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|It's LIFE Jim Screen Saver           |
|Version 0.3 (OOOOoooo....)           |
|Initial Release 05/11/1999 (DD/MM/YY)|
|Update Released 04/03/2000 (DD/MM/YY)|
|Copyright Murphology 1999/2000       |
|Design and Code by Sean R. Murphy    |
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If viewing this in Notepad select 'Word Wrap'

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|Table of Contents|
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	Disclaimer
	Files in this archive
	More on the screen saver
	Requirements
	Installation
	Features
	Settings
	Coming Soon
	Known Issues
	Thanks
	Feedback
	History

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|Disclaimer (the boring bit)|
+---------------------------+

This program is freeware and may be freely distributed as such as long as all files in this archive remain intact and unaltered, if you do put this program onto your site etc. let me know so I can keep track of where it's going and I can inform you of any update releases. I accept no responsibility for any loss of data, damage to hardware during the use of this program, why this would happen I'd love to know but you never know with a Microsoft OS :o) You use this screen saver at your own risk.

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|Files in this archive|
+---------------------+

	It's LIFE Jim.scr	- The screensaver
	readme.txt		- This file

Anything otherwise then please inform me, I will accept an additional text file to be added giving a small description of the site it was downloaded from.

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|More on the screen saver|
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I've always liked these life programs yet I have never found one that has satisfied me in the screen saver department, well not until now. What you can't find, program it yourself, so that is exactly what I have done. It also acts as a good exercise while I learn the DirectX API programming in the windows environment.

Everything about it works just like a normal screen saver except for one thing. It won't exit by just moving the mouse, the reason for this is because the mouse can be accidentally knocked and from what I remember, if you just left Windows straight after the screen saver exited, the screen saver wouldn't start back up again. I think this only applies with early versions of Windows 95 but I thought I wouldn't chance it.

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|Requirements|
+------------+

- Pentium recommended, the lowest I have tested it on is a P120 and it worked quite well.

- Windows 9x with a DirectX compatible Graphics card with DirectX version 7 or above installed. You can obtain DirectX free of charge from http://www.microsoft.com/directx/

In theory, this should work on Windows 2000 as it also supports DirectX version 7 but can I stress that I haven't tested this on a Win2K machine.

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|Installation|
+------------+

As of yet there is no setup/install program to go with this screen saver but it's simple enough, simply unzip the files to the 'Windows\System' or 'Windows' directory (which ever you prefer, Windows looks for screen savers in both) and there you have it! You can now select it from the 'Display Properties'.

To uninstall delete the files! I know it's not the best way to do it but hopefully you won't want to uninstall it!

If installing over a privious version, re-check you options before running the saver again.

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|Features|
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- Various graphic effects to mesmerise. If you have the settings set to random you can press 'G' to randomly change the effect.

- Edges wrap round, if a 'glider' travels off one side of the screen it appears on the opposite side.

- Act of God, more cells are created to get things going again when the life cycle goes into an endless loop, eg. the 'spinner'. You can press the 'A' key to force an 'Act of God'. For those that it will have any effect with, the formation will be randomly flipped on the X and Y axis.

- Armageddon to clear cells after so many cycles. This is to prevent the screen saver from becoming it's own enemy. When armageddon strikes the graphic effect and palette scheme are randomly reselected if you have these options set to random. You can press the 'X' key to force armageddon.

- Various palette schemes to complement the graphic effects. If you have the settings set to random you can press 'C' to randomly change the palette.

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|Settings|
+--------+

At present there are only two options that you can change, the graphic effect that is to be applied to the cells and the palette scheme to be used. There are currently 7 graphic effects available (including variations/alternatives), for those of you with the slower range of computers, it might be best to stick with a 'Plasma' selection as it does far less processing.

There are also currently 36 palette schemes that you can also choose from as well.

Simply select the option you want from the drop down lists, if you can't make up your mind what you want, each option has a 'random' selection to randomise the selection at run time.

