BlueEyes

(Cette page n'est pas encore disponible en francais. La version anglaise est affichée)

What is it ?

BlueEyes is a configurable and complete image and animation viewer integrated in a powerful file explorer.

The image viewer can:
  • Support a lot of normal files (*.jpg,*.bmp,*.png,*.gif,*.jpeg,*.ico,*.ota,*.png,*.tiff,*.wbmp,*.wmf,*.jfif).
  • Support animated (or container) files such *.mbm and *.gif (animation and transparency support).
  • View *.zan files. It is a new kind of animation file, that you can easily create yourself (Check the specific section about this file format).
  • Cycle through all the images of a directory (or of a specific request result).
  • Zoom into the image. The image can be automatically zoomed to best fit the screen size. A visual impact is performed when reaching some specific zoom levels (fitted to screen, normal size).
  • Rotate the image (this can automatically done to best fit the screen size).
  • Scroll the image (this is always possible using drag n' drop on the screen).
  • Change the speed of the animation file. The speed animation can be very quick, thanks to the 'stored in memory' frames and to the direct screen access of BlueEyes.
  • Study each frames of an animated image using the step by step display (forward and backward).
  • Perform a Slide Show of a defined delay.
  • Be controlled via the jog dial or via an on screen display (OSD) displayed onto the possibly animated image.
  • Display In the OSD, information related to the image display and animation.
  • Add a coloured (according to the image itself) background around the image when the image is smaller than the screen.
  • Preload the next and the previous images for a quicker display.
  • Go into a degraded mode (using low colours or reducing the image size); if there is not enough memory.
  • Permanently set the light on, during the image display.
The file explorer can:
  • Explore a directory hierarchy. The list representation linked with a scroll bar allows a quick access to the different items.
  • Images contained in archive files like *.cbz and *.zip can be accessed.
  • Add some favourites to the main directory list, thus providing some quick access to the preferred folders.
  • Perform some specific searches in multiple directories and using wildcards and recursive support. Those requests can be saved as favourites too.
  • Sort and randomise the list of files and directories.
  • Display the thumbnails of the internally supported images.Some other icons are used for files such directories, archives and favourites.
  • Launch any file with it's default viewer (executables are supported).
  • Open a file with a specific program (the specified program may support this option).
  • Send a file via BlueTooth, IR, MMs,…
  • Set a selected image as the internal or default theme background.
  • Export a resized and rotated image to a new one.
  • Delete and rename any file.
  • Get some information about a file (such as it's name which can be copied to the press paper).
  • Be fullscreen, in order to maximise the display.
Some other features are :
  • The configuration dialogs are a big part of BlueEyes, Thanks to them, you'll be able to personalise its Look, Layout, Behaviour and special effects.
  • The included help file is complete and explains all the features and options of BlueEyes.
  • In BlueEyes, everything can be done either using the jog dial or using the touch screen.
  • Some fancy animations and sound effect are included (they can be deactivated). They are partly performed when entering, exiting the program and while cycling from one image to another.
  • BlueEyes supports shell association. You can launch it giving an image as parameter. The new *.zan file format is directly associated to BlueEyes. Thus clicking on a *.zan file in any file browser will launch BlueEyes.
  • Blue eyes look can be integrated to the phone's one thanks to a theme support.

Screenshots of the Application (from 1.1 version)

The List Item View (in fullscreen) Editing an item The file list view The menu of the file list
Setting an image as theme background The configuration dialog The file list view (with a different layout) The file list view (with another different layout)
The fullscreen image view The OSD on the fullscreen image view The file list view The OSD for an animation file

What are the different options ?

To see the complete description of all the different option, please download the following .rtf document :
BlueEyes.rtf
This document is equals to the help included in the program.

What is the Zan file format ?

