The Final Frontier 7

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TF01 4,LCARS GUIDE 2,LCARS Release 2 User's Guide a · BUG REPORTS / CONTACTING THE AUTHOR 01 I was going to put this bit at the end of this guide, but the thought occured to me that you might find it so boring you don't get to the end! Anyway, I can be contacted at the usual INFINITE FRONTIERS address, or my home address is as follows: Luke Elliott 7 Hathaway Close Eaton Socon St. Neots Cambridgeshire PE19 3HQ. Bear in mind I might be at university at the time, so it may take a while for anything to reach me... Alternatively (and preferably) if you have access to EMAIL then my address is: ae3084@bris.ac.uk (Internet) 02 If you do find a bug in the LCARS software (which I hope not as it has been extensively tested), then please could you send me the following details: i. What the bug does. ii. How to make the bug occur (as precisely as possible). iii. Your system configuration - Machine type Amount of mem (chip and fast) Kickstart version Any peripherals attached As well as bug reports, any suggestions for how I could improve the LCARS software are always welcome! A · INTRODUCTION 01 What is LCARS? LCARS (or Library Computer Access and Re- trieval System) is the interface between the main computer and the user on all new and recently refitted StarFleet vessels. Older vessels are currently undergoing modification in their computer cores to incorporate and make best use of the new software, which is intended to be the mainstay of StarFleet computers for years to come. It is designed in such a way that upgrades can be incorporated with ease due to its modular design - for example, if the Environment control program is improved upon, the existing software for that particular sub-system may be removed and replaced without touching other areas of LCARS. 02 LCARS is a completely new type of interface for starships. In 23rd century vessels, the emphasis in software design was on functionality and not user-friendliness. This led to many problems since different sub-systems could be totally different in design, with no common thread running through them. Indeed, the design of computer software had not advanced a great deal since the late 20th century, although the technology involved had. With the commissioning of the Galaxy class project in July of 2343, the Advanced Starship Design Bureau (ASDB) decided that major improvements in software functionality and user-friendliness were required, and for this reason computer systems were one of the areas given priority to the design centres. 03 LCARS provides both keyboard and verbal interface capability, incorporating highly sophisticated artificial intelligence routines and graphic displays for maximum crew ease of use. (Unfortunately, due to problems in storage of the LCARS software, the version currently running does not contain any verbal recognition routines, although you can talk to the console if you wish.) B · USING LCARS 01 LCARS was designed to be as easy and intuitive to use as possible. However, you may be experiencing some difficulties so a short description of its main features follows in the next section. 02 The standard LCARS display is split into two distinct sections. The upper section contains a main "title" for the current operation. Below the main title is a further line of text which may contain additional details. The lower section is where the real action takes place. This may contain gadgets to control the menuing system, or text to read (such as now), graphics to view, preferences to adjust or questions to answer. A brief description of all these modes follows in a while. 03 There are usually gadgets in both sections of the display. The upper section will generally always contain two gadgets - the INFO gadget in the top-left corner and a screen-flip gadget. The INFO gadget will display information relative to the current mode of operation. The screen-flip gadget can be used to place the LCARS screen at the back of the display in the multi-tasking Amiga environment. In the lower of the two bars which separate the two LCARS sections, you should see an thin block about 3 cm long and a couple of mm high. Click on this to swap screens. 04 This standard LCARS display layout is used for all modes EXCEPT the viewing of graphics files - see section E for more information. C · MENU MODE 01 Menu mode uses a series of MenuFiles which contain data describing the layout of the current display. These MenuFiles also contain the information which tells LCARS what to do when a gadget is clicked - either display a new MenuFile or perhaps a TextFile (see section D), as well as performing many other varied and exciting functions. 02 During Menu mode, the lower LCARS display contains 28 user definable gadgets which can be clicked on with the LCARS pointer. This will perform one of the functions listed below: i. Display a new MenuFile with new options. ii. Display a TextFile for the user to read. iii. Play a music module (various formats supported). iv. Play a sound sample. v. Display a `slideshow' of pictures. vi. Play quiz game. vii. Execute an external program. When you click on a gadget which has a function hooked on to it, the gadget will highlight. However, some gadgets do not have a function, so do not highlight. There are some general conventions which apply in MenuMode, as follows: i. A gadget which contains lower case text is only a subtitle which describes the gadgets below. This gadget does not change the current display or mode. ii. A gadget with upper case text and three dots (...) following the text will show a new menu on the screen (by loading a new MenuFile). iii. A gadget with upper case text and no tailing characters will execute one of the functions listed above. 