DP Tool Club 15/CD_ASCQ_15_070894.iso/vrac/ifox100.zip/IFOX.DOC

Text File | 1994-04-07 | 25KB | 496 lines

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                         (C) Copyright 1994 by Force ][

                      -[Documentation for Intro Fox v1.0]-
                             UNREGISTERED VERSION !



-Credits:-

All code, most graphics and ideas in this version: Fox
Get_own_name routine for EXE-Files: Ant
BetaTesting: DEL, Cyber [Zone Zero], Dandy, CCS, Fox
Demofiles included with this version: Fox


***RUN DEMO.BAT FOR A DEMO OF INTRO FOX'S CAPABILITIES !***


-Some facts...-

Intro Fox v1.0 is the first great utility release by Force II. In my opinion,
it is one of the best, or probably even THE best, demo or intro maker you can
get for the PC. Even though it is still limited in some points, you can create
acceptable intros with it, using effects like Shadebobs, Scrollines, Vector-
objects, Starfields and much more. If YOU (the users) like this program and
decide to support my/our work by registering your copy of Intro Fox, there
will surely be some significant improvements in the future (see below) !!
Intro Fox has been designed with the intention to make democreation and gra-
phical presentations possible for all those of you who are able to use a pro-
gram/utility and are perhaps even able to draw neat gfx, but who are not able
to code it themselves. Coding demos or intros is something you really have to
learn during a long time of improvement of your skills, and not everybody has
the time or ability to learn this. So here is something you will surely make
use of if you'd like to create a BBS Intro, a presentation and so on.
If you want to use this Intromaker for commercial purposes, we would like to
know about this. Using Intro Fox commercially without letting us know about
this is definitely illegal !  In addition to this, we can of course write a
presentation for your company; this presentation could be much more complex
than the things you can create with Intro Fox. If you are interested in some-
thing like this, please write to us by mail.



-Registration-

Shareware limitations:
 - continuously reappearing shareware and "REGISTER NOW!" messages
 - intros/demos will only run for 30 seconds
 - you can't save any files in the vectoreditors
 - missing tools: sprite converter, font converter
 - no detailed information on the file format is included

You may use this demo version of Intro Fox for a testing period of 2 weeks.
After this period, you have to delete this program or register it (neverthe-
less, you may copy this demo version freely to all your friends). By regis-
tering, you will receive the newest version of IntroFox without any shareware
limitations. The registered version includes all the neat utilities included
in this version without ANY restrictions, PLUS Tools that allow you to create
your own fonts and sprites for IntroFox. In addition to this, the code of the
registered version is a bit more optimized as far as calculation speed is
concerned. As you see, you have got a lot of benefits from registering.
There are several types of registration:
1.) Minimum registration - you will only receive the registered version of
    Intro Fox on a 1.44MB HD disk. The additional utilities mentioned above
    are of course included...........................................29 DM
2.) Advanced registration - in addition to the "minimum" version, you will
    get nicely labelled disks and a greater number of example files (like
    pics and so on)..................................................39 DM
3.) Maximum registration - same as 2.), but you'll get free update service
    for the next three versions of Intro Fox !.......................55 DM
Don't forget to enclose additional 5 DM for stamps and packaging (Germany)
or 15 DM (other countries).
Please send an envelope with the money required for your registration type
as well as a sheet of paper with the desired number (1/2/3) to the following
address:
Dag Frommhold
Eichbergstraße 47
72639 Neuffen
Germany.
You may also enclose the money (cash or cheque) in your local currency, but
please do NOT send any coins, for I can't do anything with them here in Ger-
many...and I do NOT plan a trip around Europe the next years ;-)...
Updates can be obtained by sending 10 DM for packaging, stamps and the disk(s)
to me - that means, if you are already a registered user! For countries other
than Germany, this fee is 20 DM.
As you may already know if you have seen a demo or an intro by Force ][, we
are very concerned about the way animals - and also people in some places -
are treated in the world. We strongly support the demands of the Animal Rights
Movement, fighting for the innate rights of every oppressed creature, and
against hunting, vivisection, fur-farming and much more. For we know that this
movement does not only need idelogical support (of which I, Fox, can give
plenty), but also financial help, I will donate AT LEAST 10% of the money
you send me for Intro Fox to the following organisations:

Animal Peace, Windeck-Saal [Germany]
VOR, Dortmund [Germany]
PETA [USA]
IFAW, Yarmouth Port [USA]

Of course, much more of the money I gain is effectively put into the fight
for the ARM, for I normally spend a lot of the money I have got for it.
OFFER FOR ARM SUPPORTERS: If you send me a photocopy of a document that
shows that you have donated more than 50 DM for any Animal Rights group,
you will get Intro Fox for only 70% of the original price (30% price re-
duction).



