The FLIC
file format
A file format is a Computer standard, standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary format, pr ...
s most known in the extension .FLI and .FLC, used to store animation files. It is similar to animated
GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...
. The FLIC animation format was originally developed by
Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...
for use with
Autodesk Animator
Autodesk Animator is a 2D computer animation and painting program published in 1989 for MS-DOS. It was considered groundbreaking when initially released. (FLI) and
Autodesk Animator Pro
Autodesk Animator is a 2D computer graphics, 2D computer animation and painting program published in 1989 for MS-DOS. It was considered groundbreaking when initially released. (FLC). In 1993
Jim Kent
William James Kent (born February 10, 1960) is an American research scientist and computer programmer. He has been a contributor to genome database projects and the 2003 winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award (Bioinformatics), Benjamin Franklin Aw ...
had a
Dr. Dobbs
''Dr. Dobb's Journal'' (often shortened to ''Dr. Dobb's'' or DDJ) was a monthly magazine published in the United States by UBM Technology Group, part of UBM. It covered topics aimed at computer programmers. When launched in 1976, DDJ was the fi ...
article with a
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer.
Since a computer, at base, only ...
listing, introducing the FLIC format to the public.
The format uses pixel-wise
differential encoding
Differential may refer to:
Mathematics
* Differential (mathematics) comprises multiple related meanings of the word, both in calculus and differential geometry, such as an infinitesimal change in the value of a function
* Differential algebra
* ...
between frames (like GIF) to reduce file size.
In the 1990s
video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
s used the format for intros and other animated sequences in their games, for instance
UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994) by
MicroProse
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...
.
Autodesk released a
Freeware
Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...
software called ''AAPlay'' to play FLI/FLC files on the PC. After the
end of development and support by Autodesk, the community wrote substitutes themselves, for instance
free and open source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...
libraries for writing and reading FLI/FLC.
References
Graphics file formats
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