Messerschmitt Bf 109/Messerschmitt BF 109.iso/pc/README.TXT

Text File | 2000-10-27 | 10KB | 278 lines

Absolute Air, Land & Sea           www.absolute-als.com
Messerschmitt Bf 109

This fully interactive Multimedia CD-Rom has been produced to
give you a full insight into the world of the most famous
German fighter of the Second World War.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The CD-Rom is designed to run on both Microsoft Windows PCs,
and Apple Macintosh computers which exceed the minimum
specifications, as indicated on the outside of the packaging,
and which have Quicktimer version 3, 4 or higher installed.
This is essential to the display the digital video movies and
360 photographs which are an integral feature of this
production.

This presentation works at a display resolution of 800x600,
and thousands of colours (or more). Best results are achieved
by setting your display monitor to this resolution.

The system font Courier New is used extensively, and has to
be installed when viewing the presentation. It comes as
standard with your computer's operating system.

The better the specification of your computer, the more
responsively the CD-Rom will react to your exploration of
this Absolute Air, Land & Sea production. A good quality
sound system will enhance your enjoyment of the movies.

⌐ Orion Publishing Group & DMPS-Absolute Ltd 2000

This product and all its ingredient parts are fully protected
by international copyright laws and you should not make or
distribute illegal copies.

The CD-Rom needs to remain in your CD/DVD drive throughout
your viewing session.

STARTING THE Bf109 PRESENTATION.

To start the program running on a Windows PC double-click on
the BF109.EXE application icon to be found when you open the
Tiger1 CD-Rom (the .exe part of the name may not be visible).

On a Macintosh the icon to double-click will be named Bf109.

There will then be a DELAY whilst the program loads before
the opening screen is displayed.

FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND

As you move the cursor around the program display area it
will change shape to show you where you have placed it over a
navigational button or dragable video element.

Anywhere where you see the cursor change is likely to offer a
navigational option.

Often just moving the cursor over an area of the display
panel will produce an obvious change - to show that this is a
clickable area.

All navigational buttons, which lead you onto the next
screen, only need a single mouse click to activate them.

DOUBLE CLICKING

Double clicking is NOT necessary at any time whilst exploring
this presentation.

FULL SCREEN

When an image is shown in a small framed area, alongside
text, it can usually be enlarged by clicking within the
thumbnail area, and reduced down again by clicking anywhere
within the fullscreen image.

THE Bf109 CONTROL PANEL

At the bottom of most screens is a four button option which
allows a return to the Bf109 Main Menu screen, or to the
Section Menu of the section of the presentation which you are
currently viewing, or to the Map page, or to The Control
Panel.

The Control Panel pop-up menu allows you to alter your
speaker volume control, and four further choices including
HELP and EXIT.

TO EXIT THE PRESENTATION

At any screen with the Controls option at the bottom of the
display area click on this Controls button. On the pop-up
panel click on the QUIT button, and confirm your wish to
exit.

THE MAP

Clicking the MAP button at the bottom of the display area
offers a short-cut option to facilitate easy visiting of
other areas of the presentation.

PRINTING

There are many printable documents, plans and illustrations.
As this CD-Rom has been designed as a definitive resource for
modellers this is an extremely important feature.

All printing is best done at a resolution of 300dpi and onto
A4 sized paper (210x297mm). All documents and plans have no
printable background colour, and print out black line/text
onto your background paper colour.

All plans are included at the three most common scales used
by modellers. Larger scale plans are arranged to print out on
multiple A4 pages, with registration marks to allow
subsequent alignment.

There are scale indications on all plans to ensure
dimensional accuracy.

Coloured camouflage illustrations are full colour high resolution
images, and include a printed background.

There is a Print button to initiate the printing process, and
a further option pop-up menu to control the print output
where necessary.

All printed material obtained in this way remains the
copyright of The Orion Publishing Group and DMPS-Absolute Ltd
and is for the personal use of the legitimate user of an
original Bf109 CD-Rom only.

This printed material, including any screen shots or print
outs of movie or panoramic frames, however derived,  may not
be sold, or distributed in either physical or electronic
form without the express and individual permission of the
copyright holder.

DIGITAL VIDEO

You need to have Quicktime version 3, 4 or higher installed
on your machine, and you will be able to view many minutes of
fascinating digital video to illustrate the story of the
Bf109 fighter.