-Using Intro Fox-

All in all, the usage of Intro Fox is quite simple. Decrunch the archive,
and run the Intromaker with the command "IFOX". The main menu will appear,
and you can decide if you want to create an intro with black background or
with a background picture, or if you want to load/save/compile a script
file. If you run Intro Fox first, you will probably want to create a demo.
If you want to use a .PCX file as background, please press B now. A second
menu will appear. Here, you can move your cursor up and down with the cursor
keys. Press SPACE to edit a selection. When a filename needs to be specified,
you may (unless Intro Fox asks you for the name of your demo) press [ENTER]
to get a list of all available files for the current option.
In both the "A" and "B" key menus, you will have to deal with some questions.
By the way: In the menu for intros without a background picture, you have got
more options, so there is a second screen page you can access by pressing
(as displayed on the bottom of the screen) the "N" key. The following options
exist in this version of Intro Fox:
- Use an ANSI screen at the end of the demo: You can select if you want to
  use a user-defined .ANS picture at the end of the demo. It will be displayed
  until the ESC key is hit. Remark: ANSi driver has to be installed on the
  system for this option.
- Use which fadeoff effect: You can select which fade off effect you want to
  use. Possibilities are: Palette fade off (darken the picture), scrolling
  (push the picture out of the screen) or step-by-step.
- Use which fade-in effect: You can select which fade-in effect you want to
  use. Possibilities are: Palette (image mode only), scrolling and step-by-
  step.
- Screen Splitting: A nice effect which "pushes" the screen downwards.
  Play around with it, it's true fun! You may use different options for that:
  upper border (Y-value), lower border (Y-value) and pattern. Latter can be:
  Jump (let the screen jump), sine (make the screen move in sine-waves), linear
  (boring ;) )...
- Soft Scrolling: Should (but doesn't need to) be used in combination with
  Screen Splitting. Here, you may set the start address of the "upper" part
  of the screen which doesn't move if you've only got Screen Splitting active.
  Screen Splitting doesn't look good ("buggy"!) if used without Soft Scrolling,
  so I strongly suggest you to combine these effects. Options are the same
  as with screen splitting.
- Palette cycling: You can do some extremely nice things with palette cycling.
  It "rotates" the colors in a certain field of the palette, and with a little
  experimentation experience, you will be able to use this very effectively.
  In this version, you can decide about the element to start cycling with,
  the element to stop it with, and the cycling speed. The nice sinus effect
  shown in the example intro (looks cool, eh?) works with this single effect.
- Shadebobs: a very colourful effect which can't be used in combination with
  the following effects: Line pattern, Sprite, Vectorlines, Vectordots, and
  Starfield. If you use shadebobs, you have to select a filename for the mo-
  vement table, else, an error will occur when the demo is compiled. You can
  also choose the size of shadebobs (in pixels) and their speed (where too
  fast doesn't look good in most cases - I suggest a speed of about 3 or so).
- Scrolline: A very rudimentary effect for intros or demos. You really should
  use one, for it works with every other effect in this demo. Filenames for
  the text and the font HAVE to be supplied !
- Sprites: A nice little effect. You've got the same options as with shadebobs
  here, with the difference that Sprites CAN be combined with any other effect
  without any problems.
- Starfield: This effect can only be used if you don't use a background pic.
  Looks quite 3-dimensional, and in combination with vectorobjects, you may
  achieve cool results. You have to specify the number of stars (up to 1000,
  though many CPU's won't be able to display that many stars at an acceptable
  speed).
- Line patterns: A nice effect that can only be used without background pic.
  You may specify the number of lines as well as their colour here, where the
  colour can be taken from one of the three firm patterns. A little tip: Try
  using this effect in combination with palette cycling. The four values for
  the line movement speed can be quite helpful.
- Vectordots: Can only be used in "black-background" demos, too. You have
  to specify a file with the necessary vectordot definitions in it. You can
  also define the vectordot rotation speed, their colour, their way of rota-
  ting (only around the X2-axis, around the X2 and the X3 axis, only around
  the X3-axis) and their distance to the center of the screen, where (for
  example) -100 is on the very left and +100 is quite on the right hand side.
- Vectorlines: Improved vector effect, looks really neat. Can only be used
  in intros with black background. The rest of the possibilities you have
  here are identical with those mentioned in the description of vectordots.
  Just as the Vectordots, the lines are automatically clipped at the right
  and at the left of the screen.
  For Vectorlines AND vectordots, the following colourtable is valid when
  selecting the colours for your custom objects:
  [1-dark red, 2-light red, 3-dark green, 4-light green, 5-dark blue,
   6-light blue, 7-orange, 8-yellow, 9-dark mint, 10-light mint]

