[cLogic]

Hi all,

We've just finished developing a brand new Animated raster Graphics format called CBA (Core Bitmap Animation). We are targeting this FREE technology to GIF users, who would like to include portable compressed animation files in their software development projects, web projects, etc.

CBAs, compared to GIFs, are 26-75% smaller in filesize, and use almost 0 percent processor power. CBAs can also have a minimum frame delay of 1 millisecond. That's 1/1000 of a second. We are putting in support for embedded and possibly watermarked or encrypted text/binary data in each file, and you will also be able to use JPG images for frames in the animation. This means 32-bit color and still great compression in one animation file.

We have all worked VERY hard to develop a great and advanced alternative to the ancient animated GIF format. We are offering it FREE to ANYONE who may be interested in this technology.

As you may or may not know, you cannot legally use GIFs on your software development projects (shareware/freeware gfx apps) now without paying hefty licensing fees and royalty to Unisys, who holds the patent for GIFs. This may also apply to large, commercial websites. (latest rumours are that Unisys is harassing companies like Yahoo and Disney for royalties and licenses on displaying GIFs on these sites. The list goes on..) The details are too much to go into, but you can find ALL the info about this issue on the http://www.coreba.com/, and http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/Gif/Gif.html

Enough talking, check out the demos!

Oh yeah, when you click on a demo CBA, your browser will ask you if you want to download the latest CBA ActiveX control. You will need to download this to view the CBAs. It's just a small 66k file that lets MSIE display CBA animations.

http://www.coreba.com/

Josh
Lead Designer - Core Logic Software, Inc. http://www.corelogicsoftware.com/



[This message has been edited by cLogic (edited September 19, 2000).]

[Icannon]

that's wicked and very cool of you guys! i'm sure it'll have synj's approval :P

[wootkoos]

Off with the fucking corporations! </rant>

*ahem*

*runs off to vist the site...



------------------
wootkoos

[email][email protected]">[email protected] |

[cLogic]

I forgot to mention,

I would also appreciate any feedback, comments, suggestions, criticisms on the usability and layout of the site as well!

Also, we have a forum set up on the site for interested people to participate in as well.

Thanks!

Josh

[Trance-R]

I do not understand... does IE or Netscape support it? And how do we convert images to cba?
Oh wait. I see the link now. Heh.
But how do you make one?

WOW! This is amazing! CBA rocks! The activeX control took 1/2 a second to download and install. And you could control the speed. Mmm... Very cool! One suggestions though, you should try making another animation with smoother framerate and retain lower size to show off the cba technology even more!

[This message has been edited by Trance-R (edited September 19, 2000).]

[Paqmann]

<old message>Cool.. one prob. Does ANYTHING but MSIE support it? I remember something like Netscape and Opera and everything else not supporting activex....</old message>

oops just noticed the thing that says "we dont have it for netscape yet." Score.. very nice.

-matt

[This message has been edited by Paqmann (edited September 19, 2000).]

[amnesia]

Gee what processor were you using to get those CPU performance figures a penitum 75?

(Edit: Ahh I now see you quote a Pentium II 500 on the page)

I'just had a look at my performance figures whilst running those gifs and they were no way near as high, but the cba figures were lower than the gif figures.

(I'm talking about the CPU performance stated next to the example gifs in your page... just in case it wasn't clear..)

(Edit: To be more specific I have a an athlon 600 and for SNOWMAN.GIF when you quoted a 100% constant CPU usage, my machine posted a 22% constant CPU usage)

Funny how configs differ isn't? Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking your CBA format. I'm just commenting.

The web page is a nice design too.

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,.-="`AmnesiA`"=-.,

[This message has been edited by amnesia (edited September 19, 2000).]

[CiscoKid]

Paqmann:
Actually the ActiveX control that is used in the demo can be used in just about any development environment, such as VC++, Delphi, Visual Basic, etc.; It's a fully COM compliant dll with quite a few features. We're hoping that people will use this format in their own projects and basically just help us grow this. By the way, this technology was actually being used by several products months prior to its release.

