The IFL Sequences sub-panel contains settings that are related to Image File List animations (IFL animations).

The IFL Sequences sub-panel is divided into three sections: the IFL animation tools (at the top and bottom of the panel), the IFL sequences list (center left), and the IFL sequence properties (center right).

The IFL animation tools

The IFL animation tools are located at the top and bottom of the IFL animations panel. These controls are, from top to bottom, left to right:

• Add IFL animation to existing sequence button - Used to add an IFL animation to the indicated sequence.
• The Existing Sequence selector pull-down - Used to select an existing sequence for the purposes of adding an IFL animation to the sequence.
• The Remove IFL animation from selected sequence button - Deletes the currently selected IFL animation in the IFL Sequence list.  If the selected sequence contains more than one type of animation, only the IFL animation portion of the sequence is deleted.
  

The IFL Sequences list

The IFL sequences list displays a list of all sequences that currently contain an IFL animation. The sequence properties on the right-hand side of the panel apply to the currently selected sequence in this list.  A sequence may be selected by clicking on its name in the list.  Existing Sequences may be added to or removed from the list using the IFL animation tools controls at the top and bottom of the panel.

The IFL sequence properties

The IFL animation properties are located on the right hand side of the panel. The IFL animation properties apply to the currently selected sequence in the IFL sequences list on the left hand side of the page. If no sequence is selected, the sequence properties are disabled and will not respond to mouse clicks.

From top to bottom, left to right, the sequence properties are:

Selected Sequence Label

The selected sequence label displays the name of the currently selected sequence in the IFL sequences list to its left. The options below the selected sequence label apply to the currently selected sequence in the list.

IFL material selector pulldown

The IFL Material Selector pull-down is used to select an IFL material to be used for the current selected IFL animation.

Note: This pull-down is populated with the DTS Materials that have their IFL Material flag set in the Materials panel of the exporter GUI.

Number of Images control

The Number of Images control is used to define the number of images to be used in the current IFL animation.  The number of images that show up in the IFL Image Frames list is dependent on this value.

Write .ifl file button

When enabled, the Write .ifl File button causes the exporter to write out an .ifl file for the selected IFL animation. This IFL file is written out to the same folder as the exported dts file, and is required by Torque in order to play back the IFL animation.  This option may be disabled if you wish to hand-edit the IFL file and don't want the exporter overwriting it (it's a plain text file).

IFL Image Frames List

The IFL Image frames list displays a list of all images used in the current IFL animation, along with the number of frames for which each image is to be displayed.  The image names are pulled from the selected IFL Material name, beginning with the IFL material name itself, and adding one to the trailing number for each additional image. You must create your images using this naming convention. You may also pad your image names with zeros and the exporter will leave the padding intact. For example, an IFL sequence having an IFL material name of "Movie001" and using 20 images would generate IFL image frames starting with "Movie001" and ending with "Movie020". The exporter does not check to make sure that these images actually exist. Only the first image in the list needs to be loaded into Blender.

Selected image label

The selected image label displays the selected image from the IFL image frames list immediately to its left.  The properties below the label apply to the image that is selected in the list.

Image hold controls

The "Hold image for (frames)" control is used to change the number of frames for which the selected IFL image is displayed.  It operates on the currently selected IFL image in the IFL Image Frames List to its left.  IFL animations always play back at 30fps, so multiply this value by 1/30 of a second to determine the length of time that the image will be displayed.  For example, a frames value of 30 will cause an image to be displayed for 1 second before switching to the next image in the sequence.  The "Apply to all" button causes the current value from the "Hold image for (frames)" control to be applied to all images in the image list.

See Also:

• User Interface Overview - Materials panel
• DTS Materials - Material Options - IFL Materials
• DTS Animations - IFL Material Animations
• Tutorial 5 - Adding an IFL animation