03 During Menu mode, the gadgets around the screen have the following functions: INFO Brings up an info requester showing the current version of the LCARS software and the software engineers involved in its development. It is also possible to quit the LCARS environment from here. MAIN Will reload and redisplay the initial MenuFile. PREV Will reload and redisplay the most previous MenuFile. In future this may have a history, so it remembers your menu selections over a period of time. PREFS This will bring up a screen from which you can change various aspects of LCARS operation - more on this in section H. 04 MenuMode also has many keyboard shortcuts built in if you do not wish to use the mouse. On gadgets such as MAIN, PREV and PREFS you will notice that one of the letters on the gadget is underlined. Pressing this key on the keyboard will have the same affect as clicking that gadget. Many gadgets throughout the whole LCARS environment use this feature - so look out for it. 05 The selection of actual MenuGadgets is also possible via the keyboard. Pressing the UP or DOWN cursor key will display a small cursor next to a MenuGadget. Pressing the UP, DOWN, LEFT or RIGHT cursor keys will now move this cursor around the Menu. Pressing RETURN will select the highlighted gadget in a similar way to clicking it. Any other keypress will clear the cursor. D · TEXT MODE 01 Text mode uses TextFiles which contain data describing the main and sub titles for the screen, as well as the actual text and colours to display. 02 When you first load a TextFile, you will enter TextMode. The screen display will change and you will see the TextFile, along will seven gadgets on the left side of the screen. You may be thinking, "Phew. What a lot of gadgets!" But there are more, just wait! However, the first set will be the following: INFO Display information about the features of TextMode and keyboard shortcuts. RETURN Return to MenuMode with most recent MenuFile NEXT Scroll the file down by one page PREV Scroll the file up by one page NEXTLINE Scroll the file down by one line PREVLINE Scroll the file up by one line 2nd MENU Display the second set of gadgets If you click on the "2nd MENU" gadget, the five gadgets bottommost in the display will be replaced by a new set, detailed below (the INFO and RETURN gadgets remain the same): PRINT If you have a printer attached, use this gadget to dump the TextFile to paper. Printer preferences will be set up to the EPSONX printer driver. You could replace the Devs/System-Configuration file with your own (1.2/1.3 users only) and copy the required printer driver to Devs/Printers/. For 2.0/3.0 users, it may be more trouble than it's worth to set up a printer, unless you have a copy of 1.3 Preferences at hand. The setting of printers may be a future addition to LCARS Prefs. TOP Click this gadget to move to the top of the TextFile. GOTO Not currently implemented (soon, I promise!) BOTTOM Move to the bottom of the TextFile. 1st MENU Display the first set of gadgets, detailed above. 03 In the top left-hand corner of the screen you should see some text. This is information about the current position in the TextFile: xxx% How far into the file, in percent aaa/bbb Current page of Total pages This is mainly included for use with the GOTO function, when it is implemented. 04 The design of TextMode is based around the famous `PPMore' so if you are used to using that program, most of the commands are the same. 05 Clicking in the top half of the main text display will scroll up one page (if possible) and clicking in the bottom half will scroll down one page. For all you devpac users, pressing CTRL-Up/Down arrow will move to the top or bottom of the file respectively (along with T and B). For more information on keyboard shortcuts in TextMode, click on the INFO gadget while in TextMode - now, if you like! E · GFXMODE 01 GfxMode is much simpler than MenuMode or TextMode. It simply displays a series of `IFF ILBM' picture files, which you advance through by clicking the left mouse button. You can terminate the slideshow be clicking with the right mouse button - a requester appears to confirm your decision. 02 GfxMode uses a file known as a "GfxList" which simply lists all the files required to be displayed. While the picture is loading, you can admire the United Federation of Planets logo and the special animated LCARS wait pointer! 03 Alternatively, a single picture may be displayed - you can terminate the viewing by pressing either mouse button. 04 A future enhancement to GfxMode will be the ability to explicitly select which picture of a slideshow you wish to view, or all as previously, or beginning from a particular slide... F · QUIZMODE 01 This is a game mode, where you can be asked various questions about ... anything. QuizMode uses a custom file-type (QuizFiles) which contain data describing the questions, answers and comments upon answering a question. 02 Once in QuizMode, the screen will show the first question (up to a maximum of four lines of text) and a maximum of four possible answers. Once you have read the question and thought of your answer, you should click on the answer you think is correct with the mouse pointer. If you are correct, you may receive a comment about some little facet of life or possibly an extra credit (one given every 10 correct answers). However, if you are wrong you will loose a credit and be sent to the Captain! 03 Once you have answered, you can press the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON to advance to the next question (a message on screen reminds you of this). At this point your statistics will be updated. If you look to the right of the portion of the display containing the answers, you will see: QUESTION ...... The number of questions asked. CORRECT ....... Number you have answered correctly. CREDITS ....... The number of credits remaining. 