Subject: REVIEW: ScalaMM210 multimedia presentation program
From: [email-masked] (Adam Benjamin)
Date: 16 Apr 1993 01:51:41 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	ScalaMM210

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A comprehensive multimedia presentation/creation program.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Scala Inc.   (USA arm of Scala AS Norway)
	Address:	12110 Sunset Hills, Suite 100
			Reston, VA  22090
			USA

	Telephone:	(703) 709-8614

LIST PRICE

	I'm not sure what the list price is; mail order is around $300 (US).
ScalaMM200 was included with the Amiga 3000P [A3000 packaged with some
software], so find someone who got it for free and buy it from them!  The
upgrade to 210 is $40 (US).

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		RAM:  1 Meg of Chip RAM (2 Meg for some wipe effects)
		      2 Meg of Fast RAM

		Hard drive is not required; but for creating new scripts,
		(Scala's term for the presentations you create) I would
		HIGHLY recommend one.

		An accelerated processor is not required; but like most video
		programs, the faster the better.

	SOFTWARE

		ScalaMM200 will run under Workbench 1.3.  The 210 upgrade
		requires Workbench 2.0 or higher.

		Version 200 would crash constantly under Workbench 3.0,
		but the upgrade seems quite stable, and I have been
		able to crash the ANIMLAB utility program only a few times.
		(The main program has never crashed since my upgrade.)

COPY PROTECTION

	Dongle (hardware device attached to either mouse port).  It could be
worse, but I dislike dongles, and I have heard that this dongle makes using
GVP's G-Lock troublesome if not impossible. (I don't own one so I can't
confirm this.)

	The dongle is invisible as far as the user is concerned (unless it
is missing of course).  It is a small, approximately 1-inch-square red
device, and it has a pass-through; but the manual warns of using any program
that writes to the mouse ports (hence the trouble with G-LOCK).  My main
gripe against this dongle will follow in the DISLIKES section.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 4000, 2 Meg Chip RAM, 10 Meg Fast RAM.  NTSC monitor.

REVIEW

	If you think ScalaMM is only for multimedia presentations, think
again!  Here are the features, and just about ANY animation/video user can
get some real muscle out of ScalaMM:

	* Video backdrops/titling (includes over 75 backdrops and 15 fonts).
	  It uses standard BITMAP fonts!  You can even title over your
	  animations

	* WIPES (transitions between screens):  OVER 80 different kinds, and
	  each item (text brush, or whatever) can have its own wipe both on
	  and off the screen.  Scala dynamically changes the screen palette
	  during the transitions.  This allows it to be the ONLY Amiga
	  program (that I know of anyway) to fade from one picture into
	  another with completely different palettes.  You have to see this
	  to appreciate it.

	* Play animations anywhere in your script, and even chain them
	  together easily.  Plays anims directly from the hard drive too.
	  Also includes ANIMLAB a utility program to:

		Build anims from pictures
		Convert anims to Scala's own 32bit anim format (which
		 plays much faster I might add!)
		Rip pictures out of anims
		Index anim frames for playing directly from the hard drive

	* IFF sampled sound and music MOD file support.  (And you can sync
	  your presentations to the music with the click of the mouse!

	* On the multimedia side of things, you can make completely
	  interactive presentations with buttons, loops, etc.  Scala
	  supports MIDI, laser disks, Canon ION still video, CDTV links, and
	  is ARexx addressable.

	* ScalaMM comes with the main program (the editor), a runtime player
	  which still requires the dongle, Animlab for building and
	  converting animations, and ScalaPrint which prints out the pages of
	  your presentation.

	* ScalaMM210 has complete AGA support including 24-bit palette
	  "sliding", Scala's term for its cool fading technique.  ScalaMM200
	  tries to support AGA, but it is very buggy at doing so.

	* Completely multitasking and OS friendly. Reads DEVS:Monitors to
	  work in all video modes of the system it is running on.  (See
	  BUGS for some video hiccups.)