This is a simple animation format I created in order to play short high quality animations with a high speed constraint.
(The problem of the animated gifs was the low color limitation and the simple loop animations).
This format can use high color images and can show those images either looping them or playing and rewinding them forever.
Since this is new file format, I associated BlueEyes as the main viewer of this file format. In any file browser, clicking on a *.zan file will launch BlueEyes.
To construct such a file you need to prepare in a directory the images (steps of the animation) renaming them either in the :
  • "image1.jpg", "image2.jpg" ,… "image26.jpg" .. format
  • "image001.jpg", "image002.jpg" ,… "image026.jpg" ... format
When the images are ready, you can add 3 empty special text files to the directory :
  • "Duplicate.txt" will duplicate the first and last images when displaying the animation
  • "Reverse.txt" will reverse the animation instead of looping it.
  • "UseLowColors.txt" will force the use of 256 colors during the animation display (this will consume less memory)
These were the 3 options I needed, but I could add some more on demand.
Once all those files are ready, you just have to zip the full directory and to rename the *.zip file to *.zan. The zip compression rate should be equal to 0, since *.jpg files are already compressed and for a faster *.zip decompression.
Since all those images will be stored in memory for a quick animation, an animation with a high number of frames or with a high resolution will be hardly loaded and displayed.


Here can be downloaded some samples of *.zan files (the first 4 of them may need the full phone memory to be displayed):

a rotating candle a rotating car a rotating topmodel a rotating ping pong racket 3D effect with a plunge 3D effect with a hearth 3D effect with a stone gate a sexy animation
adult content

To share (and get) more *.zan files you can subscribe to the following group : ZanAnimation YahooGroup

What is the SmartNavigation mode ?

The SmartNavigation mode is a special view mode combining, point/area zoom, intelligent/manual scroll and next/previous image display. This mode was mainly designed to navigate into big images (if you wand to zoom into particular parts) or to navigate through the different images of a comic book. Click on the screen, or double click on the wheel (then selecting another time the 'SmartNavigation' mode) to switch from the fitted size to the full size of the image. Click on a special point of the image to make the full size zoom centred on it. 'Drag and drop' on the fitted size image to select an area that will be zoomed in order to be displayed in the whole screen area. 'Drag and drop' on the not fitted size image and you can move the image. If the image is not fitted, use the jog dial up and down to navigate into the image, the steps of the scroll can be configured. The scroll is 'intelligent' (i.e.: If you reach the right side of the image, then the image will be moved at the bottom left next part). When you reach the bottom right part of the image, the top left of the next image is displayed (potentially with a visual or key confirmation). The zoom value will be kept from one image to another The up and down key will act differently depending of the rotation of the image. If the image is fitted, jog dial up and down will reach you directly to the next or previous image To make the OSD displayed you can either push the jog dial or you can click in one of the 4 hot corners. Here are the different options to configure this special 'Smart Navigation' mode of BlueEyes.
  • "Previous/Next confirmation": set this option to true to have key confirmation before switching from one image to another if the image does not fit into the screen (the wheel is also used to scroll into the image). (Default = true)
  • "Hot Corner Size" is the size in pixels of the hot corners. Click in one of those corners to display the OSD (Default = 15)
  • "Scroll nb steps" is the number of animation steps used to display the scroll of the image (using the up/down keys) (Default = 3)
  • "% width increment" is a percentage of screen width moved for one horizontal scroll. (Default = 45)
  • "% height increment" is a percentage of screen height moved for one vertical scroll. (Default = 100)
  • "% invisible height for no change page" is the maximum percentage of hidden screen height to allow a bottom left move instead of an image change. (Default = 25)

About BlueEyes

BlueEyes is released as a DonationWare. You can use this application freely without any limitations. If you like it, please make a donation.
To make a donation, you can create a gift cetificatet on Amazon
Donate Check this webpage to donate
Another usefull thing you can do is to drop some comments on the different download sites.
Thanks for your support


Download and Install

To download BlueEyes 1.21,
Download click here
Simply follow the installation process to install it on your phone.

Installation of a new icon

Thanks to _TB_TB_ (on the My-Symbian.com forum), a new icon can be used instead of the original one (the eye).
First, download the following *.zip file (the original icon, is also provided, in case you'd like to use it again):
Download The new icon
Download The original icon
Here is how to 'install' the new downloaded icons (they are the 2 *.aif files in the zip file). "!" represents the installation drive.
  • Replace the following file on your phone to change the blueeyes icon:
    !:\system\APPS\BlueEyes\BlueEyes.aif
  • Replace the following file on your phone to change the icon of the files handled by blueeyes (*.zan and other images files if BlueEyes is set as main image viewer) :
    !:\system\APPS\BlueEyes_Loader\BlueEyes_Loader.aif
A phone restart may be necessary to see the change.

