Hits
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. With Descent Manager ANIVIEW32 however you can not only open and play them, but also save them to AVI files, which can be played by any AVI player incl. MS Media Player and Real Player.

Integration in VPVIEW32: All ANI files are integrated in .VP files on both your FreeSpace CDs and your game directory. Thats why you need a VP viewer to extract them first in order to open them in ANIVIEW.
We however highly recommend to use our own tool Descent Manager VPVIEW32 (Version 1.1 or higher), since it automatically integrates with Descent Manager ANIVIEW32, once both are installed. All you got to do then is go to the Options dialog (Menu "File") in VPVIEW32, go to the "Settings" tab and specify "Descent Manager ANIVIEW32" as the current viewer for ANI files. VPVIEW32 will automatically find ANIVIEW32's directory. Please note that ANIVIEW32 only will be listed as an option if you actually have it installed, otherwise this option will be invisible in VPVIEW32.
Now to open an ANI file in VPVIEW32, just double-click on it. ANIVIEW32 will open and you can play it from there or save it as an AVI. Its as easy as that.
The big advantage of VPVIEW32 is, that it integrates so highly with ANIVIEW32, that it actually doesn't need to temporarily extract the ANI file but just says ANIVIEW32 at which offset within the VP file it can find the ANI file. This saves you some hard disk space.

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

	View the wonderful FreeSpace command briefing animations...
	...as well as the effects with this great WYSIWYG player.

 Download Descent Manager ANIVIEW32 for Windows 9x/NT/2000 (905 kB)
Version 1.1 (Build 10) - 08/04/2000

 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.