Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact:  Jeff Roberts
Phone:  801-322-4300
Date:  April 14, 1994



SMACKER  SHRINKS  VIDEO  AND  ANIMATION  FILES

Salt Lake City, Utah:  RAD Software today announced a new compression product called "Smacker."  Smacker is a video and animation compressor for Autodesk FLIC-format files.  It is the first compressor specifically designed for 8-bit animations.  Smacker can compress most animations by a ratio of more than 4-to-1.

The author of Smacker, Jeff Roberts, had this to say, "In the past, animation users had to resort to all kinds of tricks to get rapid and smooth playback.  Smacker changes everything in the 256-color world.  Users can now create animations that were previously impossible to playback or distribute."

Most compressors focus on 24-bit animations, with 8-bit animations being a mere afterthought.  By concentrating on 8-bit data, Smacker surpasses all other compressors on 256-color animations, in both compression ratio and compressed-quality.  Smacker is able to compress most animations anywhere from 4-to-1 up to 12-to-1 with little-to-no visual loss.

On 8-bit animations, Smacker will out-compress SuperMac's Cinepak by over two times, Intel Indeo by eight times, and Microsoft's Video 1 by four times*.  In all cases, the Smacker animation had drastically better quality.  This huge difference in performance is due directly to Smacker's 8-bit design, and its competitors' 24-bit designs.

With these high compression ratios, Smacker users can create the type of flics that they have always wanted.  Full-delta, 320x240 animations  at 30 frames per second are now possible off a CD-ROM without any hardware assistance.  Full-delta 640x480 flics can be played back at more than fifteen frames per second off a hard drive.  And remember, that's full-delta animations - in the vast majority of animations, Smacker can playback much faster.  

A nice side benefit of Smacker's high compression ratios is faster playback.  Since the slowest part of a computer is generally the I/O devices (especially CD-ROMs), Smacker can playback animations much faster than standard players, simply because it has less data to read. 

Smacker also provides a brand-new feature in video compression - the ability to go back and touch-up the compressed animation.  With other compressors, if the user lost too much detail in his animation, he was out of luck.  With Smacker, the user has the ability to go back and selectively touch-up the compressed animation - just where the animation needs it.  The user gets the best of both worlds - high compression ratios, and optimal quality.

Smacker also has many options for CD-ROM users and developers.  Smacker supports three different CD-ROM speeds, and will preload the correct amount of information to maintain the frame rate.  Roberts explained, "If a user has one large frame after several small ones, Smacker will preload enough data during the small frames to keep up with the large one - all automatically."  Even better, Smacker supports these three CD-ROM speeds in the same animation file - the user doesn't have to create multiple animation files for each CD-ROM type.

Smacker can also accurately simulate the speed of a CD-ROM on a standard hard drive.  With this feature, users can test their CD-ROM animations without having to create an entire CD-ROM first.

The Smacker playback utility directly supports 26 different SuperVGA chipsets.  Each chipset type is autodetected, so the user doesn't have to worry about what kind of card he has.  The 26 drivers cover almost all graphics cards currently produced, and VESA drivers can be used for unsupported cards.  

Smacker provides these benefits to animation users:
	1)  4-to-1 or more size reduction of most animations.
	2)  Faster playback of animations.
	3)  Ability to touch-up compressed animations.
	4)  Predictable playback off CD-ROMs.
	5)  Multiple CD-ROM I/O targets in the same animation file.
	6)  CD-ROM speed simulation.
	7)  Built-in SuperVGA drivers.
 
Smacker is available for 386-or-higher, DOS-based PCs for $295.00.  For redistribution with commercial software products, the Smacker playback utility must be separately licensed.  Source Code licenses for the Smacker playback utility are also available.


RAD Software is one of a family of technology businesses owned by Invisible, Inc., a four million dollar corporation founded in 1988.  RAD Software has participated on many well-known software products including Microsoft Golf, Norton Desktop and Quattro Pro.  Invisible, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.


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Autodesk and FLIC are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc.
Smacker is a trademark of Invisible, Inc. d.b.a. RAD Software.
SuperMac and Cinepak are trademarks of SuperMac Technology, Inc.
Intel and Indeo are trademarks of Intel Corporation.

*Compression ratios were compared using the sample flic shipped with Smacker.  The "80" quality setting was used with the Video for Windows compressors.