Troubleshots

Some users experienced application errors while launching BlueEyes like :
  • "BlueEyes stops with an error message about a missing background file and saying reason code CMdaAudioPlayerU Reason number 2".
  • "BlueEyes stops saying reason code e32user-cbase reason number 21".
First, try to uninstall and reinstall the program. A problem might have occured during the installation process.
If it has no effect then you have two solutions:
  • The configuration file might be corrupted.
    Try to manually delete (with a file manager) the file located here :
    c:\documents\BlueEyes\BlueEyes.ini
    (you will loose your personnal blueeyes configuration, but the program should be launchable again)
  • If blueEyes still doesn't work:
    • Uninstall the program.
    • Remove 'all' (some might not exist anymore) the blueeyes directories and files ("!" represents the installation drive) with a file manager.
      BlueEyes Directories :
      c:\documents\BlueEyes\
      !:\system\APPS\BlueEyes\
      !:\system\APPS\BlueEyes_Loader\
      BlueEyes Files :
      !:\system\recogs\RecZan.mdl
      !:\system\help\BlueEyes.hlp
    • Install the program.

History

  • 1.21 (21/02/2005) :
    • New: Option to avoid unzipping in a separate thread. Deactivation can be useful for Motorola users.
    • BugFix: Opening an image with BlueEyes as default viewer was not working all the time.
  • 1.2 (19/01/2005) :
    • New: SmartNavigation view mode added. This configurable mode allows to easily view/zoom/scroll and navigates through different big images (i.e. a comic book).
    • See the SmartNav part of the doc for a full explanation
    • New: *.zip and *.cbz file format support for image viewing: file is opened as if it was a directory
    • New: Long animated gif support (not stored in memory). no limit of the number of frames in the animation
    • New: improved degraded mode (better implementation, changes in the colour palette, configurable)
    • New: if reducing the colour is not enough, then the size of the image is reduced
    • New: Quicker: Load of the thumbnails / Next and Previous Image display / Random and Sort algorithm / scroll of a resized image
    • New: Better nicer resize algorithm. This pretty resize is done in background and is used for both zooming in and zooming out an image.
    • New: Better zoom constraint: the image cannot be outside the screen if it is not necessary
    • New: exe and app files can be launched from explorer. If the app already exists, then the focus is given to it (without creating a new instance of the application).
    • New: Export to file option added. A resized and rotated image can be exported to a new file (different format are possible).
    • New: Renaming and deleting a file is now possible.
    • New: Loop option available for scrolling lists (in Slide Show, OSD, browse, View and SmartNav modes)
    • New: Some icons can be displayed for directories, archives and favourites
    • New: It is possible to choose the default View mode
    • New: BlueEyes can be optionally set as the default image viewer automatically launched to view an image file
    • New: BlueEyes can be opened with any file given as parameter (file will be opened internally or externally).
    • If the file given as parameter is internally supported, then 'Exit' will be added to the OSD
    • New: Menus and Configuration changes. Some new options have also been added.
    • Bug Fix: memory leak when image could not be loaded
    • Bug Fix: better refresh rate when moving slow animated files.
    • New: Various bug fixes and improvements.
  • 1.1 (13/09/2004) :
    • New: Fullscreen List mode added . You can switch to Fullscreen via the main menu ("Blue Eyes"). Once in fullscreen, clicking on the top left icon (triangle or square) will bring up a pop-up containing various options (like "quit" or "cancel fullscreen").
    • New: "Send As" functionality added (send the selected file via Bluetooth, IR, mms,...)
    • New: "Open with" functionality added. Use it at your own risk since most of the programs won't support it. (ie, opening a file with the internal notepad will make notepad delete this file because it will not recognise the file and then find that the file given in parameter is corrupted !). A dialog is preventing a wrong manipulation. it can be removed from behaviour options
    • New: Better '*.gif' support. Now the specific delay of each frame is taken into account. The speed can still be changed relatively to each frame delay.
    • New: The animation speed of *.mbm and *.zan files are persisted (separately)
    • New: Menu Changes to make them thinner
         - "Set As Internal Background" -> "To Internal Bkg"
         - "Set As Theme Background" -> "To Theme Bkg"
    • New: The top left arrow become square in list item mode. This the 2 list mode can be identified more easily.
    • BugFix: removed E32UserCBase:18 error when using Ascendant sort on empty lists.
    • BugFix: Memory was not fully released when a big file could not be opened.
  • 1.01 (08/09/2004) :
    • BugFix: Small bug fix about application background saved from one session to another.
  • 1.0 (08/09/2004) :
    • First release of the Game