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|Coming Soon|
+-----------+

At version 0.3 this screen saver is still only an early version, I have a few more ideas that I want to implement making it a fuller screen saver.

- More graphic effects, I have to go to the drawing board now.

- Various 'Act of God' formations, so that there is more than two.

- More Palette Schemes, try and be more original now with the naming.

- Some more configurable options, I have some in mind to implement.

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|Known Issues|
+------------+

- The little preview is not active yet (I'll probably only draw a little icon or something).

- The screen saver can be minimised if an autorun CD starts up. I originally had some code in to prevent this but proved to be problematic on Win95 machines. Apologies Win95 users for the slight Goof.

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|Thanks|
+------+

I must express my thanks to Chris Swinson who has helped in the testing of this screen saver. Cheers mate! :o)

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|Feedback|
+--------+

I'm always after feedback, bug reports and complaints (well, less of the complaints) on any of my programs! You can e-mail me at :-

sean@mology.co.uk

Or why not drop by my web site for the latest in program developments :-

http://www.mology.co.uk/

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|History|
+-------+

Version 0.3 - 04/03/2000 -

Forgot to mention in the version 0.2 history that I changed the priority level of the saver to idol, just like they are suppose to be so they don't slow down heavy tasks to much when they are running.

Added an absolute horde of palette schemes.

Added two variations of the plasma effect, the variations fade through the palette slightly differently.

Hugh speed boost after optimising the main loops.

Added alternative versions of the mutant blob and heated graphic effects for the slower machines, these alternatives however can produce a slight 'vibrating' graphic artefact due to the faster way the cells are processed.

Added the feature of 're-randomising' the random options when armageddon strikes.

Doing the heated and mutant blob effects 'properly' now.

Added various 'interactive' keys to change the random options.

Had to take out the code that stopped the minimization problem, it proved problematic with Win95 machines. Apologies Win95 users!

Although I couldn't duplicate it myself, my tester brought to light that the screen saver would start up a second time if it was set as it when you were previewing it. Obviously they both can't co-exist together and so strange things happened. Added code to stop this.

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Version 0.2 - 11/01/2000 -

Discovered an alternative way to edit the options in your screen savers, from within windows explorer you can right click on the screen saver file and select 'Configure'. As I found out my saver didn't configure like this activating instead, this is now fixed.

The minimise problem is sorted out, what was happening was when the saver was active and you inserted an autorun CD, the program on the CD would start up and minimise the saver which of course is not how a saver works. It now simply exits if it looses it's active state (also handy for important messages). There is one problem, the program starting up may get a little messed up (display wise) if it runs in a window, this is because of the resolution the saver runs in, the starting prog tries to run in this resolution also adjusting accordingly. Some other savers that I've tried this with stop the autorun program from running (I think) which has got me a little curious. After looking into it, it appears that the saver resets itself as the active app which stops it from running, I've manage to duplicate it by doing this. At the moment I don't know whether to just do this also. What do you think?

I discovered that the corners were not wrapping round properly, incorrect cells where being used in the cycle process. This is now fixed.

Added six colour schemes bringing the total to seven, new ones added :-

<Removed to save space>

Added two new graphic effects bringing the total to three, new ones added :-

<Removed to save space>

For the moment a quick fix has been included to make it look nicer on those machines that fall back to 640x480x8, I've also added a little something that should extend the number of machines that it will work in the proper mode on.

Added an 'Armageddon' to clear the cells after so many cycles, as it turned out the world got so crowded that activity was reduced to one area of the screen which could result in the screen saver becoming it's own worst enemy, if you get what I mean.

A configuration dialog box is now available to set some various options of the saver.

Changed the key to force an Act of God from the space bar to the 'A' key. I decided upon this after the thought that many people will bash the space bar to exit the screen saver.

Added the 'glider gun' Act of God formation.

Added the ability to flip the Act of God formation, well, for those that it will have any effect with.

Oh, and ran this file through a spell checker ;o)

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Version 0.1 - 05/11/99 -

The first version of the program, what more can I say.
