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DOC2COM (Gerald DePyper) | 1994-08-15 | 23.2 KB | 436 lines

---------------------------[ %README INFO` ]-------------------------- |Night Bird 2.6 and 2.7 August 15, 1994 Copyright (c) 1994, Nicholas Centanni All Rights Reserved -------------------------------------------------------------------- \-->` Press ~ALT P` to print this info, ~ALT F` to save as a text file. Use the arrow keys or ~PgUp`, ~PgDn` to view. Press ~ESC` to quit. %Contents: * Night Bird Features * Hardware Requirements * Program Options * Distribution Policy * Technical Support %Registered Version 2.7: * Keyboard Commands * Using the Message Editor * Running Night Bird as a DOS Screen Saver ------------------------ | Night Bird Features ------------------------ Night Bird is a real-time animation of a bird flying endlessly over an ever-changing field of lights. It was written originally as a sample program to demonstrate certain techniques of 3D animation to users of the XYZ++ 3D Graphics class library. Eventually it was developed as an independent product. %New to Version 2.6: ~*` Special 3D text can now be displayed on the forest floor. ~*` Better use is made of the VGA graphics hardware, allowing the use of a richer and more beautiful range of color. ~*` The program was optimized again for speed, and now runs with more ground detail than ever before! %Previous enhancements: ~*` The bird model was redesigned so that it's wing movements more closely resemble those of a real bird. ~*` Evergreen trees were added to the background detail to make the scene look more natural. %Features of the Registered Version -- 2.7 ~*` Keyboard commands were added, which allow you to move about in the scene. These are described below in the section: Keyboard Commands. ~*` Text can now be entered with the Night Bird Message Editor, and will be displayed in a spectacular way on the ground below the bird. ~*` And a new TSR loader has been added which allows Night Bird to operate as a DOS screen saver. If your computer is making use of expanded (LIM) memory, then this TSR loader requires only 2k of resident memory! %Quitting the Program ~*` To exit the program, after the bird has started to fly, press ESC. When in screen saver mode, you can also quit by moving your mouse, or clicking the mouse button. ------------------------ | Hardware Requirements ------------------------ Night Bird is designed to take advantage of the 80386 processor and VGA graphics. The software will only run on that hardware, and will exit with a warning message if the installed equipment is not sufficient. ------------------------ | Program Options ------------------------ ~ Frame Rate The animation times itself to the computer it is running on, by gradually adding ground detail until a given frame rate is reached. The default frame rate is 20 frames per second. This target frame rate can be adjusted at the command line. For example, start the program with the DOS command: NBIRD -f30 to increase the animation rate to 30 frames per second, or NBIRD -f5 to decrease the rate to 5 frames per second. A lesser value will allow more ground detail points to be drawn, but will make the animation choppier. A greater value will create smoother animation, at the expense of a decrease in ground detail. ~ Copyright Banner You may suppress the opening copyright message by starting the program with the -c command. For example: NBIRD -c ~ Sensing the Mouse and COM ports When Night Bird is being run as a screen saver (registered version only), any mouse or COM port activity will end the program, but this does not occur when running the program (NBIRD) directly from the DOS prompt. The -m option will enable this sensing behavior, if you prefer that, when running from the DOS prompt. In certain cases, you might experience the program quitting prematurely, even though you are sure there was no Mouse or COM port activity. This can sometimes happen if your mouse is very sensitive, or if your modem needs resetting. If addressing either of those two conditions does not solve the problem, then do not use this option when running from the DOS prompt. ------------------------ | Distribution Policy ------------------------ The SHAREWARE version 2.6 of Night Bird may be freely distributed. It is only permitted to distribute the software if ALL related files are included. So, if you want to give it to a friend, or post it to a BBS, we would love that! But only give away the original complete file as you received or downloaded it: (e.g. NBIRD26.ZIP). The REGISTERED version 2.7 of Night Bird may NOT be distributed under any circumstances. The same holds for both WaterVision and Liberty Bell. Night Bird 2.7, WaterVision and Liberty Bell are NOT shareware programs. These programs are all copyrighted, and may NOT be duplicated or distributed without the permission of the author. All rights are reserved worldwide for Night Bird 2.6, Night Bird 2.7, WaterVision, and Liberty Bell. For more information regarding our shareware offer, run the program ORDER.COM which you should have received with this package. Just type ORDER at your DOS prompt to view or print the order form. It includes all information you need to order the software directly, through Compuserve, or by Credit Card. ------------------------ | Technical Support ------------------------ If you have any questions about this or any other product from Nicholas Centanni, you may contact the author at any of the following addresses: % Nicholas Centanni` Voice mail: %(408) 236-2264 % 15466 Los Gatos Blvd.