, it was too late to start again. I asked vern if I could get all my 6.1 files back into version 5.6 somehow. He opened the 6.1 files in a jedit and removed all the new references to new features that were in the Lua and it worked great!

Here are the steps:

Code: Select all

Step 1.

Replace two lines in the "header" at the top of the file.

Replace this:

version 19
### Created in Moho version 6.1, © 1999-2009 Smith Micro Software, Inc.


with this:

version 15
### Created in Moho version 5.6, © 1999-2008 Lost Marble


I removed the "created on" part because it didn't change from 5.6

Step 2.

Copy and paste this line into the "Search for:" box in jEdit.
Make sure that "Regular Expressions" is checked ON.
When pasting this line into the search box make sure there is not an extra return at the end.
It should just be ONE LINE of text.

What you can do is double click the lines, then copy, then paste into
the search for box and hit the delete key once. When you double click a line in jEdit it selects the line including the "return" at the end. It's easier to select for copying this way but adds that extra return in the search box which has to be deleted.

When you hit "replace all" look at the bottom of the screen. It should say how many times it was replaced. If it says "0 replacments" or something like that it didn't work. Your file has 385 instances of the search pattern below.

Search for:
(\t+"[0-9]*" (false |true )+)(\n\t+\[\n\t+keys [0-9]+\n\t+[0-9\s\.]+\])+(\n\t+[0-9]+\n)

Replace with:
$1$4

Click "replace all"

Step 3. same as above

Search for:
((\t+)(([0-9]+? [0-9]+?) [0-9]+?\n)+)

Replace with:
$2$4\n

Click "replace all"

Step 4.
Same as the others. One line with no extra return. I think this is another 385 search result.

Search for:
(\t+true\n)\t+true\n

replace with:
$1

Click "replace all"

Step 5. Same as the others except just replace this line with "nothing".

\t+animated_layer_effects (false|true)+\n|\t+timing_offset 0\n|\t+extra_sketchy (false|true)+\n|\t+exclude_lines_from_mask (false|true)+\n|interpreted_fps -1

Replace all with "nothing".
--------------------
Step 6. shaded effect - Same as others.

Search for this line:

(\t+)[0-9]+\n(\t+\[\n(\t+keys 1\n\t+[0-9 \.]*\n\t+\]\n))+\t+(false |true )

Replace with:

$1-1

Replace all
-------------------------------------

step 7 - soft edge effect

search for:
(\t+[0-9]+)\n\t+\[\n\t+keys [0-9]+(\n\t+)([0-9]*\.[0-9]+ |[0-9]+ )+(([0-9]*\.[0-9]+|[0-9]+)+)\n\t+\]\n

Replace with:
$1$2$4

Replace All

Do a save as with the .anme extension and a new name just in case you messed up. Open in AS 5.6 to make sure it worked.
If you get an error it should tell you the line number it occurred on.
Cheers
D.K
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Brooke
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Location: london

Also Timestretch

Post by Brooke »

Thanks for that DK :) - it's definitely something worth trying out, although in all honesty - talk about going all around the houses!!

It would be much easier if this was something that came as a standard feature - I realised that even Microsoft Word has this function.

By no means am I dissing SM as ASP is a great software.

I began creating an animation in ASP7 and then used a friends laptop that had ASP8. I had just migrated from Flash to Anime so was not completely aware of all of the features of the software. Anyway I developed my work a lot more and it was only when I looked under the Save as dialogue box files option a lot more closely - I noticed there were no other options other than all files....... And it was too late.

Now I have to "borrow" my friends laptop. It's not a big deal, but it could have had a big impact.

Another great feature would be to be able to TIMESTRETCH or SHRINK an action when it is placed into the main timeline.
Perhaps this can be done - but I havent found anything that mentions this.

I have recently been using actions and although these are a great, actually supergreat feature, your pretty much stumped for any time editing options on them. :(

For example - I create a head turn using an action, it lasts 12 frames and is utilising many different groups. When I put it onto the main timeline it is perfect for my characters first head turn - but then in another shot I want the characters head turn to be much more rapid and last only 6 frames - there is no abilitly to crunch down my little red action and have it automatically compress itself to my new setting. Doing this manually is a nightmare as you can only see group timelines individually so have to gauge where the keyframe should go or be moved to on each layer!

I might need to post this in the general discussion section - in case anybody does know whether there is a way to work around this - but I cant find any work around........Now this would be a BRILLIANT feature!!! :)
Brooke
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DK
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Post by DK »

Have you tried to scale keyframes for that particular section?

Cheers
D.K
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Brooke
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Location: london

:)

Post by Brooke »

DK - Thanks a lot!!! I didnt even know this feature existed!!

Okay so now in retrospect, Iv'e messed this post up a bit. :oops:

Thanks a lot for that - it is so helpful and much appreciated. :)
You just sorted out one of my Bugbears!!!.......

Just to save face though....the visible Time Stretch option would be a nice addition :)
Brooke
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hayasidist
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Post by hayasidist »

Hi... about that edit sequence ...

I'm on ASP7 - Windows - and to see if the concept worked I took Selgin's "walk ruler" viewtopic.php?t=19490 and tried to make it usable in AS7.


I didn't have Jedit so used the text editors I did have...

Notepad didn't work - I kept getting "corrupt header" - there was some unrecognised character as the first in file for no obvious reason. So I gave up on it.

But wordpad (as text editor) got me further.

In the .anme files lines that start ### are comment lines and can be ignored / don't need to be edited.

Critical is the line with "Version" in it. that seems to be (for windows?) 25 for ASP7 and 31 for AS8.

I commented-out lines (by sticking ### in front of text) that set variables that AS8 has that AS7 doesn't seem to have (e.g. stereo stuff and random numbers) and that got me past the first hurdle...

but that was the end of my initial joy. I got a runtime error from ".../lib_moho/m_mesh.cpp" .. and - hey - that's where I NEARLY threw the towel in -- until I realised that the line number was a the line number in the .anme file ...

What has changed from AS7 to AS8 is the parameters that define "shapes". I have not the slightest idea what the data actually means, but in AS8 there's an "extra" variable at the start of the set of info at the end of each separate shape definition. (in Selgin's file there are 9 shapes and this extra param is either 1 or 0). I just deleted them all and ... amazingly the file opens and seems to work in AS7. It's here...

http://www.mediafire.com/?1bm0jeqg94zegla

and I'd welcome some independent opinion on whether it actually works or not.

Bottom line... this legacy save / converter stuff is not rocket science ... but it'd be better done with hard facts rather than fuzzy guesswork...
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Víctor Paredes
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Post by Víctor Paredes »

Thanks for the tips, DK :D
hayasidist wrote:I'm on ASP7 - Windows - and to see if the concept worked I took Selgin's "walk ruler" viewtopic.php?t=19490 and tried to make it usable in AS7.
Hey, hayasidist! thanks for making the ruler available for AS7. Could I post the file on that thread?
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hayasidist
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Post by hayasidist »

Hi Selgin - no problem -- please do re-post... but also maybe check that it works properly first!? ... :wink:
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