[GEM-dev] again pix_film problem on OSX

[chris clepper]

On 2/6/06, B. Bogart <ben at ekran.org> wrote:
> Ah, ok, so to "play/pause" using "rate" I had to:
>
> send "auto 1" first, then "rate 0" would pause, "rate 1" unpause, with
> "auto 0" "rate 0/1" does nothing. :(

auto 0/1 is a state - pix_film either uses that method of playback or
it doesn't.  You can actually get that state in a patch very easily
and have visual feedback using a simple toggle.  'play' and 'pause'
require a few objects to keep track of the state and by themselves
give no indication of what's going on.

The rate message tells Quicktime how fast to play back the movie.  It
does a hell of a lot better job than feeding frame numbers to the
right inlet, which is why it's there.

> I think this stuff needs a rethink, maybe stuff like play, pause, stop,
> not sure about "auto" since "internal_timer 1/0" is a little long!!!
>
> As it stands I think the interface could be clearer for the user (to
> guess functionality if for nothing else) "pause 1/0" alas!

Perhaps auto and rate could be the same message: auto 0 does not play
back while auto 1 plays at 1x rate and auto 0.5 plays at half speed. 
The rate message could do the same, take your pick.

There's a lot of hacking to get the Quicktime playing somewhat in sync
with the GEM render chain, but the performance difference with
multiple files playing is well worth it.

cgc