` Compuserve EMail: %[70431,2147] % Suite 109-060` Internet: %nickc@netcom.com % Los Gatos, CA 95032` --------------------------------------------- | Keyboard Commands ~Registered Version 2.7 --------------------------------------------- The following commands may be used while the program is running: ~ Elevation Press the \U` key to move \U`P. Press the \D` key to move \D`OWN. ~ Distance Press the \C` key to move \C`LOSER to the bird. Press the \F` key to move \F`ARTHER from the bird. ~ Viewing Magnification Press the \Z` key to \Z`OOM in on the bird. Press the \W` key for a more \W`IDE angle view. ~ Bird Height Press the \H` key to cause the bird to rise \H`IGHER in the air. Press the \L` key to \L`OWER the height of the bird. ~ Bird Speed Press the \S` key to increase the bird's \S`PEED. Press the \B` key to \B`RAKE the bird's speed. ---------------------------------------------------- | Using the Message Editor ~Registered Version 2.7 ---------------------------------------------------- This utility allows you to add custom text to the Night Bird screen saver. Text that you enter will appear on the ground, and you will see the bird gracefully flying over it. At any time, you may use this Message Editor again, and change the message text. The message text is saved directly in the Night Bird program. ~ Message Length You are allowed up to 6 different messages, each one containing up to three lines of text. You are allowed a maximum of 25 characters of text on each line. Note: The maximum size of a message is actually based on the number of points that are used to draw the letter in the animation. It is NOT based on message length. The character comma ',' for example, uses only 8 points, whereas the dollar sign character '$' uses 60. So, a long message might be possible, if it uses many characters with low point counts. You needn't worry however about trying to determine the point count for your message. Just enter your desired text, and the program will tell you whether the message will be displayable. ~ Message Format It's quite all right to enter less than 6 messages. All message slots left blank (after the last entered message) will be ignored. Although text in the message editor appears left-justified, you will notice that the text will always be centered when displayed in the program. Keep this in mind when deciding how you will layout your text. ~ Entering the Message To use the editor, you must be logged into the same directory as that of the Night Bird program (NBIRD.EXE). This is because the editor will need to find the EXE file in order to update the text embedded in the program file. To start the program type: BTEXT at your DOS prompt, then press enter. After starting the Editor, you will see three text lines available for editing, and a blinking cursor in the first line. Any text you enter up until you press ENTER, will be assigned to the first line. To move to the next line of text, press ENTER. If you press ENTER while in the last line of text, you will be brought back to the first line. You may move backwards in a line of text by pressing BACKSPACE. To clear a line of text, move to that line and press the SPACE BAR. When you are satisfied with the text in a message and wish to move to the next message, click the RIGHT ARROW button, or use your right arrow cursor key. Similarly, to move to a previous message click the LEFT ARROW button, or use the left arrow cursor key. When navigating from one message to the other, you will see the current message number in the small window next to the arrow buttons. This display will show message numbers in the range of: 1 to 6. If you wish to exit the program, without writing the text into the Night Bird EXE, click the CANCEL button, or press the keystroke combination: ALT n. If you are satisfied with the entered text, and wish to perform the update, click the OK button, or press ALT o. You will notice however, that whichever method you use to exit the program, the text you have entered in the editor is always remembered, even though it may not have been transferred to Night Bird. So the next time you run the editor, the last entered text will still be visible. This text resides in the data file: MESSAGE.DAT. This file may be erased if desired to save disk space, or as a way of clearing the Message Editor text. Note: The file MESSAGE.DAT is only a work file for the use of the message editor, and is not a required data file for the normal operation of Night Bird. -------------------------------------------------------------------- | Running Night Bird as a DOS Screen Saver ~Registered Version 2.7 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Many people have requested that Night Bird be redesigned to act as an auto-loading DOS screen saver. This is now possible by running the supplied TSR loader: NBIRDTSR. To run Night Bird as a screen saver, just enter the command: NBIRDTSR at your DOS prompt, followed by any one or more of the following command line options. ~ /U -- Unload NBIRDTSR from memory. \Example: NBIRDTSR /U This option will only work if no other TSR has been loaded after NBIRDTSR. ~ /D<secs> -- Set Screen Saver DELAY time, in seconds. \Example: NBIRDTSR /D120 (Sets delay to 2 minutes) After NBIRDTSR has been run, Night Bird will pop-up on screen after it has sensed that there has been no Keyboard, DOS, COM port, or Mouse activity for a default period of 60 seconds. You may use this option to lengthen that DELAY time. The minimum DELAY is 60 seconds, but there is no limitation on the maximum DELAY used. This command may be used even after NBIRDTSR has already been loaded. Just type: NBIRDTSR /D<new delay time> and you will see a message stating