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- Welcome to Vortex!
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Vortex is a 256-color 320x200 graphics program. All you need is a 286 or
- higher and a little free DOS ram, and off you go!
-
- Use it as a screen-saver! Use it for whatever you want! It's free!
-
- For contact info, see NBONES.DOC
-
- Vortex will choose one of 10 sets of pattern generating equations randomly
- every 45 seconds, and it will choose a random color palette to go with it.
-
- If you don't want to just sit back and watch, or you want to see a specific
- kind of pattern, there are ways to customize/control Vortex's operation...
-
- Also, there are ways to make it easy to run as a manually-invoked
- screen-saver for Win95 and DOS.
-
- Here are the keyboard commands:
-
- ESC = Quit
- T = Test pattern
- 1 - 0 = Generate a specific one of the ten patterns
- SPACE = Generate a new random pattern
- ENTER = Display 8 small patterns (randomly chosen)
- F1 = Display 8 small patterns (patterns 1-6, 8, 9) (skips 7 and 0)
- R = Change palette rotation
- C = Generate new color palette
- - = Decrease pattern display time by 5 seconds (min=0; norm=45 sec)
- + = Increase pattern display time by 5 seconds (max=10 minutes)
- B = Brighten palette (obsolete & superceded)
- K = Toggle "Keep" (if on, patterns stay up forever)
-
- You can also specify the display time per pattern on the command line
- like this:
-
- VORTEX 300
-
- In this case the patterns will be displayed for 300 seconds (5 minutes).
- Valid numbers are from 0 to 600.
-
-
-
- DOS
- ~~~
- In DOS, the best way to do it is to make a batch file. On my system, I made
- one called "V", so that all I have to do at a DOS prompt is type V and then
- hit ENTER.
-
- To do this, you first need to choose a directory for the batch file. Type
- "PATH" at the DOS prompt to see a list of viable directories (they are all
- seperated by semi-colons). Good choices are things like "C:\DOS" or
- "C:\WINDOWS".
-
- We'll assume you chose "C:\DOS"
-
- Go into the directory you chose by using the "CD" command. (i.e. "CD\DOS")
- Then create the batch file by typing the following lines (we'll assume
- the vortex program is in a directory called "C:\VORTEX"), anywhere
- you see "<ENTER>" it represents the ENTER key, and "^Z" means either
- Ctrl-Z or F6. If you installed vortex into a directory other than
- "C:\VORTEX", then substitute the alternate directory name as appropriate:
-
- cd\dos
- copy con V.BAT<ENTER>
- @C:\VORTEX\VORTEX.EXE<ENTER>
- ^Z<ENTER>
-
- This creates a file by copying text from the console to "V.BAT", and the
- "^Z" indicates the end of the file. When you are done, you should see on
- the screen what you did as:
-
- C:\>cd\dos
- C:\DOS>copy con V.BAT
- @C:\VORTEX\VORTEX.EXE
- ^Z
- 1 file(s) copied
-
- C:\DOS>
-
- If you make a typo, just finish it up and do it over again. Since you have
- created this batch file in a directory in your path, all you need to do
- from now on to run VORTEX is type "V".
-
-
-
- WINDOWS 95
- ~~~~~~~~~~
- Vortex is designed for DOS, but apparently Windows-95 has no
- problem with it. You can easily use it as a manually-run
- screen-saver in Win95 by creating a shortcut to it on your
- desktop:
-
- 1. Click in an empty spot on the desktop with the right mouse button.
- 2. Choose "NEW" and "Shortcut"
- 3. Enter the full path and filename to Vortex
- (such as C:\VORTEX\VORTEX.EXE)
- 4. Enter the name the shortcut will have (why not "Vortex"?)
- 5. Choose an icon for it.
- 6. Click on "Finish"
- 7. Right-click once on the newly created shortcut and select "properties"
- 8. Select "Misc" at the top.
- 9. Make sure "Allow screen-saver" is turned off.
- 10. Click on "Apply" and then "Ok"
-
- From now on, whenever you walk away from your computer, double-click
- on your vortex shortcut that you made. When you come back, press the
- ESC key to return to windows.
-
-
-
-