AutoHotkey Community

Sound doesn't seem to matter, clock.avi has sound.

The file loading thing: I think it depends on the avi's properties, mostly encoding. I tested, and bitrate doesn't seem to matter. If your avi is not too heavily encoded, it should work.

The good thing about this, is that one could use the already available animations (bitmaps, icons) to enhance one's Gui, without dragging it along with the 'installer'. Simply use what is already available, and optionally add your own.

It would be interesting to have a list of most probable Windows default dll avi resources on all versions of OSs. And exe's too.

Does anybody know how to extract and use the bitmap resources in dll's, exe's etcet. in your Gui? Icons can be accessed, but bitmaps not.

There is already so much available

Ok, I overdid it with the smiley's, I admit (got dragged into Goyyah-mode a bit )

I would use only these:

Regards,

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URLGet - Internet Explorer based Downloader
StartEx - Portable Shortcut Link

Ah, I did the tests on a computer without sound driver... And MSDN keep advising against files with sound, but perhaps they improved the stuff, or just want to avoid people to show a full DVD show while copying files.

Yes, one problem is that AVI format is actually an empty shell (the Riff format) and videos can be encoded with various codecs. I don't know if the control is depending on the installed codecs or expected a precise video encoding.

I have seen softwares, some being freewares, to extract these resources.
Hey, I even have one: Resource Hacker.
I loaded MSGina.dll with it, saved the AVI resource, and was able to use it with your script. Cool...

Yes... See AVI File Format.
Now, I have found an open source utility (which give info on the format as well): YAAI - Yet Another Avi Info.
Alas, it chokes on the AVI extracted from the DLL and those generated from Gif files, probably because they have no sound. Works OK with clock.avi.

[EDIT] Found another interesting utility: abcAVI Tag Editor, I will see if it is interesting.

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Too much for me ..
I thought it would be as simple as a DWORD in a BMP header!

Thanks.

_________________
URLGet - Internet Explorer based Downloader
StartEx - Portable Shortcut Link

Hey, abcAVI Tag Editor 1.8.1 is excellent!
It shown that two of my files have errors, that all of them have no sound, is able to show the codec and even the AVI file structure!
Wow. Good interface too, it supports drag'n'dropping multiple AVI files.
Hum, the export to clipboard doesn't work. [EDIT] Yes it does, but don't have a default format. I have to choose one. Very flexible system.

For example, the CtrlAltDel.avi file extracted from MSGina.dll:
Duration: 0 h 0 min 4,97 s
Video stream: Run length encoded 8bpp RGB image <0x00000001>, 200x120, 8 bit, 71 frm, 14,2857 frm/s, 22,130 kbit/s
Video quality: 1941 eff.bits per frame 3x4

Clock.avi:
Duration: 0 h 0 min 12,00 s
Video stream: Run length encoded 8bpp RGB image <0x00000001>, 321x321, 8 bit, 12 frm, 1,0000 frm/s, 43,497 kbit/s
Video quality: 32705 eff.bits per frame 3x4
Audio stream: DSP Group True Speech <0x0022>, 8000 Hz, 1 bit, 8,536 kbit/s, Mono

Torch.avi (made from a Gif, not displayed by the control):
Duration: 0 h 0 min 0,60 s
Video stream: Microsoft Video 1 'CRAM' <0x4D415243>, 18x32, 16 bit, 6 frm, 10,0000 frm/s, 27,040 kbit/s
Video quality: 1144 eff.bits per frame 3x4

Ruby.avi (found in MS Platform SDK, not displayed):
Duration: 0 h 0 min 8,60 s
Video stream: Cinepak by CTi (ex. Radius) Vector Quantization 'cvid' <0x64697663>, 320x240, 24 bit, 86 frm, 10,0000 frm/s, 1859,704 kbit/s
Video quality: 186437 eff.bits per frame 3x4

I guess that AVIs displayed by the control must have a RLE (run lenght encoded) stream...

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

If you have a nice animated Gif that you'd like to add to your Gui: I found this program:

Gif2Avi (freeware, 180k, Gui)

I converts animated Gifs directly to Avi, and has a RLE compression option, so generated files are made smaller, but can still be shown in an AHK Gui

Ofcource, there is usually a considerable size increase when converted, but alas, nothing much can be done about that, I guess...

@PhiLho: Regarding the resourced bitmaps, I think you misunderstood. I would like to be able to use them in a Gui directly, without having to extract them first, like we do with this script with AVI resources (or files now too).

Thanks for the link daonlyfreez! Downloaded it.. Yet to try but looks nice!

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URLGet - Internet Explorer based Downloader
StartEx - Portable Shortcut Link

Img2Avi Jpg2Avi Bmp2Avi Gif2Avi

OK, I was confused by the "extract" term...
It shouldn't be too hard to support such resources, will take a look later.

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Wow! ..

BTW, I more interested in splashing an animated screen! Is AVI the only way to go?

_________________
URLGet - Internet Explorer based Downloader
StartEx - Portable Shortcut Link

@PhiLho: I tried the freeware you provided, but it doesn't generate the desired result even when fed the images in the Gui, and it shows a 'splash msg' if you run it from the command line, which prevents it from working, and - according to the site



which is a "format" I haven't been able to feed thru the command line (it looks like it expects something like 0000000001.jpg, 0000000002.jpg etcet. ).

Well, I must admit I posted without testing first...
I ran the program, and despite a warning in the About box that it should be used only with images generated by the VisionGS utility, I was able to load 9 PNG images of same size and generate an AVI file (using compression 0, ie. no compression) that is shown by the script. Using the interface, not the command line.

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Among other possibility, I see it can be done with GDI+ too: GdipCreateBitmapFromResource
Now, I don't know if these images are so common and of general interest to spend some time on it.

Not supported natively by Windows. I saw an article showing how it can be done with GDI+: Adding GIF-animation using GDI+ - The Code Project - GDI+. I didn't read the whole stuff, but it seems it uses GDI+ to extract the frames and info, then display the frames with a timer...
Otherwise, we should find a DLL doing this. So far, I found only OCXes, which aren't usable within AHK.
Or perhaps with a browser DLL: Viewing Animated GIF Files with LBbrowse.DLL

Also Multiframe Images with GDI+...

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Dear PhiLho,

Thanks for all the information!



I was not aware that it would be so tough! I hope someday Mr.Chris will add built-in support for it! Micha has included A-GIF support in a MFC based DLL : New controls on GUI windows (Buttons, Statics, HMTL, RTF...). If someone could create a non-MFC DLL , it would ease Mr.Chris' work in implementing it, I guess!

Right now I will be contended with displaying a AVI animation. Many thanks to you & daonlyfreez for this wonderful solution!

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URLGet - Internet Explorer based Downloader
StartEx - Portable Shortcut Link

I just got around to reading this topic. Nice work!

This should help me implement, test, and document the AVI control when the time comes. In the meantime, if anyone would like to package this up into something more succinct and easy-to-use (assuming that's feasible), I could include it as an example on the GuiControls page.

Thanks.

the demo works, yes but how can i use it in my small gui with a small avi???