Unlike some screen savers which are big, but only have a few images, Spirofractal is small but contains an almost infinite variety of images, at least once you register it!
If you like the screen saver I recommend you to try the full program. This will run a little faster than the screen saver. See the end of this file for more details.
All files Copyright (c) 2000 Alun Williams.
e-mail:
alunw@2werrington.freeserve.co.uk
Web address:
http://www.alunw.freeuk.com
Download page for Spirofractal:
http://www.alunw.freeuk.com/download.html
The Spirofractal screen saver is EXTREMELY computationally intensive, and will use up almost all the processor power it can get, until your computer is fast enough to compute and display twenty frames per second. Roughly speaking this is unlikely to be the case unless your computer exceeds the recommended requirements below, and even on a P400 Spirofractal will use around 60%-70% of available processor time. The program tries to use anything up to around 22 Megabytes of memory. If it can't get this much it will make do with 6 Megabytes, but in this case certain pattern types will run more slowly, and processor usage will increase!
Do not run the Spirofractal screen saver on file or network servers!
Minimum (just realistic) requirements: Pentium class computer with 256 color display and 32 Megabytes of RAM, running Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 4, or Windows 98.
Recommended configuration: P233 or above running Windows 95 or above, running with High or True Color display. 64 Megabytes of RAM. In order to get the best out of my web pages you need IE5. I do my best to make them work on IE4 and Netscape 4.6 or above, but IE5 has many fewer bugs and many more wonderful features than Netscape 4.x or older versions of IE.
N.B. The Spirofractal program has not been tested on 486 or 386 computers, or indeed anything other than genuine Intel Pentium computers (from P100 through PII 400, but nothing faster). It is quite likely that it will fail on old computers, especially if they do not have a maths co-processor. Even if it does run it is likely to be so slowly that you will want to watch paint dry instead.
How well the screen saver performs will depend on a combination of factors: processor speed; graphics performance; and screen resolution. Roughly speaking a P133 is enough to run the screen saver on an 800*600 display desktop computer (graphics on portables are often slower and you will probably need a P200), and a P233 is enough at 1024*768. However a P400 is needed before all the different patterns work equally well.
Open the ZIP file with WinZip and click on install.exe or the Install button on the toolbar. WinZip will extract the files to a temporary directory and run the install program, which will guide you through the installation process. If you are using another zip utility then extract the contents of the zip file to a temporary directory, making sure you preserve the path information. Then run install.exe, which will guide you through the installation process. If you are installing on Windows NT or Windows 2000 you probably need to have administrator rights. The installation copies the screen saver into the correct directory for screen savers, but does not make it your default screen saver. There are two ways to do this:
Right click on a blank part of the Windows desktop, choose properties from the menu that is displayed and select Spirofractal as the screen saver on the screen saver page.
(This method may be hard to use if you do have Windows 95/NT4 without the desktop update as you may have to use Explorer to Open the Spirofractal menu.) Go to the Spirofractal menu and right click on the Spirofractal Screen saver icon. You will be offered a menu including the options Test and Install. You can choose test if you would like to run the screen saver without making it the permanent screen saver. Choose Install to make Spirofractal the Windows screen saver. When you do this you will be taken to the normal Windows Screen Saver dialog, and Spirofractal will have been installed as the screen saver. Just press the OK button to accept.
There is no configuration dialog for the screen saver, as there are currently no configurable options.
Spirofractal does not add itself to the list of programs that can be uninstalled from the Windows control panel. However, a simple batch file is provided which should successfully remove all traces of Spirofractal from machines running Windows 95 or Windows 98 that are set up in the normal way. The author does not have available, and is not a fan of Install Shield or similar install utilities, which seem remarkably adept at leaving unwanted files and registry entries around. If you choose to uninstall the program simply choose the icon for the uninstall file from the menu. Afterwards close the DOS Box that this opens, if it has not closed automatically. Do not worry about any error messages. The Spirofractal install procedure copied the Spirofractal screen saver and DLL it uses into your windows system directory (usually C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM). No other files were added or updated in your Windows directories.
If you are using Windows NT or have moved the Spirofractal menu options, or have rearranged your Windows start menu in other ways then it is possible that the menu for Spirofractal will not be deleted even if the program files are. In this case, you can delete the menu by right clicking on it and choosing delete. This procedure will not be available if you are running Windows 95 or NT 4 and have not installed the "desktop update" that came with IE4. In this case you will have to delete the menu by using Windows explorer to locate the Spirofractal menu within your start menu.
If you wish you can delete the C:\Program Files\SPIROFRACTAL directory. This will delete all the Spirofractal files apart from the screen saver. The screen saver is a stand alone program and will continue to work quite happily. However, if you plan to register Spirofractal do not do this until you have registered!
The Spirofractal screen saver is shareware, which I hope you will register if you like it enough. Please don't register it until you are happy that it works properly on your computer.
Registration of Spirofractal costs รบ6 (approximately $10 US). This registration also covers the full Spirofractal program, and the desktop theme and any future upgrades of either of these. If you don't register it the screen saver will stop displaying interesting full size patterns after about fifteen minutes (and will alternate between displaying less interesting patterns or interesting patterns but rather small). There is a freeware version of the screen saver available with less functionality. For more information see the register.htm file in the Spirofractal menu.
The screen saver may not dismiss immediately when you move the mouse or press a key. Depending on the type of image being displayed it may dismiss immediately, or only after several seconds. This problem is likely to be quite noticeable on slower machines. It is extremely unlikely that Spirofractal has actually stopped working, but if it has it can be terminated safely using Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the task manager.
If you put your Windows 98 computer into sleep mode, then when it wakes up the screen saver may be started multiple times. This is nothing to do with Spirofractal so far as I know, and only happens very occasionally but when it does happen the only cure is to reboot. If your computer is anything like mine there's only about a two in three chance of sleep mode working anyway!
Latest support information for Spirofractal can be found here.
I haven't made up the official long and boring licence agreement you won't read yet. Basically nothing is guaranteed and I accept no liability for anything that goes wrong when you install Spirofractal. I will do my best to help anyone who has problems and who asks me nicely, and will get extremely angry with anyone who threatens to sue me because they say it stopped their computer working or the screen saver gave them a migraine etc. If you install Spirofractal it is entirely at your own risk! I can probably afford a lawyer if you do try to sue, but there won't be any money left for you after I've paid him or her.
Please don't try to hack the Spirofractal program to avoid paying for it. If you do then you should probably value your time more highly, as it will probably take a while... If you must hack software then pick on someone already rich instead.
You may not distribute any part of Spirofractal as part of another package (including themes), without the express permission of the author. This permission is unlikely to be given.