A copy of this document can be viewed from within Loki by selecting "Help.." under the Views menu. There have been several changes and added features since the first release. Please take the time to read through all the documentation.
- William Opdyke July 95
( General )
Loki is a file conversion utility for people who work with Macintosh and Silicon Graphics computers. It was designed to translate graphics files between several Macintosh file formats and a few SGI formats. Since Apple's Pict format changes from time to time, and Quicktime is continuing to evolve, I decided to write a Mac based application to reliably weather some of these changes. Loki supports conversion to and from : Macintosh Pict , Adobe Photoshop 2.0 , Quicktime Movie, Soft Image, Silicon Graphics, Wavefront , and YUV formats.
( Translating Files )
Loki was designed to deal with processing a large number of files as quickly and easily as possible. Individual files and folders can be translated simply by dragging them onto the Loki icon in the finder. Loki will process up to two directory levels of a folder which has been selected to process. Another way to convert files is to use the "Open" command from the "File" menu . The "Open" menu item allows one to interactively build a list of files and folders to be translated. Select files and folders to be processed using the "Add" and "Add Folder" buttons. note: As you click on files in the Standard File Dialog, their full path, creation date, modification date, and icon are displayed at the bottom of the window. After you have selected everything you wish to convert, select the "Finished" button to process files. NOTE : There are "hot keys" for some of the buttons in this dialog : command - 'a' - add, 'f' - finished, 'esc' - cancel .
Loki will translate files in one of two ways. If you have selected "Auto-Convert" from the "Formats" menu, all Macintosh format files will be converted to the "preferred" Silicon Graphics format ( also found in the "Formats" menu ). All Silicon Graphics format files will be converted to the "preferred" Macintosh file format. If "Convert To A Single Format" is selected, all files, Macintosh or Silicon Graphics will be converted to the format you have selected under the "Formats" menu.
• TO STOP BATCH PROCESSING HOLD DOWN ( COMMAND - "." ).
• When converting to Photoshop 2.0 files, only the first 4 channels are converted.
• When converting to YUV files, make sure you have selected the NTSC or PAL option with the "YUV Options" command located in the "Formats" menu. Currently Loki does not re-scale images, so if you file is not the proper pixel size, Loki will display an error message.
• When converting from Quicktime Movies, make sure you have previously used the "Movie Compression" command under the "Formats" menu to configure the Quicktime Compression which you wish to use. Also verify correct settings with the "Movie Options" command in the "Formats". Both Movie Compression and Movie Option Settings are saved in the preferences file and are restored at application startup or when a preferences file is opened.
• When converting from Quicktime Movies, the first frame of the movie becomes basename.1.pic. If you place a number in the movie file name; i.e. movie.100.mv , the first frame of the converted files will be basename.100.pic. This is useful when working with a number of movie files which make up one long sequence.
• When you are converting a series of Pictures, you should use the naming convention "basename.number" or "basename.number.extension", this makes it easier for Loki to un-pad / pad the file numbering. NOTE : avoid naming files "something.something.100.pic" , but "something_something.100.pic" is fine.
• Loki expects graphics files from the SGI platform to have their file type (Finder Information) set to '????' , 'SRLE', 'SSGI', 'SRAW', RWAV, RYUV. If the file type is "????", Loki examines the file extension to determine what type of format it is reading. Loki recognizes the following extensions : .pic , .sgi / .rgb , .rla , .yuv . If a Loki encounters a file with the file type "????" and no file extension, a dialog appears prompting the user to indicate how the succeeding files are to be interpreted. I deliberately did not support 'TEXT', because Silicon Graphics files are not text files. Accidentally transferring image files as ASCII files is one of the most common mistakes when sending files between Silicon Graphics and Macintosh computers. If you are using a program such as "Fetch" make sure files are transferred in "raw binary" mode or you could have problems. There are a number of FTP programs out there for the Macintosh, so if you use one which creates binary files with another signature, e-mail it to me and I will support it. NOTE : For the time being, you can change a file or a directory of file's "file type" with the "Change File Type/Creator" command under the "File Utilities" menu.
( Viewing Files )
Use the "View" command under the "File" menu to view graphics, movies or text. View windows support the "Drop and Drag Manager". If you are running System 7.5 or higher, clicking in the view window and dragging to another application will transmit the contents of the view window to that application. ( For images, Loki send 'PICT' data, for text, 'TEXT' data is transmitted. View windows can be re-sized by the commands in the "Views" menu or by the hot keys : 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 . To load a Quicktime Movie View into memory ( in order to improve playback performance ) use the "Load Movie Into RAM" command under the "Options" menu.
( Options )
- If you wish to view the images as they are being translated, enable the "Display Images" command under the "Options" menu. This is a nice feature if you are only translating a few files, but it can significantly add processing time when converting a large number of files.
