The TestDrive Applet - Version 1.1

I put these instructions together rather quickly (in 1996). If you have any problems understanding them or making things work, let me know. Please don't ask me for help using sound and image tools or coding HTML unless you have genuinely tried to figure things out on your own. If you use this applet, please include a link back to this page for anyone else interested in how it works.

To add the Z28 applet to your web page:

  1. Download z28applet.zip (108k) and unzip the files to an empty directory (Get WinZip to unzip the file if you don't already have a compression utility.).
  2. Place the extracted files in a directory on your web server (such as your home page directory).
  3. Create an HTML document and add the following HTML tag to the document:

    <APPLET CODE="TestDrive.class" WIDTH=600 HEIGHT=150 NAME="TestDrive">
    </APPLET>

  4. Place the new HTML document in the directory on your server where you copied the extracted files. The HTML document will display the Z28 applet when it is loaded in your web browser.

To customize the Z28 applet and add it to your web page:

  1. Follow the instructions above.
  2. The extracted files will include the sound files: and the image files: You may replace any of these files when customizing the applet.
  3. To change the image files used by the applet:
    1. Obtain a digitized side-photo of the vehicle you wish to animate. You can take a photo with a digital camera or scan a traditional picture with a color scanner. If you don't have access to a color scanner or a digital camera, try getting a photo scanned at a print or copy shop. You will also need an image editing tool such as Paint Shop Pro.
    2. Crop the image so that there is very little extra space around the car, then fill in the rest of the area around the car with a single color (whatever you prefer the background to be). Save the image as a JPEG file.
    3. Select and copy one of the wheels. The square area that you copy should include as little of the actual tire as possible. Paste this selection as a new image and fill the area outside the wheel with a solid color (pick a background color that is not already in the wheel picture). Reduce the color depth of the wheel picture to 256 colors, find out the index of the background color and save the image as a GIF file, setting the image's transparency index to that of the background color.
    4. Rotate the wheel image 90 degrees and save it as a new file. Rotate it 180 degrees and save it as a new file (Remember to reload the original wheel file so your rotation is starting from 0 degrees each time.). Rotate the image 270 degrees and save it as a new file. You may rotate the image less each time so that you end up with more than four wheel pictures if you wish. Make sure the transparency index stays the same for each file.
      If you wish, you can make several smoke images. These should also be saved as transparent GIF files.
    5. Replace the image files you extracted from z28applet.zip with the files you have just created. Make sure you use the same names as the old image files.
    6. Set the x and y offset parameters for the front and rear wheel pictures and the smoke picture (see Modifiable parameters below).
  4. To change the sound files used by the applet:
    1. First you will need to obtain new sound files and a sound editing tool such as Goldwave. To record original sounds you will need either a digital recording device (such as a mini-disc player) or a device capable of sampling analog sound recorded from a traditional recorder. If you have a very high end sound card, it might be capable of this. Remember, you don't need to change the sound files just because you changed the images. Nor is it necessary to change all the sound files just because you change some of them.
    2. Using your sound editing software, create the sound files you wish to be played when your car animation starts up, revs up, burns out, or idles. Save these sound files in the 8khz .AU format (make sure you give these files the same names as the files they are replacing). The applet will only load sound files in this exact format (a limitation of the current JAVA implementation). Some sound editing tools give you the option of saving in the .AU format but do not save at the proper sampling rate (e.g. they might save at 22khz instead of 8khz). If you have done everything else properly and are having problems getting the sounds to play, try using the sound tool listed above and save the files as type .AU with the file attributes set to "JAVA/Web, mono".
    3. Finally, set the applet parameters which specify the length of the sound files you are using. This is not crucial, but it will ensure that everything is synchronized properly.

Modifiable parameters of the Z28 applet

Here is how to add a parameter value to the applet tag:

<APPLET CODE="TestDrive.class" WIDTH=600 HEIGHT=150 NAME="TestDrive">
<param name=parameter_name value="parameter_value">
</APPLET>

Example:

Adding the parameter below would tell the applet that the length of the burnout8k.au sound file is 7000 milliseconds (7 seconds).

<APPLET CODE="TestDrive.class" WIDTH=600 HEIGHT=150 NAME="TestDrive">
<param name=burnoutSoundLength value="7000">
</APPLET>

Parameter List

You may change any or all of the parameters listed below.

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