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since 09/27/1999

[ Version Changes ] [ Known Bugs ]

Supported games:

ANI files are Volition ANImation files, so far used in their games Conflict, Descent: FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2. This ANI file format is NOT a standard file format and can so NOT be opened by a standard graphic tool like Paint Shop Pro, Corel PhotoPaint, Adobe Photoshop, ACDSee or whatever, and so can't be created with any of the standard graphic creation or conversion tools either.

So far fans who wanted to create their own ANI files, needed to use a command-line utility called ACANI, released by Volition Inc. themselves. However, this tool was not only quite user-unfriendly to use (since its command-line driven). It also did not have the necessary features to create weapon/ship animations or mainhall animations, simply because such files need additional keyframes and ACANI offered no option to add them.

Descent Manager ANIBUILDER32 now solves both problems: its easy user interface isn't hard to learn and via the advanced settings you can set for an ANI file you can add keyframes so that mainhall and weapon/ship animations can be created.

An additional disadvantage of ACANI was that the frames (each saved as a PCX file) needed to have the exact same palette. ANIBUILDER32 now has a palette merger that adapts the frames' palettes to the palette of the first frame if they do not match (refer to README.TXT for limitations).

Three more good notes: first, since its basically using ACANI's engine to create the ANI data, it is not any slower than ACANI (c:. Second, while developing and testing an ANI file again and again in the game you do not even need to re-set every option (like source and target files) for every creation session: just save the settings and load it later again, and you are done! And finally, speaking of testing: ANIBUILDER32 automatically locates ANIVIEW32 and offers to run a generated ANI directly in ANIVIEW32 so that you can test it right after it has done its work. Can it be much better?

Here are some screenshots (click on the image to get a larger one):

	Select the PCX file of the first frame. Then set the target name and directory of the resulting ANI file, if you do not want to use the suggested path.
	The advanced settings let you set up the palette merger as well as set the number of frames and the type of the ANI (which will affect the number of keyframes).
	That's already it. Hit "Start", watch the ANI file generate and then directly view it in ANIVIEW32 if its installed.

 Download Descent Manager ANIBUILDER32 for Windows 9x/NT/2000 (446 kB)
Version 1.0 Beta 02 (Build 05) - 03/01/2002

 Download Tahoma TTF Font (178 kB)
If you do not have this font already installed, e.g. through Descent Manager DLLPAK or Office 97, you need to install it via your control panel.

Here is some support-related information:

• If you have problems running one of these tools, please first look at the Knowledge Base. These pages contain Known Bugs, Frequently Asked Questions, Technical Information, Version Changes and more...
• If this does not help, please contact us at DescMan@descent-network.com. One of our programmer team will then try to help you.
• If you have general questions about Descent Manager Tools, incl. our philosophy behind them, their making and how to join our programmer team, please have a look at our FAQ section at the Knowledge Base.