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This file contains special installing instructions for the
Firka Animation line-tester software.

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Copyright (C) 1998-2019 Fazekas Laszlo. All rights reserved.

For Firka version 19D and above

The protected names in this document are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.


Under all supported operating systems, after the first start the
software will create its directory structure and it will ask you
about your User Identification Code (UIC). If you do not have one,
you still can continue and use the software as a restricted
evaluation version. For further information, see the License and
the User's Manual.

If you have a User Identification Code, you must register your
computer as well. This is needed only once, after you entered the
code. The program creates a registration request file, what you
have to send us, and we send back the required registration file.


Each configuration requires cca. 1 MB harddisk space for the
program and at least 1 GB harddisk space for the created scenes.


A. Windows XP and up
----------------------------

Minimal hardware requirements under Windows:

Pentium 166 PC with 32 MB RAM, Video for Windows compatible video
capture board and/or TWAIN compatible scanner, Windows compatible
soundcard. Also works with Blackmagic Design HDMI capture cards.

Installing the software under Windows

1. Create a folder (for example with the name Firka) and copy
the following contents there from the received copy of the
software:

   Firka.exe         - the executable code of the software,
   License.txt       - the end-user license agreement,
   wupdate           - installation data (languages, skins etc.).

2. Run the Firka program.

3. You may want to create menu items in your Start menu, or icons on
your desktop. You have to do that manually.


B. Apple OSX:
----------------------------

Minimal hardware requirements under Apple OSX:

Intel x86 or PowerPC based computer, with at least 32 MB RAM,
optional Blackmagic Design HDMI capture card.
Operating system: OSX 10.4 Tiger and up.

1. Create a folder for the Firka on your computer.

2. Copy these files to the created directory:

Firka.app       - the universal binary executable package,
License         - the end-user license agreement,
mupdate         - installation data (languages, skins etc.).

3. Start the Firka program, either from Finder with its icon (Firka),
or from a terminal (Firka.app/Contents/MacOS/Firka).


C. Linux:
----------------------------

Minimal hardware requirements under Linux:

Pentium 133 PC with 32 MB RAM, ///Fast MovieMachine II capture
board or Video for Linux compatible (BTTV,VFV,Bt848) capture board,
Linux compatible soundcard. Also works with Blackmagic Design HDMI
capture cards.

The Linux version is more accelerated than the Windows version, so
slower PC computer is enough for the same result. However, the
Amiga computers are too slow for the real usage.

1. Create a directory with mkdir command for the Firka. Later
you may have to insert this folder to your PATH, for example with
inserting the following rows to your /etc/profile or ~/.profile
file:

PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/firka"
export PATH

In the above example, you made the /usr/local/firka directory for
the line-tester.

2. Copy these files to the created directory:

Firka           - the ELF binary executable code,
License         - the end-user license agreement,
lupdate         - installation data (languages, skins etc.).

3. Start the Firka program from a terminal (xterm).

4. You may want to create some menu items or icons in your window
manager. You have to do that manually. You can find some .xpm, .svg
and .png pixmap image files to make an icon on your desktop.
To do that, you have to copy the pixmap file into your icons
directory, like /usr/include/X11/pixmaps or /usr/local/icons.


D. Amiga
----------------------------

Minimal hardware requirements:

Amiga 1200, 3000 or 4000 computer with the maximal possible RAM,
(Only the Amiga 4000 is fast enough without an accelerator card),
VidiAmiga RT or VLAB video digitizer, at least Kickstart V2.0
operating system (However, you can try it under 1.2/1.3 also).

The Amiga computers are too slow for the real usage, but in many
studios they use currently the Amiga for the linetest so they
can try the software in their machines before they buy some (PC)
equipment.

1. Create a drawer for the software and copy these files there:

Firka                  - the executable code,
Firka.info             - icon file,
License                - the end-user license agreement,
aupdate                - installation data (languages, skins etc.).

2. Run the Firka program.

3. For the Amiga, because of the poor display capabilities, it is
important to set the optimal display mode and resolution. The
program can work with 2,4 ... 256 color modes, in color or grayscale
modes, and is able to use HAM6 and HAM8 modes. Usually displaying
is fast enough only if you use the pre-rendering option in the
player window. In the "var/gcnf" file, you can configure the
program's screen with the following settings:

workscreen ownscreenD widthX heightY

The D is the pixel depth in bits, the X and the Y are the pixel
resolution of the screen. You can enter the depth as "depthD"
also. Do not enter spaces between the keyword and the number.
The "paletteN" sets the number of the allocated palette
entries to N. You can add the "gray" word to display grayscale,
the "dither" for dithered rendering, the "yuv" or "rgb"
for optimized color palettes, and the "ham" or "ham8" for HAM
modes. If you do not use the "ownscreen" keyword, windows of
the program will be displayed on the Workbench screen.

playscreen

The parameters of the full-screen playback display. You can use
the above commands (except the ownscreen, because the full-screen
playback always displayed on a separate screen), and the "cache"
command for a FastRAM display buffer, which can cause faster
rendering, but takes extra memory. Playback on full-screen is
usually faster on Amiga computers than in a window.

4. You may want to put the program to your Workbench menu or to
your desktop. You have to do it manually.


E. Language translations:
----------------------------

Firka contains some language translations for its GUI. Most of these
are experimental and may contain mistakes. If you want to improve them
or you want to create your own translation, check the files in the
"var/langs" directory. The xxxxbase.lng and xxxxhelp.lng files are
templates to start translating a new language. You can find more about
the language translations in the User's Manual.