As you see, you have a wide variety of possibilities with Intro Fox, which
will be radically improved if enough people decide to register. Not every
effect can be used with every other effect, so please be careful and, if you
should get an error message when compiling a demo, just look at the above
list of possible effect combinations. Do also make sure that you specify a
filename if you have selected an effect that requires the specification of
one or more files (e.g. Vectordots, Vectorlines, Shadebobs, Sprites, Scroll-
line).
I know that the way you use Intro Fox is not the most convenient way at the
moment, but I'll promise that this will be improved in further versions.

After you have created a demo or intro using the first two menu options, you
should better save the new script file. Later, you can also load it (of
course ;-)))) )...and, what is more, you can now create your own demo by
simply compiling the script file you have created. All necessary information
is displayed on the screen here. If a "general" error should occur, you can
be sure that you have tried to combine some effects that won't work together.
You should check your script file again now and re-try compiling later. It
may also happen (though this is very rare) that the intro you have just com-
piled doesn't work. If so, please try re-compiling the intro and make sure
that all the files you have specified for the intro exist in the current
directory.
Once you have compiled your Intro, you can execute it by simply typing its
name at the DOS prompt. Please NOTE that the demo's name is not necessarily
identical with the name of its script file, but that the demo-name is spe-
cified in the first line of the democreation submenus.
If you want to release your demo as a stand-alone production, you may well
do so. Now, you do only need the .EXE file, which Intro Fox has created out
of your demo script file. It can be copied to any directory, and it can also
be executed from there. Please NOTE that this file needs enough disk space
left for extracting its contents to disk - usually about another time its
size.

Vectorline and Vectordot Editors:
You can use these cool vectoreditors to create your own vectorline and
vectordot objects. All available functions are shown on the right of the
screen; for example, you can shift your object in any direction, you can
rotate it by simply changing the X/Y/Z coordinates, you can view it (the
objects are shown just as in the demo, so you have got a good opportunity
to judge their appearance), zoom the X/Y/Z coordinates seperately, and
much more, like loading and saving.
To edit a single dot or line, move the cursor to the line or dot you want
to edit, and press space. A cursor will appear. Now, enter three - respec-
tively six - coordinates raging from -60 to +60, seperated by commas and
press enter. The new line or dot will immediately be taken up into the list.
If you enter unacceptable coordinates, you will be prompted to correct your
input.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For gaining calculation speed, and to avoid wasting precious
CPU time, I have implemented an algorithm that stops displaying the specified
dots or lines as soon as all coordinates are zero. That means, if you edit
for example the first three dots, then leave out one, and specify another,
the last one will NOT be shown. Thereby, you are forced to edit your coor-
dinates step by step, and you can't leave out even one. Sorry for this in-
convenience, but the speed of the intros or demos you create is much faster
this way.

I hope this is enough information for now. Registered users may - of course -
ask me about any problems they have with Intro Fox. ;-) ... If you con-
tinuously run into the same error again and again, take a glance at the FAQ
section in this DOC. If your question still remains unanswered, please
contact me in one of the ways listed below.