04 At the of the game you will have 3 credits, which will decrease by one each time you get an answer wrong. If the number of credits you have reaches zero, the game will end and display the status screen (see below). If you answer ten questions correctly, you will receive an extra credit. 05 Once you have either answered all questions, or perhaps run out of credits, the status screen will appear. From here you can either play again, or return to MenuMode. Or you could read the really interesting facts and laugh at your acquired StarFleet rank (with pips). Hah! You should try again. 06 While in QuizMode, there are two main gadgets on the screen - QUIT and RESET. Quit will display the status screen, with options as described in paragraph 05 above. Reset will reshuffle the questions, give you three credits again - basically, start the game again. Or, as they say, reset. If a module is playing, the ubiquitous STOP gadget will be on screen. The LEAVE gadget is not implemented but when it is it will allow you to leave QuizMode and return later with your status intact. G · SOUNDMODE 01 There are currently two modes of operation for SoundMode. These are the ability to play sound samples and the ability to play various types of music modules. 02 Only raw samples are supported (the frequency to play at is determined by data in the MenuFile) in the sample mode, although various module type are supported for playing music: MED ProTracker v3 StarTrekker v1.3 SoundTracker v2.6 03 When a module has loaded, a gadget will appear in the bottom left of the LCARS display labelled STOP. Guess what this does! It is not possible to load other music modules while one is already playing without first selecting the STOP gadget. (A module may also be stopped by loading a sound sample.) If you have a module you would like us to use, send it in - but it must be in one of the formats listed above. Alternatively, if you have the source code for a module player, send that in (as well). And that's it! 04 In future, the STOP gadget is likely to be replaced with a CONTROL gadget. Current ideas are for volume, speed and track position control from here. Also, a list of available modules (by way of a file containing that list) will be present, allowing easy selection of any module. This may also include the selection of CD tracks if a CDROM drive is attached. H · PREFSMODE 01 PrefsMode is where you alter your personal configuration of LCARS. This is currently only the color palette, but will expand in the future. 02 PrefsMode currently has one major drawback - you can't actually save your Preferences! Well, this is not strictly true, but I can't tell you how to do it! It would seem as though the whole of Infinite Frontiers except me thinks this is a bad idea! What do you think? If you want to see the save function reactivated, TELL SIMON PLEASE!!! 03 When you click on the PREFS gadget from within MenuMode, you will enter PrefsMode. The screen will change, displaying various gadgets with which you make your configurations. The screen gadgets will also have changed to the following: INFO Interesting information about PrefsMode. USE Use the current settings, leave PrefsMode. CANCEL Leave PrefsMode, restoring old settings. RESET Restore settings to those before entering PrefsMode DEFAULT Change settings to those used by LCARS in its default state. (STOP) Stop a currently playing module. 04 With the Palette facilities it is possible to change the 8 colors used by LCARS to your personal requirements. You should see a large box with 3 smaller boxes inside. Along the bottom of the larger box should be 8 gadgets - these are used to select the color you wish to edit. By default, this is white when you enter PrefsMode. To edit a different color, simply click on the color gadget which corresponds to that color. To the left of the main box there is a tall box of which the internal color will change to represent the currently selected color. Try clicking on a few color selections to see what I mean. 05 To the right of the tall box are three little boxes which should contain letters/numbers. This is the HEX value of the red, green or blue component of the currently selected color. (Red at the top, green in the middle and blue at the bottom, as shown by the three boxes to the right of the main palette display.) 06 To edit the current color, use the gadgets inside the main box. These are sliders which move from one end to the other and change the value of the corresponding component between 0 and $f (15). You can click and hold the button and then drag the mouse to see the effect of changing the color values, since the color will change as you move the mouse. You should not experience any problems since the operation is similar to all palette programs. I · LCARS IN THE FUTURE 01 LCARS is a continually expanding project. Some of the features I wish to include in the future are the ability to have multiple features running off of one MenuMode gadget - ie. play a sample, load a textfile and then show a picture. This is provisionally called ScriptMode. Secondly, one other major new feature I hope to include is the mixing of gfx and text on screen - PageMode. I would also like to include support for standard IFF animations. 02 Other minor projected improvements should be - the GOTO feature in TextMode, the LEAVE function in QuizMode and all the other suggestions scattered throughout this file. 03 If you have any ideas which you think is feasible and would add to the LCARS environment, please send them in. I can be contacted via the usual INFINITE FRONTIERS address or at the address at the top of this file. Luke Elliott, 16/04/1994.