There is a button on the MAP page to allow you to find all
the many movies easily selectable in one area, but there are
short videos and 360 degree panoramas, which use the digital video
technology, to be found in many sections throughout the
presentation.

All these movies can be controlled by buttons immediately
below the video display area.

The AUTOPLAY option in the Tiger Movies section plays all
the main five movies one after the other, at full screen.


All digital video elements, in whatever form linear or
interactive, are copyright and may not be copied or
transferred to videotape other media or distributed in
electronic or physical form or sold in any way except as an
integral part of an original Bf109 CD-Rom without the
express and individual permission of the copyright holder.


360 degree PHOTOGRAPHIC ROTATIONS

This presentation makes full use of seamless 360 degree panoramic
photographs of interiors and exteriors of the Bf109
(Quicktimer version 3, 4 or higher needs to be installed).

Place your cursor directly over the 360 degree image, hold down
your left (or main) mouse button, and whilst keeping the
button depressed, drag in the direction you wish to move the
viewable area of the image. Release the mouse button to stop
the movement.

ZOOMING

If (and only if) your cursor is within the 360 image frame,
you can use the Shift and Control keys on your keyboard to
zoom in and out of the image (you can do this whilst you are
rotating the image). Or you click on the + and - buttons on
the frame border immediately below the 360 display area, if
there is a Controller Bar visible.
(If no controller is visible the Keyboard Commands -
Shift & Control - can be used.
Remember to keep the cursor inside the image area).


EXTERIOR ROTATIONS

With exterior 360 rotations there is an extra button just to
the right of the frame zoom buttons. Click once on this and
you can drag to change the viewed area when you are zoomed
into close-up detail on the frame. Click once again on this
button to restore the frame to rotational state. This state
can be enabled by holding the Alt Gr key on the keyboard whilst
you click-drag the image.
The button at the left of the cluster has been programmed to
reset the rotation.

iMOTION Special Movie CLIPS

Sometimes you might wish to zoom into an area in a regular
movie. Where the movie shows a rare shot of a particular
Bf109 fighter we have included an iMOTION zoomable clip.

Treat these just like a regular Rotation - click/dragging to
make the movie run, and using the zoom/position and change
viewed area controls as explained earlier.

A 360 EXTERIOR TIP

When your cursor is at the extreme edge of a 360 pointing
off the edge. Clicking and holding down in this state will
start a continuous rotation until you release the mouse
button. Varying the nearness to the edge of the frame will
change the speed of rotation.

HIGH RESOLUTION

In the main areas of this Bf109 presentation we have made
the 360 images display at quite a low resolution to allow
the use of minimum specification computers.

In the Bf109 MOVIES section of the Cd_Rom we have included much
higher resolution 360 images to allowing more zooming, and
the viewing of far finer detail.

Your computer may not be able to display these panoramas and
video elements. If so you we have tried to make this CD-Rom
so you can still explore all the informational areas of this
Bf109 presentation without your computer's problem
interfering with this.

DISCLAIMER

The software and contents of this CD-Rom is has been tested
for performance on a wide variety of differing computers, and
we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that it will
give a satisfactory interactive performance.
We cannot be held responsible in any way for individual
performance issues of this CD-Rom on any particular hardware,
or conflict issues with any other software not under our
direct control.

KNOWN ISSUES

We recommend that no other applications are open when you run
this CD-Rom. Even better restart your machine before your
viewing session.

Even some recent laptop computers have insufficient video
graphics memory to cope with higher resolution external 360
rotations properly, and they fail to display properly.

This is not a fault of the Bf109 CD-Rom programming.

If your screen image when playing a digital video or iMotion
clip gets corrupted this is caused by temporary run-time
memory problems. In the unlikely event of this happening on
your computer it can be cleared by clicking on the Map option
at the bottom of the screen, and visiting another area of the
presentation. You can then return to view your original
selection.

Some recent, and  highly specified computers, laptops and
some desktop models, are unable to play back Quicktime
soundtracks without the processor activity causing distinct
crackling on their sound output.

Without the use of Quicktime technology this CD would not be
as visually informative as it is. Any sound problems of this
nature are not a fault of this Bf109 CD-Rom.