-...adding sound to your Intro:-

I think that sound/music output belongs to the most important parts of a
demo or intro, so I found it necessary that you should at least have the
possibility to use sound output in the background. Therefore, I included
THG's freeware MOD player INTROMOD with this shareware version (thanx for
it to Cyber from Zone Zero). It can only play 4-channel MODs, and it is
quite slow, but nevertheless, it does the job. If you want to have a faster
and more flexible Musicplayer, I recommend you to use something like, for
example, SHELLVT by VangeliSTeam, which you can download in the Digital
Forces BBS. Anyway, one of the next versions of Intro Fox will include our
own ModPlayer, which Ant is working on at the moment. Depending on how fast
the development goes on, it is possible that already Intro Fox v1.1 may
include that Player. And again (I think I have said that before ;-)) ), this
will only hold true if enough people register this nice little proggy !!
For information on the commandline syntax of IntroMod by THG, please have
a look at the help information that is shown when you just type "INTRO" at
the DOS prompt.


-What you have to care about when creating a demo:-

 - If you should use a picture in the background, make sure that it only
   uses the colours >32 if you use a scroller or a sprite at the same time.
 - You should not use Softscrolling without the splitscreen effect
 - Your textfile should only contain letters provided by the font; usually,
   the following characters are allowed: A-Z (capital letters only!), "-",
   ",", ".", ":", ";", "!", "?", "(", ")", 0-9, though some fonts don't
   provide some of these characters.
 - Play around with the effects, this is the only way to gain experience
   and to create better Intros.
 - Take a look at the enclosed example script and intro files. You will be
   able to learn a lot from them.



-Things to be added in the future (naturally only if enough people register!)-

 - Support for Fonts bigger than 16*16 pixels
 - More complex starfields
 - An integrated player for MOD-Files (which Ant is currently working on)
 - More optimized code
 - Texture routines
 - pixel-oriented effects
 - more possibilities of doing colourcycling
 - a better user interface ;-))
 - different colours for each vectordot and vectorline
 - zooming



-And here... some FAQs (Frequently asked questions)-

Q: Some characters in the scrolly are missing. Why ?
A: The font you are using simply doesn't support these chars !
   Try out a different font or make sure you do only use valid
   characters for the scrolly.

Q: Some colours of the picture I use are horribly wrong. Why ?
A: Because you can't use a picture that uses all 256 VGA-colours
   together with a scrolline or sprite. Make sure that your piccy
   does only use the colours >31.

Q: The intro I have created is too slow on my computer! How can
   I solve this probby ?
A: Try to use a lower number of Vectordots/-lines, a slower scrolly,
   slower or smaller shadebobs or sprites. Or: Buy a faster computer.

Q: What can I do about those goddamn horrible strange shareware-
   delays, messages and crippled menu functions ?
A: Buy a registered version of Intro Fox. You will surely not be
   able to take them out in any other way. >;->

Q: Could you give me the source code...?
A: Mmhh...what do you offer ? ;-)

Q: I want to use my own Sprites and Fonts and Vectorobjects !!  How
   can I implement them ?
A: Hehe...find out yourself or register !

Q: You are so cooool...may I donate some money ??
A: You're welcome :) !

Q: ?
A: !

Q: Why are you called Fox ?
A: 'cause I really admire these beautiful animals... :)...I could
   write much more about that, but I think I shouldn't do this at
   exactly this point :)...I think I'm drifting away from the subject!

Q: Why is Intro Fox called Intro Fox ?
A: NOW STOP ASKING THESE SILLY QUESTIONS !

Q: Okay...
A: That's not even a question!! Gngngngngngnnn...grrrr!



-Contacting the author...-

There are two possibilities to contact me. The first (and probably easiest)
way is to call my BBS:
DIGITAL FORCES - FORCE ][ WHQ - [phone] - 2400-19200 BPS (V.32ter)
Give me a call and try to page me or write a mail to me (Fox).
The other way to contact me is to write an ordinary letter. You should send
it to:
Dag Frommhold, Eichbergstraße 47, 72639 Neuffen, Germany.
In very urgent cases, you may also make a voice call. Please dial:
[phone] and ask for Dag [a!].