Amnesia:
Actually the processor is a pentium 3 550 with 256 MB RAM running Microsoft NT 4 Server. The video card that you have plays a big role in this of course, and the video card on that machine is a "generic" Cirrus logic 5446 with 2 MB. We didn't want the video card to be a factor in this as we were checking out the processor usage. Of course if it affected the GIF that much, then the CBAs should've been affected as well. Thanks.

Also, the difference (should be) always proportional; if in the CBA demo page the GIF cpu usage was 80% and the cba was 1%, then if on your system the GIF cpu usage is 20%, then the CBA cpu usage (should be) around 0.25%. So the figure actually gets better for both, not just for the GIF. You just can't see as much of a difference when the CBA numbers are less than 1%.

[This message has been edited by CiscoKid (edited September 19, 2000).]

[cLogic]

Okay, I'm going to apologize for this long ass post, but I strongly believe this is a very important issue:

Gif technology was offered to the internet public back in 87 as FREE, by both Compuserve and Unisys. They said "It will always be free. Here, take it and use it." We did, and it became the internet standard.

Now, some 10 years later, Unisys forces the public (backed by ridiculous US patent laws) to pay buttloads of money for using a stinkin mathematical algorithm (LZW Compression) used in reading GIFs. If you don't think you're going to be affected by this, you're wrong. Everyone is affected. Less people will develop great freeware and shareware graphic apps, rich content sites might go commercial and sell out because GIF licensing or royalty fees are hurting their banks. But most of all, the public sends a clear message to rich corporations who want to cash in on open internet technology: "Take advantage of us, we'll pay whatever you want! We don't care about whether the internet remains a free place or not!"

If this isn't the blatant form of corporate vampirism of the public, then I don't know what is. Every day, big and small internet companies make Unisys richer and fatter because there isn't a viable alternative without sacrificing millions of internet surfers who rely on GIFs. And we rely on GIFs because browsers and platforms don't support any other alternative.

Well, as long as this vicious circle continues, Unisys gets richer, other corporations follow the trend, and the "freedom" of the internet is gone, and the internet becomes just another storefront for corporate America. We need to do something about issues like this.

I want the internet to stay FREE. I want to be able to put graphics, animations, and text on my website without some asshole emailing me and telling me I need to pay them for something they had no part in creating. It's bad enough corporations are polluting the freaking environment and destroying our damn ozone layer (did you know that the ozone hole is bigger than the continental US now? it was only about the size of TExas about two years ago I think. I digress). Even with all these corporate vampirism, now they have to suck life out of the internet? I'm sorry that I sound pretty pissed off, but frankly, the fact that Unisys probably just made several hundred thousand dollars in licensing and royalty fees in the time it took me to write this post - all for paying compuserve and filing a patent claim on a mathematical formula back in 1987 just before they told the world that this will always be free, it pisses me off.

Please note, these are my personal opinions and not that of my employers.

I'd like to stop Unisys from leeching off the internet, and tell other corporations that people aren't stupid and won't pay you for nothing. This is why I got involved with the CBA project. We have a solution here that will technically kick GIFs ass in ANY situation. CBAs are also designed to be upgraded very easily. Tons of features just waiting to be exploited. Best of all, I'd like to send Unisys an animated CBA file with the text that reads: GIF SUCKS. TAKE YOUR PATENT AND SHOVE IT.

But I can't do that until the CBA technology is accepted and supported by the public. The only way for that to happen is if everyone cares enough about what Unisys is doing to help spread the word about this new format. We haven't started any major marketing yet, since this is a non-profit project, but we would really appreciate it if those of you who think this is cool would help out by spreading the word. If you help, we'll send you a cool-looking looking sticker or something! hehe. No, seriously, all major contributors to the project will be fully credited.

Final note, again, this is my PERSONAL views, not Core Logic Software, Inc. (my employers). This is the public's chance to REALLY respond to what Unisys has done.

Peace.

Josh Sin

[CoDeX]

wow cool stuff, finally some one gona replace those damn GIF's. Hopefully this is the future animation format