	Building presentations could not be easier.  The editor is very well
designed and simply lists all the pages you have made. To create a new page,
just click on "New."  The program then asks for a background.  If you don't
want one just click on OK, and the program will ask for screen format (size,
colors etc.).  Then, it opens that page and you get a flashing cursor waiting
for you to enter whatever text you want.  (You can also load brushes or
symbols and they are treated just like text.)  Even making interactive
presentations is all done in the editor graphically with no programming
knowledge required.  At any time during your creating process, you can click
on "SHOW" to see the current page or the complete presentation so far.  The
main program also has what Scala calls the "Shuffler" which replaces the
line-by-line text listing of your pages with little thumbnail pictures of
each screen.  This is great for storyboarding or for getting a quick
overview of your presentation.

DOCUMENTATION

	The documentation is EXCELLENT!  It even tells you on the first few
pages where to start reading based on your computer knowledge and previous
Scala experience.  Of course, it has a "quick-start" at the beginning for all
us impatient people who read manuals only when we can't figure out something.
The promotional version that ships with the 3000P comes with a cheap,
paperback-style bound manual, while the retail version's manual has a nice 3
ring binder.  The only problem with the manual comes (I assume) from the
translation to English because there are a lot of misspelled words.  But even
so, it is very easy to understand and very complete.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

	LIKES:

		The capabilities of ScalaMM210 and the range of applications
	for this program are enormous!  If it has anything to do with getting
	video on the screen and music out of the speakers, ScalaMM can do it.
	I have seen some of the multimedia presentation programs for the PC
	world and this puts them to shame easily. (For a lot less money than
	some PC programs as well). The speed at which Scala can do things
	(even on stock machines) is phenomenal.  With the 32-bit anim format,
	even 150K delta 256-color anims play at a good speed. (Around 15
	FPS.)

	DISLIKES:

		I still have some trouble building 256-color anims with the
	ANIMLAB program.  Sometimes it will result in a crash, but usually
	it errors out.  They do play fine, but only ANIMLAB can build/convert
	to Scala's 32bit format.  (It is not anim8.)  Anim-5 works OK, but of
	course it's not as fast.  My main complaint is that there is NO freely
	distributable player for the animations.  So making presentations
	for clients means they have to fork out the full price for the
	program just to run my scripts.  If CBM can fix AmigaVision for this,
	then anyone can.  I hope Scala changes this soon.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	I have never used AmigaVision, which is probably the closest thing to
Scala.  I know it lacks some of Scala's features, but AV is cheaper.  So if
you can, I would suggest checking out both at a local dealer to see if Scala
is worth the extra money to you.

BUGS

	For some reason, the 210 version will not display non-interlaced
overscan pictures full screen.  I'm not sure, but this may be OE (operator
error 8^)).  I don't think Tech Support knew what I meant when I was trying
to explain it to them.  (They were helpful, albeit a little curt with me, I
thought.)  If an overscan non-lace screen comes up, Scala will display it
quarter-screen size, centered in the middle of the monitor.  Scala uses the
monitors in the DEVS: drawer, so that must have something to do with it.
Also, as mentioned elsewhere, I managed to crash the program every now and
then trying to build AGA anims from stills, and sometimes if fails to convert
anim-5 format anims to Scala's 32-bit format.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	Scala Inc. sent me the 210 upgrade 2nd Day Air, and the whole process
took only 5 days.  (I had to mail in my registration and upgrade money.)  I
was impressed.  I called about the non-lace overscan problem, and they kind
of blew me off since I was going to genlock the output anyway; they said I
would have to use an interlaced screen.  (My Super-Gen does this internally
automatically, so it was NOT the answer I wanted to hear.)  For now, I am
using the MM200 version Player which works fine.

CONCLUSIONS

	I am very happy with ScalaMM210.  It makes syncing my anims to MOD
music a snap, and the titling software is the best I have seen.  It is a bit
pricey, but I got it from a 3000P buyer.  If you can see it at your local
dealer, the demo scripts that come with Scala will knock your socks off.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	This review is completely in the public domain.  Do with it as you
like.

- Adam Benjamin, [email-masked]

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