=============================================================================
 ROSpace 1.08                                 by Pervect of Topix, 2000-2001
=============================================================================


ROSpace
~~~~~~~

ROSpace (pronounced 'aerospace') is a RISC OS 4 screensaver which, when
invoked, shows a 3D view of flying through a field of logos in space.
By default, the RISC OS cogwheel logo is displayed, but several others are
supplied and you can add your own. The saver can be configured to display
a random logo each time it starts.


Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~

To install ROSpace just open the !ROSpace application and run the little
Install program that can be found inside it. To open the !ROSpace application
hold down Shift and double-click on the !ROSpace icon in the filer.

The Install program will save you the trouble of finding the location where
your other screensavers reside and creating a Topix subdirectory inside it.

After installing ROSpace you can set it as your default screensaver by
running !Configure and then choosing "Screen". You should then be able to
select ROSpace from the "Screen saver -> Type" box. Next, click on
"Settings..." to configure ROSpace to your own taste.

If you want to see the effect before deciding to install the screensaver then
you can also just run !ROSpace. It will then demonstrate its effect until you
move your mouse or press any key.


Customisation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By default, ROSpace displays a RISC OS cogwheel for its logo graphic.
However, several extra logos are supplied, and there are various other
choices that you can set, so be sure to use the "Settings..." button and
explore the options available. Briefly, the options are as follows:

- Sprite file: choose the logo you want to display from this menu, or choose
the top option, 'Random', to make the saver select a logo at random each time
it starts.

- Edit logos...: this button allows you to edit the graphics used by ROSpace
and add your own. See below for more details.

- Pixels per frame (K): this is the maximum number of pixels (in thousands)
that the screensaver will process in each frame of its animation. Because
the logos it displays are of an arbitrary size, displaying a fixed number
of logos would make bigger logos animate much more slowly than small logos.
Therefore, ROSpace allows you to set how many pixels it will process per
frame. It will calculate how many copies of the current logo it can display
within the limit you have set, so the animation speed will be constant
regardless of the size of the logo, and the number of logos displayed will
vary depending on their size in pixels. You may wish to increase the default
setting if you have a fast machine and use a large screen mode, or lower it
if you don't have a StrongARM machine.

- Speed: this determines how fast you appear to be flying through the field
of logos (i.e. the distance the logos move between frames).

- Gamma fade: when enabled, this option makes the screen fade to black when
the saver starts up and quits. The option uses the gamma tables to perform a
smooth fade.


Adding your own graphics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The logos supplied with the saver are as follows:

- Acorn (Acorn name plus nut logo);
- Foundation RISC User;
- Nut (Acorn nut logo alone);
- RISC OS cogwheel (default graphic built into the saver);
- RISC OS cogwheel plus lettering logos (three versions);
- RISCOS Ltd (original version plus two new designs);
- Risc PC design;
- RISC OS 4 cube;
- RISC OS Select scheme logo.

To add your own logos to the selection, you must click on the "Edit logos..."
button, but note that it will have a different effect depending on which
mouse button you click.

- A SELECT-click will open the directory of user-specific graphics
  (initially empty);

- An ADJUST-click will open the directory of default graphics
  (initially containing the logos listed above).

It is recommended that you supplement the standard selection of graphics
with your own new files by saving the new graphics within your user choices
directory, as accessed by clicking SELECT on the "Edit logos..." button.
On systems with multiple users, the graphics in ROSpace's default graphics
directory will be available at all times, whereas graphics in each individual
user directory will be available only to that particular user.

ROSpace checks first the current user's graphics directory and then the
default graphics directory for sprites, which means that if some of the files
in the user graphics directory have the same names as other files in the
ROSpace default graphics directory, they will override the defaults.

Note that the RISC OS cogwheel logo is built into the code of the screensaver
and is always available, so its graphic is not present in either of the
graphics directories. (It is supplied along with the ROSpace source code.)

To add a logo of your own, just copy it into the appropriate graphics
directory as a separate sprite file. Each logo must be provided in its own
sprite file, but the file can contain several different versions of the logo
for use at different colour depths. ROSpace will choose whichever sprite is
most appropriate for the current screen mode.

For example, the 'RISCOSLtd' file contains only one sprite (a 16-colour logo)
because this looks satisfactory in any screen mode, from monochrome to 16
million colours. However, the 'Acorn' file contains four sprites: a
monochrome version, a 2D 16-colour version, and 3D versions for modes with
256 colours and more than 256 colours.

The naming convention adopted for the sprites supplied with the screensaver
is as follows:

- name256+  for paletted 256-colour sprites;
- name256   for unpaletted 256-colour sprites;
- name16    for 16-colour sprites;
- name2     for monochrome sprites.

However, the actual names are arbitrary; ROSpace will examine the nature of
all the sprites supplied and choose the most appropriate one for the current
screen mode.

Unpaletted 256-colour sprites are intended for use in screen modes with up to
256 colours. For modes with more than 256 colours, 256-colour sprites with
optimised palettes have been supplied. Even though these contain only 256
colours in total, the colours are mainly shades which cannot be displayed in
256-colour modes; i.e. they will appear correctly only in 32 thousand or 16
million colour modes.

Please ensure that your sprites have masks. This way, more logos can be shown
at the same time, and the logos look much better when they overlap.


Copyright notice and disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA


Thanks
~~~~~~

Big thanks to Martyn Fox for his excellent Foundation RISC User articles on
writing RISC OS 4 screensavers. Many thanks also to Richard Hallas for
putting this saver on the Foundation RISC User 4 CD, reporting some bugs in
time for me to fix them, writing some of the documentation and suggesting
several neat ideas for the saver. In fact, this saver wouldn't have been half
as cool if it hadn't been for his suggestions. Further thanks to Richard for
arranging for ROSpace to be supplied with RISC OS under the Select scheme.

Logo graphics courtesy of Richard Hallas, RISCOS Ltd (Richard@riscos.com,
Richard@Hallas.net).


Contact address
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to contact me or want to know more about Topix or Topix
productions:

TopixWEB:     http://www.topixweb.com

Pervect :     pervect@topixweb.com

              Schivelbeinerstr. 5
              10439 Berlin
              Germany
