Copyright: Copyright \251 1991-7 Perpetual Motion Software
Citation: Copyright © 1992-7 Perpetual Motion Software


Fireworks Screen Saver Contents
Fireworks Screen Saver Help Contents

Parameter Details

Rocket Settings

Explosion Settings

General Settings

Performance Settings

Validation

When you change which property page tab is active, the screen saver validates the entries for that page.  If there is an error, it displays a message box and highlights the field with the error.

OK/Cancel Buttons

When the user presses the OK button, any changes are validated and, if there are no errors, saved.  These values are used the next time the screen saver activates.

When the user presses Cancel button, any changes are discarded and the values that were in effect when the user entered the dialog box are maintained.

Defaults Button

When the user presses the Defaults button, the default values for all of the fields (except the Password section) are entered as if the user typed them.  The user can then modify them any way they want.

Pressing the OK button saves the changes and pressing the Cancel button discards them.


Parameter Details

This diagram shows most of the variables that can be configured in the screen saver's settings dialog box.


Rocket Settings

Delay between launches

This is the interval (in milliseconds) between the times the screen saver will determine if it should launch a rocket.

Chance of launching a rocket

This is the probability that the screen saver will launch a rocket when it tries to launch one.

Number of rockets

This is the number of rockets that can be active at one time.  They are launched at varying intervals.

Minimum height of arch

This is the minimum height of a rocket's arch.  All rockets are guaranteed to meet or exceed this height.  It is expressed as a percentage of the screen's height.

Travel distance before explosion

This is the range of distance that the rocket can travel along its arch before it explodes.  It is expressed as a percentage of the rocket's maximum travel distance.

Chance that the trail is solid

This is the probability that the rocket's trail will be a solid line.  If the screen saver decides that the trail is not solid, it uses the Trail Length setting (see below) to determine the length of the trail.

A solid trail means that it is never erased (until the screen is cleared).

Trail length

If the rocket's trail is not solid, the screen saver selects a random number in the specified range to determine each rocket's trail length.


Explosion Settings

Number of rays

This is the number of rays that will result from a rocket's explosion.  For each rocket, the screen saver picks a random number within this range to select the number of rays.

Number of colors

This is the range of the number of colors that can be in an explosion.  For each rocket, the screen saver picks a random number within this range to determine the number of colors in the explosion.

Chance that the trail is solid

This is the probability that the trails of the explosion's pieces will be solid lines.  If the screen saver decides that the trails are not solid, it uses the Trail Length setting (see below) to determine the length of each trail.

A solid trail means that it is never erased (until the screen is cleared).

Trail length

If the rocket's trail is not solid, the screen saver selects a random number in the specified range to determine the length of each piece of the explosion.

If any one trail is solid, they are all solid.  If any trail has a variable length, they all do.

A solid trail means that it is never erased (until the screen is cleared).

Diameter

This is the range of the diameter of an explosion.  It is expressed as a percentage of the screen's width.

Width's deviation from diameter

This is the permissible amount by which the "width" of a ray in the explosion may vary.  In other words, given a diameter, the width of each ray may range from X% of the selected diameter to Y% of the selected diameter.

Height's deviation from diameter

This is the permissible amount by which the "height" of a ray in the explosion may vary.  In other words, given a diameter, the height of each ray may range from X% of the selected diameter to Y% of the selected diameter.


General Settings

Sound

This enables or disables sounds for the rockets and their explosions.  There are four possible sounds, each specified in the Control Panel's Sound section, prefaced with "Fireworks:".

Launching a rocket

Exploding a rocket

One of two sounds halfway through the explosion (e.g., the crowd’s reaction).  Which one is selected depends on whether or not the rocket explodes within the bottom 10% of the screen (e.g., "ooh" and "aah" or screaming).

If your system does not support sound, this checkbox is disabled and the entries are not entered into the Control Panel's list of sounds.

If the above entries are not in the Control Panel's list of sounds and your system supports sound, you must do one of the following:

bring up Fireworks' configuration dialog box and select the General tab (then press OK or Cancel)

start the Fireworks screen saver when the Sound checkbox is checked

After either one of the above actions, the entries should be in the Control Panel's list of sounds under the "Fireworks screen saver" heading.  (You may have to restart Windows® 95 in order to get the sounds added.)

Line thickness

This represents how thick the rocket's trail and the trails of the explosions' rays are.  The drawing slows down for thicker trails (although the screen saver tries to compensate).

Erase screen after N rockets

To avoid cluttering up the screen with leftover solid trails, you can specify that it be erased after a certain number of rockets have been launched and exploded.  If you do not enable solid trails, this feature is practically useless, so you can specify "never" for this value.


Performance Settings

Delay between "draws"

This is the range of the number of milliseconds the screen saver will pause between drawings of the rockets and explosions.  For each rocket it launches, the screen saver selects a delay within this range – thus, a rocket and its explosion can be fast or slow.

The screen saver adjusts this value for the number of rockets and explosions that are currently active (see below).

Reduce delay per 20 arches

This is the number of milliseconds the screen saver will decrease the delay between "draws" (see above) for every 20 arches that are currently on display.

For example, if the delay between "draws" is 5, this value is set to 2, and there are 50 arches being drawn, the delay will be 5 milliseconds minus (50 arches / 20 arches) multiplied by 2 = 1 millisecond.

Number of "draws" between delays

The screen saver draws the rockets and explosions in discrete parts.  After it's done, it returns control to Microsoft® Windows® so that it can respond to keyboard or mouse movements.  This value represents the number of times the screen saver draws the rockets and explosions during each timer tick.  The higher the number, the less responsive the screen saver is to keyboard and mouse movements.