cdxl.datatype Reference¶

BOOPSI datatype class reference for cdxl.datatype, synthesised from the AmigaOS NDK 3.2 Release 4 (Autodocs/cdxl).

Class properties¶

Property	Value
Display name	cdxl.datatype
Group ID	GID_ANIMATION = MAKE_ID('a','n','i','m') (animation)
Superclass	animation.datatype
File format	CDXL (CD-ROM video stream)
Methods declared	6
Parent class page	animation.datatype

Description¶

The cdxl data type, a sub-class of the animation.datatype, is used to load and play CDXL files.

Methods¶

Each method is declared in the autodoc METHODS block. Method implementations are inherited from the superclass unless noted otherwise in the parent's autodoc.

Method	Purpose
OM_NEW	Create a new movie object from an CDXL. The source may be either a file or the clipboard.
ADTM_LOADFRAME	Load a specific frame of the ANIM. The frame is specified in the alf_Frame member of the adtFrame structure, see (V45).
ADTM_LOADNEWFORMATFRAME	identical to ADTM_LOADFRAME.
ADTM_UNLOADFRAME	forcibly unload all the data of the current frame and release its resources. (V45).
ADTM_UNLOADNEWFORMATFRAME	identical to ADTM_UNLOADFRAME.
OM_GET	retrieve attributes from the CDXL animation. The message is of type (struct OpGet *) and the following attributes are supported, in addition to that of the animation class: DTA_Methods: Retrieve list of supported methods.

See also¶

• animation.datatype

Release history (NDK 3.2 R4)¶

Excerpted from ReleaseNotes/cdxl-dt-RelNotes in the NDK 3.2 R4 distribution.

-------------------- AmigaOS 3.5/3.9 project -------------------------

cdxl 44.8 (9.3.1999)

- The autodocs now state correctly that input has to come
  from a file and not from the clipboard.

- The object init code now does extensive error checking,
  both to make sure that input comes from a file and that
  there is sensible data in the CDXL file. Unfortunately,
  there is very little data that identifies a CDXL format
  file as such. We try to make the best of what is available.

- The code that determines the playback speed should be much
  smarter than in previous revisions.

- Stereo CDXL files are now recognized as such. The audio
  playback speed is adjusted accordingly.

- The frame loader now does extensive error checking and
  no longer calls Seek() for every frame to decode.

- Since there are CDXL file with stereo sound track that
  cannot be identified as such, I have added an option to
  force playback in stereo. This is what the environment
  variable "classes/datatypes/animation/cdxl/stereo" is for;
  if set to 1, stereo playback is enabled. Note that the
  sound.datatype implementation does not support stereo
  playback yet, but this is being worked on.

cdxl 44.9 (12.3.1999)

- Implemented per-frame colour map changes. Again, this
  is implemented as a user configurable option since it
  takes up so much memory and time. The variable name
  is "classes/datatypes/animation/cdxl/palettechanges".

- Now requires OS 3.1, animation.datatype V44 and
  sound.datatype V44.

- Sound timing now takes precedence over playback
  timing since the former should be more accurate.

- Implemented stereo sound playback; this includes
  support for the ADTM_LOADNEWFORMATFRAME method.

cdxl 44.10 (13.3.1999)

- Added ADTM_UNLOADNEWFORMATFRAME method support,
  required by the (again) updated animation.datatype.

cdxl 44.11 (14.3.1999)

- The frame loader now notices per-frame colour map
  changes. I originally did not want to do this, but
  there are only a few bytes to check per palette
  to find out if the frame just loaded needs a
  new palette. Support for the environment variable
  for activating this feature has been removed.

cdxl 44.12 (15.3.1999)

- The set of methods supported by this DataTypes class
  is now a superset of the methods offered by
  animation.datatype; note that the superclass method
  data is not constructed dynamically. I have just
  duplicated the table found in the animation.datatype
  source code and added the additional methods implemented
  in this DataType.

cdxl 44.13 (27.3.1999)

- ADTM_UNLOADNEWFORMATFRAME method support somehow
  didn't get implemented correctly. Now it works again.

- Per frame colour maps are now reused if possible.

cdxl 44.14 (12.4.1999)

- Now makes a copy of the superclass method list, then
  adds its own methods. This is safer than making assumptions
  about the methods supported by the superclass.

cdxl 44.15 (22.4.1999)

- Removed the environment variable option.

-------------------- AmigaOS 3.1.4.(1) project -----------------------

Changes for release 45.1 (14.8.2018)

- Fixed a race condition on library lifetime handling.

- Fixed a potential memory leak on library init.

Changes for release 45.2 (4.9.2018)

- Backported the changes from 44.16, see below:
                                    - Changed all __aligned attributes 
                                      to a different method of 
                                      guaranteeing long word 
                                      alignment. cdxl 44.16 
                                      (10.5.1999)

Changes for release 45.3 (8.9.2018)

- Only minor changes and optimizations.

Changes for release 45.4 (10.9.2018)

- Fixed another race condition on LibOpen.

Changes for release 45.5 (12.9.2018)

- Forgot to align the size of the assembly class structure
  with that of the C version, hence overrunning memory.

----------------------- AmigaOS 3.2 project --------------------------

Changes for cdxl 47.1 (1.4.2020):

- Doubled default speed, most game CDXL files play correctly now

Changes for cdxl 47.2 (4.4.2020):

- Reworked the speed management

- Defaults to more common 300 KB/s or x2 CD32 CD-ROM CDXL

- New EnvVariables to overide defaults

  classes/datatypes/animation/cdxl/cdspeed
    set playback speed in CD-ROM speed units (1-63) x1=150KB/s

  classes/datatypes/animation/cdxl/speed
    set playback speed in KB/s - overrides cdspeed var

  classes/datatypes/animation/cdxl/stereo
    Force stereo sound separartion for rare stereo tracks
    with not correctly set stereo audio flag (needs testing)

Changes for cdxl 47.3 (5.4.2020):

- New EnvVariable to overide defaults

  classes/datatypes/animation/cdxl/fps
    set playback speed in FPS units (1-60), most files are 12fps
    it's much easier for the user and we compute the rest

Changes for cdxl 47.4 (27.7.2020):

- Fix freeze to to not accepting steroe files that change stereo
  bit after first frame (assumption is that first frame tells the
  truth

- Fix DTA_Methods asking of supertype. stereo playback could never
  have worked all these years. Unfortunately it seems some of the
  the supporting datatypes is not quite up to the task yet of
  playing streaming audio

Changes for cdxl 47.5 (09.9.2020):

- Now reads the fps setting from file at the same location AGAblaster 
  encodes it and not 0

- Decoding stereo now works (

Changes for cdxl 47.6 (10.12.2020):

- Oops it seems the fps was hardcoded to 15 by a mistake
- Actually let's just default to 12 fps and let user override from there
  as 12fps seems like the most normal setting

Cross-references¶

• datatypes.library Reference — DataType API, NewDTObjectA(), DisposeDTObject(), DTA_* tags
• animation.datatype Reference — superclass; full method implementations live here
• iffparse.library Reference — IFF file format primitives (FORM/LIST/PROP/CAT chunks)

Source: AmigaOS NDK 3.2 Release 4, Autodocs/cdxl_dtc.doc, Include_H/datatypes/datatypes.h, ReleaseNotes/cdxl-dt-RelNotes.