-FORCE ][ - ...the ruling demo force in southern Germany !-
-The complete Memberlist in random order:-

- Fox (18): Coding, Music, Graphics/ANSI, BBS Sysop, PR & organization, Texts
- Ant (19): Coding, Add.Graphics, PR & organization
- DEL (17): Moral support, Betatesting
- Gio (26): Spreading
- Dandy (18): Music
- Designer (22): Coding, Spreading, PR
- Falcon (18): Graphics, Spreading
- Intransient-Accomplished (21): Music



-RATSOFT/FORCE II PRODUCTIONS:-

Yet, we have released the following productions:

                         Rel.   Pack.
Name                     Date   Size  Type    System Requirements/support

The Sinus Demo           11/92  150K  Intro   286/12, SB/DAC/Speaker
 [SINDEMO.ZIP]
Fox's Demo               12/92  200K  Intro   286/08, SB/DAC/Speaker
 [FOXDEMO.ZIP]
DF Mini Intro v1.0       04/93    2K  Intro   088/08
 [FORCES.EXE]
Digital Forces Intro     05/93  220K  Intro   286/12, SB/SBPro/DAC/Speaker
 [FORCES.ZIP]
Sound Attack             01/94  880K  MusicD. 386/20, SB/SBPro/GUS (uses MDP)
 [ATTACK.ZIP]
Airsky                   01/94  180K  .ULT    GUS
 [AIRSKY.ZIP]
Metal Banger             02/94  170K  .ULT    GUS
 [MET-BANG.ZIP]
Treibjagd (incl.FoxView) 02/94   50K  Story   088/05
 [JAGD.ZIP]
Fiction                  02/94 1400K  Demo    386/33, SB/SBPro/DAC/Speaker
 [FICTION.ZIP]
ASM-Menu                 02/94   10K  Utility Amiga
 [ASM-MENU.LHA]
Amiga->PC Text Converter 02/94   10K  Utility 088/08
 [APTCON??.ZIP]
Uc4ME                    03/94  300K  .MTM    Any Sound Card
 [UC4ME.ZIP]
RANXERO                  03/94  300K  .ULT    GUS
 [RANXERO.ZIP]

as well as some non-public thingies...



-RATSOFT'S POINTS OF VIEW-

RatSoft is not only a group of programmers and demo coders, but also
a group of people that are trying to fight against aggression and
oppression as far as it is possible for us. We are strongly against
the exploitation of any living creature, human beings as well as
animals. We don't tolerate acts of suppression and exploitation;
therefore, we want to fight against things like vivisection, hunting,
racism, fascism etc., and we don't hesitate if there is a possibility
to point this out. As an act of consequence, Fox and Ant are both
vegetarians.
Especially Fox is a strong fighter for the animal rights movement.
In addition to several magazine articles and some actions in favour
of the ARM, his book 'Das Anti-Jagdbuch - von der ethischen und öko-
logischen Realität des edlen Waidwerks' has been published in March
1994 (sorry for the delay!). It deals with hunting and its severe
consequences for the natural balance and the animals themselves -
on about 360 pages, plus more than 20 photos. It is surely one of
the completest texts against hunting that have ever been written.
In Germany, you can obtain it for 32 DM at your local bookshop
(publisher: Hirthammer Verlag, Munich). A brochure against hunting,
which contains all the pictures published in the book, is also
available.
Please call the DIGITAL FORCES BBS and ask for further details if you
want to know more about it.


-OUR WHQ BBS-

...is the Digital Forces BBS, with Fox as its Sysop. At the moment,
we have got 500 MB of HD space directly accessible. Via Network, there
are further 400 MB on a different Harddisk ready for usage. In addition
to this, there is a CD-ROM drive connected to the BBS. All these
features give you a total amount of theoretically accessible data of
easily more than 1 Gigabyte.
The Digital Forces BBS has got one of the greatest Demo bases in
Southern Germany. Currently, there are more than 400 PC(!)-Demos/Intros/
Diskmags ready for download, as well as many other files...but you will
surely realize that yourself if you'll dare a login...JUST ENTER THE
FOX'S DEN ;-)...
Tech specs: 300-19.200 V.32ter, 8N1, 24h online, 286-20MHz/486-66MHz

BTW: If you want to become an official Force II distribution site or even
Headquarter for your country, please fill in the application form DISTRO.4C2
and upload it in the Digital Forces BBS or send it to me by mail.


-THE FORCE II BBS FORCE:-

 - Digital Forces BBS - WHQ  - Sysop: Fox   - [phone]   - 2400-19200
 - Dark Illusion      - EHQ  - Sysop: Kaos  - [phone] - 2400-19200
 - Yet unknown        - DIST - Sysop: Nitus - +49-(0)SOON ONLINE - 2400-14400



signed by
Fox of Force II
30th March 1994, 18.16