Bink SDK 1.5v

# Bink Playback under MacOS

#### Discussion

True-color video playback under MacOS is simpler than Windows (mainly because the hardware is less varied), but still a little tricky. Like most true color codecs, Bink doesn't operate in RGB colorspace, but rather YUV. To get this necessary colorspace conversion fast and reliable, Bink includes built-in, well-optimized YUV to RGB software conversion routines. We include 1x and 2x width, height interlacing, height doubling, alpha plane merging, and color or grayscale routines that can copy into 16-bit and 32-bit RGB formats. The permutations total 80 different hand-optimized routines! As you might guess, the majority of the Bink Shared Library is the colorspace converters. Because Bink buffers your video frames internally in YUV colorspace, it can make a big difference in playback speed to convert from YUV directly into the video frame buffer (directly onto the screen). This is the default mode of playback in Bink - it just tries to get that video onto the screen as fast as possible! There are, however, good reasons to use standard MacOS GWorlds - highest possible compatibility, clipping, and unusual scaling, for example. So, you have a choice between super-fast direct to screen, and not-as-fast GWorlds. Let's look at the pros and cons of each technique...

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Group: The MacOS Platform
Related Sections: Alpha Planes

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