goif

A minimal gif-recoding library for LÖVE.

Usage

Drop goif.lua and the library files into your project and require it.

goif = require "goif"

To start recording a gif, use goif.start().

To stop and save your gif, use goif.stop()

There are two methods to actually record the frames.

• Use goif.start_frame() and goif.end_frame() and let the library handle the rest.
• Use goif.submit_frame() for more manual control.

You'll need to use goif.submit_frame() if you use any Canvas's in your rendering.

goif.start([width, height])

Starts the gif recording. Unless specified, the width and height will be that of love.graphics.getWidth/Height If another size is specified, goif will expect canvases of width * height to be submitted via goif.submit_frame()

goif.stop([filename, verbose])

Exports the gif to filename (default: gif.gif) and overwrites it if the file already exists.

If verbose is true, the library will print the exporting progress into the console.

goif.start_frame()

Use this before your game renders anything, marks the start of a frame.

goif.end_frame()

Tells goif to save the frame.

This will not work properly if you use Canvas's' in your rendering.

goif.submit_frame(canvas)

Use this if your rendering uses Cavnas's.

Submit the Canvas of your finished scene and goif will add it to the gif.

If specified in goif.start(), the size of the canvas needs to match goif.width and goif.height.

Warning!

While recording, goif can use insane amounts of memory! This is all cleaned up after export, though.

Also, please note that exporting can take a few seconds and will stall the game.

Example

Captures a gif of a rectangle moving right, printing info as it saves.

Start recording with a, stop with d.

goif = require 'goif'

x = 0

function love.update(dt)
  x = x + 100 * dt

  if love.keyboard.isDown('a') and not goif.active then
    goif.start()
  end

  if love.keyboard.isDown('d') and goif.active then
    goif.stop('mygif.gif', true)
  end
end

function love.draw()
  goif.start_frame()
  love.graphics.setColor(0, 0, 0)
  love.graphics.rectangle('fill', 0, 0, 800, 600)
  love.graphics.setColor(255, 255, 255)
  love.graphics.rectangle('fill', x, 200, 48, 48)
  goif.end_frame()
end

License

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.

Dependencies

The C part of this library depends on Lua 5.1 (or LuaJIT)