that the delay time has been changed. You may also start Night Bird manually, once the TSR is loaded, by pressing F11. NOTE: If you are running software that affects the system timer in any way, this may confuse the counter in NBIRDTSR and the DELAY feature may operate incorrectly. If the program is popping up earlier than the default of 60 seconds, or does not seem to be obeying the DELAY value that you have set for it, just run NBIRDTSR /D<secs> again to reset the value. ~ /M<nnn> -- Set memory swap size to nnn kilobytes. \Example: NBIRDTSR /M128 When another program is running, such as a word processor, or even another graphics program, and Night Bird is activated, it will swap out the current application either to LIM memory or to disk, then will load Night Bird temporarily into conventional memory. This option sets the size of the buffer in memory NBIRDTSR uses to accomplish this swapping. If no value is specified NBIRDTSR will use a 256K swap buffer. If the specified amount is greater than the maximum available memory NBIRDTSR will swap as much as possible. You can also specify /M* to have the loader use the maximum available size for swapping. ~ /E -- Do not use EMS (expanded or LIM) memory. \Example: NBIRDTSR /E This option will disable the swapping of the underlying application to EMS (expanded or LIM memory). It will also disable the running of the TSR itself in EMS. This may be needed with some applications which use EMS in an incompatible manner. ~ /X -- Do not use XMS (extended, HIMEM) memory. \Example: NBIRDTSR /X This option will disable the swapping of the underlying application to XMS (extended, HIMEM memory). This may be needed if running certain applications that use extended memory in an incompatible manner. ~ /H -- Do not check Hi-Memory for TSR. \Example: NBIRDTSR /H When the Night Bird TSR is loaded, it first checks your computer's memory to make sure a copy of the TSR is not already loaded. It checks conventional memory (the first 640k), then the high memory (above 640k). Some machines however will lock up if high memory is scanned, so the /H option is provided in order to disable the scanning of the memory above 640k during this search. You should only use this option if you are experiencing problems when the TSR is loaded. Most users can ignore this option. ~ /P<program name> -- Use alternate path location for NBIRD.EXE \Example: NBIRDTSR /Pc:\\nbird\\nbird.exe Use this option to specify the full drive/path/filename of the Night Bird .EXE file. You only need to use this option if you have stored NBIRD.EXE in a different directory than the one where NBIRDTSR resides. If this option is not used, NBIRDTSR will look for NBIRD.EXE in its home directory. ~ /C<command line> -- Set the command line options for NBIRD.EXE \Example: NBIRDTSR /C-f25 (25 frames per sec) As described above in the section PROGRAM OPTIONS, Night Bird allows for several options to be specified at run time, on the command line. When using NBIRDTSR to start Night Bird, these options can be sent using this /C option. This option must be the LAST option specified for NBIRDTSR, because all text appearing after "/C" will be considered as part of the command line that will be sent to Night Bird. ~ The NBIRD.SWP file NBIRDTSR stores any underlying memory contents into the file: NBIRD.SWP (when extended/expanded memory is not available). The file is created on the current drive at the time of initial loading of NBIRDTSR. When NBIRDTSR /U is invoked to unload the TSR, this file will be removed. Note: NBIRD.SWP should NOT be deleted while NBIRDTSR is resident. ~ The NBIRD.INI file Sometimes you will find that it is undesirable for Night Bird to pop up over certain applications. If you experience problems with the use of NBIRDTSR in association with a specific application, or you just wish to prevent the TSR from interrupting your work during your use of an application, then just indicate the name of that program in the text file: NBIRD.INI. You will find a copy of NBIRD.INI installed in the same directory as the Night Bird program. Examine the file with a text editor to see how it is formatted. Two fake program names: skip1.exe and skip2.com were placed in the file just to show how the program names should be listed. You may replace these names with the names of those programs you wish to protect from the screen saver activity of NBIRDTSR. In actual use, you do not need to supply the EXE or COM extension. The first 8 characters of the program name are sufficient. ~ Example BATCH files An example batch file (BIRD.BAT) has been supplied which demonstrates the correct method of loading NBIRDTSR. It can be called directly from the DOS prompt, or from within your autoexec.bat file. Or just copy the contents of BIRD.BAT directly into your autoexec.bat file, if you prefer. Use BIRD.BAT as a guide for setting up the loader for your environment, adding whatever additional options you may want to pass on to the NBIRDTSR command line, as described above. But remember that any additional options must be inserted after the command NBIRDTSR and BEFORE the /C option, or the options will be ignored. Additionally, the BATCH files: REBIRD.BAT and UNBIRD.BAT have been supplied to demonstrate resetting the delay time. ~*` Loading the TSR (BIRD.BAT) Type BIRD at the DOS prompt to use this batch file. The TSR will be loaded and will activate after the default delay of 60 seconds. ~*` Resetting the delay time (REBIRD.BAT) Type REBIRD <new_seconds> to change the delay time for the TSR. ~*` Unloading the TSR from memory: (UNBIRD.BAT) Type UNBIRD at the DOS prompt to remove the TSR from memory.