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[News] Malibu announcementANN.lu
Posted on 05-Mar-2003 21:12 GMT by Andreas Falkenhahn29 comments
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Screenshots and a detailed description including afeature list of Malibu are now available on the Airsoft Softwair webpage. Malibu is a Hollywood plugin that emulates a Scala enviroment on top of Hollywood's multmedia application layer in full 24 bit. Please read the details for more information about this awesome plugin. Malibu is a plugin for Hollywood which contains an import filter for Scala presentations. As soon as Malibu is installed, Hollywood will suddenly be able to show Scala presentations or compile them. Many screenshots are now available from the Airsoft Softwair homepage.

With Malibu it is now possible for the first time to display Scala presentations on Workbench screen or on your own public screen. Because the whole emulation runs on top of Hollywood's multimedia application layer everything will be first converted to 24-bit and then displayed. In many cases the quality of the pictures that Malibu displays is much better than the original Scala quality because Scala often had to remap many pictures with very different colors to a 8-bit display which resulted in a massive loss of color information.

Malibu emulates nearly the whole Scala command set and supports all Scala versions up to Scala InfoChannel 500 which was the last Amiga version of Scala. Emulation is done by the elCapitan microkernel which tries to achieve the best performance possible on the used system. For example, the next page is already calculated while the current page is on the display. Complex transition effects can also be pre-calculated and then displayed smoothly.

Scala is a program which helped the Amiga to become a real Multimedia wonder. There were no products for a long long time that could beat an Amiga with Scala. Therefore Scala was widely used in all different production fields, from movies and television to big shows. Everyone who has worked with Scala knows what powers it has. But this power is only possible because Scala is very hard coded to the Amiga's custom chips which leads to the problem that it does not run on graphics boards and also has some other major problems with today's Amiga systems. For many years all sorts of users complained that there is no Scala that runs RTG compatible. This time is over now. Scala revives with the Malibu plugin: On the Workbench? Of course. In 24-bit? You can bet your life on that. Always RTG conform? Absolutely.

Don't miss Malibu out! Watching Scala presentations on Workbench is a complete new feeling which every Amiga user should experience.

Order Hollywood now to make your system ready for Scala!

Features:

Graphics:

* Impressive Scala transitions (e.g. Superimpose, Roll on, Flow, Push, Diagonal)
* Support for Scala text styles outline, shadow & 3D
* Scala forms: Ellipses, rectangles, lines & polygons
* Emulation of backgrounds with raster type
* Complete brush support (incl. crop & resize)
* Animations are supported
* Transition effects for all Scala objects
* Support for styles like bevel & background
* Runs completely in 24-bit mode
* Color fonts are supported
* Smooth scrolling for Scala fly-ons
* Emulation of all graphics attributes
* Brush transparency is fully supported
* Objects can be removed from screen with transition effects
* All palette settings are respected and correctly converted

Sound:

* Support for sound modules and samples
* Audio output through AHI incl. full mixing
* Sound fades are supported
* Sound implementation is retargetable for use on Pegasos, Amithlon...

Enviroment:

* All Scala versions up to InfoChannel 500 are supported
* Margin settings and tabulators are respected
* Scala variables can be used
* Buttons and events are emulated
* Almost complete emulation of Scala command set
* Scala presentations can be compiled
* Emulation can be configured in detail
* Complete independent from enviroment; does not matter if Cgfx, P96, AGA, ECS or OCS is active
* Absolutely system friendly

Requirements:

* Kickstart 3.0 or better
* 68020 processor
* Graphics board recommended
* 16 megabyte memory recommended

Malibu announcement : Comment 1 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by tony on 06-Mar-2003 07:14 GMT
This is an excellent news for all graphics designer and video makers. One of the best for last months.

with an excellent compatibility with scala and several extra news modern features, hollywood will be very competitive.

Hollywood must have a good user interface, easy to use "à la scala" and other very intuitive softwares.


sincerely,
Malibu announcement : Comment 2 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Mar-2003 08:10 GMT
Yeah, Malibu sounds interesting.. I have those old scala-demos that I used to make but they didnt work anymore when I purchased PicassoIV.