- Ordinarily, Loki will place the converted file into the same directory as the original file. Use the "Select Destination Directory" command under the "Options" menu to select a different directory or to create a new directory where the converted images are to be stored.
- File naming conventions are different on UNIX machines and Macintoshes. When converting images from the Macintosh to a Silicon Graphics format, Loki will replace any ( spaces ) in the file name with the "_" character. Many Macintosh programs number their files differently than Soft Image does; i.e. numbers are padded with leading "0"s. Enable the "Un-Padded File Numbers" command in the "Options" menu, to strip out leading "0"s from the converted file names. If you wish to replace the file's previous file extension with a new one, ( as opposed to simply appending on another extension ) enable the "Strip Off Previous File Extensions" command in the "Options" menu.
- Loki has a logging feature if you wish to keep track of how long it takes to process a number of images and to check for any unforeseen errors that could have occurred during batch processing. This feature can be enabled by selecting the "Generate Log" command found in the "Option" menu. If you have selected a destination directory, the log will be placed there; otherwise, it will be placed in last directory you opened a file from. Logs can be viewed from within Loki by double-clicking on the log file, or by dragging it on to the Loki icon in the Finder. To quickly view the last log , you can use the "v" hot key, or select "View Last Log" from the "File" menu. NOTE : You can specify the directory which Loki uses to save log files by selecting the "Select Log Directory" command under the "Options" menu.
- Every time a new file is created, Loki checks to see if it already exists in the directory you are writing to. The "Overwrite Files" option, will automatically over write a file with the same name as the new file. Otherwise, Loki logs an error (duplicate file) into the Log file and proceeds to convert more files.
- Use the "Create Previews For 'Pict' Files" under the "Options" menu if you wish to save a 80x80 pixel preview of your Pict file. This preview can be viewed by applications which take advantage of Quicktime. This feature tends to add 1-2 seconds @ file to the amount of time it takes to translate a file.
- Use the "Compress 'Pict' Files" under the "Options" menu if you wish to save out Macintosh Pictures with Quicktime compression. Use the "Picture Compression" command under the "Formats" menu to configure the Quicktime Compression which you wish to use. Picture Compression Settings are stored in the preferences file. NOTE : Loki will re-compress pictures which have already been compressed with Quicktime. ( If a picture already contains Quicktime Compression special care should be taken as this could potentially lead to some quality loss )
- Use the "Load Movie Into RAM" under the "Options" menu if you wish to load a Quicktime Movie View into memory ( in order to improve playback performance ).
( Errors )
Loki does not ( by default) report errors through the standard dialog mechanism, as this could potentially stop a translation process. If for some reason the software will not convert a file, turn on the logging feature in the "Options" menu. If any errors occur during the translation, they will be recorded in the log. You can use "View Last Log" to view the last recorded log quickly. Error dialogs and messages can be displayed to the screen by selecting the "Display Errors" under the "Options" menu.
( File Utilities )
When working with large numbers of files and the Macintosh Finder, I have often wanted some of the features of UNIX. The "File Utilities" menu provides commands which operate on individual files and directories of files to : pad and un-pad file number, rename files, renumber files, and change the file type and creator of files. For instance, when converting a directory of Soft Image files into a Quicktime movie, you need to pad all the file names in order for the Finder to pass them to Loki in the proper order.
( Preferences )
Loki saves all the settings from the application every time you exit the program. You can also use the "Save Preferences" command under the file menu. Additionally, you can use the "Save Preferences As" command to save "user" specific preference files. These files override the all applications settings and can be opened by double-clicking them in the Finder or dropping them on to the application.
( Hot Keys )
Hot Keys are keys which trigger menu commands. You don't need to hold down the command key.
- FILE -
"o" - translates files and directories of files**
"v" - views Images, Text, and Movies
"q" - quits the application
- OPTIONS -
"i" - toggles on/off the display of images
"a" - toggles on/off "Auto-Convert"
"d" - selects destination directory
"l" - toggles on/off the log feature
"0" - toggles on/off the Soft Image Numbering option
- FILE & DIRECTORY UTILITIES -
"p" - pad file numbers and directories of files**
"u" - un-pad file numbers and directories of files**
"r" - rename files and directories of files**
"t" - change file type and creator of files and directories of files**
** Loki searches 2 levels of "nested" directories from the initial directory selected.
"HELP" or "/" - displays on-line help
( Registration )
That about wraps it up... Loki is share-ware... This software will expire in 2 months, unless it has been properly registered...
If you use it as much as I do... and enjoy it, send $20.00 (snail-mail) to :
William Opdyke
645 Stockton, #908
San Francisco, CA 94108
Please include your e-mail address ( Internet / Compuserve / AOL )...
Registered users will receive notification and a password for the next release "2.5" which will support : Photoshop 3.0 ...
Send bug reports, comments, and any interesting e-mail to :
