AAlib is a library for displaying graphics in text mode, using powerful ASCII renderer. There are lots of programs already supporting it, like Doom, Quake, etc. MPlayer contains a very usable driver for it. If ./configure detects aalib installed, the aalib libvo driver will be built.
You can use some keys in the AA Window to change rendering options:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | decrease contrast |
| 2 | increase contrast |
| 3 | decrease brightness |
| 4 | increase brightness |
| 5 | switch fast rendering on/off |
| 6 | set dithering mode (none, error distribution, Floyd Steinberg) |
| 7 | invert image |
| 8 | toggles between aa and MPlayer control |
The following command line options can be used:
Vchange OSD color
VChange subtitle color
where V can be:
0 (normal),
1 (dark),
2 (bold),
3 (bold font),
4 (reverse),
5 (special).
AAlib itself provides a large sum of options. Here are some important:
Set recommended aa driver (X11, curses, Linux).
Use all 256 characters.
Use eight bit ASCII.
Prints out all aalib options.
The rendering is very CPU intensive, especially when using AA-on-X (using aalib on X), and it's least CPU intensive on standard, non-framebuffer console. Use SVGATextMode to set up a big textmode, then enjoy! (secondary head Hercules cards rock :)) (but IMHO you can use -vf 1bpp option to get graphics on hgafb:)
Use the -framedrop option if your computer isn't fast enough to render all frames!
Playing on terminal you'll get better speed and quality using the Linux
driver, not curses (-aadriver linux). But therefore you
need write access on
/dev/vcsa<terminal>!
That isn't autodetected by aalib, but vo_aa tries to find the best mode.
See http://aa-project.sf.net/tune for further
tuning issues.