I would love to see the user-interface too! Theres only screenshots showing what you can do with hollywood but not how you do them!?
Malibu announcement : Comment 3 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by cAHVA on 06-Mar-2003 08:12 GMT
Ops! I accidently put my name on the email field in last comment :)
Malibu announcement : Comment 4 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Robert Williams on 06-Mar-2003 08:42 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
Hollywood doesn't have an interface to create presentations, you write them in a simple basic-like scripting language using a text editor. There is a simple GUI that lets you play and compile scripts (into an executable which can be distributed) and make a few settings.

I found the language easy to learn and there are lots of examples supplied.
Malibu announcement : Comment 5 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Rik Sweeney on 06-Mar-2003 09:21 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Robert Williams):
It probably wouldn't be too hard to write one though, Robbie.
Malibu announcement : Comment 6 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 06-Mar-2003 10:14 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (Rik Sweeney):
I expect a GUI will appear, but in practice you end up writing a script anyway for anything at all complicated or interactive, in all these programs.
Malibu announcement : Comment 7 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Robert Williams on 06-Mar-2003 10:18 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (Rik Sweeney):
I would have thought a full SCALA-style interface would be a fairly major undertaking. I did think it might be possible for a third party to write a kind of non-graphical script builder which would ease the creation of presentations and less interactive scripts.

Hollywood also has functions to load from external files so another option (which I have used in one of my scripts) is to build a framework script and then customise it from external files. This is much easier than including all text etc. in the script.
Malibu announcement : Comment 8 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Kjetil on 06-Mar-2003 10:28 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (Rik Sweeney):
It depends on how complex the editor your going to make, an good editor can be equally or harder to make then an good games, as there is some many options and things that needs to work to getter, games are many times more stream lined,

On the otter hand a small to tool is extremely easy to make, one that helps with typing the script, by providing buttons that type them fore you is easy to make, editing with real time presentation, is not so to speck is as hard as making the Hollywood all over.

An program like that need to keep track of curser, the font size, the font, bold/italic/underline, all sort of stuff, an program like that need to know where the bold start and where it stop, the editor needs to know the difference between bold start tag and the rest of the text.

I do not know how the Hollywood script look like if they look like HTML or if they look like Basic Print, Goto and so on, it may be easiest to make and extended editor file format just to make an editor like that work smooth, and generate the script on 2en hand, be fore the presentation starts.
Malibu announcement : Comment 9 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Ole-Egil on 06-Mar-2003 10:34 GMT
Hmm. I admit to being impressed.
Malibu announcement : Comment 10 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by tony on 06-Mar-2003 10:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Robert Williams):
A full comprehensive and easy to use interface like Scala MM to begin will be VERY USEFULL to bring lots of users.

without a good gui even professional will not lose time to spend wirting scripts under GoldED or another editor.

We would like to create impressive animations, with plenty of effects and sound, in only some minutes of use like under scala for example...

After a good powerfull interface "à la scala" released. HOollywood will grow quickly due to the user base quickly growing and asking for news features.

this will not happen if hollywood doesn't get a nice gui.
Malibu announcement : Comment 11 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Dietmar on 06-Mar-2003 10:42 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (tony):
> without a good gui even professional will not lose time to spend wirting scripts under GoldED or another editor.

I haven't seent this multimedia program but if it is anything like BASIC, it would be very easy to create a development mode in GoldED for it, with syntax highlighting, wizards, toolbar buttons to run a script, online help for functions, pre-made blocks of code etc. Not a substitution for a GUI, of course, but quickly done (like three days).
Malibu announcement : Comment 12 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Robert Williams on 06-Mar-2003 10:50 GMT
In reply to Comment 8 (Kjetil):
A Hollywood script is more like BASIC than HTML. I would say that currently Hollywood is best suited to what I would call multimedia applications e.g. interactive kiosk interfaces and simple games rather than PowerPoint style presentations. It'll be interesting to see what features the new 1.5 version has.
Malibu announcement : Comment 13 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Robert Williams on 06-Mar-2003 10:57 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (tony):
I couldn't agree more that a full GUI is desireable but in the current Amiga market with very small numbers of developers it is take some time to realise if it happens at all. Perhaps Hollywood's author will chip in and give us an idea of his plans. In the mean time perhaps some of the suggestions made here could make developing for Hollywood easier and quicker.

I would certainly be interested in a GoldEd development mode for Hollywood, I have setup a few things myself but I don't think you can implement syntax highlighting without C programming skills (a bit of AREXX is about my limit).
Malibu announcement : Comment 14 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Mar-2003 11:27 GMT
In reply to Comment 12 (Robert Williams):
> A Hollywood script is more like BASIC than HTML

Robert, could you post a short example (here) ?
Malibu announcement : Comment 15 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Mick Sutton on 06-Mar-2003 11:59 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (tony):
I think you are right about a GUI would make it attractive to many more potential customers. I for one would purchase Hollywood immediately it had an easy to use GUI such as SCALA, some of us do not have the patience/time to learn scripting languages etc. I know this is a little lame but I reckon the majority of us would get to grips with it if it had a GUI, the likes of Robert (a personal friend and fellow SEAL member) can pick it up quite quickly but folks like me struggle with writing our own name let alone a new scripting language :)
Malibu announcement : Comment 16 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Damien McKenna on 06-Mar-2003 12:01 GMT
As someone who fondly remembers creating a Scala presentation for college many moons ago, I wanted to thank you for what will be a wonderful way for people to continue working on their Scala-esque projects, even when the original company no longer supports the platform. Well done!
Malibu announcement : Comment 17 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 06-Mar-2003 12:13 GMT
In reply to Comment 14 (Anonymous):
Here's an excerpt from one of the example scripts:

/*
** External data
*/
%BRUSH(1) = "Logo.iff"
%BRUSH(2) = "1.iff"
%BRUSH(3) = "2.iff"
%BRUSH(4) = "3.iff"
%BRUSH(5) = "4.iff"
%BRUSH(6) = "5.iff"
%BRUSH(7) = "6.iff"
%BRUSH(8) = "7.iff"
%BRUSH(9) = "Credits.iff"
%MODULE(1) = "Hansa.mod"

/*
** Initial display size
*/
%DISPLAYSIZE = 1/1

/*
** User events
*/
%KEYDOWN(1) = "ESC"

/*
** Title
*/
%TITLE = "Jurassic Park"

/*
** Entry point!
*/
%CODE
w=GetAttribute(DISPLAY,0,ATTRMAXWIDTH)
h=GetAttribute(DISPLAY,0,ATTRMAXHEIGHT)
ChangeDisplaySize(w,h)
HidePointer
PlayModule(1)
EnableEventHandler
LeftMouseQuit(TRUE)

For(k,1,8)
DisplayBrushFX(k,CENTER,CENTER,CROSSFADE,40)
Wait(100)
UndoFX(BRUSH,k,CROSSFADE,40)
Wait(50)
Next

MoveBrush(9,CENTER,BOTTOMOUT,CENTER,TOPOUT,5)
End

; allow quit with ESCape
Label(ONKEYDOWN1)
End
Malibu announcement : Comment 18 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Kjetil on 06-Mar-2003 14:06 GMT
It’s about as easy to make a PowerPoint presentation on this as it is making it in C++,

The best way is to make a new SCALA front end if the SCALA file format is any better to read and write and handle, and keep the Malibu plug-in as a converter, an otter option is to use “kind words” or some otter Amiga text editor as an editor, and use an simple tool to convert and add effects between the pages of the document, and the export it to Hollywood, that’s my top idea for to day.

(SCALA scripts is about the same as that script, so better be an SCALA binary file)
Malibu announcement : Comment 19 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by anonymous on 06-Mar-2003 16:13 GMT
Excellent news.

With the ability to convert Scala presentations hopefully a similar filter will be developed for PowerPoint.

I have to agree with a point that many others have raised as well: a GUI using a Scala/Video Toaster metaphor would be extremely compelling. Definitely quite a challenge but a 'two way' tool that took the approach of wizard would do wonders and still allow direct coding of scripts.
Malibu announcement : Comment 20 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by tony on 06-Mar-2003 17:26 GMT
In reply to Comment 19 (anonymous):
YES ! a gui mix between Scala/Vide toaster super intuitive that allow us developp quickly spectacular presentations, animations and effects with sound.

devlopping a GUI can be done by other coders than the main hollywood author. only they ontract by a classic NDA...

with that Airsoft will concentrate on developping the main motor of hollywood, and optimisation and features and effects...
A gui can be devlopped by an external team, and if a good devlopper kits is released some other develppers can start to make other effects.
and several arexx links can be done with others softwares to add other import/export/synchronisation features and direct hardware support for video titling with USB and Firewire CamRecorders... why not with a VHI driver from IOspirit...
Malibu announcement : Comment 21 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Justin Smith on 06-Mar-2003 18:26 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (tony):
I'd like to see an interface more like that used by AmigaVision. It certainly seems more appropriate for this kind of flexible script-based environment than Scala's interface.
Malibu announcement : Comment 22 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 06-Mar-2003 18:44 GMT
In reply to Comment 21 (Justin Smith):
Why not both types of interface? So long as the GUI outputs a valid Hollywood script, it can be done in any way the programmer likes.

It's the same as Pagestream, Pro Page and Draw Studio all outputting Postscript code.
Malibu announcement : Comment 23 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by catohagen on 06-Mar-2003 19:14 GMT
In reply to Comment 20 (tony):
wow....

hollywood's features and effects
plus
Realtime calculated effects(like the ExtremeDemo on aminet)
plus
arexx interaction with other graphic packages
plus
USB/Firewire hardware support
plus
small efficient tcp/ip stack for network operations
plus
the unusual creativity the amiga scene is known for
=
insanely amount of fun and possibilities :) really...


the possibilities are endless.....
Malibu announcement : Comment 24 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by tony on 06-Mar-2003 20:05 GMT
In reply to Comment 23 (catohagen):
I think that yes a good mixture between Scala/video toaster and Amigavision can be done.

and of course we need to have access at any time into the code (by launching a good and pwerfull editor like GoldED).
PAgestream generate complex documents and at any time you can edit with the editor (pageliner) the text and the arexx code of the scripts.

I'm sure that Airsoft can make a mix of best experience seen of past video software on Amiga. After that with a powerfull GUI for every one, some kinds of extensins can be done... why not TCP/IP links too for making KIOSK SYSTEMS easy to developpement.

There is stay a real good market for the new AmigasPPC in that applications : video, security (with TCP/IP) and easy creations of interfaces : games, kiosk softwares, animations+Sounds for party etc...

I think really if hollywood get a powerfull easy to use GUI interface, this will help Amiga OS developpers to be VERY competitive, with good efficient cost.
Malibu announcement : Comment 25 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Christoph Gutjahr on 06-Mar-2003 20:43 GMT
In reply to Comment 24 (tony):
What you want is a Scala beater.

Hollywood is a damn good program, but expecting a title that sells for 50 EUR (and is developed by one single person) to incorporate every damn functionality Scala, AmigaVision and PowerPoint ever had is somewhat over the top.

Some of you seem to forget that MediaPointRTG will be released soon. This is probably what most of you expect, but it won't cost 50 EUR.
Malibu announcement : Comment 26 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Rafo on 06-Mar-2003 22:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
Sorry for the late comment, but : ???????????
The PicassoIV has a flickerfixer that transcribes AGA display transparently, so what are you talking about ?
Scala stuff works very well on a PicassoIV. In fast it doesn't even know it's here.
Malibu announcement : Comment 27 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 07-Mar-2003 08:17 GMT
In reply to Comment 25 (Christoph Gutjahr):
"Some of you seem to forget that MediaPointRTG will be released soon. This is probably what most of you expect, but it won't cost 50 EUR."

I get the impression this will be for AmigaOS 4 only. Hollywood works on Amithlon as well.
Malibu announcement : Comment 28 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Christoph Gutjahr on 07-Mar-2003 14:33 GMT
In reply to Comment 27 (Don Cox):
@Don:

>> I get the impression this will be for AmigaOS 4 only. Hollywood works on
>> Amithlon as well.

Oh sorry, my comment was not targeted at you. I'd a agree that a GUI would be a good idea (at least for developing non-interactive presentations), but some people seem to have extreme expectations.
Malibu announcement : Comment 29 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Mar-2003 03:38 GMT
Good news
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